The Emily Emmins Papers

Emily Emmins is a suburban wit with a restless love of city wandering, and nowhere does her voice sparkle more brightly than in New York, where spring seems livelier, finer dressed, and infinitely more stimulating than in the country. With amused satire and a gift for noticing the absurd, she turns ordinary life in Myrtlemead into a comedy of social pressure, then impulsively buys a return ticket to Liverpool after catching the glow of another woman's first European adventure. That single impulse unleashes a flood of circulars, patronizing offers, and neighborly interference, all of which only deepen the fun. Her journey becomes a series of comic revelations: well-meaning friends burden her with rugs, cushions, and sea-sickness cures; the ship's calm makes her strangely content; and her supposed roommate proves to be a poised seven-year-old named Jane Sterling, whose practical advice is to behave at sea exactly as one would at home. On land, she is equally alert to contrasts, from the green English countryside and a boastful American traveler to the lure of London's landmarks. Yet it is in Westminster Abbey, especially Poets' Corner and Shakespeare's monument, that her light irony yields to genuine awe, and travel becomes a moving encounter with literary greatness. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.