Other Fiction Burnham, Clara Louise: No Gentlemen. V1. 28 June 2023

[brucewelch]

"No Gentlemen" is a novel published anonymously in the USA (Chicago 1881, 348 pages). It is the first novel (of 26) by Clara Louise Burnham, who became one of the most widely read writers in the United States in her time.–

In a brief preface, the author writes about the genesis of the title:

This story was commenced, written, and passed into the publisher’s hands, under the title of »Yours Truly.« Some of the plates were made, when it was ascertained that the same title had been adopted, and copyrighted, for a play. This accounts for the fact, that while a new title appears on the cover of this book, the original title is retained as a running head.

›Burnham had offered the book to a Chicago publisher. There they considered it a commercially unsafe attempt by a literary debutante and advised her to write another. The author's father, composer George Frederick Root, had not taken her writing seriously until then; "No Gentlemen," however, appealed to him and he believed in its success. Through his efforts, the book quickly found a publisher and became an instant bestseller.‹ (wikipedia)
And this is no wonder, because the freshness, the wit and the unpretentious attitude in style, vocabulary and sentence structure make this novel an extremely amiable work, but its lightness should by no means be confused with a lack of profundity. At the same time, the mottos and the poetic passages and literary allusions interspersed in the text point to a well-read, thoughtful author who, however, does not aim to spoil her readers' enjoyment of reading.

Three years ago a German translation of this book appeared in this forum; so it seemed time to make the original available as an eBook. In wording and form, this is based on the 1881 edition.

On the original book cover you can see that turtle with "Yours Truly" and the date "July 2nd" carved into its shell.

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