Hearts and Clubs: A Comedy in Three Acts

The year is somewhere around the turn of the last century, and at a seaside hotel, the battle lines are drawn. Mr. Fossil, a gentleman whose opinions on women's health could crack stone, has decreed that his nephew Tom shall marry a strong, sensibly dressed woman. No wasp waists or fashionable foolishness allowed. The only problem? Tom is already secretly engaged to Mintra Triptoe, a young woman whose aunt runs in the most flamboyant circles of modern society. As Mintra attempts to remake herself into exactly the sort of sensible woman Mr. Fossil demands, and the women of the X.Y.Z. Club prepare a physical culture exhibition, comic chaos ensues. Amy Ella Blanchard's 1896 comedy is a sharp little satire that pokes fun at both old-fashioned patriarchs and the earnest new cult of physical culture, without ever losing its sunny disposition. The misunderstandings are delicious, the resolutions satisfying, and the whole thing fizzes like ginger beer on a summer porch. For lovers of drawing-room comedy and anyone curious about how Victorians argued about women's bodies.