Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Cornelia Otis Skinner, an American actress, writer and screenwriter co-wrote Our Hearts were Young and Gay with her good friend Emily Kimbrough, a memoir about their travels in Europe in the 1920’s. It is difficult to see where Kimbrough’s collaboration is exactly as the book is written in Skinner’s first person narrative. None of that seems important however as the book is full of charm and humour, and both women come across quite hilariously full of adorably lovable quirks and eccentricities.

2015-07-13_21.14.41Having finished college Cornelia and Emily embark on a European tour which they have planned for some time. There is much excitement, at their first independent adventure and not a little horror over the peculiar safety show more pocket both girls had been made to wear beneath their clothes by anxious parents. They set sail for England on board the Montcalm, their relatively cheap ticket meaning their cabin is well below decks. Barely do the two get themselves settled than they are uprooted again. The ship becomes stuck, run aground and starting to tip, thankfully still just in sight of shore. When the ship is finally freed they limp on to Canada where the girls spend a week with an Aunt of Cornelia’s before finally setting off once more on another ship. Aboard the Empress of France Cornelia and Emily can finally enter in to life aboard an Atlantic going vessel. Their often hapless shipboard life is recounted with the sort of gentle humour which is reminiscent of E M Delafield’s A Provincial Lady. There is deck tennis to be negotiated, and blushed over, a concert to take part in, and ‘nice women’ to try and befriend. Then Cornelia falls victim to measles. Waiting to meet the girls in London are Cornelia’s parents, who with Emily’s help must smuggle poor Cornelia – who has plastered herself with makeup to hide the beginnings of a rash – past the health inspector.

In London the two friends’ new found independence is somewhat diluted by the comforting presence of Cornelia’s parents nearby, who provide them with a good meal or two. In England the two American young ladies are introduced to all manner of new experiences including English rain, Hampton Court, encounter H G Wells, a potentially exploding hot water geyser and particularly inexplicable to Emily – British currency. 2015-07-13_21.13.00

“It was in vain that I tried to show her the difference between a half-crown and two shilling piece. She refused to admit they were anything but two versions of fifty cents and persisted in being so stubbornly obtuse about it I finally told her if she’d just bring herself to read what was written on them she’d know. This didn’t work out so well either, because she’d keep taxi drivers waiting interminably while she’d scan the reading matter of each coin, turning it round and round, sometimes breathing on it and rubbing it clear. When I suggested that people might think her awfully queer she said not at all, they’d merely mistake her for a coin collector. I tried explaining to her that “one florin” meant two shillings but that made her madder. The day we received a bill made out in guineas, and I told her there was no such thing as a guinea, it was a pound and one shilling, only the swanker shops charged you guineas, and you paid in pounds and shillings, but you called it guineas although, as I had said, there really was no such thing, she slapped me”

Leaving Cornelia’s parents in England, the two friends continue their travels to France. In Normandy they stay in a small French pension and in Rouen a house of ill-repute which the two innocents mistake for a guest house – much to the bemusement of the inhabitants.

“Some of the doors were open, and we caught glimpses of the other guests who seemed quite surprised to see us and we were indeed surprised to see them. They all appeared to be young women in very striking evening dresses. This was certainly unusual, but we concluded they must all be waiting to go out to a dinner party. It never once occurred to us that we weren’t exactly in keeping with the ton of the place, I, in mu Buster Brown panama and Emily in her pepper and salt tweeds.
Madame led us up several flights of stairs and allotted us a modest room quite removed from the more elaborate ones below. She explained we’d be tranquille there. Then in a faint, far-away voice, she asked how we’d happened to come to her place.”

After Normandy the girls finally get to Paris, they see the Eiffel Tower, encounter bed- bugs, visit the Ritz bar and catch up again with Cornelia’s parents who have now arrived in Paris too. Cornelia even manages to take a few acting lessons with an acting hero. Soon it is time to leave, the adventure at an end. While Emily heads off with friends on a motor trip, Cornelia heads home to the states.

