"Feline Amenities" by George du Maurier

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Feline Amenities

George du Maurier

Punch (1 June 1879): 263

“Are you going to the Brown’s dance?”

“No, I haven't been asked.”

“Oh — I suppose it's quite a Young Person’s Dance, you know!”

Scanned image and text by George P. Landow

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Other Feline Amenities

"“What a good looking couple you must once have been”"

"Ladies of Fashion and Their Doctors"

" I hope you’re not so tired as you look!"

"Matters of dress"

Once again du Maurier has lavished his skills at creating a realistic scene as the setting for a joke. Note the fine drawing of the knight and horse in the painting behind the women and the precise rendering of the two women’s hats and outdoor wear. Clearly, du Maurier is an artist who liked to draw! The outfit on the woman at left seems straightfoward, but did women wear jackets with such enormous sleeves in 1879? The differences in clothing suggest that the woman at right dresses in the height of fashion, and that she is the one insulting the other. Has du Maurier created an accurate image of fashionable costume or a caricature?

Bibliography

du Maurier, George. English Society. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1897.

Created 1 July 2001

Last modified 6 May 2020