Bertram Cope year a novel Henry B Fuller 9781140179467 Books
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Bertram Cope year a novel Henry B Fuller 9781140179467 Books
Bertram Cope is squeezed from all sides. An English instructor, age 24, at NoWestern U - smart, polite, with too much charm - he arouses the passions of three coeds, a society hostess and a bachelor aesthete in his 50s who mentors likely chaps. Can Bertram get through the year, working on his thesis and teaching 18thC Lit, without being compromised ?Published in 1919, this stylish treatment of an ambiguous situation is fiercely contemporary. Ignored in its day, the recent reissue sells briskly for - at center - is an anti-hero who casually sets up campus housekeeping with a Significant Bud while defining his own sexual nature. It's a subtle comedy of manners that raises a smile of recognition. Not to be missed.
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Bertram Cope year a novel Henry B Fuller 9781140179467 Books Reviews
A young man about 24 or 25 with beautiful blond hair and good teeth enrolls in a University in the Midwest to get an advanced degree in English while teaching students. A woman in her 40's, along with her niece and two other young women, a secretary and a boarder, cannot leave the young man alone. The older woman Medora Phillips would like to see him wed her niece, as would the niece. But the other two young women want him as well, along with an older man in his 50's. Of course the blond, Bertram Cope, already has a boy friend, who, when Cope writes him that he has somehow gotten himself engaged to Niece Amy, responds in what is my favorite line from the entire novel "This thing can't go on, and you know it as well as I do. Nip it. Nip it now." Does this scenario sound familiar?
In Andrew Solomon's "Afterward" he opines that Bertram Cope is an "anti-hero" in that he is quite ordinary, not remarkably intelligent, and weak, both physically and emotionally. I disagree. Bertram is the Gay Everyman, at least until the most recent times when the love that dare not speak its name is on the ballot in many states in an attempt to get to the altar. Practically every gay man knows the frustration of finding out, sometimes too late, that by being friendly and polite to single women-- something our mothers taught us to do-- we have either sent mixed signals or they believe what they want to-- we have convinced them that we want to wed them.
Henry Blake Fuller self-published this novel is 1919. It was decades ahead of its time and is certainly interesting from a historical point of view. On the other hand, it remains relevant and is well worth reading. Mr. Fuller writes well and with great subtlety.
Bertram Cope is a young man who's gone off to study at college and quickly taken in by Medora Phillips, a wealthy society woman. Bertram falls into their world quickly and Mrs. Phillips tries her best to set him up with several of the eligible young women in her circle. But Bertram's focus is only on Arthur, his friend and eventual housemate. But not everyone is as enamored of Arthur as Bertram is, and that can prove to be a problem.
This book is definitely a product of its time, having been written in 1918. The humor here is a bit haughty and almost reminded me a bit of an Oscar Wilde comedy. There is no steamy scenes here and the romantic overtones are subtle, but for the early 1900s, I can't help wondering if this was a bit of a groundbreaking story for its time.
I find it hard to believe that this book was written in 1919. More unbelievable still is that the author, Henry Fuller Blake, praised by many of his more illustrious contemporaries such as Thornton Wilder and Booth Tarkington, sank into almost total obscurity.
This novel is an utter delight. It tells the story of Bertram Cope, a blonde, blue-eyed country boy who takes a post as a college English teacher in a moderately large Michigan city and manages to attract the ardent admiration of everyone in town - both female and male. It presents lighthearted social commentary [along the lines of Jane Austen's work], as young Cope's continuous mishaps and social blunders only serve to make him more fascinating to everyone he encounters, including a wealthy widow, the three eligible young ladies renting rooms in her stately home and a middle-aged [confirmed bachelor] professor. They all openly compete for his time and affections until he is compelled to summon Arthur Lemoyne, his hometown sweetheart, to extract him from their romantic designs on him.
While the homosexuality of Bertram, Arthur and Basil Randolph (the admiring professor) is never stated outright and is presented extremely coyly by modern standards, there is no doubt what these characters are all about. That, in and of itself, might seem surprising, but more thrilling still is the matter-of-factness with which it's presented. This suggests that, even way back then, certain social groups (academians, artists and the upper classes) displayed a degree of sophistication and even tolerance toward homosexuals. There's something quite refreshing in reading a story about a gay man without tragedy or sermonizing. All the more so because it is nearly one hundred years old.
That said, I should stress that the language seems only slightly formal and is not at all arduous to read. Quite the contrary in fact, Fuller writes with a breezy facility that makes the story bounce along apace. The dialogue is succinct and sharp, and the characters are beautifully realized and are all "types" that can be easily recognized and appreciated by modern-day readers. I particularly enjoyed Medora Phillips, the widowed socialite, who, in her relentless pursuit of Cope, would certainly be classified as a cougar if she were around today. Equally enchanting are her three lovestruck young boarders - impetuous Amy, somber Carolyn and hot-headed Hortense - a musician, poet and painter, respectively, all straight out of Downton Abbey.
I can't recommend this one enough. For anyone interested in an alternative to those dour, and better known, early gay standbys Brideshead Revisited and Maurice, this is definitely worth a look.
This book was quite readable, though it ended making me feel unsatisfied. What was the point of the narrative? There were moments when it felt quite like Henry James, rich in detail but what, in the end, did it mean? Fuller is a proto modernist. Still, it was interesting to read a book set in a recognizable Chicago, instead of New York or Boston. Oh, sorry, Evanston was the setting. (Genteel Evanston is to Chicago as Cambridge is to Boston.) Well, I had never read a Fuller novel until now.
Bertram Cope is squeezed from all sides. An English instructor, age 24, at NoWestern U - smart, polite, with too much charm - he arouses the passions of three coeds, a society hostess and a bachelor aesthete in his 50s who mentors likely chaps. Can Bertram get through the year, working on his thesis and teaching 18thC Lit, without being compromised ?
Published in 1919, this stylish treatment of an ambiguous situation is fiercely contemporary. Ignored in its day, the recent reissue sells briskly for - at center - is an anti-hero who casually sets up campus housekeeping with a Significant Bud while defining his own sexual nature. It's a subtle comedy of manners that raises a smile of recognition. Not to be missed.
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