Abroad with the Jimmies

by Lilian Bell

OUR HOUSE-BOAT AT HENLEY It speaks volumes for an amiability I have always claimed for myself through sundry fierce disputes on the subject with my sister, that, even after two years of travel in Europe with her and Mr. and Mrs. Jimmie, they should still wish for my company for a journey across France and Germany to Russia. Bee says it speaks volumes for the tempers of the Jimmies, but then Bee is my sister, or to put it more properly, I am Bee’s sister, and what woman is a heroine to her own sister? In any event I am not. Bee thinks I am a creature of feeble intelligence who must be "managed." Bee loves to "manage" people, and I, who love to watch her circuitous, diplomatic, velvety, crooked way to a straight end, allow myself to be so "managed;" and so after safely disposing of Billy in the grandmotherly care of Mamma for another six months, Bee and I gaily took ship and landed safely at the door of the Cecil, having been escorted up from Southampton by Jimmie.

115 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Lilian Lida Bell (1867-1929) was an American author who became famous after the publication of her novel ‘Love Affairs of an Old Maid’ in 1893. Other works include ‘The Under Side of Things’ (1896); ‘From a Girl’s Point of View’ (1807); ‘As Seen by Me’ (1900); ‘Yessum’ (1901); ‘Hope Loring’ (1902); ‘Carolina Lee’ (1906); ‘Angela’s Quest’ (1910); ‘The Story of the Christmas Ship’ (1915). She married Arthur Hoyt Bogue in 1900 and sued him for divorce in 1913.

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lilian Bell engaged in travel writing as well as composing novels. While looking for her The Expatriates, a novel also published in 1902, I came across Jimmies. It describes the journey Bell and her sister, Bee, took with the "Jimmies" across Europe at the turn of the century. Bell and her friends were members of the American well-to-do class, so it was no surprise that the first chapter dealt with their rental of a houseboat for the duration of the Henley Regatta, where they entertained rowers from Princeton. Bell is forthright in her views, which often take on a sardonic quality, even while often reveling in her own foibles and those of her sister.

But she is often awe struck as well. Such is the case when she meets Max Nordau in Paris and, later, when she engages in a name dropping contest with Leo Tolstoy in Russia. Those encounters, however, turn out to be the least interesting. It's the trip through Germany and Austria that are the most entertaining and informative. Bell is overwhelmed while attending the Oberammergau Passion Play, where she, her sister, and the Jimmies find board with the villagers who perform in the play. Her attendance, by the way, is how we can date her trip to 1900, although she herself never mentions any dates. (The Passion Play only takes place once every ten years.) Probably second most noteworthy is the trip to Bad Ischl, where the Emperor Franz Josef is spending his summer. Bayreuth comes in at a distant third.

While the writing seems fresh, even modern, it is compelling to see Bell interact with what were her contemporaries, Nordau, Tolstoy, the Wagners, and the Habsburgs. It also demonstrates her upper class access to European events that were rare even for most other American visitors from a similar social background.

I can't help but compare the volume to Harry Franck's travel writing across the same countries at about the same time. Franck the vagabond sees an entirely different world. He doesn't spend time in Paris and Vienna shopping for clothes. And his encounters are with the peasantry and officialdom. It's not that Franck's is a better view of things. But it's different. And it complements Bell's wonderfully. Two Americans travel writers abroad and seeing the world from the exact opposite ends of the telescope.

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A string of dialogues between rich people traveling through Europe with a minimal interest in local cultures. Their choice is between whether to go to the opera or eat at a famous restaurant or extend their wardrobes or visit a museum and so forth and so forth. Interspersed with some diary-like observations, nowhere is the achievement of a real literary effort made.

Available on Project Gutenberg.

[Berta Kleiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very bored, can't finish this. Rightly forgotten.