Résumé
Résumé de Les joyeux contrebandiers
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who enjoy family farce, quick banter and arguments that grow out of everyday rules will find plenty here. It suits anyone who likes a comedy of marriage, money and young love told with a smile.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What if you taxed your own house to pay for your baby's college? Tom and Laura Fenelby, a young suburban couple in Ellis Parker Butler's comic novel The Cheerful Smugglers, do exactly that. Their rules are absurd, and Tom takes them seriously. Two houseguests, a fierce and clever maid and a set of laws nobody can agree on turn the home into a small nation. Behind the jokes sits a real question. Why do people who agree to a rule work so hard to get around it?
Dans ce résumé
- 1A Household Tariff Is BornFree
- 2Kitty Leaves Her Trunks Outside
- 3Billy Argues Like a Lawyer
- 4Bridget Bargains and Billy Plays Detective
- 5Everyone Smuggles and Congress Fails
- 6Rules, Love and Who Rules the House
Point clé 1 sur 6
A Household Tariff Is Born
Tom Fenelby and his wife Laura have saved pennies for their baby, Bobberts, for nine months. The pottery bank holds only twenty-three dollars and thirty-eight cents. Tom decides that pennies will never carry a boy through Yale.
His answer is the Fenelby tariff. Like a nation, the house will charge a duty on everything brought in. Necessities pay ten percent and luxuries thirty, and the money goes to the education fund. Tom names his home the Commonwealth of Bobberts, with a family congress in the parlor.
The first tests come fast. Tom buys cigars, and Laura reminds him he swore he could quit whenever he liked, so they are a luxury. Already the law has more holes than rules.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Les joyeux contrebandiers
What is The Cheerful Smugglers about?
It is a comic novel about Tom and Laura Fenelby, who put a household tariff on everything brought into their home to fund their baby's college. When two guests arrive, the family argues, schemes and smuggles to avoid their own law.
What is the Fenelby tariff in the book?
It is a family tax invented by Tom. Everything brought into the house pays a duty into the baby's bank, ten percent for necessities and thirty percent for luxuries. A family congress meets to change the rules and vote.
Who are Kitty and Billy?
Kitty is Laura's lively cousin, and Billy is Tom's brother, a young lawyer and former football player. They come to visit at the same time, follow the tariff in their own ways, and spar with each other all the way through.
Is The Cheerful Smugglers a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by American humorist Ellis Parker Butler, who died in 1937. It is a comic story drawn from everyday household life and from the way people talk about taxes, tariffs and money.
Is The Cheerful Smugglers easy to read?
The chapters are short, the dialogue is quick, and the story moves through funny arguments and scenes. The narrator speaks warmly and plainly, so the book reads like a lively evening of conversation.