Introduction to Sally

by Elizabeth von Arnim

Sally Pinner, bellissima ragazza di umili origini e di cultura inesistente, fa innamorare di sé tutti gli uomini che le posano gli occhi addosso. Fin da piccola gli ansiosi genitori la tengono praticamente segregata nel retrobottega della loro drogheria, per evitare i guai che la sua bellezza finisce inevitabilmente per calamitare. Appena diciassettenne, Sally viene data in sposa a un giovane studioso di Cambridge, il quale organizza un precipitoso matrimonio senza però far prima i conti con i molti svantaggi che la mancanza di cultura e la completa acquiescenza di Sally presentano... Un romanzo ironico e spassoso, la cui bellissima, semplice e ingenua protagonista è ammirevole come tutte le figure femminili dei romanzi di Elizabeth von Arnim.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Humor

325 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H.G. Wells, then later married Earl Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winner and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Though known in early life as May, her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to friends and finally to family. Her writings are ascribed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She used the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley for only one novel, Christine, published in 1917.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently, in its day this was more popular than The Enchanted April; well, it's hard to beat that book in my opinion, and this one doesn't do so, but I don't think it deserves to be as obscure as it is.

Sally is beautiful, so beautiful that wherever she goes people stop and stare in wonder; for a while she works in her father's grocery shop, but people come flocking in to get a glimpse of her. The strain of looking after her is too much for him and when a student from Cambridge, a gentleman, asks to marry her, her accepts with alacrity. Problem is, Sally is a cockney and drops her h's.

On their honeymoon a crowd of people gather outside their lodgings hoping for a look at her which annoys Mr Luke, or 'usband, (Sally thinks Jocelyn is just too ridiculous). Trying to keep people away from Sally and trying to teach her to pick up those h's, use the correct cutlery, and so forth becomes too much for Jocelyn, so he decided to take her to his mother for training. She wants to please but doesn't really see what she is doing wrong, so she runs away.

Interesting that von Arnim's sympathies seem lie with Sally, the grocers daughter. I believe she struggled to fit into her life of duties when married to her first husband, the Count.

Soon to be re-published by the British Library Women Writers series.

[JimZ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Von Arnim has published 21 novels by my count and another one was published posthumously (The Ordeal of Elizabeth ). The writing spanned some 40 years (1898—1940). My ratings have gone from 1.5 to 5. I’ve read all of her oeuvre but for 3: The April Baby's Book of Tunes (1900), In the Mountains (1920), and Father (1931). A whopping 14 of her books are available on Project Gutenberg!

Most of her works are published with the author’s name simply being "by the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden" and later simply as "By Elizabeth".

Anyhoo, what of this book? I give it a ‘2’. I read the pocket-book edition which was 323 pages, small print. Dunno what the regular edition would be...maybe the same number of pages. Anyway, it was on the long side and when the theme of the book could be summed up in two to three sentences it was super-duper long. I didn’t enjoy reading most of it.

In ‘Introduction to Sally’, Sally is beautiful. Everybody who meets her wants to be around her…she is a magnet. Until she speaks and then she speaks like a commoner (example: ’Well, it ain’t much use thinkin’ we ain’t when we are’) and so her status is then diminished in many people’s eyes that she meets in this book. Apparently whenever she gets to a word that begins with ‘h’ she does not sound out that consonant but says stuff like “…If they forces me to, ‘ow, ‘ow can I ‘elp it?”

Her father marries her off to the first man who says he wants to meet her (lots of men want to do that) AND to marry her. Jocelyn Luke who meets her instantly falls in love with her because of her looks and fetching smile. And wants to marry her. Only thing that bothers him, but not enough to refrain from marrying her, is when she opens her mouth. He is insanely jealous of everybody and anybody who looks at her. She is HIS trophy wife dammit. Keep your eyes and paws off her. Locks her in a hotel room (I think that is called confinement nowadays). And then she meets his mother – his mother is possessive of her son, and then possessive of Sally, and also does not want to hear her speak.

Somehow she manages to escape from the insanity/dominance of Jocelyn Luke and his domineering mother, and ends up meeting several odd characters. Mostly men, and of them, all want to get into her pants. By this time, I was already sick of everybody in the book except Sally. I felt sorry for her.

I am used to von Arnim painting her male characters as super-patronizing to women and/or bullying women and/or domineering over women, and this was no different. I can’t tell if it was worse with this book or whether most of her male characters are wearing on me. And I think I can understand why she sticks to this theme – I think it is semi-autobiographical in nature. She married a domineering Count in her first marriage…and her second marriage was even worse. Supposedly her darkest novel, ‘Vera’, was based on her second husband, Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell and elder brother of Bertrand Russell.

The book has a happy ending for Sally. For me it was a happy ending because I didn’t have to read any more of it. 😐
Ha! (Or as Sally would say : ‘ a!’) 😆 🙃

Reviews (reviewers liked it):
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2012/10/...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/introduc...

