Condensed Novels: New Burlesques

Bret Harte, better known for his rugged California tales, reveals a surprisingly vicious satirical streak in these burlesques. The collection lampoons Victorian society's sacred cows with considerable wit and more than a little venom. At its center sits Rudolph of Trulyruralania, a magnificently pompous blowhard who has spent his entire life living in the shadow of his accomplished brother, Lord Burleydon, and who boasts about accomplishments he has never achieved. His sister-in-law Rose, sharp-tongued and thoroughly unimpressed, essentially tells him to get out of the house before his emptiness becomes more embarrassing than it already is. What follows is a comedy of errors involving mistaken identities, royal intrigues, and the kind of self-important foolishness that Harte dissects with evident pleasure. The humor lands because it targets real absurdities: the pretensions of the upper class, the gap between self-image and reality, and the theatre of social hierarchy. These are short, sharp jabs at the establishment, written with the kind of literary intelligence that makes them still funny a century and a half later. For readers who enjoy satire that bites.