Lady Addle Remembers: Being the Memoirs of Lady Addle of Eigg

by Mary Dunn (Editor)

Describes the comic experiences of Lady Addle and pokes fun at upper class English society

118 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Mary Dunn (1900–1958) was an English writer and satirist best known for the Lady Addle books.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Droll spoof on upper class pretensions, Lady Blanche Addle comes across as a cross between Lady Bracknell and Mrs. Malaprop as she regales the reader with the details of her rather stultifying country life, sublimely unaware of how ridiculous she is. One of the most amusing aspects of the book is Lady Addle's chronicles of Mipsie, her ne'er-do-well sister, who is, it seems, extremely promiscuous (even though Blanche seems to not entirely understand).

The book is a hoot, liberally illustrated with Victorian portraits of the most excruciatingly constipated variety. The author clearly had a field day lampooning this regrettably extinct species of upper British class twit.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing.

[Behrooz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book really strange. But as I read on I found it funnier and funnier. At the end I loved it. Hilarious.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and reread this slim volume so many times and found it endlessly amusing. Based on actual memoirs of upper class women of the period (it was first published in 1936), Lady Addle of Eigg (nee Lady Blanche Coot, daughter of the 13th Earl Coot) relates the activities of her rather dull and commonplace family as if they were all the best of the best. Or, to quote an essay entitled Women and Parody:
They are self-deluded, self-satisfied, pampered, extravagant, untalented yet convinced of their own superiority, and indifferent to the welfare of others, but they are never held accountable for their misdeeds. (if you want to see more of this essay, it is here https://journals.openedition.org/poly... )

[Lady Hermione · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this as a teenager and still find it hilarious. Eigg is, of course, pronounced 'Egg'. The satire is subtle and it's almost believable as a genuine memoir. The photos are genuine; the author bought them in sales when houses were cleared and altered them. Her daughter remembered her fear that someone would recognise 'my beautiful mother', 'Mipsie at her loveliest' and the others in their doctored form and be furious. Agatha Slubb-Repp looks Neanderthal in the 'charming study' and 'my beautiful mother' resembles a hippotamus.

I have the others, but the first one is the best.

[Jo42 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very amusing indeed.

[Anthea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny and charming parody memoir - perfect read for when reality is getting a bit much 🙂

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dears, it's wonderfully amusing -- written in the 1930s, this droll send-up of a Victorian aristocratic "memoir" drips with irony and subversive glee. You will chortle repeatedly, unless you have no sense of irony, and then it will all go over your head. But if you were that type of person, I have a hunch you would never have picked up the book in the first place.