This hugely entertaining memoir with its hilarious illustrations is deliciously infectious and has quite definitely whetted my appetite for the two essay collections Nuts in May and Popcorn that I have waiting. show less

This book is the tale of two girls aged 19, who decide to travel from Montreal to London to Paris together during the 1920’s. They are both incredible naïve about traveling abroad and the world in general, but that is perhaps what makes this book so hilarious. Their entertaining adventures range from getting measles on board their ship and having to be smuggled into England, getting lost in a maze at Hampton Court, and spending the night at a brothel. This book was given to me by my grandmother a few years ago and ever since then I have been inspired to travel to all these places and experience these adventures for myself. This book transports you back into a time period that no longer exists and it’s always a delight to imagine show more life with these girls because they are incredibly carefree and amusing. show less

Written in 1942, this is a charming recollection of two American college girls going to England and France in the early 1920s. Though insisting on their independence and feeling very adventurous, they are in fact rather innocent girls who frequently fall back on family assistence, the family having very wisely decided to tour Europe at the same time. Europe after the first World War was still an old world place that made me quite nostalgic.

It's a truly hilarious recollection of this memorable trip. Otis Skinner is poking fun at her youthful self who tried to be sophisticated and world-wise but doesn't even know about LIFE and has to be enlightend by medieval artefacts in the Musée Cluny (I would like to see these, actually). But no show more shipwreck, attack of measles or misunderstanding a brothel for a hostel can deter them from having great fun - and the whole book is breathing that sense of enjoying life we only have when very young adults. I sat several times laughing so hard that tears rolled down my face.

A highly entertaining read for a rainy afternoon, intended for everyone who needs an uplift. Highly recommended! show less

Utterly charming. As a child in a small town, when I discovered Skinner, Kimbrough, Thurber, and Robert Benchley, I was thrilled to have a chance to read 'grown-up' books. I didn't understand every reference then, and I still don't. Also, now I see a tiny bit of unconscious racism & classism. But this is still absolutely delightful, capturing a moment in time with such energy & humor that a reader feels as if she's on the trip with the two adventuresses. I do recommend you start with either this or [b:Water, Water, Everywhere|6597177|Water, Water, Everywhere|Emily Kimbrough|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1308288712s/6597177.jpg|6790949] if you've never read any of these old travel memoirs.

This book ain't just Jake, it's the berries!

I listened to the audiobook as part of the Popsugar Reading Prompt: A book set in the 1920s. It's freakin' hilarious! Two sweetly naive young ladies take a trip through europe and shenanigans ensue! It kind of reminds me of what it would be like if amelia bedelia went to europe!

The reviews that say it's "laugh out loud" funny are spot on. Celeste Lawson is the narrator and she is remarkable. For the first time ever, I clicked on a narrator's name to see what else they narrated!

When I was in middle school, I picked up a paperback copy of this classic travel memoir from a RIF book giveaway. I giggled my way through the shipboard calamities, miscommunications due to language differences in England and France, and various other misadventures. Skinner and Kimbrough provide evidence that the Hampton Court maze was still testing friendships a generation or more after Harris and his cousin spent the good part of an afternoon in it (as told in Three Men in a Boat)! The middle-aged coauthors were able to look back at their young adult selves with good-natured humor. The audio version read by Celeste Lawson added new delight to the experience this time around. A hardcover edition has a permanent spot in my library, and show more I know I'll revisit this one again. show less

Most recent review--

I stand by my first review. This is hilarious... the sort of book Mark Twain would write if he had lived in the crazy roaring twenties in Europe when he was a teenager. Lots of laugh-out-loud moments, told from a jaded point of view that accurately captures the naivety of young girls.

1st review--What do you get when two inexperienced friends head to Europe for a summer abroad? You get a book somewhat in the vein of My Sister Eileen only with situations more reminiscent of Twain's Innocents Abroad. Quite charming without being cloying.