In 1908, Meredith Nicholson crafted a sparkling comedy of manners that skewers the American obsession with wealth, politics, and respectability. Thomas Ardmore is a wealthy New York gentleman who has everything except a reason to get out of bed. Bored by society matrons, exhausted by his family's distinguished ennui, he finds himself at a railway station longing for genuine adventure. When a mysterious girl disappears on a train, Ardmore pursues her into a political hornets' nest involving two feuding Southern governors, an outlaw called Appleweight, and the suspiciously named establishment called the Little Brown Jug at Kildare. What begins as a romantic lark becomes an unexpectedly dangerous entanglement with the machinery of American politics. Nicholson writes with sharp wit and genuine affection for his country, lampooning political bosses, electoral chicanery, and the absurd theater of governance while delivering a ripping adventure story. This is American Edwardian comedy at its finest: a novel that understands exactly how ridiculous power can be while still believing people might do something worthy with it.
