 Frontispiece of an early edition | |
| Author | Booth Tarkington |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Doubleday & McClure Company |
Publication date | 1900 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 1-117-89405-3 |
Monsieur Beaucaire is a short novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Booth Tarkington that was first published in 1900. [1]
The setting is Bath during the 18th century. Before the action of the novel begins, Beau Nash, an historical figure who served as Master of Ceremonies of Bath, has ordered M. Beaucaire out of the public rooms because of his low status. Since this incident, Beaucaire, a barber to a French noble, has established a reputation for honesty while gambling with English notables in private.
In the opening scene of the novel, he catches the Duke of Winterset cheating and threatens to expose the Duke, whose honesty is already the subject of gossip. Beaucaire insists Winterset take him to a ball and introduce him as the Duke de Chateaurien to Lady Mary Carlisle, "the Beauty of Bath." [2] Beaucaire as Chateaurien wins the lady’s affection and the admiration of Bath society.
In the days that follow, Beaucaire twice emerges successfully from duels with men who pretend to insult him on their own behalf but are in fact acting on behalf of Winterset.
Beaucaire and several British gentlemen accompany Lady Mary en route from a party. Beaucaire and Lady Mary engage in amorous conversation. Highwaymen attack Beaucaire shouting "barber!" and the others leave him to defend himself. He does so successfully for a time, then is overwhelmed, only to be rescued at last by his servants who were travelling some distance behind. Lady Mary denounces those who failed to come to Beaucaire’s defense. Winterset then emerges from the shadows and, over Lady Mary’s objections and with Beaucaire’s indulgence, tells the story of Beaucaire’s background as a lackey and an imposter, adding some fabrications to explain his own behavior in introducing Beacaire/Chateaurien to Bath society. Beaucaire mocks his words as a mixture of truth and invention. Questioned by the others, he asserts he has never been a barber but admits that he did arrive in England in the role of barber to the French Ambassador, M. de Mirepoix, and is named Beaucaire. One of the English, Molyneux, the only one to demonstrate some sympathy for Beaucaire, notes that his swordsmanship was that of a gentleman. Winterset warns Beaucaire not to appear in public in Bath again. Lady Mary, aghast, refuses to look at Beaucaire and orders her carriage to depart.
That evening, Lady Mary and Winterset are the center of attention in Bath as Nash and fashionable society anticipate the arrival of the French Ambassador and the Comte de Beaujolais, a French prince. The movement of the crowd impels Lady Mary to step aside into a small chamber where she finds Beaucaire and Molyneux gambling. Attempts at explanation fail, Lady Mary insists that Molyneux escort her from the room, and Beaucaire is left alone in tears.
After more confrontations, Beaucaire reveals himself as a French prince, Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, hiding from his cousin, King Louis XV of France, who is angry at him for failing to submit to an arranged marriage. The ambassador has come to Bath to escort him home now that his royal cousin has relented. In the course of recounting his adventures, Beaucaire calls Winterset "that coward, that card-cheat." [3] Lady Mary asks his forgiveness and he gives it lightly. He announces his intention to return to France and marry the woman the king had chosen for him, Henriette de Bourbon-Conti.
The story has been adapted several times. A stage adaptation starring Richard Mansfield premiered on October 11, 1901 for the grand opening of the Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia. [4] In collaboration with Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland, Tarkington adapted it as a play in 1904 starring Evelyn Millard and Lewis Waller. The play received a Royal Command Performance at Windsor Castle before Edward VII. André Messager used it as the basis for an opera of the same name in 1919. A 1924 film adaptation on which Tarkington was credited as co-author of the screenplay starred Rudolph Valentino. [5] Another film released in 1946 featured Bob Hope. [6] A loose adaptation of the story served as the basis for the 1930 film Monte Carlo directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Jeanette MacDonald. [7]
Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and Alice Adams (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike, and Colson Whitehead. In the 1910s and 1920s he was considered the United States' greatest living author. Several of his stories were adapted to film.
William Hoare of Bath was a British portraitist, painter and printmaker. From c. 1740 to 1759, he was the leading oil portraitist at Bath, Somerset, until Thomas Gainsborough arrived in the town. Noted for his pastels, he was a foundation member of the Royal Academy.
Frederick Lonsdale was a British playwright known for his librettos to several successful musicals early in the 20th century, including King of Cadonia (1908), The Balkan Princess (1910), Betty (1915), The Maid of the Mountains (1917), Monsieur Beaucaire (1919) and Madame Pompadour (1923). He also wrote comedy plays, including The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1925) and On Approval (1927) and the murder melodrama But for the Grace of God (1946). Some of his plays and musicals were made into films, and he also wrote a few screenplays.
La Princesse de Clèves is a French novel which was published anonymously in March 1678. It was regarded by many as the beginning of the modern tradition of the psychological novel and a classic work. Its author is generally held to be Madame de La Fayette.
William Waller Lewis, known on stage as Lewis Waller, was an English actor and theatre manager, well known on the London stage and in the English provinces.
Arthur Reed Ropes, better known under the pseudonym Adrian Ross, was a prolific writer of lyrics, contributing songs to more than sixty British musical comedies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the most important lyricist of the British stage during a career that spanned five decades. At a time when few shows had long runs, nineteen of his West End shows ran for over 400 performances.
Monsieur Beaucaire is a 1924 American silent romantic historical drama film starring Rudolph Valentino in the title role, Bebe Daniels, and Lois Wilson. Produced and directed by Sidney Olcott, the film is based on Booth Tarkington's 1900 novel of the same name and the 1904 play of the same name by Tarkington and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland.
The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington, the second in his Growth trilogy after The Turmoil (1915) and before The Midlander. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Paulette Duval was a French dancer and actress of the silent film era and early sound motion pictures. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1889 and raised in France. She was considered one of the most beautiful women in Paris in the early 20th century. Paulette was recruited by Florenz Ziegfeld for the Ziegfeld Follies, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City on October 15, 1923. Before joining the Follies, the French beauty was engaged with the Scandals dance productions of George White.
Monsieur Beaucaire is a romantic opera in three acts, composed by André Messager. The libretto, based on the 1900 novel by Booth Tarkington, is by Frederick Lonsdale, with lyrics by Adrian Ross. The piece premiered at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham, England, on 7 April 1919, before opening at the Prince's Theatre in London under the management of Frank Curzon on 19 April 1919 and transferring to the Palace Theatre on 29 July 1919, for a successful run.
Penrod is a collection of comic sketches by Booth Tarkington that was first published in 1914. The book follows the misadventures of Penrod Schofield, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in the pre-World War I Midwestern United States, in a similar vein to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In Penrod, Tarkington established characters who appeared in two further books, Penrod and Sam (1916) and Penrod Jashber (1929). The three books were published together in one volume, Penrod: His Complete Story, in 1931.
Seventeen: A Tale of Youth and Summer Time and the Baxter Family Especially William is a humorous novel by Booth Tarkington that gently satirizes first love, in the person of a callow 17-year-old, William Sylvanus Baxter. Seventeen takes place in a small city in the Midwestern United States shortly before World War I. It was published as sketches in the Metropolitan Magazine in 1915 and 1916, and collected in a single volume by Harper and Brothers in 1916, when it was the bestselling novel in the United States.
Monte Carlo is a 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It co-stars Jack Buchanan as a French Count Rudolph Falliere masquerading as a hairdresser and Jeanette MacDonald as Countess Helene Mara. The film is notable for introducing the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", which was written for the film and is first performed by MacDonald and a chorus on the soundtrack as she escapes on the train through he countryside. Monte Carlo was hailed by critics as a masterpiece of the newly emerging musical film genre. The screenplay was based on the Booth Tarkington novel Monsieur Beaucaire.
Monsieur Beaucaire is a 1946 American historical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope, Joan Caulfield and Patric Knowles. Hope portrays the title character, the barber of King Louis XV of France. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Booth Tarkington. It is a remake of the 1924 Rudolph Valentino silent film of the same name Monsieur Beaucaire.
Viva Birkett was a British stage actress active on both sides of the Atlantic over the early decades of the twentieth century.
Gerald Leslie Lawrence was a British actor and manager.
Beau Brummel is a 1913 silent short film directed by and starring James Young in the title role. Presumed now to be lost, it was produced in Brooklyn, New York, by Vitagraph Studios and also featured in its cast Clara Kimball Young, Rex Ingram, Julia Swayne Gordon, and Etienne Girardot. The photoplay's scenario was adapted from the Clyde Fitch novel and play, and upon the film's release Vitagraph listed it as a 1000-foot "one-reeler", which at the time would have had a maximum running time of 15 minutes.
Penrod and Sam is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring Leon Janney and Frank Coghlan Jr. It is an adaptation of the novel Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington. Beaudine had previously directed a 1923 silent version, and was invited to remake his earlier success.
Daly's Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 1221 Broadway and 30th Street. It was built in 1867 and opened that year as Banvard's Museum but changed its name the following year to Wood's Museum and Metropolitan. In 1876 it became the Broadway Theatre, and finally was named Daly's Theatre in 1879 when it was acquired by Augustin Daly. After 1899, it was operated by the Shubert family. The building was demolished in 1920, after serving as a burlesque theatre and cinema.
The Garrick Theatre was a theatre located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by the architect Willis G. Hale, it opened to the public in 1901 and remained active as a theatre as late as January 1936. By January 1937, the theatre had been demolished after the property's owners at that time, the Girard Trust Company, decided replacing the theatre with a parking lot would be more financially profitable.
