The Jervaise Comedy, by J.D. Beresford. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1919.
3 p. l., 283 p. 20 cm.
A carriage doesn’t arrive and hijinks ensue.
A contemporary review from PUNCH, April 2, 1919:
I am bound to admit that for all my appreciation of Mr. J.D. BERESFORD as a literary craftsman I did find The Jervaise Comedy (COLLINS) a bit slow off the mark. Here is a quite considerable volume, exquisitely printed upon delightful paper, all about the events of twenty-four hours, in which, when you come to consider it afterwards, nothing very much happened. The heroine thought about eloping with the chauffeur, and the onlooker, who tells the tale, thought about falling in love with the sister of the same…. I wish it to be understood that the story is in some ways one of unusual charm; it has style, atmosphere and a very sensible dignity.
J. D. (John Davys) Beresford (1873-1947) is best remembered for his early science fiction novels The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911) and Goslings (1913), and his later utopian novel What Dreams May Come… (1941).