[Georgiana 1792 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divertentissima commedia tipicamente anni '20 (mi ha fatto pensare ad alcune commedie di Noel Coward, come Easy Virtue, per alcuni versi) in cui la Sally del titolo è una ragazza bellissima ma allo stesso tempo molto ingenua e "buona", priva cioè di qualunque malizia tanto da non approfittare della propria avvenenza, dietro alla quale gli uomini si instupidiscono letteralmente, provocando una serie di fraintendimenti senza fine, o quasi. Tranne poi ricredersi quando lei apre bocca e dimostra di essere una ragazza irrimediabilmente illetterata, con un fortissimo accento cockney, che tuttavia non li dissuade dal provare ammirazione e forse anche tenerezza per la sua ingenuità.
Un testo carico d'ironia soprattutto verso il genere maschile, che strappa una serie di risate irrefrenabili.

[Sue Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excruciatingly good.

In this fast-paced narrative Bon Arnim creates characters, almost stereotypes, that carry the story to an almost satisfactory conclusion. Her talent for cutting through pretence is exercised fully here as is her sharp critical humour. A recent discovery in the works of Elizabeth and a very welcome find it is.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this a little more than I did, but it was just a hard read at times. It’s supposed to be a comic romance, a satire... but for me the satire was too heavy handed. It went to extremes, and lasted through most of the book, there was no let up.

Sally is the most beautiful girl that seemingly walked the earth, as such she has to be sheltered because she causes such a sensation. Poor Sally is humble and wishes she weren’t so pretty because she sees it just causes trouble. People want to be near her, but then they get mad and want to leave her. This is a recurring theme. Inadvertently a boy sees her and decides he must marry her. Sally’s father is tired of Sally as the spectacle of beauty and only too happy to be rid of her. It’s horrible how Sally is treated after that. Her husband and then Mother in Law are awed by the beauty but treat her like dirt because she’s not as educated nor as well groomed. They’re horrible snobs. Sally ends up running away, everyone realizes the error of their ways, she meets a fairy godfather who sets her and her husband up and they all live happily ever after.

It just wasn’t entirely my cup of tea. No one was particularly like able, even Sally, because she’s portrayed as so blindly obedient and illiterate she barely says a peep. I understood the moral aspect, but everyone was creepy that saw her. Everyone. It was a bit much after while. I did appreciate the moral dilemmas her husband faced in the beginning with wanting to be mad at her yet knowing it wasn’t her fault. I didn’t understand her father turning her away. You would think he would not be superficial as well, but he was , as was most everyone in the book.

I think I’m just more of a “little goes a long way person” and especially with satire and that’s why I just didn’t love this.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a deplorable thing, she thought, for she could still at intervals, in spite of her confusion and distress, think intelligently, that a woman couldn’t be happy, couldn’t be at peace, unless there existed somebody who wanted her, and wanted her exclusively.

An Introduction to Sally took on a whole plotline that I totally could not predict. Sally was a beautiful but empty headed woman who turned heads of all the men she came in contact with and inspired jealousy or pity from all of the women she encountered. Ultimately, the two main men in her life, came to think of Sally as a burden and as someone to be hidden away because of all of the trouble that her beauty brought to their lives.

This book was fascinating to me. Sally seemed one note and pitiable. It was Arnim's approach to the men in her life that interested me. There was the sense that Sally's only worth was as a sexual object. As soon as she opened her mouth, she betrayed her lower class roots and brought shame to her new family. Sally's husband and mother-in-law never sought her opinion on a life she wanted to live.

Strange, however, how the meek go on being meek till the very moment when they do something from which bold persons would shrink. This is what Sally did, after having progressed that week steadily towards despair.

I was so infuriated by Sally's treatment and I wanted to give Sally a push to stand up for herself. This book made me glad to live in a world where the treatment of women and the perception of their strengths have certainly improved from Von Arnim's time, even if there is still room for improvement.

[Camelia ❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 *

Una fortuita sosta in drogheria, un'accecante infatuazione, un improvviso accesso di follia: tanto basta a Jocelyn Luke, studente modello e giovanotto di belle speranze, per gettare all'aria una promettente carriera a Cambridge, e tutta una vita di sacrifici, e trovarsi irrimediabilmente catapultato in una realtà che non gli appartiene, senza più futuro davanti, ma in compenso, con accanto una giovane moglie tanto bella quanto fuori dal mondo.
La moglie in questione, Salvatia Pinner, detta Sally, è una delle più incredibili meraviglie della natura: talmente attraente ed aggraziata da essere, suo malgrado, un'autentica calamita per gli sguardi e le fantasie (non troppo innocenti) di orde di baldi giovani, e meno giovani, che al pari del malcapitato Jocelyn, non possono fare a meno di ammirarla ed innamorarsene a prima vista.
Non è facile, dunque, per un ragazzo di buona famiglia, estremamente riservato ed orgoglioso della propria rispettabilità, trovarsi tutt'a un tratto costantemente al centro dell'attenzione, sempre in fuga dalle occhiate scrutatrici di vicini e passanti, e perfino costretto, di tanto in tanto, a nascondere la bella conosorte, quasi fosse una criminale, per godere di un po'di pace.
Come se non bastasse, l'incantevole Sally, diversamente dal suo sposo, appartiene a una famiglia semplice e modesta, è totalmente digiuna di cultura e buonsenso, ed ha l'imbarazzante abitudine di parlare in modo incredibilmente sgrammaticato, tempestando la sua sgangherata conversazione, di clamorosi e ripetuti strafalcioni.
E così, quando il brillante Jocelyn, dopo una travagliata e surreale luna di miele, si sveglia dal suo incanto, lo sgomento ha il sopravvento, ed ormai impossibilitato a sottrarsi ad una trappola a cui si è condannato da sè, il giovane si precipita dalla premurosa madre, nella speranza che costei, maestra di eleganza e buone maniere, riesca nell'ardua ed improbabile impresa di trasformare la neo Mrs Luke, tanto perfetta fuori quanto carente dentro, in un'irreprensibile e compita lady della buona società.

Ci sono scrittori che, malgrado lo stile sciatto e lessicalmente povero, la banalità delle idee, e l'evidente incapacità di raccontare una storia, per qualche strana ragione (di solito il nome famoso o un'immeritata pubblicità), diventano inspiegabilmente celebri, elogiati dalla critica e venerati dal pubblico; ve ne sono altri, che nonostante il talento, la sorprendente arguzia, e l'innegabile raffinatezza, per un capriccio del destino (o dell'editoria) vengono incomprensibilmente dimenticati, e riscoperti solo dopo decenni, grazie all'intuizione di qualche lungimirante casa editrice. È il caso di Elizabeth von Arnim, prolifica scrittrice d'inizio Novecento, e donna di grande intelletto, ingiustamente sottovalutata rispetto a molti suoi contemporanei, e ad oggi, ancora semi-sconosciuta nel nostro Paese.
Introduction to Sally, questo il titolo originale del romanzo, è una simpatica commedia brillante, intelligente e spiritosa, che a dispetto dell'età anagrafica (fu pubblicato nel 1926), per la sua modernità, lo stile e la freschezza, non ha davvero niente da invidiare (anzi, avrebbe molto da insegnare) all'umorismo dei giorni nostri.
La von Arnim, con eleganza e vivacità, rielabora uno dei più celebri canoni letterari, quello della donna bella e stupida, e tenendosi a debita distanza dai luoghi comuni, dà vita, in modo davvero efficace, ad un personaggio femminile tanto imperfetto quanto adorabile.

Sally, la protagonista della storia, a dispetto delle premesse, è quanto di più lontano si possa immaginare dal cliché della bella ragazza oca: in lei non vi è ombra di malizia nè di civetteria; ella è un concentrato di semplicità, ingenuità e, diciamolo pure, scarso acume, e la sua surreale goffaggine, mista al disarmante candore, fanno di lei un personaggio nel contempo buffo e tenerissimo.
Ben lontana dal vantarsi della propria fisicità, che fin dall' infanzia è stata per lei motivo di cruccio, Sally reagisce ai complimenti con amara costernazione: “Che ce ne posso, io?”, risponde, con la tipica parlata, ogni volta che qualcuno (e sono molti) osa ammirare la sua sorprendente bellezza.
La von Arnim si rivela abilissima nel conferire spessore psicologico perfino ad una protagonista che, in mano a un altro autore, sarebbe stata nient'altro che una caricatura.
Benché Sally abbia poche idee - e molto confuse - l'autrice, senza alcuna difficoltà, ci consente di addentrarci nella sua mente, di comprenderne i timori, e di calarci interamente nei suoi panni. Sally guarda il mondo con gli occhi di una bambina, ne prova stupore, sconcerto, s'interroga, ma molto spesso non trova risposta. Non capisce perché le maldicenze della gente siano da considerarsi rilevanti, se una persona ha la coscienza apposto; non capisce perché un marito che ha promesso a Dio di prendersi cura della moglie, debba affidare quest'ultima alla suocera; non capisce perché la pronuncia dell'H debba essere fondamentale per diventare una brava madre. Non capisce, insomma, il perché delle vuote convenzioni e dei falsi problemi da cui la gente si lascia opprimere, dimenticando che per far funzionare ogni cosa, basterebbe un po' più d'amore per le cose semplici, e il sincero desiderio di comprendersi e venirsi incontro.
Man mano che impariamo a conoscere Sally, ci accorgiamo di come la sua presunta stupidità sia in realtà solo semplicità e innocenza, e di come nel suo animo affettuoso sarebbe possibile scorgere anche ottime qualità, se solo qualcuno si prendesse il disturbo di provare a capirla. Non è un caso che, tra tutti coloro che incontra, Sally, con orrore del borghese Jocelyn, si trovi subito a proprio agio solo con un giovane meccanico che, diversamente dal saccente marito, “la faceva sentire intelligente, brillante”.

Nel corso del racconto, inaspettatamente, assistiamo anche all'evoluzione della personalità di Sally, ottimamente delineata dall'autrice: all'inizio Sally non è che una bambola nelle mani degli altri, in soggezione di fronte al "signor marito", terrorizzata all'idea di sbagliare, priva di volontà propria, e perennemente apatica (“A me mi fa lo stesso.” è la ricorrente risposta ad ogni quesito che le viene rivolto); pian piano, però, Sally acquista (a modo suo) spirito critico, mostra di possedere opinioni proprie, ed impara, seppur nei suoi limiti, a far valere le proprie idee e ad affermare la propria (originale) individualità.
Non vi sono personaggi stereotipati, in questo romanzo, ma solo esseri umani, con le loro peculiarità (magari un po' bizzarre) e le loro debolezze.
Particolarmente riuscito è il ritratto psicologico di Jocelyn: immaturo, impulsivo, irascibile, febbrilmente diviso tra l'ostinata consapevolezza diurna dei limiti della moglie, e l'irresistibile fascinazione notturna a cui non può evitare di abbandonarsi ogni volta. Attraverso la sua figura, la von Arnim, col consueto brio e una buona dose di spirito, pone l'accento su tematiche sempre rilevanti e attuali: la schiavitù dei sensi opposta all'uso della ragione, la responsabilità della donna di fronte alle attenzioni maschili che ella suscita, l'incapacità dell'uomo di affrancarsi dalla dipendenza materna... Tutte questioni su cui, anche nella realtà odierna, non si smette mai di dibattere.

Neppure la rispettabile società inglese è immune dalla penna ironica della scrittrice, che con garbo, ma non per questo in modo meno pungente, traccia un significativo quadro dei pregi e dei difetti delle classi alte, soffermandosi, con occhio sempre critico, ma senza perdere la sua disinvolta leggerezza, sui vizi, le contraddizioni e le ipocrisie di una società, dove, malgrado tutto, a dominare è sempre il potere del vile denaro.
La storia, che in alcune dinamiche ha molto della fiaba (e, sia chiaro, ciò non è da intendersi affatto come un limite), scorre veloce e piacevolissima, sostenuta da una scrittura vivace e densa di humour, perfettamente equilibrata tra momenti di introspezione e spassosi colpi di scena; solo nella parte finale, l'intreccio perde un po' della sua originalità, risultando a tratti piuttosto "stiracchiato" e di gran lunga meno brillante che nei capitoli precedenti.
La relativa debolezza dell'epilogo, in verità una costante nella produzione di Elizabeth von Arnim, è in tutta probabilità il solo difetto che si possa riscontrare nella prosa di questa brava autrice, che con stile e genuinità, riesce a intrattenere il lettore, offrendogli, nel contempo, numerosi spunti di riflessione.
A riprova del fatto che leggerezza può far rima con ottima letteratura, e che quando ci sono l'eleganza e l'intelligenza, si può essere spiritosi e divertenti (e questo romanzo, divertente lo è per davvero!) senza alcun bisogno di doppi sensi e turpiloquio.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 It was hard for me to rate this book because, in some ways, I loved so much it! But, in other ways, it frustrated me. There’s a lot more action happening in this story than most of the books by EVA that I’ve read so far. Introduction to Sally also reminded me of The Enchanted April with its cozy details, vast number of characters and varied relationships.

The tone of this book is light and hilarious, but the plot is also silly and very maddening. (It would make a great romantic comedy!)

MY FAVORITE THINGS:
- Sally’s innocence, ignorance and lovely simplicity
- The ridiculousness of the characters, especially the very likable old Duke.
- The sanity and level-headedness of some of the male characters like , Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Thorpe and Lord Charles

I truly enjoyed this book, especially because I was able to read it along with my dear friend @carosbookcase. Also thanks to Simon Thomas from the Tea or Books Podcast for bringing this book back to life in the British Library Women Writers collection.

[pilarentrelibros · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Quién necesita una personalidad cuando tienes una cara bonita? Esa parece ser la pregunta que atraviesa esta brillante y afilada novela en la que von Arnim hace trizas el mito de Pigmalión, con una sonrisa en los labios y el cuchillo escondido entre las páginas.
Sally es hermosa. Muy hermosa. Tanto, que los hombres a su alrededor —cada uno más convencido que el anterior de ser un tipo progresista, moderno y sensible— no pueden evitar lanzarse a la noble tarea de moldearla. Ella no lo pide, claro. Ni lo necesita. Pero eso no importa: ellos saben lo que le conviene, por su bien, por supuesto. Porque detrás de cada gesto protector, de cada consejo desinteresado, de cada plan de futuro que diseñan para ella, lo que se esconde es puro ego, paternalismo y una necesidad casi infantil de sentirse imprescindibles.
Von Arnim, con su prosa clara, elegante y cargada de ironía, desmonta con una facilidad pasmosa toda esa fachada de buenas intenciones masculinas. Aquí no hay villanos con bigote y capa: hay hombres “decentes” que se creen feministas antes de que el término exista, pero que no soportan que una mujer piense por sí misma.
La crítica al clasismo, la hipocresía moral y la construcción social de la feminidad es implacable, pero jamás pesada. La autora lanza sus dardos con humor fino y una precisión quirúrgica. Y mientras uno ríe, también siente un escalofrío de reconocimiento incómodo. Porque, al final, lo que von Arnim retrata —con tanta gracia como inteligencia— es una estructura que todavía cojea más de lo que quisiéramos admitir.
Introduction to Sally es una lectura breve, afilada y sorprendentemente actual. Una comedia social que, si bien se disfraza de ligereza, no deja títere con cabeza. Y francamente, pocas cosas dan tanto gusto como ver a una autora despachar a todo un séquito de Pigmaliones con ironía y estilo.

[Tittirossa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sally è bellissima ma interessante - culturalmente parlando - come un comodino.
Di lei si innamorano tutti quelli che le posano gli occhi addosso, vuoi per il meraviglioso profilo, vuoi per quell'aura dorata che la circonda. Per i suoi genitori tanta bellezza è una maledizione, anche perché è associata ad una ingenuità e semplicità di carattere a dir poco spaventose. E così, quando Jocelyn Luke la vede e decide di sposarla in tutta fretta il padre è felice di scaricare su un altro la responsabilità di gestire e custodire tanto splendore.
Solo che Mr Luke non è attrezzato in alcun modo: privo di spirito e di esperienza, anche lui è alla pari di un comodino in quanto ad uso di mondo.
Da questo incipit si susseguono le varie traversie del romanzo, narrato con quel garbo e quello spirito tagliente che fanno tanto assomigliare von Arnim ad un entomologo un filino crudele.
C'è un filo rosso che lo percorre, ed è costituito da Mrs Luke (madre del giovin rampollo). Dapprima, scorata arriva a dire "in fin dei conti non conta l'Istruzione, ma il Carattere".
Poco dopo aver formulato questa verità, decide che il Carattere senza Istruzione è insopportabile, ma alla fine del libro cambia nuovamente idea: l'Istruzione in solitudine fa rimpiangere il Carattere. E' tra questi due poli (Carattere sottintende uno spirito grossier, non raffinato da scuole e buone frequentazioni) che oscillano i protagonisti, senza Carattere ma con molta Istruzione (Jocelyn) e viceversa (Sally).

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sheer fantasy--and yet there is a strong statement here about the male gaze. Sally can't pronounce her "H"s, yet is beautiful, so beautiful that she attracts every male who sees here and once they see her, they want her. Her father, desperate, tries to hide her and then marries her off as quickly as possible to a Cambridge student who comes across her and then does the same. She is tired of this behavior continually repeating itself. Sally is pure and stubborn, refusing to stay with her mother-in-law, she finds herself being introduced to a enchanted deaf 93-year-old Duke who is persuaded to house her, her husband, and newborn in a cottage in the backyard, the only place she is comfortable in. The husband, who thought he was marrying below his social status is told off by the Duke, who believes (not being able to hear Sally's low class accents) she married below her position. At the end, Sally does manage to cut the umbilical cord, take control, and put "Usband" in his place.

[Gwynplaine26th · Rating 3 out of 5]

All' innocente inettitudine della bellissima Sally si accompagna la meno innocente ottusità di tutti i maschi che ardentemente la bramano. Con la solita sfavillante sagacia, la Von Armin confeziona un altro buon testo (non ottimo, come altre opere) scritto benissimo. Pubblicato nel 1926, sorprende per l'acume e la brillante attualità.

[Nancy Welbourn]

The story of a young girl, a Cockney, who is so beautiful that everywhere she goes, she collects crowds. A young gentleman falls in love with Sally, marries her and takes her back to his home. They try to teach her manners and she is very unhappy. She tries to go back to her father who says she is an undutiful wife and sends her home. She does ___ reach home for a few days, but finally, when she does, she is at last happy. This book is lightly written and quite good.

This review is by my grandmother, from her "Books I Have Read" diary, started in 1938. It is on page 6.

Additional details
Title: Introduction to Sally
Author: "Elizabeth"
Publisher: Dodd & Page

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read and enjoyed well enough Armin’s The Enchanted April, but in the sense of it being mostly fine. I did not therefore go into Sally with high expectations, let alone thinking it was an overlooked work of genius, a little marvel, an absolute gem.

It’s a familiar enough story now, when we have My Fair Lady, but although Shaw’s play predates this book, I think the book exceeds it. Although there are frequent comic turns in the novel (‘[...]the road to acquaintanceship, young Carruthers knew, is paved with good dogs’), it’s not a funny book. In being so nice and accurate about the foibles of human nature, especially as regards to the clear but crystalline class distinctions, it can’t help but be sad, or at least rueful.

It tells the story of Sally Pinner, a girl ‘burdened’ with beauty but not overmuch with brains. She is a good girl, in that she doesn’t have the imagination to be otherwise, and is also good-natured enough to ‘do what she’s told’ – at least most of the time. Although describing her thus makes her sound like a wimp and a doormat, she’s not; she just doesn’t have the same elevated notions as her husband Jocelyn, his mother, or the various other higher-class characters she comes into contact with. Sally wants to be a good wife, keep a neat home, cook and clean for her family, and do right by God as she understands him from the Bible. She’s simple, rather than stupid; I think this passage sums her up beautifully:

‘Laura’s relations seemed to Sally, as she sat listening to them, as difficult to account for as the monkey. One couldn’t account for them. but even as these, she reminded herself, they belonged to God.
“They’re God’s,” Mr Pinner had said that day at the Zoo, when asked by her to explain why the monkeys behaved in the way they did; and that being so there was nothing further to worry about.’

The key struggle in the book is the fact that Sally is supremely beautiful, but supremely resistant to learning the tricks and manners that will elevate her above her working-class origins. In this she is the opposite to Eliza Doolittle. She feels the class gap every bit as much as all her interlocutors, but unlike them, has no wish to bridge it. Due to other people’s opinions about her face, she’s obliged to, but she never loses her intrinsic character. In fact, everyone else ends up bending around it, and you’re left to assume that Jocelyn reaps his just punishment for ‘falling for a pretty face’. It’s truly feminist in that Sally suffers very little in the end, and Jocelyn quite a lot.

As his mother considers the matter, herself being an elegant, intelligent, educated, but not jaw-droppingly beautiful woman:
‘Certainly the girls was quite extraordinarily beautiful that evening, and seemed even more alight than usual with the strange, surprising flame-like effect she somehow made, but one would have supposed that these outwardnesses, once one knew that they were not the symbols of any corresponding inwardnesses, could hardly be sufficient for a man like Jocelyn.’

That’s the central thesis, I think. Jocelyn is far from the only man overcome by Sally’s beauty – the Duke, indeed, gifts her a house – but other men like Charles and Carruthers get over their lust quickly enough to see what a burden a simple, low-class wife would be in their respective social milieus. Only Jocelyn was foolish enough to marry her and – because it’s the 1920s – he’s now stuck with her. The scene where she pleads not to live with his mother and he can’t see her in the dark, but imagines her as a scullery maid with her ‘arms akimbo’, is most telling. It’s men’s own fault if they fall for this, the narrative implies, yet women are in the end always having to work around this. Mrs Luke ends up marrying Mr Thorpe anyway, disguising from herself the fact that she’s doing what her son did, because in men’s case wealth equates to beauty in cancelling out vulgarity. And, a hundred years later, as Jane Austen remarked a hundred years before, ‘imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms’ – just read any man’s Tinder profile (supposing he bothers to write one).

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Oh Sally...oh! Pardon?" Enter into the world of the wide-eyed strikingly beautiful Sally made of innocence and low manners who enchants everyone who catches a glimpse of her, a Zuleika Dobson but made of innocence, ignorance and mundane domesticity. Elizabeth von Arnim, the exotically and not so happily twice married was probably better placed than most to write this 1920s novel of marriage, mother and potential father in laws, husbands all orbiting the sphere of Sally, our working class heroine. Written with humour, a perspicacious phycologist nose, the novel is the story of an innocent Cinderella, a working class cherub caught in the mores of the English class system. The novel drags a little in the later part and the fairy tell emulating ending outstays its welcome, but what a wonderful discovery of Elizabeth's von Arnim's writings following Father in the impeccably curated British Library Women Writers' series.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 rounded up because I like Elizabeth’s writing style, but the premise and the characters were too over the top for me. I could not stand Jocelyn and felt horrified for Sally most of the book, and the fact that it was treated as a light comedy felt weird to me (different times I guess).

[Bunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assegno a "Vi presento Sally" 3 stelline con un po' di delusione. Era partito benissimo, addirittura molto divertente, scritto bene, con personaggi ben delineati. C'è questa giovane e splendida ragazza, bella come un angelo, perfetta, che ammalia chiunque posi anche solo per un istante gli occhi su di lei. Peccato che questa meravigliosa creatura sia capace soltanto di pronunciare frasi sgrammaticate e poco altro!
Sally, diminutivo di Salvatia, non è altro che una povera ragazza di paese, incolta, inesperta e troppo ubbidiente.
Si entra nel vivo della storia quando Mr Luke le chiede la mano e da lì parte tutta questa ironica commedia in cui si alternano i pensieri dei vari personaggi (Sally, il marito, la suocera, il vicino della suocera che vuole sposare quest'ultima, altri personaggi secondari) ma che, secondo me, è tirata troppo per le lunghe. Alla fine entrano in scena personaggi totalmente inutili e la lettura si trascina.
Peccato!

