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The Romantic Comedians
In The Romantic Comedians Ellen Glasgow takes the familiar story of the cuckold and raises it to a new leve. Her sixty-five-year-old male protagonist, the recently widowed Judge Gamaliel Honeywell, falls in love with and marries an impulsive twenty-three-year-old woman, emblem of the 1920s. As the symbol of patriarchy, the Judge espouses all of the chivalrous myths about women, insisting that older women are not interested in love, that a man is only as old as his instincts, and that some young women prefer old lovers to young ones. His sheltered mind allows these dillusions about women as it allows him to delude himself.
- GenresFiction
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
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85 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Glasgow
174 books70 followersAmerican writer Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow won a Pulitzer Prize for
In This Our Life
(1941), her realistic historical novel of Virginia.
Born into an upper-class Virginian family, Glasgow at an early age rebelled against traditional expectations of women and authored 20 bestselling novels. Southern settings of the majority of her novels reflect her awareness of the enormous social and economic changes, occurring in the South in the decades before her birth and throughout her own life.
Beginning in 1897, she wrote her novels and many short stories, mainly about life in Virginia.
Glasgow read widely to compensate for her own rudimentary education. She maintained a close lifelong friendship with James Branch Cabell, another notable writer of Richmond. She spent many summers at the historic Jerdone Castle plantation estate of her family in Bumpass, Virginia; this venue reappears in her writings. Her works include: The Descendant (1897), Phases of an Inferior Planet (1898), The Voice of the People (1900), The Battle- Ground (1902), The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields (1904), The Romance of a Plain Man (1909), Virginia (1913), The Builders (1919), The Past (1920), Barren Ground (1925), The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), The Sheltered Life (1932), Vein of Iron (1935), In This Our Life (1941).
Born into an upper-class Virginian family, Glasgow at an early age rebelled against traditional expectations of women and authored 20 bestselling novels. Southern settings of the majority of her novels reflect her awareness of the enormous social and economic changes, occurring in the South in the decades before her birth and throughout her own life.
Beginning in 1897, she wrote her novels and many short stories, mainly about life in Virginia.
Glasgow read widely to compensate for her own rudimentary education. She maintained a close lifelong friendship with James Branch Cabell, another notable writer of Richmond. She spent many summers at the historic Jerdone Castle plantation estate of her family in Bumpass, Virginia; this venue reappears in her writings. Her works include: The Descendant (1897), Phases of an Inferior Planet (1898), The Voice of the People (1900), The Battle- Ground (1902), The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields (1904), The Romance of a Plain Man (1909), Virginia (1913), The Builders (1919), The Past (1920), Barren Ground (1925), The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), The Sheltered Life (1932), Vein of Iron (1935), In This Our Life (1941).
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 13, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2022
Romantic comedy, in our time, is generally considered a safe and predictable genre – a movie in which two people “meet cute,” get together, break up, and (usually) end up back together by movie’s end. If you’ve just met someone that you think might be “the one,” then a romantic comedy film, because of its formulaic quality, is a low-risk choice for a first date. But there is nothing safe, formulaic, or predictable about Ellen Glasgow’s novel The Romantic Comedians (1926).
Ellen Glasgow, a Richmond writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, represented something of a sea change in Southern U.S. literature. In stark contrast with the jejune nostalgia that marked much of the Southern writing of her time, Glasgow believed that the prevailing romanticism of the Southern temperament had actually done a great deal of harm to the region and to its people. Accordingly, her work generally casts a cold, baleful eye on those of her characters who seek to organize their lives in romantic rather than realistic terms.
The Romantic Comedians is no exception in that regard. Set in the mid-1920’s, Glasgow’s novel explores the situation of one Judge Gamaliel Honeywell, a jurist in his late 60’s who the reader first sees visiting the grave of his late wife Cordelia at the town cemetery in Queenborough, Virginia (Glasgow’s fictionalized Richmond). It quickly becomes clear that Judge Honeywell, while he loved his wife, felt no great passion for her, having married her on a sort of rebound while quarreling with his true love, Amanda Lightfoot.
