An American Girl in London

Reviewer: This is that most pleasant of things, a book purchased on a whim for a for a minor sum, which turns out to be a grand read, and then, even better, to add another author to the "keep an eye out for" list. ... Written in the late 1800s, the narrator is not shy of poking gentle fun at herself and the thousands of her American compatriots who are eager to explore England's historical places and partake of whatever social whirl they can shoehorn themselves into. Our own Miss Wick is extremely fortunate in her shipboard acquaintances; she makes a strong impression on a young British aristocrat (how strong becomes quite apparent to us early on, and to Mamie herself at long last, near the end of the story), as well as on an initially frosty elderly ladyship who completely unthaws under the influence of Mamie's unusual charm, with interesting further consequences. Mamie does all of the typical American tourist things; she visits Madame Tussaud's, the London Zoo, the Epsom Derby, boat races at Oxford, and all the rest, but her aristocratic acquaintances smooth her way to higher levels and grander experiences than most American tourists ever attain, and she shares every impression with us. I did truly get a vivid picture of what the England of the time (at least in the relatively "higher" circles in which Mamie's social class moved) looked, sounded and felt like through Mamie's eyes; the author, while maintaining a delicately cynical tone, obviously had a great fondness for all of the best aspects of contemporary and historical England and her inhabitants. The protagonist is thoroughly likeable and full of little unexpected insights and surprises; I laughed out loud several times at her philosophizing and her witty internal voice; she doesn't miss much, but she continually minds her manners and behaves with impeccable politeness, much to her credit, as the same cannot be said of some of the people she encounters.