Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Mein Freund, der Chauffeur
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who love sunny travel stories, quick comic dialogue and old-fashioned romance, and anyone who likes to see Italy, Venice and the Adriatic coast through the windscreen of an early motorcar.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
My Friend the Chauffeur is a comic road romance by the husband and wife team C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson. It was written when a motorcar on a mountain pass was still a daring thing to own, and it sends one small gray Panhard from the French Riviera across northern Italy toward the Dalmatian coast.
The tale is told in turns by five people who each see the same trip a little differently. Ralph Moray, a young Scottish newspaper editor, begins it. Then comes Beechy Kidder, a sharp thirteen-year-old with a secret. Her mother, a widow from Denver who has bought a title, takes up the story next. Maida Destrey, a girl bound for a convent, and finally Terence Barrymore, the driver himself, complete the round.
You get mountain roads, broken gearboxes, midnight monasteries, Italian lakes, Venice by gondola and a very persistent Austrian prince. You also get a quiet question that runs beneath the laughter, which is whether a beautiful girl should give up the world before she has seen it. The adventure starts with a small pink advertisement in a Riviera newspaper, and with a friend who would like to help another friend whether he wants it or not.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1An advertisement fills a garden with callersFree
- 2Terms are hard to pin down over lunch
- 3A bet over luggage and a rival car
- 4Mountain roads, a towed prince and a faithful dog
- 5Beechy explains her life and starts playing dolls
- 6Over the pass, through Cuneo and on to Milan
- 7Lake Como and a birthday on the water
- 8Maida sees Verona, Venice and the edge of Dalmatia
- 9What the trip is really about and how it is told
Punkt 1 von 9
An advertisement fills a garden with callers
Ralph Moray edits a small Riviera newspaper called The Riviera Sun, and he is worried about his best friend, Lord Terence Barrymore, known as Terry. Terry is the younger brother of a stingy marquis. He has lost his money on a bad investment and at the Monte Carlo tables, and he means to sell his beloved Panhard car and go off to farm in Africa.
Ralph has a plan. He has placed an advertisement in his own paper in which an English titled amateur motorist offers to take American ladies to picturesque corners of Europe for five guineas a day each. He leaves the paper where Terry will pick it up, in the garden of his villa, the Châlet des Pins at Cap Martin. Terry reads it aloud, laughs at the foolish advertiser, and then reaches the address at the bottom. His language is not fit for the weather.
Before the quarrel ends, a wave of chiffon sweeps in at the gate. Mrs. Kathryn Stanley Kidder of Denver is plump, powdered and auburn, with a curl on her forehead. She brings her thirteen-year-old daughter Beechy, who has long brown braids and an imp in each eye, and her niece Maida Destrey, a tall girl in white muslin who looks sulky and angelic at once. Terry gets his revenge on his friend by saying the car and the title belong to Ralph, and that he himself is only Mr. Barrymore. Mrs. Kidder promptly takes him for the chauffeur.
Ralph's cook, Félicité, is a fat, foul-mouthed, golden-hearted woman from Provence, and she saves the afternoon. At ten minutes notice she produces tea, whipped cream, lettuce sandwiches and strawberries in a house that has none of them. Meanwhile more callers arrive for the same offer, including a family of English ladies with a great many teeth and an American lady lawyer from Hoboken.
Ralph announces that the car is already engaged, and Terry, glancing at the silent Maida, says yes. Ralph has Félicité lock the gate, pleased with his scheme. He guesses that Maida is a poor relation, too pretty to be an heiress, and he resolves to keep Terry from falling in love with her.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Questions about Mein Freund, der Chauffeur
What is My Friend the Chauffeur about?
It follows an English editor's scheme to help his penniless friend Terry, who drives three American ladies in his own car from the French Riviera across Italy toward Dalmatia, with a persistent Austrian prince always close behind.
Who tells the story?
Five people take turns: Ralph Moray, then young Beechy Kidder, then her mother the Countess, then Maida Destrey, and finally Terence Barrymore. Each voice has its own humour and sees the same trip from a different side.
Why is Terry called the Chauffeulier?
It is Beechy's private name for him. She builds it from chauffeur and a title, because she wants him to have something grander than his job while she admires his looks, his driving and his kindness.
When is the story set and is it a true story?
It is a work of fiction set in the early days of motoring, when roads were rough and few people owned cars. The places, such as Venice, Verona and Ragusa, are real, and the travel detail is vivid.
Is the book easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that it has quick chatter, short scenes, lively voices and plenty of jokes. Each of the five narrators speaks plainly, and the road moves the story along from one lovely place to the next.