JEROME KLAPKA JEROME (1859-1929)

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JEROME KLAPKA JEROME (1859-1929)
Autograph manuscript on lined paper of the first chapter of Tea Table Talk, n.p., n.d. [1903], 18½pp, 4°, numerous autograph emendations and additions, annotated in another hand with author's name below title. A humorous essay on the subject of fashion. 'The Girton Girl', 'The Old Maid', 'The Woman of the World', 'The Minor Poet', 'The Philosopher' and 'I' discuss mankind's susceptibility to modishness in a characteristically Jeromian vein of ironised philosophising. The Poet defends the decline of popular taste: 'The Music Hall...is improving. I consider it the duty of every intellectual man to visit such places. The mere influence of his presence helps to elevate the tone of the performances. I often go myself'. The Minor Poet recounts an all-too fashionable story he once wrote, the sad tale of an Alpine maiden and her lover, '"The girl was mountain born and bred, sure-footed as a goat, and no one dreamed of harm." "She went over of course"', said the Philosopher; '"those sure-footed girls always do"'. The Woman of the World tells of an exasperatingly contrary friend: '"Is she married?"' asked the Philosopher. "Oh yes," answered the Woman of the World; "and is devoted to her children. She lets them do every thing they don't want to."' (pin holes to upper left corner, short tear to upper margin of first 15 leaves, not touching text, first leaf slightly browned, with small loss to lower left corner).
Together with a corrected typscript of the same, approximately 48 autograph emendations, 16 leaves, 4°.
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Lot Essay

Tea Table Talk is 'a book of semi-idle philosophy, a pleasant afternoon's chat about the vagaries of the human animal' (Joseph Connolly, Jerome K. Jerome, A Critical Biography, 1982). A return to the vein which had brought him fame with Three Men in a Boat, it followed immediately on from a long autobiographical novel Paul Kelver, which had gained Jerome earnestly-desired critical recognition.

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