Story summary
Samenvatting van Bambi
- 8 min. leestijd
- 7 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A nineteen-year-old picks a penniless playwright for a husband and marries him while he is lost in his third act.
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Bambi in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 4 h 25 min3 h 30 min fast, 5 h 15 min slow
- Lengte
- 63.200 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1914by Marjorie Benton Cooke
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Bambi in short
Bambi tells of a girl who marries a penniless playwright because she believes in him, and who builds a career of her own while pretending to be only his helper. Jarvis must learn that art needs craft and that truth means seeing real people. Bambi must learn that managing someone is not the same as loving him.
What Bambi is about
What would you do if the man you wanted had no money, no sense of time and no idea that you were alive? Nineteen-year-old Francesca Parkhurst, known as Bambi, picks him out over breakfast, finds a minister, and marries him as soon as he finishes the scene he is writing. The man is Jarvis Jocelyn, a handsome young dreamer whose plays no one has produced.
Bambi is a comic novel by Marjorie Benton Cooke, who died in 1919. It moves between a quiet college town and the New York theatre world of the early 1910s, in quick, sparkling dialogue with a joke on every line. You get a clever heroine, a stubborn playwright, an absent-minded father and a cook with opinions. You also see how work, pride and love tangle together in two people who both want to matter.
Voor wie is het?. You will love this book if you enjoy witty banter, spirited heroines and comedies of mistaken feelings. It suits readers curious about the theatre and publishing worlds of the 1910s, and anyone who likes a love story built on teamwork and laughter.
The story in 7 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Bambi decides to marry a penniless genius
The story opens with Bambi accusing her father, Professor James Parkhurst, of being a colossal failure as an educator. He raised her to be happy, she says, but happiness is expensive and pays nothing. She wants to study success and how to get it.
Then she names her plan. She has chosen Jarvis Jocelyn, a handsome dreamer who writes plays nobody has seen. He cannot or will not earn money, and she argues that he will starve unless someone takes charge of him. She admits she is not in love, only fond and interested. He hardly knows she exists.
The Professor is a mathematician who counts his steps and once left for class in his pajamas. Bambi has looked after him since she was five, so she is used to impractical men.
Jarvis arrives after a night in the summerhouse, thrown out by his landlady. He eats like a starving man and barely looks at the girl who cooks his eggs. Then she proposes. He refuses at once, until she offers one of her father's blank notebooks. He grabs it and agrees to anything.
While Jarvis works, Bambi redeems his clothes and books the Reverend Dr. Short. Jarvis mumbles the responses without waking from his trance and sits down to write the moment it ends. Bambi laughs until she cries.
A bold plan made out of belief can be a kind of love.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
A treaty, a quarrel and a play read aloud
Two days later Jarvis comes down shaved and sane and learns what happened.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A secret prize turns into a trip
Over the following weeks Bambi becomes Jarvis's daily war council.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
New York shows both of them their limits
That night they see Damaged Goods, a stark play about a social disease.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
Bambi storms the offices Jarvis cannot enter
So she takes over the selling.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
Jarvis meets the city and its people alone
Jarvis walks the night streets and sees the sleepers on park benches.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
Letters pass between a husband and a wife
Frohman wants to turn Francesca into a play.
Read all 7 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Bambi (Francesca Parkhurst) A bright, bold nineteen-year-old who marries a dreamer on impulse, then schemes to make him succeed while building her own writing career in secret.
- Jarvis Jocelyn A handsome, proud young playwright who cares only for his art and must learn from failure what the world and a wife can teach him.
- Professor James Parkhurst Bambi's absent-minded mathematician father, who counts his steps and forgets his hat, and who grows fond of his argumentative son-in-law.
- Ardelia The Parkhursts' loyal cook, who has opinions on everything, remembers little she is told, and follows the family's fortunes with pride.
- Richard Strong A kind New York magazine editor who publishes Bambi's stories, becomes her close friend and cares for her more than he admits.
- Charles Frohman A shrewd and humorous Broadway manager who scolds Jarvis for his preaching and enjoys the secret plan Bambi lays before him.
How it ends (spoiler)
On opening night the play succeeds, and Bambi steps on stage and tells the audience she wrote the book. Jarvis is stunned and vanishes into the night, hurt that she tricked him. After a bleak week, Richard Strong tells him Bambi is unhappy. Jarvis rushes home, and the two confess everything and fall into each other's arms. The Professor and Ardelia find them happily reunited.
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Vragen over Bambi
What is Bambi by Marjorie Benton Cooke about?
It follows Bambi Parkhurst, who marries a penniless playwright named Jarvis Jocelyn, then builds a writing career of her own in secret. The story moves between a college town and the New York theatre world.
Who is Francesca in Bambi?
Francesca is Bambi's given name; family and friends call her Bambina, or Bambi for short. It is also the title of the novel she writes about her own family, which becomes a stage play.
Is Bambi a true story and when was it written?
No, it is a comic novel. Cooke wrote it in the early 1910s, and its details of Broadway managers, magazines and modern art reflect that time.
Is Bambi easy to read?
Yes, it is told in short chapters with quick, funny dialogue and clear scenes. The letters between the characters add variety and keep the story moving.
What is the main message of Bambi?
The book suggests that talent needs craft and honesty, and that partners grow by learning each other's gifts. It also shows that secrets, even kind ones, can put love at risk.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Cooke, Marjorie Benton. Bambi. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/bambi.
Cooke, M. B. (2026). Bambi. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bambi (Original work published 1914)
Cooke, Marjorie Benton. Bambi. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bambi.
@book{cooke2026bambi,
author = {Cooke, Marjorie Benton},
title = {Bambi},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bambi},
note = {First published 1914}
}
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