Our Mr. Wrenn, the Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man
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4.3 • 9 Ratings
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Publisher Description
Our Mr. Wrenn, the Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man is a Fiction Adventure Book. This book says that "At thirty-four Mr. Wrenn was the sales-entry clerk of the Souvenir Company. He was always bending over bills and columns of figures at a desk behind the stock-room. He was a meek little bachelor--a person of inconspicuous blue ready-made suits, and a small unsuccessful mustache". Mr. Wrenn, however has a rich inner life embellished by his own imagination. When he comes into a modest inheritance, he feels he ought to learn to get out and wander a bit, and then his education begins. He finds life more "interesting", perhaps than he had "imagined"…
Customer Reviews
Lewis’ first novel
It’s a book of it’s time. It wouldn’t do in our era, but if you can accept the dialogue as reflecting America and England in 1910, then you’ll come across a novel of Manhattan (and a few chapters in England) that show a world not entirely different from our own. Like with all of his novels, I learned a lot about American life and culture for the year in which it was written and set. Lewis is an observant writer and satirist. I found myself having to use the dictionary and the Internet to look up many of his references. The main character, William Wrenn, desperately tries to fit the role of what men were considered to be then, it’s old-fashioned, but somewhat adorable, if not slightly vexing. The character Istra Nash is fascinating and surprising, for I wouldn’t have expected such a personage in a novel written at this time, but in considering many of Lewis’ female protagonists, she is a proto-feminist/bohemian/artist and, quite frankly, the b-word. Nelly, the other female protagonist, is a working girl held back by the way society infantilized women in that era—a problem Istra has, but expresses in a wholly different manner. Nonetheless, it’s a sweet, funny, adventurous novel and I was happy to read it, if not off put somewhat by the rigid social conventions and the racially charged language that accepted racism without questioning its impropriety—again, something that one cannot justify but by explaining it, it puts the book in context as an historical artifact. (Note: this is Sinclair Lewis‘ first novel using his name. He actually wrote a previous book under a nom de plume, entitled Hike and the Aeroplane, the PDF for which is free on Google Books, but not available in this bookstore.)
Three cheers for "The Job"!
As always, Sinclair Lewis, delights and rivets the attention with his instinctive "every man" approach to twentieth century business, and those who took part in it. Though the story takes place more than a hundred years ago it still feels fresh and relevant. The characters are real and their human qualities stand out in ways that are fascinating and easy to identify with. Another home run for Mr. Lewis, in a long line!