Trials of Topsy

Topsy #1

by A.P. Herbert

Trials of Topsy sees the fashionable girl-about-town reveal her most heartfelt feelings and desires in her series of letters to the long-suffering Trix. In Topsy, satirist and social commentator A P Herbert, has created the original It-girl.

Genres: Humor, Classics

Paperback

First published October 4, 2002

About the author

Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, CH (usually writing as A.P. Herbert or A.P.H.) was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist. He was an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford University for 15 years, five of which he combined with service in the Royal Navy.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viva Topsy! The first of the three books in the Topsy series. Topsy originally appeared in a long-running Punch column in the 1920's. She's the quintessential flapper, but with acute powers of observation and a sense of language rivaling Mrs. Malaprop.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely funny!! Warning: Dangerous to read with pneumonia, due to potential pain from laughter-induced coughing.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm on a roll ... three books in a row I couldn't finish. One took several weeks to give up, one took two nights, and this one took about five minutes.

It's seemingly right up my alley: epistolary (love those), early 20th century (a favourite period for me), British (check, for some reason we click despite my being Canadian), and humorous (I love to laugh), so I was expecting the British answer to Auntie Mame or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and instead I got something rather like Geronimo Stilton (all those ghastly font changes) crossed with the personal ramblings of someone Jeeves would have ensured would have lasted for no more than one short story.

There was obviously no way that this kind of thing would ever enchant and delight me, so about one sentence into the second chapter I gave it up. Moving on!

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Ashley Stangl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very bubbly 1920s socialite comments on the events of her time. One of the essays left me breathless and helpless with laughter, and several were very fun, but the voice does get a bit samey and tiresome after a while, and I couldn't bring myself to read the second and third books in the collection I read.