Dress Down Sunday: ‘One’s corsetiere arranges that’

LOOKING AT WHAT GOES ON UNDER THE CLOTHES

Anna The Adventuress by E Phillips Oppenheim

published 1904

[A male character suddenly realizes there has been an impersonation… ]

It came upon him like a flash. Innumerable little puzzles were instantly solved. He could only wonder that this amazing thing had remained so long a secret to him. He remembered little whispered speeches of hers, so like the Annabel of Paris, so unlike the woman he loved, a hundred little things should have told him long ago. Nevertheless it was overwhelming.

"But your hair," he gasped.

"Dyed!"

"And your figure?"

"One's corsetière arranges that. My friend, I am only grieved that you of all others should have been so deceived. I have seen you with Anna, and I have not known whether to be glad or sorry. I have been in torment all the while to know whether it was to Anna or to Annabel that you were making love so charmingly. Nigel, do you know that I have been very jealous?" He avoided the invitation of her eyes. He was indeed still in the throes of his bewilderment.

commentary: I have only read one other book by EPO, and that one is called The Great Impersonation. This one is about impersonation in a completely different context - Oppenheim wrote huge numbers of books, but now I am wondering if they are ALL about impostors? Not that I would mind – I do love any book with this plot trope: Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar, Tana French’s The Likeness, Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree.

There was a film (now sadly lost) made of this book in 1920 – a British silent – and the plot resume reads like this:

‘Twin sisters Anna and Annabel are as different as can be. Anna is a withdrawn art student, while Annabel is a dancer who is the toast of Paris.’

There is a dramatic incident involving the naughty sister, and after meeting a man she likes the look of, she thinks it would be safer to take over her sister’s name and good reputation. This is what happens:

She threw such a look upon him that even he, Sir John Ferringhall, carpet-merchant, hide-bound Englishman, slow-witted, pompous, deliberate, felt his heart beat to music. Perhaps the Parisian atmosphere had affected him. He leaned towards her, laid his hand tenderly upon hers.

(Paris is the place for this kind of thing – Linda in Nancy Mitford’s Pursuit of Love also meets the love of her life while sitting around in the city not knowing what to do next.)

This leaves quiet artistic Anna to take on the persona of the wild adventuress.

You can probably predict many of the situations and plot turns she will find herself in: it is all tremendous fun, though deeply judgemental. You are never in doubt as to who is the bad sister, and there is not really much element of them learning from each other.

But there are some very interesting ideas. The ‘good’ sister is fiercely independent, and has this to say on marriage:

I have not discovered how to earn money. I am determined to fight my own little battle with the world--there must be a place for me somewhere, and I mean to find it. Afterwards, it may be different. If I were to marry you now I should feel a dependent being all my life--a sort of parasitical creature without blood or muscle. I should lose every scrap of independence--even my self-respect. However good you were to me, and however happy I was in other ways, I should find this intolerable.

-surely surprising views for 1904.

But at the same time there is this:

“I do not believe that there has ever lived a really great actress whose moral character from the ordinary point of view would bear inspection."

And

It is one of God's laws that a woman may defend her honour, even with the shedding of blood.

His views seem to be a strange mixture of Saki and Elinor Glyn. There is even a touch of Ouida (blog verdict: ‘I have a very high threshold for tosh of a certain kind…But Under Two Flags is just TERRIBLE.’ But I had good fun writing about it). All that said, Anna the Adventuress does make for a splendid easy read, with some great scenes.

There is an excellent connection with one of my favourite books by one of my favourite authors: Agatha Christie’s Man in a Brown Suit – I am keeping that for another post this week.

I'd like to thank Barb over at Leaves and Pages who first put me on to the book. 

The demonstration of corsets and dresses is from the NYPL and dates from 1910.

A poster for the naughty sister’s music hall career features in the book:

….the wonderful poster which had helped to make "Alcide" famous. He had looked at it before without comprehension. To-night the subtle suggestiveness of those few daring lines, fascinating in their very simplicity, the head thrown back, the half-closed eyes--the inner meaning of the great artist seemed to come to him with a rush.

I was looking for a suitable poster image, but came across this amazing photo, also from the NYPL, of performers Eltinge and Vernon. (I talked about the NYPL’s collection in last week’s Dress Down entry.)

Although this one doesn’t at all fit the description in the book, I was determined to use the picture. And I suggest you look up Eltinge and Vernon: Julian Eltinge was ‘the King of Drag Queens’. The picture is of adagio dancing, also worth checking out on Google.