[Novella Semplici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beh, tre stelle forse sono poche, meriterebbe tre e mezzo. L'idea è buona e lo stile perfetto: una donna bella ed educata rozzamente che fa cadere lo stesso ai suoi piedi tutti gli uomini, i quali se la contendono oppure (nel caso del padre) se la vogliono togliere dai piedi. C'è da stabilire allora se sia lei rozza o se lo siano i maschi che la circondano. Però... non l'ho trovato spassoso. Anzi: mi ha dato tanta tristezza. Forse perché sono in un periodo un po' down, ma l'analisi impietosa e sarcastica della società dell'epoca (con la donna povera e bella trattata da tutti più o meno come un pacco postale senza sentimenti) mi ha lasciato un velo di malinconia. L'autrice è bravissima, comunque e in alcuni brani mi ha strappato un sorriso. Il finale lascia molto in sospeso, devo dire. Merita ma per me non è stato un libro leggero, ho dovuto digerirlo.

[Xenja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanzo molto divertente e ironico sull'abitudine antica e ostinata che hanno gli uomini di scegliersi una donna solo per la sua bellezza, salvo poi lamentarsi e prendersela con lei quando scoprono che non è intelligente, raffinata, colta, o più in generale non è adatta a fargli da compagna.
Storie vecchie, ma sempre attuali, ahimé: ben venga un romanzo che ci ride sopra, con garbo.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

A bellezza di una semplice ragazza di provincia diventa il suo difetto e la sua disgrazia, quest oil tema centrale del romanzo.
L’ho apprezzato meno di altri, ma la Von Arnim è sempre magistrale nel cogliere i tratti tipici della natura umana.

[Michael Kott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Stayed up late to finish it as I have more Elizabeth books in the wings. Her wit really comes shining thru in this novel.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Introduction to Sally ?
"Je n'avais pas encore craqué pour cette collection pourtant alléchante, au moins une à laquelle j'avais réussi à résister, mais la combinaison de cette belle couverture avec le nom d'Elizabeth Von Arnim a sonné la fin de cette retenue exemplaire."

Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Sally est belle. Elle est belle au point que personne ne peut lever les yeux sur elle sans en être fou, une situation qui va lui causer bien des ennuis..."

Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"Il s'agit en quelques sortes de la transposition d'un conte de fées dans le monde réelle. Une jeune femme si belle que ses parents sont obligés de la cacher, un jeune homme qui décide de l'épouser à l'instant même où il la voit, sans lui avoir adressé la parole... Seulement voilà, lui n'a rien du Prince Charmant et lorsque Sally ouvre la bouche, il se rend rapidement compte qu'ils n'ont pas grand chose à se dire et qu'elle n'a pas reçu l'éducation à laquelle il s'attendait. En lisant le résumé de ce roman en ligne, j'avais un peu peur de trouver l'héroïne détestable, en fait, ce sont tous les autres qui le sont. Et bien qu'Elizabeth Von Arnim nous dépeigne tout cela avec beaucoup d'humour, très vite, on ne peut s'empêcher d'avoir vraiment de la peine pour la pauvre Sally, trop docile, si peu habituée à dire ce qu'elle veut et ce qu'elle pense. Il ne nous reste alors plus qu'à attendre le moment où, enfin, elle refusera de continuer à se laisser faire mais l'attente est un peu longue."

Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Le dernier tiers du roman et ses rebondissements m'ont amusée mais la façon dont chacun traite Sally, comme un joli objet à protéger, exposer ou retrouver reste assez dérangeante. Et comme tout ceux qui l'ont rencontrée, j'aurais aimé mieux pour Sally."

http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...

[Mighty Aphrodite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficile non lasciarsi coinvolgere dalla scrittura pungente e satirica di Elizabeth von Arnim che, attraverso i suoi romanzi, non risparmia sottili, ma precise stoccate alla società nella quale è irrimediabilmente immersa e che si può permettere di osservare con un distaccato sorriso ironico.

In “Vi presento Sally” la sua penna si fa beffe dei giovani inglesi suoi contemporanei e della loro evidente superficialità attraverso la bellezza angelica e mozzafiato della sua protagonista, Salvatia Pinner.

Sally è una dolce ragazza dal forte accento cockney che passa le sue giornate nel retrobottega della drogheria del padre, nel dimenticato e polveroso paesino di Woodles. La loro è una vita semplice e senza gli inevitabili scossoni che una grande città potrebbe arrecare alla loro esistenza. In seguito alla morte della madre, lei è ben felice di occuparsi del padre, di veder scorrere davanti a sè ogni giorno uguale all’altro, aiutarlo ogni tanto nel negozio, sorridere agli uomini che la guardano felici e compiaciuti anche solo di respirare la sua stessa aria.

Tutto sembra precipitare quando Jocelyn Luke, promettente studente di Cambridge, entra nella drogheria dei Pinner e vede Sally arrampicata su una scala: il fiato gli si mozza in gola, il desiderio scorre vivo e vitale nelle sue vene come un fuoco pronto ad incendiare una foresta, e il suo unico sogno diventa sposare quella giovane ragazza, renderla sua moglie, estinguere così quella brama che non lo abbandona più e gli impedisce di pensare, studiare, realizzare i suoi sogni.

Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Elizabeth's books and feel guilty saying anything negative about them, but this was not one of my favourites. I find it hard to get into a book when I just don't care or relate to the characters, and there weren't any that were particularly likeable here.
The "heroine" of the book, dumb, mindlessly obedient and with as much personality as a vegetable, the "hero" a petulant mommy's boy who treated Sally as an object to be locked up or used when convenient to him.

Then there's the premise of the book which was so silly and over the top: Sally, so attractive that she had to be hidden away by her father, and attracted hordes of people wherever she went, from people queueing up outside the guest house she stayed in, to nuns sidling up to her, 80 year old vicars bowled over by her, the entire population of a village gathering around her, this was the subject of the entire book.

I knew when I reached a third of the way through that it wasn't going to improve, took me a long time to finish it due to disinterest in the characters or what ultimately happened to them. I have no idea what the point of this story was, or what Elizabeth was trying to convey.

This one is in the same 3 star category for me along with Christopher and Columbus and Princess Priscila's Fortnight, I think when Elizabeth sets out to deliberately write a comedy/farce as with these three books it doesn't work.

[Caro (carosbookcase) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She grew up so amazingly pretty that it soon became the Pinners' chief concern how best to hide her. Such beauty, which began by being their pride, quickly became their anxiety. By the time Sally was twelve they were always hiding her. She was quite easy to hide, for she went meekly where she was told and stayed there” — Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim

First published in 1926, this Pygmalion inspired book was funny, frustrating, and at times, absolutely ridiculous.

When meek and obliging Sally finds herself married off to someone of higher social status, she is both adored and manipulated in turn, first by the family she has married into, then by the people she comes across along the way. Her awe-inspiring beauty is complicated by what are seen as incongruous manners.

As more and more challenges arise as a result of Sally’s beauty, she begins to find her voice. But as this book only claims to be an “introduction” to Sally, I don’t think we are given the opportunity to see Sally become a fully-formed person with her own agency.

The ending of this book left me wanting. Don’t get me wrong. I loved a lot about this book. EVA’s writing is smart and funny. But I would have liked to have seen Sally take a step further to becoming her own person.

However, the more of EVA’s books that I read, the more I realize that while there are a lot of scenes that are situationally funny, behind that there is sadness, frustration, and a lack of agency in a lot of her female characters. Hers are not books filled with women making grand, out-of-character gestures. Even in Introduction to Sally with its fairytale-like quality, Sally makes small changes, while still maintaining “a great desire to give satisfaction and do what was asked of her”.

I had the pleasure of reading this book with my friend, Gina (@babsbelovedbooks on Instagram). We are on a bit of an EVA roll at the moment, which I don't see abating any time soon!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in the process of reading all this author’s canon and this is the first one in which the words sex and lust have appeared. Usually, these are just alluded to. Not sure what the significance of this is but worth pointing out, I feel.

It felt a bit like the book ‘Zuleika Dobson’ but without the death of every male that met Sally. All the characters in the book were unpleasant, even Sally, who was too naive to be true. However, the ending was different and that saved it from a lower rating, though how the couple would survive life together going forward is an interesting thought.

[Bonnie Debu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the author of Introduction to Sally has a talent for writing clever sentences, but the premise of the conflict is unrealistic: The heroine always is whisked out of sight because she is “too beautiful” causing the masses to improbably lose their heads. (Repeatedly reducing men to their impulses and women to their looks gets boring: people are generally more interesting than that.) Also, the author tries to pull humor out of emotionally abusive moments. I prefer the author’s book The Enchanted April. Less happens in that book, but the characters develop more and it has a clearer point.

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it's because of the state of the world, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, Trump's policies, the rise of the ultra-right in Europe, the erasure of sex in policy and sports, etc. Perhaps it's because I am very stressed by my work and my work is depressing (it has to do with the people killed by the Francoist army, his followers, and the authorities, in the Spanish Civil War). But this book brought such joy to me, such, such joy, that I cannot but give it 5 stars.

[Tassiemouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book, featuring an angelically beautiful and good girl, born into an ordinary family, who attracts huge amounts of attention wherever she goes. A sort of My Fair Lady character, where her cockney accent and 'h's' are thought intolerable by those of upper classes, who yet bow down to her beauty. Very worth reading. Almost fairytale like.

[Josi · Rating 3 out of 5]

~2.5