Nymph errant

This being a novel by one James Laver, a sort of porn-lite portrait of the fast life of the late 1920's. Laver was a civil servant, that is to say a keeper of something at the Victoria & Albert Museum and he also wrote a few books and was very fond of the theatre. I have owned a book by him on staging and décor in the theatre through the (mainly European) ages, reference 2, for quite a few years now, but have only recently got around to reading it. Very good it is too, good enough for me to branch out to the present book, reference 1. A book which was a bestseller in its day and which very quickly graduated to being a musical put together by Cole Porter with Gertrude Lawrence in the lead – both of whom, it seems, being big names of the time. A musical which had a respectable run and which has been revived from time to time more recently. See, for example, reference 7.

The story is that of a young girl who leaves her finishing school in Switzerland and spends a year visiting the flesh pots, ending up in a harem in Turkey from where she is rescued in an improbable way by an improbable young man on a study scholarship from the US. Much undressing and nudity, but none of the panting and little of the sweating that one would expect if the story had been written thirty or forty years later than it was. A light hearted portrait of the times, very much of the same time and milieu as some of Aldous Huxley’s novels.

My copy, a first (and probably only) edition of 1932 from Heineman. Inscribed ‘21/X/44 g’ in very small, neat blue ink inside the back cover. A very small book plate for C. S. Almond of Rathmines, Dublin. With ‘9/12/39’ in very small, neat blue ink. With ‘605/1’ in two places. Originally sold by Greene & Co. of Clare Street, Dublin, an establishment celebrated at reference 6. All very reasonable, as I bought the book from an Irish bookseller.

A chap called Hawes Craven, a famous theatrical scene painter, pops up in the middle of the book, for whom see reference 3. The first hint of Laver’s day job, as it were. A bit more specialist knowledge aired when we go back stage in Paris, towards the end of the book.

A few references to Jews, typical enough in books of the time. Even so, they made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Some condescending talk of the plodding, if thorough, ways of Germans, in this case of a professor at a nudist camp. Which all seemed a bit insouciant, a bit naive, given that Hitler was just coming, or had just come into power at the time that this book was written.

The hearty nudist camp is said to be at a place called Himmelheim, literally 'heavenly home', or something like that. I believe Germans were and have remained quite keen on this sort of thing. Tolerated as a safety valve by the post-war regime in East Germany. That said, Himmelheim does not seem to actually exist as a place, although it does seem to be some sort of Nordic/Germanic fantasy game, and the nearest place I could find being Hillesheim – which does, however, sport a outdoor recreational area called Bolsdorfer Tälchen, which sort of fits. Including, for example, a barefoot path.

More condescending talk of orientals, in particular of Turks. With some of the Turkish scenes being set in Smyrna at the time of the great fire there, actually ten years before the book was written. See reference 5.

Some reasonably intimate knowledge of Oxford exhibited at the very end of the book.

An entertaining read, and not just for the light that it throws on the author, clearly rather more than a tweedy keeper of drawings at a museum. We shall see what BH makes of it, if anything.

References

Reference 1: Nymph Errant – J. Laver – 1932. A first (and probably only) edition from Heineman,

Reference 2: Drama: its Costume and Décor – James Laver – 1951.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawes_Craven. ‘He was regarded as the finest scene-painter of his day and was the last major scenic designer in the ultra-realistic tradition’.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Laver. Just old enough to be in the first war. ‘In 1932 he published a novel, Nymph Errant, about a girl returning to her finishing school, who went astray along the way and ended up in a Turkish harem. It was an instant best-seller and in 1933, Charles B. Cochran turned it into a musical, Nymph Errant, featuring songs by Cole Porter and Gertrude Lawrence as the leading lady. Laver felt as if he was leading a double life…’.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyrna. There was indeed a terrible fire in the Armenian quarter, in September, 1922.

Reference 6: https://www.howbertandmays.ie/howbert%20mays%20greene%27s%20bookshop%20dublin. The garden centre who have now taken the shop that was Greene’s have done a good job on writing up the former occupant.

Reference 7: http://guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_n/nympherrant.htm. The musical.