Transatlantic Wife

(no dust jacket) [well-worn book, soiling to covers and page edges, ffep removed with consequent cracking to front hinge, second ffep (with blurb) ripped almost in half and nearly detached; basically a reading copy only]. A very scarce book, the only novel "written" by Ms. Joyce (following her 1930 quasi-memoir "Men, Marriage and Me," reportedly ghostwritten by Wallace Thurman), the most notorious man-chaser of her day. Clearly designed as a fictional riff on her own romantical hijinks, the book tells a tale of "rich American wives [who] become bored with husbands who have learned nothing more than to pay their bills," and who attempt to alleviate their ennui by decamping for Paris and the Riviera, to experience "the cynical, degenerate life of European pleasure capitals with their dangerous traps for American woman." Well, like they say: write what you know. The anonymous reviewer for the New York Times felt that the book began "on an almost painfully moralistic plane" before descending to "broad burlesque," which the critic felt was preferable: "None of [the book] can be taken seriously, but it is much easier to read when [the author] herself ceases to take it seriously." Peggy's countless affairs and multiple (and often profitable) marriages provided rich fodder for columnists, comedians and songwriters (she was referenced in songs by Rodgers & Hart and Cole Porter) for well over a decade until her celebrity began to fade in the mid-1930s. The year this book was published, in fact, might represent the apex of her career, as she also appeared (as herself) in the Paramount film INTERNATIONAL HOUSE, the last of her handful of movie appearances, serving primarily as the butt of some of the film's wisecracks, delivered by W.C. Fields and others.

Product Info

Publisher: The Macaulay Company

Year: (c.1933)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

ReadInk

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Country: United States