Dope-Darling: A Story of Cocaine

by David Garnett

Dope-Darling is a story of sex, drugs, and music set just before the outbreak of the First World War. Claire is the talk of the town when she meets Roy at a London nightclub. Leaving his fiancée Beatrice, Roy marries the bohemian starlet in only three weeks, entering a world of excess and excitement beyond his wildest dreams. As the cocaine and booze begin to wear him down, and as Britain prepares for war with Germany, he begins to wonder if enlistment could provide him a means of escape. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of David Garnett’s Dope-Darling is a classic 1918 work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

Genres: Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

David Garnett, known as "Bunny", was an English writer and publisher. A prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Garnett received literary recognition when his novel Lady into Fox, an allegorical fantasy, was awarded the 1922 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. He ran a bookshop near the British Museum with Francis Birrell during the 1920s. He also founded (with Francis Meynell) the Nonesuch Press. He wrote the novel Aspects of Love (1955), on which the later Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical was based.

He was the son of Richard Garnett. His first wife was the illustrator and author Ray Garnett (née Marshall) with whom he had two sons including Richard Garnett. His second wife was Angelica Bell. His mother was the translator Constance Garnett.

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Garnett’s debut novella was published around 1919, under the pseudonym Leda Burke, and its setting’s far from the Bloomsbury drawing-rooms and literati Garnett’s most often associated with. It opens in the early months of World War I and tells the story of Beatrice and Roy, a wealthy but staid, and slightly stale, couple, both engaged in studying medicine. They’re all set to wed when a chance encounter in a seedy, underground nightclub causes Roy to fall for the beautiful but unstable Claire. When Claire’s revealed to be a cocaine fiend, Roy vows to rescue her from a life of vice. Garnett apparently based Claire’s character on the notorious dancer and singer Betty May aka tiger woman, who’d been linked to Aleister Crowley and modelled for artists Augustus John and Jacob Epstein. Garnett was a friend of May’s and looked out for her throughout her life. He also seems to be cashing in here on the wartime, cocaine panic stirred up by a number of sensationalist newspaper reports. Cocaine, it was said, drove men and women mad, and was in danger of turning dutiful soldiers into rabid, murderous beasts, there were even claims that it might be circulating as part of a German plot to undermine Britain’s forces. Certainly, cocaine use was a trend in bohemian circles, easily obtained in clubs across London's West End, peddled by so-called “dope girls” operating throughout Soho and other areas fashionable with daring youth. Although it was also a commonplace medicine in pre-war times, even used as a hay fever treatment. Garnett’s narrative reads like a particularly heavy-handed, morality tale, it’s incredibly melodramatic, and sometimes quite crudely drawn. But it’s also fairly gripping, with some promising passages, and an unusual glimpse of a less overt aspect of England’s fashionable circles during WW1. Unfortunately it’s also marred by flashes of racist rhetoric, and Garnett’s rather condescending perspective on working-class women.

Rating: 2.5

[Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting curio.

Set in Britain prior and during World War 1, this was Garnett's first novel, or novella, released under the pen-name Leda Burke.

It follows the lives of a couple, newly engaged, Roy and Beatrice.
Both of them have studied to become doctors, and eventually become qualified to practice.
During a visit to a nightclub, the couple meet Claire, an emotionally unstable girl with a troubled past.

Claire's present is not without problems, for she is addicted to cocaine. Roy becomes besotted with Claire, so much so he breaks his engagement with Beatrice and marries Claire.
Whilst initially troubled by Claire's cocaine addiction, Roy eventually becomes a user of the drug also, although unlike Claire, he has a better ability to keep his intake to moderate levels, or even abstain when he thinks it wise to do so. But for Claire there is no going back, she needs her cocaine!

Well, war comes, and Roy is caught up in it. He didn't totally lose contact with Beatrice during his marriage, and they manage to remain friends of sorts. Beatrice becomes a loyal friend when Roy's marriage deteriorates and her skills as a fine doctor give him vital assistance in treatment of his war wounds. But what's to become of Claire and his marriage? Will Beatrice find happiness in life after her losing Roy?

It's a short book, so it doesn't take long to find out. I found myself warming to Beatrice, thinking her to be a strong character, yet also weak in the way she pined for Roy. Was he worth the bother?
He was mostly a decent character, with some weaknesses, which he seemed to acknowledge to some extent at the end. Claire was a rather awful character, but a memorable one.

After being out of print for many years, it was pleasing to see a new edition of this early work of Garnett's made available. It's a book of its time, but also very readable, maybe the ending was a bit too neat and tidied up, but this short curio is worth one's reading time.

[Fien Danniau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welwel, cocaïne(verslaving) bestond dus al in de jaren tien. Onvoorspelbaar pad van een driekhoeksverhouding naar een aangekondigde afgrond.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A minor Bloomsbury member, I read Garnett's "Lady Into Fox" a few months ago, and this popped up when reading the Wikipeida bio of him. Sounded interesting.
More a novella, this was Garnett's first published work, under a pseudonym. Meant to be titillating and scandalous, it being 1919 it is more a romantic tale of caution. Complete with Beatrice (a female Dr in 1919!) who is in love with Roy (who she has known all her life), who is in love with Dope Girl Claire, saving Roy's life with a risky operation. As if that would be allowed.
Short on explicit details, but the good-bye party for Roy is pretty damned good!
Also a tale of WWI (Garnett was a CO, who worked farms in SE England during the Great War).
Over written and over wrought much of the time, it would have made for a great Pre-Code Hollywood movie.
Garnett's description of Claire on cocaine doesn't really give the reader a sense of what it is like (OTOH, back at this time the coke was probably not heaviy cut with speed, especially when sold at a pharmacist's).
But, at 80 pp (as an ebook), not a bad evening's read. For fans of Garnett, Bloomsbury writers, exploitative pulp fiction, and WWI fiction.
3 out of 5.