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These Charming People
1924. Being a tapestry of the fortunes, follies, adventures, gallantries and general activities of Shelmerdene (that lovely lady), Lord Tarlyon, Mr. Michael Wagstaff, Mr. Ralph Wyndham Trevor and some others of their friends of the lighter sort: Written down by Mr. Ralph Wyndham Trevor and arranged by Michael Arlen. English novelist, Arlen is best remembered for his fantastically successful novel (and play) The Green Hat. His characters are disillusioned, cynical, and witty. This collection of his short stories includes The Smell in the Library, one of Arlen's best horror stories. Also included in this volume are: Introducing a Lady of No Importance and a Gentleman of Even Less; When the Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square; The Hunter After Wild Beasts; The Man with the Broken Nose; The Luck of Captain Fortune; The Ancient Sin; The Cavalier of the Streets; Major Cypress Goes Off the Deep End; Consuelo Brown; The Irreproachable Conduct of a Gentleman Who Once Refused a Knighthood; Salute the Cavalier; The Shameless Behavior of a Lord; The Loquacious Lady of Lansdowne Passage; and The Real Reason Why Shelmerdene was Late for Dinner.
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
About the author
Michael Arlen
78 books25 followersOriginal name Dikran Kouyoumdjian. Armenian essayist, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and scriptwriter, who had his greatest successes in the 1920s while living and writing in England. Although Arlen is most famous for his satirical romances set in English smart society, he also wrote gothic horror and psychological thrillers, for instance "The Gentleman from America", which was filmed in 1956 as a television episode for Alfred Hitchcock's TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Near the end of his life, Arlen mainly occupied himself with political writing. Arlen's vivid but colloquial style came to be known as 'Arlenesque'.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 7, 2010
There are certain books that I get off because of the sentence structure or the pacing of the words on the page, and Michael Arlen is a writer I think i may have a huge admiration for in the coming years. Surely more of his stories and novels will come back in print. A writer of the 1920's, who was focused on the Mayfair Set in London. A collection of short stories that can be read as a novel, because the characters come back in later narratives.
The closest writer I can think of is PG Wodehouse, in that both writers share a fascination with the dynamics of the upper crest with the low. Also he is sort of a hybrid of Gertrude Stein and Wodehouse. Arlen was born in Armenia, so its interesting how he uses the "British English" to such a great affect. Mannered to almost a surreal level, but pure music to my ears.
The closest writer I can think of is PG Wodehouse, in that both writers share a fascination with the dynamics of the upper crest with the low. Also he is sort of a hybrid of Gertrude Stein and Wodehouse. Arlen was born in Armenia, so its interesting how he uses the "British English" to such a great affect. Mannered to almost a surreal level, but pure music to my ears.
November 3, 2025
stay tuned for a portuguese translation by yours truly
July 28, 2017
"I adore you so frightfully, my dear, that I have made myself a carpet for you to walk on. And you have taken advantage of me...You have treated me exactly as a heartless, meretricious woman of thirty might treat an infatuated soap-manufacturer."
Poor, dear Hugo. Or rather, not so poor...since Hugo, like Michael Arlen’s other characters, belongs to the luncheon at Claridge’s and dinner at the Ritz set of 1920’s Mayfair society. These Charming People is in part their chronicle – a set of short stories linked by recurring names – written in what came to be known as the distinctive Arlenesque style: flippant, witty, sophisticated, irreverant, and almost certainly quite, quite artificial. Did anyone ever speak thus and thus? Outside of a Michael Arlen novel, I doubt it.
Several of the stories were first published separately in magazines like The Strand and The Tatler so the book is not so coherent as one might expect. It even includes a couple of out-of-place ghost stories with a distinctly Edwardian tone. Otherwise it’s quite modern, features women who are not afraid to speak their minds (“If I could only write a book”, says Shelmerdene, “I would write one on men, and I would call it Rats, Rape and Rheumatism.” ), and possibly mildly shocking in its day.
These Charming People is not so witty or sharp as – say – Aldous Huxley’s early society novels (Antic Hay was published in the same year), but it is still very readable, if a little lightweight.
