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Lady Baltimore
Novel of Post-Civil War Charleston life, by author of Virginian.
406 pages, Nook
First published January 1, 1906
13 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Owen Wister
292 books63 followersOwen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a neighborhood within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of Wisters raised at the storied Belfield estate in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of actress Fanny Kemble.
Education
He briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.
At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law, having graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1888. Following this, he practiced with a Philadelphia firm, but was never truly interested in that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch Theodore Roosevelt backer. In the 1930s, he opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Writing career
Wister had spent several summers out in the American West, making his first trip to Wyoming in 1885. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington; who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, he naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, the loosely constructed story of a cowboy who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War and taking the side of the large land owners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel and was reprinted fourteen times in eight months.[5] The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.
Personal life
In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin.The couple had six children.
Wister's wife died during childbirth in 1913, as Theodore Roosevelt's first wife had died giving birth to Roosevelt's first daughter, Alice.
Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
Education
He briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.
At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law, having graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1888. Following this, he practiced with a Philadelphia firm, but was never truly interested in that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch Theodore Roosevelt backer. In the 1930s, he opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Writing career
Wister had spent several summers out in the American West, making his first trip to Wyoming in 1885. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington; who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, he naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, the loosely constructed story of a cowboy who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War and taking the side of the large land owners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel and was reprinted fourteen times in eight months.[5] The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.
Personal life
In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin.The couple had six children.
Wister's wife died during childbirth in 1913, as Theodore Roosevelt's first wife had died giving birth to Roosevelt's first daughter, Alice.
Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 21, 2012
Last year I read Owen Wister's The Virginian and just loved it. Surprisingly loved it since I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination a fan of westerns. I knew I wanted to read a second book by Owen Wister this year, and I chose Lady Baltimore. Trying to compare Lady Baltimore and The Virginian would be a mistake because they are two entirely different books. Different styles, different genres.
Lady Baltimore is one part social commentary, one part romance, one part comedy. Set in South Carolina at the turn of the century, it dramatically and comically shows the tension of a town and ultimately a nation. What kind of tension? Well, tensions between generations, regions, races, and social classes.
(We see domineering aunts, for example, from both North and South, who want to "rule" over their nephews and nieces.) There is a generation (probably those fifty and up) who CANNOT for one minute put the Civil War behind them, and there is a generation (especially those in their twenties and late teens) who don't quite understand why it still has to be such a big deal, who'd like to see some change or progress at least. There's definitely still tension between North and South as well. Our narrator is a "Yankee" visiting a Southern town. His "Yankee" aunt warns him throughout not to be too influenced by the Southerners. She doesn't want him to like or love his travels too much. And the people of the town, especially the Somebodies of the town, find it hard to open up with any Yankee no matter how seemingly charming. From the narrator's viewpoint, readers see the tension between these two sides is still very much alive. Race. This is a BIG, BIG, BIG issue in the novel. For better or worse. On one hand, it could always allow for discussion and critical thinking on the part of the reader. But on the other hand, it might make some very uncomfortable in the process. Because whether the "racism" is just racism by condescension or racism by pure ugliness and hatred, it is still very present in this novel. (Let's just say that the narrator and almost every single person in the novel does NOT believe in equality of the races, and most certainly does not believe that they should have the right to vote or hold any sort of political office.) Social class also plays a role in this one. We've got the tension between people who once had money but now only have class, manners, and pride. And the newly rich who many view as having NO class, and low morals.
Augustus is our young narrator. He is visiting King's Port, South Carolina, at the request of his Aunt Carola. (She is, in fact, paying for his trip. He's supposed to be diligently researching genealogies and records to see if he can find the "proof" he needs to join her oh-so-exclusive club. Those men and women supposedly descended from royalty. Does he stay on task? What do you think?!) While there, he becomes entangled in a love affair. I'll clarify. He joins a gossip-y group of women who are focusing their attention on John Mayrant. Augustus first impression of John Mayrant is quite interesting. (It is readers' first impression as well.) He is ordering his own wedding cake, a Lady Baltimore cake. He is a bit anxious, a bit shy, a bit nervous. He even forgets to tell the woman at the counter, the baker, the date of his wedding, the date he needs the cake. He has to run back to tell her. Just as she is running to catch him to tell him he's forgotten. As you might guess, as you might imagine, readers see some potential here! The woman is Eliza La Heu. His fiance, Hortense Rieppe, is seen as less than desirable. She's not from the right kind of people, and if she has any money of her own, it's the wrong sort of money. She mixes with the wrong crowds, vacations the wrong places, and smokes! Is this young couple in love? Well, that's the big question, I suppose. And it seems to be everybody's business. Even with this newcomer Augustus getting in the middle of it. Should the engagement be broken? How should it be broken? When should it be broken? Would everyone be better off if it was broken?
So Lady Baltimore is just as much about the break up of a relationship (though readers may have a hard time believing it was love) as it is the start of a new relationship (Eliza and John).
There were many things I found enjoyable in Lady Baltimore. The writing was delightful-and-pleasant. For the most part. When the narrator is discussing race, well, it would be difficult to find charm in that...at all...but when the focus is on society, on social issues, on manners and traditions, courtship, etc., then it is a great way to spend a week. (When it comes to observation and characterization, think Austen or Trollope.)
I was always happy to pick this one back up, yet, there are not any scenes in particular that I can say I loved or loved, loved, loved. (I can still think of some from The Virginian.)
Lady Baltimore is one part social commentary, one part romance, one part comedy. Set in South Carolina at the turn of the century, it dramatically and comically shows the tension of a town and ultimately a nation. What kind of tension? Well, tensions between generations, regions, races, and social classes.
(We see domineering aunts, for example, from both North and South, who want to "rule" over their nephews and nieces.) There is a generation (probably those fifty and up) who CANNOT for one minute put the Civil War behind them, and there is a generation (especially those in their twenties and late teens) who don't quite understand why it still has to be such a big deal, who'd like to see some change or progress at least. There's definitely still tension between North and South as well. Our narrator is a "Yankee" visiting a Southern town. His "Yankee" aunt warns him throughout not to be too influenced by the Southerners. She doesn't want him to like or love his travels too much. And the people of the town, especially the Somebodies of the town, find it hard to open up with any Yankee no matter how seemingly charming. From the narrator's viewpoint, readers see the tension between these two sides is still very much alive. Race. This is a BIG, BIG, BIG issue in the novel. For better or worse. On one hand, it could always allow for discussion and critical thinking on the part of the reader. But on the other hand, it might make some very uncomfortable in the process. Because whether the "racism" is just racism by condescension or racism by pure ugliness and hatred, it is still very present in this novel. (Let's just say that the narrator and almost every single person in the novel does NOT believe in equality of the races, and most certainly does not believe that they should have the right to vote or hold any sort of political office.) Social class also plays a role in this one. We've got the tension between people who once had money but now only have class, manners, and pride. And the newly rich who many view as having NO class, and low morals.
Augustus is our young narrator. He is visiting King's Port, South Carolina, at the request of his Aunt Carola. (She is, in fact, paying for his trip. He's supposed to be diligently researching genealogies and records to see if he can find the "proof" he needs to join her oh-so-exclusive club. Those men and women supposedly descended from royalty. Does he stay on task? What do you think?!) While there, he becomes entangled in a love affair. I'll clarify. He joins a gossip-y group of women who are focusing their attention on John Mayrant. Augustus first impression of John Mayrant is quite interesting. (It is readers' first impression as well.) He is ordering his own wedding cake, a Lady Baltimore cake. He is a bit anxious, a bit shy, a bit nervous. He even forgets to tell the woman at the counter, the baker, the date of his wedding, the date he needs the cake. He has to run back to tell her. Just as she is running to catch him to tell him he's forgotten. As you might guess, as you might imagine, readers see some potential here! The woman is Eliza La Heu. His fiance, Hortense Rieppe, is seen as less than desirable. She's not from the right kind of people, and if she has any money of her own, it's the wrong sort of money. She mixes with the wrong crowds, vacations the wrong places, and smokes! Is this young couple in love? Well, that's the big question, I suppose. And it seems to be everybody's business. Even with this newcomer Augustus getting in the middle of it. Should the engagement be broken? How should it be broken? When should it be broken? Would everyone be better off if it was broken?
So Lady Baltimore is just as much about the break up of a relationship (though readers may have a hard time believing it was love) as it is the start of a new relationship (Eliza and John).
There were many things I found enjoyable in Lady Baltimore. The writing was delightful-and-pleasant. For the most part. When the narrator is discussing race, well, it would be difficult to find charm in that...at all...but when the focus is on society, on social issues, on manners and traditions, courtship, etc., then it is a great way to spend a week. (When it comes to observation and characterization, think Austen or Trollope.)
I was always happy to pick this one back up, yet, there are not any scenes in particular that I can say I loved or loved, loved, loved. (I can still think of some from The Virginian.)
October 29, 2014
It was hard to get past the blatant racism in this novel. The constant deploring of how bad the new society is was a bit much after a while too. But the story itself, the love story (or rather the attempts to prevent a bad love story turning into a marriage) was very interesting.
July 31, 2018
This is not an easy review to write.
Owen Wster obviously wrote Lady Baltimore with two purposes in mind. The first of those was to write a romance of Southern manors, which turned out swimmingly. The second was to write about Reconstruction, which turned out hideously.
Our narrator Augustus is a Yankee doing some less than serious genealogical research in the fictional town of Kings Port, clearly Charleston in all but name. He comes to admire the 'moral elegance' of the patrician South and makes friends with John Mayrant, who he feels is about to marry the wrong woman.
Mayrant is a true son of the South, Hortense Rieppe is a Southern girl enamoured with the fast ways of the North. As their marriage is continually postponed for well-plotted reasons which are only revealed by degree, Augustus longs to intercede but understands the delicacy of etiquette beneath the Mason and Dixon line.
I loved this part of the book. It was clever, empathetic, and amusing, warmly awash with the narrator's gentle humour based on 'that most delightful sort of impertinence, which consists in the other person’s not seeing it.'
There was also a constant sense of the Northerner's respect for the gentility of the South, and his disgust for the crassly materialistic ways of his own people. It's reconciliation by flattery, only the flattery is entirely sincere:
"You left the Union, but you loved what you considered was your country, and you love it still. That’s just my point, just my strange discovery in Kings Port. You retain the thing we’ve lost. Our big men fifty years ago thought of the country, and what they could make it; our big men to-day think of the country and what they can make out of it. Rather different, don’t you see?"
What a shame Wister nearly destroyed all the goodwill he won from me for the (b)romance with his approach to the other theme he decided to twin it with!
The problems began when John Mayrant discovered that he was going to have a black man for a boss. I understand that this was written over a hundred years ago, that the prejudices of many generations die hard and the abolition of slavery was still a sore point a generation after the American Civil War, but the sheer depth of the racial hatred Mayrant gave voice to at this point was simply ghastly.
Worse still, Augustus has every sympathy for him. He ponders the question himself from the standpoint of an educated Yankee, and this is his honest answer:
'Should I “like to take orders from a negro?” ... something within me, which you may call what you please—convention, prejudice, instinct—something answered most prompt and emphatically in the negative.'
I call it prejudice, and I don't see how any intelligent individual, even back then, could possibly call it anything else. Then I came across this conversation between Augustus and the novel's supposed heroine, Eliza La Heu, in which they attempted to solve the "Negro question":
"So, it’s like two men having to live in one house. The white man would keep the house in repair, the black would let it rot. Well, the black must take orders from the white. And it will end so.”
She was eager. “Slavery again, you think?”
“Oh, never! It was too injurious to ourselves. But something between slavery and equality.”
Excuse me? Slavery was "too injurious" to the whites! The rightful place of the blacks would be "something between slavery and equality"! Augustus is presented to us as enlightened, and this is the way he thinks?! No wonder segregation held sway until the 1960's. I'm tempted to say no wonder race relations are where they are today in Alt.right Era America.
Wister defended his view on race in a few words before beginning his story. I'm glad that he at least felt he had to. But even there he betrayed himself in his own apology when he stated how his only wish was 'to see the best that is in them prevail.'
His own condescension wasn't even apparent to him. I was left asking the same question I have often asked myself when reading novelists from the past: how can someone so empathetic, so intellectually refined, be at the same time so stupid and loathsome?
By the way, for those who like me may not be aware, a Lady Baltimore is actually the name of a cake, a rich splurging of sponge, cream and nuts. I have never had a slice but gazing lovingly at a picture of one they look almost immorally scrumptious.
A slice of one of those goes on the bucket list. Reading Wister's most famous novel, The Virginian, has been taken off.
Owen Wster obviously wrote Lady Baltimore with two purposes in mind. The first of those was to write a romance of Southern manors, which turned out swimmingly. The second was to write about Reconstruction, which turned out hideously.
Our narrator Augustus is a Yankee doing some less than serious genealogical research in the fictional town of Kings Port, clearly Charleston in all but name. He comes to admire the 'moral elegance' of the patrician South and makes friends with John Mayrant, who he feels is about to marry the wrong woman.
Mayrant is a true son of the South, Hortense Rieppe is a Southern girl enamoured with the fast ways of the North. As their marriage is continually postponed for well-plotted reasons which are only revealed by degree, Augustus longs to intercede but understands the delicacy of etiquette beneath the Mason and Dixon line.
I loved this part of the book. It was clever, empathetic, and amusing, warmly awash with the narrator's gentle humour based on 'that most delightful sort of impertinence, which consists in the other person’s not seeing it.'
There was also a constant sense of the Northerner's respect for the gentility of the South, and his disgust for the crassly materialistic ways of his own people. It's reconciliation by flattery, only the flattery is entirely sincere:
"You left the Union, but you loved what you considered was your country, and you love it still. That’s just my point, just my strange discovery in Kings Port. You retain the thing we’ve lost. Our big men fifty years ago thought of the country, and what they could make it; our big men to-day think of the country and what they can make out of it. Rather different, don’t you see?"
What a shame Wister nearly destroyed all the goodwill he won from me for the (b)romance with his approach to the other theme he decided to twin it with!
The problems began when John Mayrant discovered that he was going to have a black man for a boss. I understand that this was written over a hundred years ago, that the prejudices of many generations die hard and the abolition of slavery was still a sore point a generation after the American Civil War, but the sheer depth of the racial hatred Mayrant gave voice to at this point was simply ghastly.
Worse still, Augustus has every sympathy for him. He ponders the question himself from the standpoint of an educated Yankee, and this is his honest answer:
'Should I “like to take orders from a negro?” ... something within me, which you may call what you please—convention, prejudice, instinct—something answered most prompt and emphatically in the negative.'
I call it prejudice, and I don't see how any intelligent individual, even back then, could possibly call it anything else. Then I came across this conversation between Augustus and the novel's supposed heroine, Eliza La Heu, in which they attempted to solve the "Negro question":
"So, it’s like two men having to live in one house. The white man would keep the house in repair, the black would let it rot. Well, the black must take orders from the white. And it will end so.”
She was eager. “Slavery again, you think?”
“Oh, never! It was too injurious to ourselves. But something between slavery and equality.”
Excuse me? Slavery was "too injurious" to the whites! The rightful place of the blacks would be "something between slavery and equality"! Augustus is presented to us as enlightened, and this is the way he thinks?! No wonder segregation held sway until the 1960's. I'm tempted to say no wonder race relations are where they are today in Alt.right Era America.
Wister defended his view on race in a few words before beginning his story. I'm glad that he at least felt he had to. But even there he betrayed himself in his own apology when he stated how his only wish was 'to see the best that is in them prevail.'
His own condescension wasn't even apparent to him. I was left asking the same question I have often asked myself when reading novelists from the past: how can someone so empathetic, so intellectually refined, be at the same time so stupid and loathsome?
By the way, for those who like me may not be aware, a Lady Baltimore is actually the name of a cake, a rich splurging of sponge, cream and nuts. I have never had a slice but gazing lovingly at a picture of one they look almost immorally scrumptious.
A slice of one of those goes on the bucket list. Reading Wister's most famous novel, The Virginian, has been taken off.
July 14, 2020
This was recommended as a humorous look at old ladies who do genealogy. It is that, but...
When I worked at the bookstore, we occasionally got a parent in who was looking for an English translation of a Shakespeare play, for their kid who couldn't make sense of the original and didn't want to bother with notes. Wister's book, from 1906, could benefit from notes. A lot of it is hilarious, but the language is so elaborate and so deadpan you could miss all the jokes. And it is definitely from a different time and place. The casual racism is breathtaking - today's intersectionality studies majors risk having their heads explode.
I think Kings Port is supposed to be Charleston - if not it might as well be - and Wister clearly sympathizes with the ladies who miss their antebellum lives. They are all ladies because, as one of them mentions, all four of her brothers were killed in the war. What little was left after the March to the Sea and Reconstruction was being destroyed by the New People. He has no sympathy for the black residents, though, and no hope that they can eventually become good citizens. I'm not sure he even thinks they are fully human.
It's useful to read period literature, though, however shocking it seems to us today, because unless you know where you come from, you can miss how far you have come.
When I worked at the bookstore, we occasionally got a parent in who was looking for an English translation of a Shakespeare play, for their kid who couldn't make sense of the original and didn't want to bother with notes. Wister's book, from 1906, could benefit from notes. A lot of it is hilarious, but the language is so elaborate and so deadpan you could miss all the jokes. And it is definitely from a different time and place. The casual racism is breathtaking - today's intersectionality studies majors risk having their heads explode.
I think Kings Port is supposed to be Charleston - if not it might as well be - and Wister clearly sympathizes with the ladies who miss their antebellum lives. They are all ladies because, as one of them mentions, all four of her brothers were killed in the war. What little was left after the March to the Sea and Reconstruction was being destroyed by the New People. He has no sympathy for the black residents, though, and no hope that they can eventually become good citizens. I'm not sure he even thinks they are fully human.
It's useful to read period literature, though, however shocking it seems to us today, because unless you know where you come from, you can miss how far you have come.
May 11, 2023
I liked it!
But it is not a book for those who can not look at history dispassionately enough to learn its lessons. Naturally I don't agree with the protagonist's (and probably the author's) views on race. But by standing in their shoes I begin to understand some of the whys... why the wounds festered instead of healing. (They didn't teach about reconstruction in my high school.)
There were a few passages worth noting - and I would have highlighted these for future reference if I had been using my Kindle. Unfortunately, I listened to a Libravox recording. Perhaps I'll revisit this book another time.
One last comment... Lady Baltimore Cake, for the uninitiated, is a (very rich) cake which I had never heard of before, but now really, REALLY want to taste!
But it is not a book for those who can not look at history dispassionately enough to learn its lessons. Naturally I don't agree with the protagonist's (and probably the author's) views on race. But by standing in their shoes I begin to understand some of the whys... why the wounds festered instead of healing. (They didn't teach about reconstruction in my high school.)
There were a few passages worth noting - and I would have highlighted these for future reference if I had been using my Kindle. Unfortunately, I listened to a Libravox recording. Perhaps I'll revisit this book another time.
One last comment... Lady Baltimore Cake, for the uninitiated, is a (very rich) cake which I had never heard of before, but now really, REALLY want to taste!
June 11, 2017
Romance, post bellum, in the South.
Historical comments and recipe for Lady Baltimore cake:
Lady Baltimore Cake Recipe and History, Whats Cooking America
See also:
Jan Karon: Esther's Marmalade Cake
Historical comments and recipe for Lady Baltimore cake:
Lady Baltimore Cake Recipe and History, Whats Cooking America
See also:
Jan Karon: Esther's Marmalade Cake
January 14, 2025
Some of the the dialogues related to race and gender in this book are disturbing. However, it does shed light on the Reconstruction era and attitudes circulating during that period. Social issues are enveloped in a romantic comedy complete with plenty of references to Lady Baltimore cake.
April 8, 2017
The narrator is unbelievably racist, sexist, snobbish. And condescending. I thought it was a satire of a small minded nosy stuck up town at first but it's for real
I used to think the world of Edith Wharton, and the Wright brothers, and Forster was pleasantly modern yet traditional but after this book main thought is 'good riddance to these people who are wrong about everything'
I used to think the world of Edith Wharton, and the Wright brothers, and Forster was pleasantly modern yet traditional but after this book main thought is 'good riddance to these people who are wrong about everything'
October 5, 2014
Set in Charleston (called Kings Port in the novel), SC, in the early 1900s, this is a long and tedious tale of the Southern mores of the time. Supposedly, the Lady Baltimore cake was inspired by this book.
April 21, 2012
If you've read The Virginian and were looking for more of the same, look elsewhere. I could've saved myself a lot of time by just skipping to the end to see if John marries Hortense or not.
October 27, 2016
This book reads like its setting -- the warm, languid south: even-paced, a bit sleepy, but enchanting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews