When a planned excursion to England with her parents seems about to fall through, Miss Mamie Wick of Chicago decides to set off her own. Poppa and Momma agree, seeing no reason to cancel her fun just because Poppa has some political business to attend to, so off she sets with confidence – and the backing of Poppa’s baking powder fortune – to discover the Old World in the delightful An American Girl in London by Sara Jeannette Duncan, first published in 1891.
Mamie is a fair-minded observer and her account is written for the benefit of her English hosts. She is admiring of their history and traditions, and, though not as deferential as they might like, she is certainly impressed by the people she finds:
…I got up to go. Mrs Portheris also rose, with majesty. I think she wanted to show me what, if I had been properly brought up, I might have expected reasonably to develop into. She stood in the midst of her red brocaded furniture, with her hands folded, a model of what bringing up can do if it is unflinchingly persevered in, and all the mirrors reflected the ideal she presented. I felt, beside her, as if I had never been brought up at all.
And it is not only matrons who can inspire her awe. For a robust young American – a proud Chicagoan, what’s more – used to bold action (for example, travelling alone to London) and laughing over her mistakes, the formality and the reserve of a people who value dignity above all while still calling each other by incomprehensible nicknames is yet another cause for admiration:
What ‘Oddie’ was derived from I never got to know Mr Pratte well enough to ask, but he sustained it with more dignity than I would have believed possible. That is the remarkable – at any rate a remarkable – characteristic of you English people. You sustain everything with dignity, from your Lord Mayor’s Show to your farthing change. You are never in the least amused at yourselves.
Whether she is riding an omnibus, being presented at court, visiting Oxford for the boat races, or simply encountering London social life, Mamie is good-naturedly willing to be amused – as are we. There is no doubt in her mind that these are quaint people who sadly have not had the luck to be born Americans, but she is accepting of that fault and enthusiastic for the different ‘types’ she encounters during her stay. The dull type of Englishman is especially fascinating to her, like poor Charlie Mafferton whose subtle British courtship is so subtle that Mamie is entirely oblivious to it.
And most delightful of all: there is a sequel where Mamie strikes out across the Continent, this time with Momma and Poppa in tow.
This sounds fairly sweet, actually. I tend to find Americans-in-Europe in fiction deeply irritating, but it’s probably more endearing if the character in question is very young.
I have a love of comic travel-impressions novels like this and the fact that Duncan was Canadian only made both her American and British stereotypes more enjoyable.
What fun! How did you hear about this? And was it acquired via Interlibrary Loan or did you buy it?
WIshing you a happy holiday with books under the tree! I find I give lots of books but rarely receive them. I guess people assume I have read everything already, which of course is not true.
Constance
Sara Jeannette Duncan is fairly accessible here, so this wasn’t hard to find at a local library. Her most famous book is probably The Imperialist, which I’ve not read but is inescapable in used bookstores after being on school reading lists for years.
Happy holiday to you, too! Friends and family long ago gave up buying books for me too – too difficult to know what I had or hadn’t read – but, like you, I still delight in gifting books to others.