A Cure for Dudes
1888
John T. Wheelwright
Boston : Walter H. Baker and Co.
American
Short Story
31pp
Decadence, Satire, Gay Men
I have seen something in the about dudes. Those vulgar newspaper have to be funny about something and could find nothing better to do than to fun at gentlemen.
Summary
Mr. H., a bored dandy on vacation, resorts to a conversation with the only person he knows: Miss R, who mutually despises his company. They chat in a satire of Mr. H.'s peevish, effeminate nature until Miss R. scares him away with her "cure for dudes:" pretending to trap him in a marriage proposal to her.
More Info
Published in George Riddle's Readings (1888) edited by George Riddle, pages 27-58.
Miss R. references Patience, the opera by Gilbert and Sullivan satirizing the Aesthetic movement, but through a character which does not exist in the opera: Algernon.
Mr. H references Du Maurier's cartoons in Punch as his guide for the latest London fashions—those cartoons satirize the English Aesthetic movement.
I could not locate anything on a gentleman's club popular for dandies named Knickerbein.
Content & Trigger Warnings
(highlight to reveal)
Editions
Riddle's anthology includes a copyright notice for the story with F. E. Chase. I have't located the related publication yet.