As the earth’s springtime rebirth impresses itself upon Judge Honeywell, the aging jurist finds himself wanting to reconnect with his lost youth; having lived in strict conformity with the conservative social norms of his place and time, he fears that he has missed something. Small wonder, then, that he finds himself strongly drawn to one Annabel Upchurch, the 22-year-old daughter of a neighbor:
“With the sound of her laugh, a subtle thrill, a deep pulsation of joy, quivered through him to the secret labyrinth of his spirit. Something was there beyond, something that he had missed and that he must capture at last before it escaped him. He had again the strange feeling of freshness, almost of surprise, as if he were about to begin again the next instant, as if he were plunging into a virgin wilderness of experience.” (p. 50)
Annabel and her mother, Bella Upchurch, live in genteel poverty; it is a mark of their fallen state that they must now take in boarders. For that reason, Annabel is initially open to Honeywell’s romantic blandishments; there is nothing worse than poverty, she tells her mother, and if her marrying Honeywell will provide permanent relief from their poverty, then marriage to a man almost old enough to be her grandfather is a price worth paying for that kind of economic security.
Before going through with the marriage, however, Annabel wants to seek the blessing of Amanda Lightfoot, Judge Honeywell’s lost love, who never married after the break-up with Honeywell, and who has dedicated her life to humanitarian work through her church. Glasgow’s description of Amanda conveys everything Glasgow dislikes about the prim-and-proper, surface-level values of her community: “Serene, unselfish, with the reminiscence of a vanished day in her face and figure, [Amanda] belonged to that fortunate generation of women who had no need to think, since everything was decided for them by the feelings of a lady and the Episcopal Church.” Amanda possesses a “perfect complexion” that another character describes as “the only perfect substitute for intelligence”, and her automatic response to any potentially unpleasant emotion is an “infallible instinct that impelled her to pretend it away” (p. 101).
It should be no surprise that the conversation between Amanda Lightfoot, a “keep it all inside” product of repressed Southern Victorianism, and Annabel Upchurch, a “let it all hang out” young woman of the Jazz Age, does not go well.
The marriage of Honeywell and Annabel does take place, complete with a European honeymoon; but after the two have been together for some time, the effect on Honeywell of trying to keep up with Annabel is evident: “Though he spoke cheerfully between his spells of wheezing, he felt tired and old – older than he imagined he should feel for the next twenty years. His features…looked as if they were modelled in clay” (p. 150). Annabel, in the bloom of her youthfulness, wants to be out dancing every night with other young people; Judge Honeywell would rather be at home, treating himself to a little nightly sip from the stock of top-shelf whiskey that he laid down before the onset of Prohibition. The reader senses at once that the marriage is doomed to failure.
And indeed, once his marriage to Annabel has hit the proverbial rocks, Honeywell is left to question the verities upon which he has depended all his life. Speaking with Annabel’s mother Bella, Honeywell reflects that “There has been a change, a readjustment of ideas, perhaps even of standards. We may have been too strict in our views; but the pendulum is swinging too far in the opposite direction to-day. The younger generation has caught hold of something different, and this difference confuses me. I have even asked myself if the wisdom of the ages can have been wrong” (p. 201).
Honeywell’s sister Edmonia – a woman who has consistently flouted the standards of her conservative Queenborough society: marrying multiple times, living in Europe, saying what she thinks without fear of being considered “unladylike” – provides a bit of realistic perspective on these romantic goings-on; indeed, in her bold nonconformity and fearless self-expression, she seems reminiscent of Glasgow's own strong personality. But voices like Edmonia's are few and far between in The Romantic Comedians, and the novel closes on a note suggesting that people afflicted with a romantic frame of mind may not be able to learn from their mistakes.
Ellen Glasgow provides a vital link between the early Southern literature of romanticism – represented at its best by Edgar Allan Poe, and at its worse by a multitude of maudlin and sentimental writers – and the modern literature of the Southern Renascence, as embodied in the work of writers like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Thomas Wolfe. The Romantic Comedians is characteristic of Glasgow’s work in the merciless way it anatomizes how emotionalism can interfere with a clear, rational view of the world and one’s place in it.
Ellen Glasgow, a Richmond writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, represented something of a sea change in Southern U.S. literature. In stark contrast with the jejune nostalgia that marked much of the Southern writing of her time, Glasgow believed that the prevailing romanticism of the Southern temperament had actually done a great deal of harm to the region and to its people. Accordingly, her work generally casts a cold, baleful eye on those of her characters who seek to organize their lives in romantic rather than realistic terms.