Poor, dear Hugo. Or rather, not so poor...since Hugo, like Michael Arlen’s other characters, belongs to the luncheon at Claridge’s and dinner at the Ritz set of 1920’s Mayfair society. These Charming People is in part their chronicle – a set of short stories linked by recurring names – written in what came to be known as the distinctive Arlenesque style: flippant, witty, sophisticated, irreverant, and almost certainly quite, quite artificial. Did anyone ever speak thus and thus? Outside of a Michael Arlen novel, I doubt it.
Several of the stories were first published separately in magazines like The Strand and The Tatler so the book is not so coherent as one might expect. It even includes a couple of out-of-place ghost stories with a distinctly Edwardian tone. Otherwise it’s quite modern, features women who are not afraid to speak their minds (“If I could only write a book”, says Shelmerdene, “I would write one on men, and I would call it Rats, Rape and Rheumatism.” ), and possibly mildly shocking in its day.
These Charming People is not so witty or sharp as – say – Aldous Huxley’s early society novels (Antic Hay was published in the same year), but it is still very readable, if a little lightweight.
September 26, 2024
Some beautiful prose at times and an ideal read for the tube. Overall slightly boring and the narrator is quite bland.
August 15, 2019
Arlen is probably best known for his novel 'The Green Hat' and this collection, like that novel is set in the upper echelons of English society just after the war.
His work has been described as portraying the activities of the 'lost generation'. In the twenty-first century that generation is a trillion miles away and reads like it. Many of the characters speak as one might imagine a lesser Oscar Wilde to speak, ie amusingly or wittily, and thus fall into the territory already mapped out by say Wodehouse, E.F. Benson (Mapp and Lucia) or Saki.
Arlen has not really the overt 'laugh out loud' comedy of Wodehouse's Jeeves tales, the skewering of the middle classes of Benson or the sardonicism of Saki but certainly those elements are within his stories and as such will be enjoyed by readers of the above.
There are a number of characters who appear frequently within the tales, including Lord Taryon (a gentleman of leisure), the lovely Shelmerdene (society lady) and the 'Cavalier of the Street's' (a gentleman on his uppers and something of a rogue). They interact with the faithful, the faithless various bohemians, other posh folks and pretty girls- some of the latter quite dangerous. They frequent Chelsea, the Riviera and London night clubs.
They are fun reads but also reflect the empty-ish lives of the characters involved- the Cavalier and 'The Loquacious Lady of Landsdowne Passage' are the most obvious though we discover that for many of the characters money has not insulated them from sadness. Most of the tales have a twist in them or at least demonstrate that appearances can be deceptive and are (well) written in a lively manner - Arlen has certainly polished his prose. I certainly enjoyed these stories far more than the famous 'The Green Hat'.
Thus, a solid collection and certainly worthy of investigation
His work has been described as portraying the activities of the 'lost generation'. In the twenty-first century that generation is a trillion miles away and reads like it. Many of the characters speak as one might imagine a lesser Oscar Wilde to speak, ie amusingly or wittily, and thus fall into the territory already mapped out by say Wodehouse, E.F. Benson (Mapp and Lucia) or Saki.
Arlen has not really the overt 'laugh out loud' comedy of Wodehouse's Jeeves tales, the skewering of the middle classes of Benson or the sardonicism of Saki but certainly those elements are within his stories and as such will be enjoyed by readers of the above.
There are a number of characters who appear frequently within the tales, including Lord Taryon (a gentleman of leisure), the lovely Shelmerdene (society lady) and the 'Cavalier of the Street's' (a gentleman on his uppers and something of a rogue). They interact with the faithful, the faithless various bohemians, other posh folks and pretty girls- some of the latter quite dangerous. They frequent Chelsea, the Riviera and London night clubs.
They are fun reads but also reflect the empty-ish lives of the characters involved- the Cavalier and 'The Loquacious Lady of Landsdowne Passage' are the most obvious though we discover that for many of the characters money has not insulated them from sadness. Most of the tales have a twist in them or at least demonstrate that appearances can be deceptive and are (well) written in a lively manner - Arlen has certainly polished his prose. I certainly enjoyed these stories far more than the famous 'The Green Hat'.
Thus, a solid collection and certainly worthy of investigation
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews