Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Dennis, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014119412X ISBN 13: 9780141194127

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2010

Synopsis

Inspired by his own eccentric aunt, Patrick Dennis's Auntie Mame is a madcap comedy, published with an afterword by Matteo Codignola in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Auntie Mame and I learned to love one another in as brief and painless a period as possible. That her amazing personality would attract me, just as it had seduced thousands of others, was a foregone conclusion. Her helter-skelter charm was, after all, notorious ...'

When shy young heir Patrick is orphaned at the tender age of ten, the only family he has is his wealthy and eccentric aunt, a fabulous New York socialite named Mame. While prone to dramatic costumes, flights of fancy and expensive whims - not least her lives as a muse and a Southern belle - Auntie Mame will raise Patrick the only way she knows how: with madcap humour, mishaps, unforgettable friends and lots and lots of love. Turned into a play, a musical, and adapted into a 1974 film directed by Gene Saks and starring Lucille Ball, Auntie Mame is the most magnificent and hilarious work of love, style, wit and the life of a very modern Aunt.

Patrick Dennis (1921-76) was one of the most widely read American authors of the 1950s and '60s. Among his sixteen novels, the majority of which were bestsellers, are Little Me, Around the World with Auntie Mame, Tony, How Firm a Foundation and Genius. A celebrity in bohemian New York culture, he led a double life as a bisexual man and a conventional husband and father, until becoming an exemplary butler to the elite in West Palm Beach and Chicago in the 1970s. In his own words, he attributed this change to being 'out of fashion' - and, 'I've said everything that I had to say. Twice.'

If you enjoyed Auntie Mame, you might like Breakfast at Tiffany's, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Extravagant follies and delirious escapades'
The New York Times

About this title

Review:

First a book, then a play, then a musical and a couple of movie versions--Auntie Mame became a multi-media sensation long before the term was invented. Mame first burst upon the public's consciousness in 1955, with the publication of Patrick Dennis's classic novel, Auntie Mame. More than 40 years later, the book is still in print, and still a delight to read.

Who can resist that force of nature, Mame Dennis, who takes over the rearing of her orphaned nephew Patrick and turns his life into one wild escapade after another? She enrolls Patrick in a progressive school where, among other things, the students strip naked and pretend to be fish, laying and fertilizing eggs; in a later chapter, she busts him out of a conservative prep school, driving a stolen car. During Patrick's college years, she's almost caught dallying with one of his classmates in the dorm.

Auntie Mame is a novel that holds up well over the years. The times it describes were simpler in many ways than they are today, which may account for some of the book's charm. But in the end, the success of Patrick Dennis's frequently hilarious and always entertaining tribute to unconventional family life rests on the affectionate, funny friendship between young Patrick and his one-of-a-kind guardian.

From the Publisher:

7 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 014119412X
• ISBN 13: 9780141194127
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336