The Romantic Comedians is no exception in that regard. Set in the mid-1920’s, Glasgow’s novel explores the situation of one Judge Gamaliel Honeywell, a jurist in his late 60’s who the reader first sees visiting the grave of his late wife Cordelia at the town cemetery in Queenborough, Virginia (Glasgow’s fictionalized Richmond). It quickly becomes clear that Judge Honeywell, while he loved his wife, felt no great passion for her, having married her on a sort of rebound while quarreling with his true love, Amanda Lightfoot.
As the earth’s springtime rebirth impresses itself upon Judge Honeywell, the aging jurist finds himself wanting to reconnect with his lost youth; having lived in strict conformity with the conservative social norms of his place and time, he fears that he has missed something. Small wonder, then, that he finds himself strongly drawn to one Annabel Upchurch, the 22-year-old daughter of a neighbor:
“With the sound of her laugh, a subtle thrill, a deep pulsation of joy, quivered through him to the secret labyrinth of his spirit. Something was there beyond, something that he had missed and that he must capture at last before it escaped him. He had again the strange feeling of freshness, almost of surprise, as if he were about to begin again the next instant, as if he were plunging into a virgin wilderness of experience.” (p. 50)
Annabel and her mother, Bella Upchurch, live in genteel poverty; it is a mark of their fallen state that they must now take in boarders. For that reason, Annabel is initially open to Honeywell’s romantic blandishments; there is nothing worse than poverty, she tells her mother, and if her marrying Honeywell will provide permanent relief from their poverty, then marriage to a man almost old enough to be her grandfather is a price worth paying for that kind of economic security.
Before going through with the marriage, however, Annabel wants to seek the blessing of Amanda Lightfoot, Judge Honeywell’s lost love, who never married after the break-up with Honeywell, and who has dedicated her life to humanitarian work through her church. Glasgow’s description of Amanda conveys everything Glasgow dislikes about the prim-and-proper, surface-level values of her community: “Serene, unselfish, with the reminiscence of a vanished day in her face and figure, [Amanda] belonged to that fortunate generation of women who had no need to think, since everything was decided for them by the feelings of a lady and the Episcopal Church.” Amanda possesses a “perfect complexion” that another character describes as “the only perfect substitute for intelligence”, and her automatic response to any potentially unpleasant emotion is an “infallible instinct that impelled her to pretend it away” (p. 101).
It should be no surprise that the conversation between Amanda Lightfoot, a “keep it all inside” product of repressed Southern Victorianism, and Annabel Upchurch, a “let it all hang out” young woman of the Jazz Age, does not go well.
The marriage of Honeywell and Annabel does take place, complete with a European honeymoon; but after the two have been together for some time, the effect on Honeywell of trying to keep up with Annabel is evident: “Though he spoke cheerfully between his spells of wheezing, he felt tired and old – older than he imagined he should feel for the next twenty years. His features…looked as if they were modelled in clay” (p. 150). Annabel, in the bloom of her youthfulness, wants to be out dancing every night with other young people; Judge Honeywell would rather be at home, treating himself to a little nightly sip from the stock of top-shelf whiskey that he laid down before the onset of Prohibition. The reader senses at once that the marriage is doomed to failure.
And indeed, once his marriage to Annabel has hit the proverbial rocks, Honeywell is left to question the verities upon which he has depended all his life. Speaking with Annabel’s mother Bella, Honeywell reflects that “There has been a change, a readjustment of ideas, perhaps even of standards. We may have been too strict in our views; but the pendulum is swinging too far in the opposite direction to-day. The younger generation has caught hold of something different, and this difference confuses me. I have even asked myself if the wisdom of the ages can have been wrong” (p. 201).
Honeywell’s sister Edmonia – a woman who has consistently flouted the standards of her conservative Queenborough society: marrying multiple times, living in Europe, saying what she thinks without fear of being considered “unladylike” – provides a bit of realistic perspective on these romantic goings-on; indeed, in her bold nonconformity and fearless self-expression, she seems reminiscent of Glasgow's own strong personality. But voices like Edmonia's are few and far between in The Romantic Comedians, and the novel closes on a note suggesting that people afflicted with a romantic frame of mind may not be able to learn from their mistakes.
Ellen Glasgow provides a vital link between the early Southern literature of romanticism – represented at its best by Edgar Allan Poe, and at its worse by a multitude of maudlin and sentimental writers – and the modern literature of the Southern Renascence, as embodied in the work of writers like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Thomas Wolfe. The Romantic Comedians is characteristic of Glasgow’s work in the merciless way it anatomizes how emotionalism can interfere with a clear, rational view of the world and one’s place in it.
August 17, 2011
I really liked this one even though it was the second time around.
While it is called a comedy of manners, I have never been able to find the humor in it. On the other hand, it is wise and witty and interesting to read about the twists and turns of the minds of an aging man and a young woman.
It is pathetic that the man, while seeking female companionship, cannot believe that older women might feel the same way. It is like the man who weighs over 250 sitting on a beach talking about the women around them who have "let themselves go."
Glasgow's writing is brilliant and you could take almost all of this work and turn it into quotes.
While it is called a comedy of manners, I have never been able to find the humor in it. On the other hand, it is wise and witty and interesting to read about the twists and turns of the minds of an aging man and a young woman.
It is pathetic that the man, while seeking female companionship, cannot believe that older women might feel the same way. It is like the man who weighs over 250 sitting on a beach talking about the women around them who have "let themselves go."
Glasgow's writing is brilliant and you could take almost all of this work and turn it into quotes.
April 14, 2015
One of the most witty and light-hearted of Ellen Glasgow's satires of Southern society, "The Romantic Comedians" takes on the changing roles of the sexes as the manners of the late 19th century gave way to the Roaring Twenties, laying waste old notions of fair maidens and gentlemanly gallantry. Glasgow's novels of manners did for Virginia and the Old South what J.P. Marquand did for New England and its lingering puritanical codes. This tale of a sixty-five year old judge and lawyer who marries a twenty-six year-old flapper exposes the hypocrisy of several generations, but more with sympathy, or at least pity, than with scorn. It was a delightful read.
August 13, 2012
A romantic comedy about southern manners which explores male, female relationships in the 20's. Good read.
January 24, 2025
witty, vivid, and painfully true to life. glasgow paints a perfect and timeless picture of the delusions of old men, the cravings of youth, and the traps of surpressing one's emotions (as well as the opposite vice—expressing them too much).
glasgow excels in imagery and in making emotions feel so visceral and real as one is reading. the short-lived relationship between gamaliel and annabel mirrors the seasons, which aligns perfectly with the dramatic irony present; any sensible reader knows this union is doomed from the start, but the novel is a page-turner nonetheless as you anxiously await for the dominoes to fall.
i also adored the cast of side characters and the spectrum of generations and morality each represents.
cannot wait to explore more of glasgow's novels in the future.
please read this book
glasgow excels in imagery and in making emotions feel so visceral and real as one is reading. the short-lived relationship between gamaliel and annabel mirrors the seasons, which aligns perfectly with the dramatic irony present; any sensible reader knows this union is doomed from the start, but the novel is a page-turner nonetheless as you anxiously await for the dominoes to fall.
i also adored the cast of side characters and the spectrum of generations and morality each represents.
cannot wait to explore more of glasgow's novels in the future.
please read this book
July 4, 2024
Judge Honeywell “had endured the double edged bliss of a perfect marriage” for thirty-six years. After his wife’s demise, he stoops to idiocies, which have no social and moral sanction. Honeywell, “a great lawyer but a perfect fool”, does not marry his contemporary and old friend Amanda Lightfoot, the righteous southern woman, but Annabel Upchurch, the stunning and chic young lady. The marriage proves calamitous. However, the lawyer has not learnt his lesson. Again, he turns from Amanda toward his young nurse. It is not love, but the sexual instinct, which hazes the lawyer’s judgment. Glasgow delicately and dexterously employs irony to uncover characters and the values they represent. The theme of this novel is eternal. A pleasing afternoon read it makes.
August 12, 2025
Nearly perfect novel of manners. Maybe perfect.
February 2, 2015
A heavily satirical novel that follows the shenanigans of the older gentleman in Glasgow's version of Richmond, Virginia, during and following his pursuit of a MUCH younger bride.
August 28, 2016
3 1/2 stars
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews