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Topsy #2
Topsy MP
Fresh from 'Earth's rosiest honeymoon since Adam and Eve', Topsy returns to a life of marital bliss, and finds herself 'too unanimously' elected a Member of Parliament. Social functions and parliamentary and wifely duties aside, she somehow still finds time to pour out her thoughts on her new life to the devoted Trix. In this latest collection of letters, she remains as endearing as ever and her deliberations, preoccupations and observations retain their candid freshness - and make hilarious reading. 'my dear you know I'm a comparative fundamentalist in dogmatological matters' [Topsy on principles] 'he was so beflattened that the little feminine heart was totally melted, and besides it's quite my policy to conciliate rather than inflame the foe' [Topsy on the Opposition]
Paperback
Published November 1, 2002
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About the author
A.P. Herbert
133 books10 followersSir 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.
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August 3, 2007
The charms of Topsy can only be described by quoting a typical passage in her inimitable style. I just open a page at random...
"Well my dear meanwhile the Rowland was being rather a burden because the whole time he talked of nothing but the internal organs of his unalluring car and wondering what was rattling and why, when of course the entire machine was one tautologous rattle because he will keep seeing if he can get sixty out of her on a bad road..."
There. That does a much better job than I ever could of explaining exactly what Topsy is... but I'll try anyways. Briefly, she was a character that A.P. Herbert featured in a Punch column during the 1920's up until, well, I'm not exactly sure when, but she's thoroughly a Modern Girl in the flapper mode. The Topsy books are written in first person in the form of letters to Topsy's friend Trix, and they detail an endless round of dinners, dances, and society hi-jinks, all in Topsy's stream-of-consciousness style, with the sentences running together and one idea overtaking another. What I find most remarkable is that the cadences of a certain type of English speech are rendered perfectly with the use of italics.
Topsy gets inside your head! I found myself writing and speaking like her for days, and truth to tell I still lapse into Topsy speak when I'm feeling a little giddy. What she does with the English language is rather a marvel, I think. Her malapropisms fall thick and fast, yet Topsy is no fool. She's a shrewd observer of society and human foibles, and Herbert consistently employs her as a humorous commentator on contemporary times.
For the life of me I can't figure out why these books have never been reprinted. They certainly deserve to be. I found it extremely difficult to come by the three Topsy books that (so far as I can tell) contain all of Topsy's adventures. I highly recommend this book for fans of humorous literature, anglophiles, fans of the 1920's, and oh, just about anyone with a sense of humor, really.
"Well my dear meanwhile the Rowland was being rather a burden because the whole time he talked of nothing but the internal organs of his unalluring car and wondering what was rattling and why, when of course the entire machine was one tautologous rattle because he will keep seeing if he can get sixty out of her on a bad road..."
There. That does a much better job than I ever could of explaining exactly what Topsy is... but I'll try anyways. Briefly, she was a character that A.P. Herbert featured in a Punch column during the 1920's up until, well, I'm not exactly sure when, but she's thoroughly a Modern Girl in the flapper mode. The Topsy books are written in first person in the form of letters to Topsy's friend Trix, and they detail an endless round of dinners, dances, and society hi-jinks, all in Topsy's stream-of-consciousness style, with the sentences running together and one idea overtaking another. What I find most remarkable is that the cadences of a certain type of English speech are rendered perfectly with the use of italics.
Topsy gets inside your head! I found myself writing and speaking like her for days, and truth to tell I still lapse into Topsy speak when I'm feeling a little giddy. What she does with the English language is rather a marvel, I think. Her malapropisms fall thick and fast, yet Topsy is no fool. She's a shrewd observer of society and human foibles, and Herbert consistently employs her as a humorous commentator on contemporary times.
For the life of me I can't figure out why these books have never been reprinted. They certainly deserve to be. I found it extremely difficult to come by the three Topsy books that (so far as I can tell) contain all of Topsy's adventures. I highly recommend this book for fans of humorous literature, anglophiles, fans of the 1920's, and oh, just about anyone with a sense of humor, really.
Displaying 1 of 1 review