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Fanny and the Servant Problem: A Quite Possible Play in Four Acts [ 1909 ]
Originally published in 1909. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
98 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1909
About the author
Jerome K. Jerome
926 books1,494 followersJerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the comic travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). Other works include the essay collections Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow; Three Men on the Bummel, a sequel to Three Men in a Boat; and several other novels. Jerome was born in Walsall, England, and, although he was able to attend grammar school, his family suffered from poverty at times, as did he as a young man trying to earn a living in various occupations. In his twenties, he was able to publish some work, and success followed. He married in 1888, and the honeymoon was spent on a boat on the River Thames; he published Three Men in a Boat soon afterwards. He continued to write fiction, non-fiction and plays over the next few decades, though never with the same level of success.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 9, 2018
A young and successful English-Irish actress in Paris, Fanny marries a young Englishman she believes is merely a well-off gentleman; it's only after they're married and he brings her back to his home, does she discover the truth - that her Vernon isn't just Mr Wetherell; he's Lord Bantock. And the Bantocks are an illustrious family.
And that illustriousness is upheld by their very devoted servants, the Bennets, who on discovering that the new Lady Bantock - not yet arrived at her new home - was an actress, have begun doing whatever they can to reform her and mould her to her new role as chatelaine. From the butler Bennet to his wife, the housekeeper, and the many other footmen, maids, and sundry members of the staff - all twenty-three of them members of the Bennet clan - the new Lady Bantock can expect only censure and severity and a strong disapproval.
Worse still, when she arrives at her new home and discovers that the servants here are all her relatives: the Bennets and their overbearing ways were what made her flee their family after being orphaned.
I approached Fanny and the Servant Problem with no preconceptions. Yes, if the only Jerome K Jerome works I'd read before were Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on a Bummel, I'd probably have expected lots of humour (which this didn't have, though it was not grim). But one of the most chilling horror stories I've read is also by Jerome, so I was prepared for pretty much anything.
Fanny and the Servant Problem was not as memorable as any of Jerome's other stories I've read. The premise is a good one - a really knotty problem - but it's poorly paced. The buildup takes a long time, and then, all too quickly, it's wound up, as if the author realized this was getting to be too long a play. The end result is something that's hurried and unbelievable. Bennet, especially, acts quite out of character, and other aspects of the resolution too are hard to swallow.
Also, some of the stage directions indicate detailed thoughts which would be impossible for any actor to convey onstage.
All right. Not terrible, not great, either.
And that illustriousness is upheld by their very devoted servants, the Bennets, who on discovering that the new Lady Bantock - not yet arrived at her new home - was an actress, have begun doing whatever they can to reform her and mould her to her new role as chatelaine. From the butler Bennet to his wife, the housekeeper, and the many other footmen, maids, and sundry members of the staff - all twenty-three of them members of the Bennet clan - the new Lady Bantock can expect only censure and severity and a strong disapproval.
Worse still, when she arrives at her new home and discovers that the servants here are all her relatives: the Bennets and their overbearing ways were what made her flee their family after being orphaned.
I approached Fanny and the Servant Problem with no preconceptions. Yes, if the only Jerome K Jerome works I'd read before were Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on a Bummel, I'd probably have expected lots of humour (which this didn't have, though it was not grim). But one of the most chilling horror stories I've read is also by Jerome, so I was prepared for pretty much anything.
Fanny and the Servant Problem was not as memorable as any of Jerome's other stories I've read. The premise is a good one - a really knotty problem - but it's poorly paced. The buildup takes a long time, and then, all too quickly, it's wound up, as if the author realized this was getting to be too long a play. The end result is something that's hurried and unbelievable. Bennet, especially, acts quite out of character, and other aspects of the resolution too are hard to swallow.
Also, some of the stage directions indicate detailed thoughts which would be impossible for any actor to convey onstage.
All right. Not terrible, not great, either.
September 12, 2020
First and foremost, it is a delightful surprise to find out that there is more to Jerome K. Jerome than humour, although one loves the Three Men series - no matter how often one has read them, one still cannot help laughing so much it hurts. This play is far from devoid of humour, but is rather serious in more than one way - a veiled indictment of the European caste system that is never called so but understood as the way decent people live, while love is paid lip service to but really means one arranges one's own marital affairs with help of the whole society, keeping the caste and other suitability criteria always in mind.
Shortly after beginning to read this, it dawns on one that this is familiar, and one has loved the film version based on this; but as one goes on it is quite apparent that the film version is much more of a glitter and this rather prosaic one far more real - although people enamoured by the corporate misogynistic glamour might think the opposite way.
Fanny is a stage artist, with music and performance to her credit, and fame and name to boot, who happens to see someone she likes and he is in love with her for herself. Nevertheless he makes discreet enquiries re her family connections and is not too bright so makes it off her own agent, so is given some half truths and some not quite so true details; if the boy were not in love, he could easily check out the details not being true, but he is merely looking for something to tell his social connections. And so they marry and arrive at his home, she completely in dark about his aristocracy and he unaware that the pack of servants at his residence for several generations who are all from a family are in fact her close relatives.
