Summary
Summary of Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers
Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 10 min4 h 55 min fast, 7 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 88,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1882by F. Anstey
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Paul mistakes distance for wisdom
Paul Bultitude sits comfortably by the fire while his son Dick waits in the cold hall before returning to school. Paul is not saddened by the parting. He dislikes the noise and questions a boy brings into his house, and he is ready with criticism of Dick's report and complaints about pocket money.
He calls school days the happiest days of life without asking what Dick's days are actually like. The comedy begins with this gap between a father's confidence and his understanding.
Key idea 2
A careless wish becomes real
Dick asks to take a small grey stone to school as a talisman, but Paul refuses.
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Key idea 3
Dick claims his father's freedom
Paul tries to undo the change with more wishes, but nothing happens.
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Key idea 4
School exposes Paul's comfortable assumptions
Inside the school he has defended, Paul faces icy washing water, an unpleasant schoolroom and meals his adult tastes reject.
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Key idea 5
Past decisions block the escape
Paul's attempts to get home keep failing.
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Key idea 6
Dick returns with borrowed authority
Dick arrives at school looking like a rumpled version of his father and says he enjoys being rich.
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Key idea 7
Each role reveals its hidden costs
Beneath the farce is a failure of understanding: Paul has never really tried to see Dick's life.
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Key idea 8
The storyteller makes misfortune comic
Anstey's narrator acts as a witty guide, stepping aside to address the reader, apologise for a digression or compare Paul with a famous figure.
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Key idea 9
Paul is trapped by himself
Paul's adult knowledge cannot help him when everyone sees only a schoolboy.
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Who it’s for
This is for readers who love farce with a heart, schoolboy humour, wish-gone-wrong stories and narrators who wink at the audience. Anyone who enjoys gentle satire of parents and teachers will laugh here.
What this book is
What would happen if a stern father got exactly what he said he wanted, and became a schoolboy again? F. Anstey asks that question in Vice Versa, and answers it with one of the funniest first weeks of term in English fiction.
You meet Paul Bultitude, a pompous merchant of Mincing Lane, on the evening his son Dick must go back to boarding school. Anstey published this comedy in 1882, when he was a young writer. It is a farce built on a magic stone from India, and also a sharp portrait of Victorian schools and parents. You will follow Paul from his dining room to a cab, a train and a dormitory of young tormentors.
In this summary
- 1Paul mistakes distance for wisdomFree
- 2A careless wish becomes real
- 3Dick claims his father's freedom
- 4School exposes Paul's comfortable assumptions
- 5Past decisions block the escape
- 6Dick returns with borrowed authority
- 7Each role reveals its hidden costs
- 8The storyteller makes misfortune comic
- 9Paul is trapped by himself
A father who cannot understand his own son
The story opens in the dining room at Westbourne Terrace, where Paul Bultitude sits with claret and a good fire. He should be content. Instead he starts at every footstep, because his son Dick is about to say farewell before returning to school.
Paul is portly, bald and sure of his own importance. His certainty comes less from a strong will than from never having been opposed. He does not dread the parting out of love. He dislikes having a boy in the house, with the noise and the questions.
Dick waits in the cold hall, knowing his father will be glad to see him go. Paul lectures him on a bad school report, grudges him pocket money and quotes stale sayings about the happiest days of life. He thinks they are wisdom. People who advise the young have often forgotten being young. The comedy begins in a father's failure to see his child.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What causes Paul to become a boy again?
Right. “When Dick doubts it, Paul grows proud and says he only wishes he could be a boy again.”Not quite. “When Dick doubts it, Paul grows proud and says he only wishes he could be a boy again.”
Why does Paul lose the money he needs to escape?
Right. “Mr. Blinkhorn rules that the debts must be paid, and the boys share out his last five shillings.”Not quite. “Mr. Blinkhorn rules that the debts must be paid, and the boys share out his last five shillings.”
What does becoming a boy teach Paul about Dick's life?
Right. “By becoming his son, he learns that being a boy means fear, hunger, small humiliations and rules you cannot argue with.”Not quite. “By becoming his son, he learns that being a boy means fear, hunger, small humiliations and rules you cannot argue with.”
Go deeper: the whole of Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers
About 6 h 20 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 88,300 words
- Reading timeAbout 6 h 10 min
Questions about Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers
What is Vice Versa about?
A merchant, Paul Bultitude, wishes aloud that he were a boy again while holding a magic stone. His son Dick uses the stone to swap their bodies, and Paul is sent to the boy's boarding school in his place.
Who wrote Vice Versa and when?
F. Anstey, the pen name of Thomas Anstey Guthrie, wrote it. It was published in 1882 and was his first success. The story is set in January 1881 and follows one week at a boys' school.
What is the Garuda Stone?
It is a small grey-green stone with faint marks, brought from India by Uncle Marmaduke. It is a talisman that carries out a wish made while holding it, and each wish is taken exactly at its word.
Is Vice Versa a true story?
No, it is a comic fantasy. The magic is invented, but the school life, with chevy, dancing classes, weekly letters and strict masters, draws on the real boarding schools of Victorian England.
Is Vice Versa easy to read?
Yes in the sense that it is lively and clear. Chapters are short, the plot moves from scene to scene, and the dialogue is quick and funny. The narrator speaks to the reader with warm humour.
Cite this edition
Anstey, F. Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/vice-versa-or-a-lesson-to-fathers.
Anstey, F. (2026). Vice versa; or, a lesson to fathers. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vice-versa-or-a-lesson-to-fathers (Original work published 1882)
Anstey, F. Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vice-versa-or-a-lesson-to-fathers.
@book{anstey2026vice,
author = {Anstey, F.},
title = {Vice Versa; Or, a Lesson to Fathers},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/vice-versa-or-a-lesson-to-fathers},
note = {First published 1882}
}
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