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A review by millennial_dandy
The Twenty-Fourth of June by Grace S. Richmond
3.0
I was originally gifted this book purely because the title is the same as my birthday. And every year since I had the intention of reading it, if just for the meme.
As such, I had no expectations for 'The Twenty-Fourth of June.' That being said, I quite enjoyed it.
It reminded me an incredible amount of 'The Magnificent Ambersons' which would be published four years later in 1918. Plotwise, in both novels, we follow a young man set to inherit a fortune from a rich grandfather. Both protagonists are lackadaisical and shun the idea of working to 'earn' their inheritance. And both of them are jerks, and called out for being so by their respective love interests. Indeed, the allergy to having a job is what constitutes the start of each man's character arc. However, their paths for arriving at the end of that arc are... different, to say the least.
George Amberson, of 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' wholeheartedly rejects the changing American sensibility towards class, holding on to the idea that class is tied to blood, and therefore isn't something to be earned or lost based on socital contribution. This is exemplified by his refusal to get on the automobile bandwagon, sticking to horses and carriages long after it makes sense to do so. By the end of the novel, he's lost his status, his love interest, and... he has to get a job.
Only at the point at which he begins working does he earn the respect of the woman he's been courting the entire novel: the daughter of a nouveau riche family.
In 'The Twenty-Fourth of June,' on the other hand, protagonist Richard Kendrick, learns his lesson fairly early on. Though he is also from a wealthy family and needn't work if he doesn't want to, getting rejected by his love interest, Roberta, is the catalyst that leads him to a more industrious lifestyle. After getting seriously involved in the business world, his temperament improves, and, well, he gets the girl. Curiously, a recurring symbol connected with him is the automobile. His attachment to his car at the beginning is definitely due to it being a status symbol, and also then acts as an easy throughline to why he might be more willing to follow other modern notions of class, specifically, the notion that high class status is earned, not inherited.
I doubt very much that Booth Tarkington, author of 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' was ripping this novel off when conceiving of his own, but I do think the striking similarities and their close-together publication dates reveal something interesting about the American zeitgeist at the time. Clearly, there was something in the water about developing a distinctly American class sensibility and binding it to the idea of work. We see as well the beginnings of the myth of the American Dream and as well the fairy tale that America is a meritocracy.
In 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' George really does end up having to pull himself up by his bootstraps, so to speak, but in a way that's so tied to the moral of the story that the artifice is palpable. In 'The Twenty-Fourth of June' we sort of pretend that Richard does because his first real job is helping make his friend's shop a success without the help of his grandfather's money (though he does employ one of his grandfather's business advisors, so, hardly a 'bootstrap' story).
Both authors as well tie being hardworking with moral character. When the young men aren't working, they're worse people than when they both get jobs, and indeed, in both cases, having the job is the specific thing that makes them better people, and therefore worthy of their respective love interests.
If those themes are of interest to you, you're a good match for either or both novels. 'The Twenty-Fourth of June' won no Pulitzer Prizes, and the love story, which honestly starts off really well, and Roberta is a great, three-dimensional character, takes a sudden sappy turn at the end that I could have done without (like, really, Roberta goes from vibrant and fully realized to not even getting any dialogue and turning into a 'sexy lamp'). However, it's a fun story with good writing. A nice light bit of late Edwardian fiction.
As such, I had no expectations for 'The Twenty-Fourth of June.' That being said, I quite enjoyed it.
It reminded me an incredible amount of 'The Magnificent Ambersons' which would be published four years later in 1918. Plotwise, in both novels, we follow a young man set to inherit a fortune from a rich grandfather. Both protagonists are lackadaisical and shun the idea of working to 'earn' their inheritance. And both of them are jerks, and called out for being so by their respective love interests. Indeed, the allergy to having a job is what constitutes the start of each man's character arc. However, their paths for arriving at the end of that arc are... different, to say the least.
George Amberson, of 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' wholeheartedly rejects the changing American sensibility towards class, holding on to the idea that class is tied to blood, and therefore isn't something to be earned or lost based on socital contribution. This is exemplified by his refusal to get on the automobile bandwagon, sticking to horses and carriages long after it makes sense to do so. By the end of the novel, he's lost his status, his love interest, and... he has to get a job.
Only at the point at which he begins working does he earn the respect of the woman he's been courting the entire novel: the daughter of a nouveau riche family.
In 'The Twenty-Fourth of June,' on the other hand, protagonist Richard Kendrick, learns his lesson fairly early on. Though he is also from a wealthy family and needn't work if he doesn't want to, getting rejected by his love interest, Roberta, is the catalyst that leads him to a more industrious lifestyle. After getting seriously involved in the business world, his temperament improves, and, well, he gets the girl. Curiously, a recurring symbol connected with him is the automobile. His attachment to his car at the beginning is definitely due to it being a status symbol, and also then acts as an easy throughline to why he might be more willing to follow other modern notions of class, specifically, the notion that high class status is earned, not inherited.
I doubt very much that Booth Tarkington, author of 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' was ripping this novel off when conceiving of his own, but I do think the striking similarities and their close-together publication dates reveal something interesting about the American zeitgeist at the time. Clearly, there was something in the water about developing a distinctly American class sensibility and binding it to the idea of work. We see as well the beginnings of the myth of the American Dream and as well the fairy tale that America is a meritocracy.
In 'The Magnificent Ambersons,' George really does end up having to pull himself up by his bootstraps, so to speak, but in a way that's so tied to the moral of the story that the artifice is palpable. In 'The Twenty-Fourth of June' we sort of pretend that Richard does because his first real job is helping make his friend's shop a success without the help of his grandfather's money (though he does employ one of his grandfather's business advisors, so, hardly a 'bootstrap' story).
Both authors as well tie being hardworking with moral character. When the young men aren't working, they're worse people than when they both get jobs, and indeed, in both cases, having the job is the specific thing that makes them better people, and therefore worthy of their respective love interests.
If those themes are of interest to you, you're a good match for either or both novels. 'The Twenty-Fourth of June' won no Pulitzer Prizes, and the love story, which honestly starts off really well, and Roberta is a great, three-dimensional character, takes a sudden sappy turn at the end that I could have done without (like, really, Roberta goes from vibrant and fully realized to not even getting any dialogue and turning into a 'sexy lamp'). However, it's a fun story with good writing. A nice light bit of late Edwardian fiction.