To add to it all the butler, her uncle, and most of the family is rather strict re propriety, so much so they leave scripture quotes in the bedroom chosen for her by her aunts in law before she arrives, everyone being apprehensive about a stage artist - this was probably before films were quite so common and had eclipsed stage rendering it a poor second, except in a few, very few metropolitan cities - so imagince their shock when they realise it is the daughter of the sister who ran off to marry a musician, and that too an Irishman!
Unlike the film version this one is resolved much more satisfactorily, and one must thank the author.
Friday, May 9, 2014.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
Shortly after beginning to read this, it dawns on one that this is familiar, and one has loved the film version based on this; but as one goes on it is quite apparent that the film version is much more of a glitter and this rather prosaic one far more real - although people enamoured by the corporate misogynistic glamour might think the opposite way.
Fanny is a stage artist, with music and performance to her credit, and fame and name to boot, who happens to see someone she likes and he is in love with her for herself. Nevertheless he makes discreet enquiries re her family connections and is not too bright so makes it off her own agent, so is given some half truths and some not quite so true details; if the boy were not in love, he could easily check out the details not being true, but he is merely looking for something to tell his social connections. And so they marry and arrive at his home, she completely in dark about his aristocracy and he unaware that the pack of servants at his residence for several generations who are all from a family are in fact her close relatives.
To add to it all the butler, her uncle, and most of the family is rather strict re propriety, so much so they leave scripture quotes in the bedroom chosen for her by her aunts in law before she arrives, everyone being apprehensive about a stage artist - this was probably before films were quite so common and had eclipsed stage rendering it a poor second, except in a few, very few metropolitan cities - so imagince their shock when they realise it is the daughter of the sister who ran off to marry a musician, and that too an Irishman!
Unlike the film version this one is resolved much more satisfactorily, and one must thank the author.
Friday, May 9, 2014.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
April 19, 2026
An Interesting Marriage
This story has the master of the house, unknown to him, newly married to his butler's niece. Havoc occurs as the unseem less merger is revealed to his lordship. All is settled in the end to the satisfaction of the staff.
This story has the master of the house, unknown to him, newly married to his butler's niece. Havoc occurs as the unseem less merger is revealed to his lordship. All is settled in the end to the satisfaction of the staff.
February 5, 2016
First and foremost, it is a delightful surprise to find out that there is more to Jerome K. Jerome than humour, although one loves the Three Men series - no matter how often one has read them, one still cannot help laughing so much it hurts. This play is far from devoid of humour, but is rather serious in more than one way - a veiled indictment of the European caste system that is never called so but understood as the way decent people live, while love is paid lip service to but really means one arranges one's own marital affairs with help of the whole society, keeping the caste and other suitability criteria always in mind.
Shortly after beginning to read this, it dawns on one that this is familiar, and one has loved the film version based on this; but as one goes on it is quite apparent that the film version is much more of a glitter and this rather prosaic one far more real - although people enamoured by the corporate misogynistic glamour might think the opposite way.
Fanny is a stage artist, with music and performance to her credit, and fame and name to boot, who happens to see someone she likes and he is in love with her for herself. Nevertheless he makes discreet enquiries re her family connections and is not too bright so makes it off her own agent, so is given some half truths and some not quite so true details; if the boy were not in love, he could easily check out the details not being true, but he is merely looking for something to tell his social connections. And so they marry and arrive at his home, she completely in dark about his aristocracy and he unaware that the pack of servants at his residence for several generations who are all from a family are in fact her close relatives.
To add to it all the butler, her uncle, and most of the family is rather strict re propriety, so much so they leave scripture quotes in the bedroom chosen for her by her aunts in law before she arrives, everyone being apprehensive about a stage artist - this was probably before films were quite so common and had eclipsed stage rendering it a poor second, except in a few, very few metropolitan cities - so imagince their shock when they realise it is the daughter of the sister who ran off to marry a musician, and that too an Irishman!
Unlike the film version this one is resolved much more satisfactorily, and one must thank the author.
Friday, May 9, 2014.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
Shortly after beginning to read this, it dawns on one that this is familiar, and one has loved the film version based on this; but as one goes on it is quite apparent that the film version is much more of a glitter and this rather prosaic one far more real - although people enamoured by the corporate misogynistic glamour might think the opposite way.
Fanny is a stage artist, with music and performance to her credit, and fame and name to boot, who happens to see someone she likes and he is in love with her for herself. Nevertheless he makes discreet enquiries re her family connections and is not too bright so makes it off her own agent, so is given some half truths and some not quite so true details; if the boy were not in love, he could easily check out the details not being true, but he is merely looking for something to tell his social connections. And so they marry and arrive at his home, she completely in dark about his aristocracy and he unaware that the pack of servants at his residence for several generations who are all from a family are in fact her close relatives.
To add to it all the butler, her uncle, and most of the family is rather strict re propriety, so much so they leave scripture quotes in the bedroom chosen for her by her aunts in law before she arrives, everyone being apprehensive about a stage artist - this was probably before films were quite so common and had eclipsed stage rendering it a poor second, except in a few, very few metropolitan cities - so imagince their shock when they realise it is the daughter of the sister who ran off to marry a musician, and that too an Irishman!
Unlike the film version this one is resolved much more satisfactorily, and one must thank the author.
Friday, May 9, 2014.
.......................................................................
.......................................................................
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews