The Real Adventure

by Henry Kitchell Webster, Raymond Moreau Crosby

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Genres: Fiction, Literature

460 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2025

About the author

Henry Kitchell Webster was an American author who lived in Evanston, Illinois. He wrote novels and short stories on themes ranging from mystery to family drama to science fiction. He first achieved moderate recognition in 1899 when he co-wrote The Short Line War with fellow Illinois author Samuel Merwin, with whom he later collaborated to write one of his more famous works, Calumet "K".

Reviews

[Hope]

I only finished this wretched book because I was hoping against hope that the protagonists would come to their senses.

It was pretty racy for its time (1916) with its cursing men and smoking women, unfaithful spouses, references to Freudian psychology, and the idea of marital sex as unpaid prostitution. There’s even a reference to homosexuality on pg. 462.

Millionaire Rodney Aldrich meets and falls madly in love with the beautiful co-ed, Rose Stanton. Rose has had a very simple, middle-class upbringing, marked by her mother’s involvement in the suffragette movement. Rose’s mother has been grooming her to take her place in “The Great Cause” of women’s rights and is disappointed when she marries Rodney.

Rose’s feminist leanings quickly cause her marriage to unravel. She thinks her husband only appreciates her as a lover and not as a friend. After her babies are born she leaves home to “find herself” because, obviously, only after having a career, can her husband respect her as an equal. Oddly, the whole time she is on this quest for self-actualization and financial independence, she pines for him and his love. Only when he comes crawling back to her on his knees, apologizing for his sexual cravings, saying that he will take her back on her terms and never make any demands on her at all, does she decide to come back. Am I the only one who sees this as a new version of inequality, with the woman calling all the shots?

This is a thoroughly dreadful book that tries to make maleness an ugly trait and female selfishness a noble one.

[Dianne Durante]

Of the half-dozen or so books by Webster that I've read, my favorite is this one, a bestseller in 1916. I kept thinking I knew what would happen (come on, 1916: surely some conventions would be followed) ... and I never did. I just reread it, and loved it again. The sense of life of the main character and quite a lot of her explicit ideas match mine. Premise: a beautiful, intelligent young woman falls in love with a handsome, intelligent, productive man, marries him - that's the original "adventure" - then realizes that she wants to be his intellectual partner rather than just the woman he makes love to and indulges. How can she go about changing the situation? That's the second adventure. The resolution is damn near perfect

[Peter]

7/10

"He told himself everyday he must begin ordering his old memories...He might have compared himself to a man standing off a pack of wolves, knowing that his slightest move would precipitate a rush upon him. Or perhaps to a man just recovering consciousness after an accident, afraid to stir lest the smallest movement might reveal more serious injuries than he expected."

The Real Adventure is the story of a marriage between two affluent Chicagoans in the 1910s. Rodney and Rose Aldrich have every reason to be happy, wealth, prestige, beauty, yet Rose feels trapped. She married very young, and before long, she begins to notice the careful distance her husband maintains and the falsehood of her upper-class lifestyle. She leaves Rodney to pursue a career on stage, hoping to return after having supported herself and having gained some experience; she believes their marriage will be stronger for it.

In this novel, Webster writes characters that are sympathetic, yet imperfect. He manages to stir up a conflict in which no one is really right and no one is really wrong. Instead of heroes and villains, they're just people. Some of my favorite passages were those in which the Aldrich's friends comment on the unfortunate state of their marriage. Each comment or piece of advice (wise, cynical, or absurd) says more about the commenter than Rose and Rodney. Webster never hesitates to delve into a character's thoughts at great length; these parts are usually interesting and seem realistic.

The Real Adventure is a romance, so it's not exactly action packed. The pace dragged a bit in the middle. The novel is well put-together; themes of the story are often mirrored in the locations described, and small threads laid aside earlier in the novel are picked up later. I'm doing my thesis on Webster, and it's the best (and most ambitious) of his books I've read so far.

[Quent Cordair]

Excellent writing. Intelligent. Modern. Loved this heroine and her quest for independence, love and friendship, on her own terms.

[L.]

The story begins as a chronicle of the first year of marriage of Rose and Rodney. But then almost immediately after giving birth (so maybe this is some post partum stuff) Rose decides she must go find herself. She abandons her family to become a showgirl. I admit I didn't see that coming. The book then becomes a behind the scenes look at the business of putting a musical on stage. I found this angle more interesting than the woes of Rose and Rodney.