Review: The Rabbits, by A.A. Milne

Description
The adventures of a group of friends, pre-war, with far too much time on their hands. The Rabbits, as they call themselves, are Archie Mannering, his
sister Myra, Samuel Simpson, Thomas of the Admiralty, Dahlia Blair and the narrator, with occasional guests. Their conversation is almost entirely frivolous, their activity vacillates between immensely energetic and happily lazy, and their social mores are surprisingly progressive.

Originally published as sketches in Punch, the Rabbits’ escapades are a charming portrait of middle-class antics on the brink of being shattered by World War I, and fail entirely to take themselves seriously.

My Review

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book and to Anne of Random Things Tours for organising this tour.

Over the course of the stories Archie and Dahlia meet at a cricket match, get married and have a child; the narrator and Myra, flirting with each other from the off, finally marry and settle down together; while Thomas and Samuel struggle on as bachelors, but do become god fathers to Archie and Dahlia’s son. The group mess about in boats, go skiing in Switzerland and, in the spring before the 1914-1918 war, laze around on the Riviera for a month. They never seem to work, although we’re told Thomas is something in the Admiralty and the narrator has a job in an office in the City.

I struggled to get into this at first; the cricketing talk was a bit much. There’s a lot of cricket. However, I got past that and found the characters really entertaining. They’re witty and seem to live charmed lives. They reminded me slightly of Wooster from P.G Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories, although set between 1909 and 1914, rather than the 1920s and 1930s, but the narrator, Myra, and Archie are actually quite clever. As with those stories, one wonders how true a portrait of the lives of young, middle class, people with an education and a bit of inherited wealth from the Edwardian period they actually are?

The writing is witty and the characters are drawn out across the sketches as they progress through time. We learn more about their lives, from the perspective of the narrator, with Myra as his co-conspirator, but it’s still limited, and unless I’m missing something, they seem to ignore whatever is going on in the world, until the final sketch, when the entente cordiale is mentioned and the wisdom of leaving the country at that time (February 1914).

There’s a mention of ‘seeing the Coronation’; a brief mention quickly glossed over. King Edward VII was on the throne from 1901 until 1910, and then King George V reigned until 1936. The context of the remark doesn’t tell the reader which king was seen, being crowned, by the narrator. Society was changing so much, compared to the long years of Victoria’s reign, that two kings in a decade might have caused some comment. It actually confused me, because it was the first comment about contemporary events I read in the sketches.

Clothing styles and some social attitudes were changing rapidly, becoming less formal in some instances. Then men still wore suits, suits are mentioned several times, usually to comment upon the inappropriate choices of Samuel, but the sporting jacket and straw boater were acceptable on informal occasions. Groups of young, unmarried people spend hours together, unsupervised! They play mixed cricket and go swimming in the sea. Young ladies pop off for a quiet walk or chat, alone except for a young man courting them! It’s quite scandalous! The characters certainly have ‘modern’ attitudes that may have been the cause of some of the humour in Punch, which liked to poke fun at contemporary social mores. I don’t know enough about the context in which the stories were published to say. And it’s really frustrating! I want context. I need context!

Reading the frothy joy of the Rabbits planning out little Peter’s life in 1912, I was struck by how soon he would probably lose his father, uncle and god fathers in war, and that in thirty years, he to would face war. The contrast saddened me. One wonders how clearly Milne saw the future in the final Rabbits story, as they travel through France and down to the Riviere, sunbathe in the late winter warmth, and overlook the Mediterranean Sea.

A.A. Milne was an observer of life and a witty reporter of the social behaviour of his times, and this series of stories is a glorious testament to that skill and those times.

---

About the Author

A. A. Milne (Alan Alexander) is best known for his books about the teddy
bear Winnie-the-Pooh, but was also an accomplished writer of fiction for
grown-ups. Prior to the First World War he worked as a young man as
Assistant Editor of Punch magazine. After leaving the army, he began to
write plays, short stories and novels; and then later works for children,
including the poetry collection When We Were Very Young and the
storybook Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926. Milne continued to be a prolific writer until his death in 1956.

---