Five Nights is a 1933 comedic novel by Eric Hatch, who went on to write My Man Godfrey in 1936 (based on his short novel 1101 Park Avenue), and the screenplay for Topper in 1937. This was originally titled Five Days, but when you republish as Nights instead of Days, and add a svelte nightgowned beauty on the cover, suddenly we are cooking.
At 28, gloomy Beadleston Preece sat on the flagged terrace of his Long Island home, contemplating the night, a soft night of gentle hushed sounds and moonlight, a night for lovers and gardens, and one particular lady probably dressed as a bride. Instead, he watches grubby workmen carry his possessions out to the auctioneer. His friend Milton Sands convinced him to invest and he has lost everything in the stock market. Even his fiancee Madelaine has dropped him. Now penniless with no possessions and nothing to live for, he is about to go inside and hang himself when behind him appears Swazey, a burglar holding a gun. When Preece tells him there is nothing to steal, Swazey commiserates and convinces him to at least steal something of Miltons, like his 50 foot yacht Electra. Mahogany-paneled and stocked with champagne, they set off down the river, destination unknown.
Mary Winlock is a girl in distress. Indescribably dirty in a ratty nightgown, she needs a rescue from her scow. In Milton's yachting outfit, she cleans up nicely, and joins their escapade. They meet up with the sailing set, hobnobbing at the annual Harvard Yale boat races. Preece's friends come aboard, including Madelaine. Now that he has a yacht and a pretty girl, she is interested again, and Preece is happy to oblige the ruse to teach her a lesson. Everyone finds their adventure a jolly joke - in fact, they always thought Preece a prig and he seems much more fun now! Harris Payton is another friend, who has married for money and now feels trapped, so he escapes with them for freedom and mischief.
Next stop: the summer homes of Newport, where they find Preece's childhood friend Carlotta, who openly disliked him. A debutante heiress fed up with having to pretend to be a lady, she too thinks it's a grand lark and runs off to join their circus, stealing clothes and crashing a society party, where the hosts are too polite to ask if they were invited!
This rolls from one hijink to the next, with the freedom of living life openly, and the discovery of what may happen when you give up the rules. You may even find you didn't lose your fortune after all!
I had no expectations starting this, but it was charming. It must have been expecially nice for the average reader in 1933 to hear that the idle rich are actually miserable! pining for the freedom regular people have. Eric Hatch was the son of a successful Wall Street brokerage founder, so he knows the society of which he speaks. The tagline It Happened on a Yacht is reminiscent of the film It Happened One Night, as this is another enjoyable journey. How this didn't get filmed with Paulette Goddard and Joel McRae or Robert Preston, I have no idea. Very happy to have discovered this, for me it's a keeper.
1933 / Paperback / 182 pages
Comentários