The Amateur Gentleman

Last updated

The Amateur Gentleman
Author Jeffery Farnol
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Publication date
1913
Media typePrint

The Amateur Gentleman is a novel by Jeffery Farnol, published in 1913. It was made into a silent film in 1920 and again in 1926 and a talking film in 1936 with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. starring as the protagonist, Barnabas Barty.

Contents

Plot summary

The format of the novel is essentially that of a bildungsroman . It tells the story of Barnabas Barty, the son of John Barty, the former boxing champion of England and landlord of a pub in Kent. At the start of the tale, Barnabas comes fortuitously into the possession of a vast fortune – £700,000, an astronomical amount by Regency standards – and determines to use this fortune to become a gentleman. His father objects to this plan and they quarrel. They settle their differences in a round of fisticuffs, which Barnabas wins, beating his father fair and square. Barnabas sets off for London to further his ambitions and, on the way there, contrives to make a number of influential friends and enemies. [1]

Farnol exploits the naïvety of the youth for comic effect. For instance, Barnabas is gulled by the chapman who sells him a book on etiquette at an outrageous mark-up. At the other end of the spectrum, Farnol is equally disdainful of Barnabas' sophisticated concealment of his identity. [2]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Barthelmess</span> American actor (1895–1963)

Richard Semler Barthelmess was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920) and was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1927. The following year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two films: The Patent Leather Kid and The Noose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swashbuckler</span> Stock character in literary works

A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, guile and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, daring, and idealistic: he rescues damsels in distress, protects the downtrodden, and uses duels to defend his honor or that of a lady or to avenge a comrade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thanhouser Company</span> Early motion picture studio

The Thanhouser Company was one of the first motion picture studios, founded in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser, his wife Gertrude and his brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan. It operated in New York City until 1920, producing over a thousand films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Whitaker</span> American actor

John Orson Whitaker, Jr. is an American actor notable for several film and television performances during his childhood. The redheaded Whitaker played Jody Davis on Family Affair from 1966 to 1971. He also originated the role of Scotty Baldwin on General Hospital in 1965, and played the lead in Hallmark's 1969 The Littlest Angel, and portrayed the title character in the 1973 musical version of Tom Sawyer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Barty</span> American actor

Billy Barty was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) tall, due to cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism. Because of his short stature, he was often cast in films opposite taller performers for comic effect. He specialized in outspoken or wisecracking characters. During the 1950s, he became a television actor, appearing regularly in the Spike Jones ensemble. In the early 1970s he was a staple in a variety of roles in children's TV programs produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. Also an activist for people with dwarfism, he founded the Little People of America organization in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raffles stories and adaptations</span> Fictional short story character

A. J. Raffles is a British fictional character – a cricketer and gentleman thief – created by E. W. Hornung. Between 1898 and 1909, Hornung wrote a series of 26 short stories, two plays, and a novel about Raffles and his fictional chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Hornung</span> British writer

Ernest William Hornung was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. Hornung was educated at Uppingham School; as a result of poor health he left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney, where he stayed for two years. He drew on his Australian experiences as a background when he began writing, initially short stories and later novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffery Farnol</span> British writer (1878–1952)

Jeffery Farnol was a British writer from 1907 until his death in 1952, known for writing more than 40 romance novels, often set in the Georgian Era or English Regency period, and swashbucklers. He, with Georgette Heyer, largely initiated the Regency romantic genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffery Deaver</span> American mystery and crime writer

Jeffery Deaver is an American mystery and crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a J.D. degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist. He later practiced law before embarking on a career as a novelist. He has been awarded the Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association and the Nero Wolfe Award, and he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including The New York Times, The Times, Italy's Corriere della Sera, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Los Angeles Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Jeffery</span> New Zealand-Australian actor

Aaron C. Jeffery is a Logie Award-winning New Zealand-Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Terry Watson in Water Rats, as Alex Ryan in McLeod's Daughters, and as Matt "Fletch" Fletcher in Wentworth.

This is a list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1910s, as determined by The Bookman, a New York–based literary journal (1910–1912) and Publishers Weekly. The list features the most popular novels of each year from 1910 through 1919.

<i>The Black Moth</i>

The Black Moth (1921) is a Georgian era romance novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, set around 1751. The Black Moth was Heyer's debut novel, published when Heyer was nineteen. It was a commercial success.

<i>Asli-Naqli</i> 1962 film

Asli-Naqli is a 1962 Hindi film produced by L.B Lachman and L.B Thakur. The film is directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and stars Dev Anand, Sadhana, Leela Chitnis, Anwar Hussain, Sandhya Roy and Keshto Mukherjee. The film's music is by Shankar Jaikishan and the lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra. The film became a box office hit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clemence Dane</span> English novelist and playwright

Clemence Dane CBE is the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton, an English novelist and playwright.

George IV of the United Kingdom has been depicted many times in popular culture.

<i>The Amateur Gentleman</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by Thornton Freeland

The Amateur Gentleman is a 1936 British drama film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Elissa Landi, Gordon Harker and Margaret Lockwood, with music by Richard Addinsell. It is based on the 1913 novel The Amateur Gentleman by Jeffery Farnol. In an effort to prove his father's innocence of a charge of stealing, a young man disguises himself as a gentleman and travels to Regency London.

Langhorne Burton was a British film actor.

The Amateur Gentleman is a 1920 British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Langhorn Burton, Madge Stuart and Cecil Humphreys. The film is adapted from the 1913 novel The Amateur Gentleman by Jeffery Farnol.

<i>The Amateur Gentleman</i> (1926 film) 1926 film

The Amateur Gentleman is a 1926 American silent drama film produced by Inspiration Pictures and distributed through First National Pictures. It was directed by Sidney Olcott as a vehicle for star Richard Barthelmess.

Henry Stamper was a Scottish actor known for his mastery of almost all British regional dialects. He appeared in several small television roles, but was best known for performing in many radio plays.

References

  1. "The Amateur Gentleman". kindlereader.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  2. "The Amateur Gentleman Unabridged (Annotated)". ebookxp.org. Retrieved 19 February 2013.