The Life and Beauties of Fanny Fern.
Author Unknown
“Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.”
Published in 1850
CONTENTS
Preface
1 Genius in Pantalettes
2 Fanny at School
3 The New Name
4 The Husband’s Death
5 The Second Marriage
6 Fanny Fern at Home
7 Early Literary Efforts
8 Fanny and the True Flag
9 Fanny Fern in Church
10 Fanny Fern in Broadway
11 Fanny at the Tremont House
12 A Key to “Ruth Hall”
13 A Word about N. P. Willis
14 Ideas about Babies
15 Praise from a Woman
16 The Remarkable History of Jemmy Jessamy
17 Jemmy Jessamy’s Defence
18 The Governess
19 All about Satan
20 Well-Known Characters-By Fanny Fern
21 Horace Mann’s “Opinion”
22 What Fanny Thinks of Hot Weather
23 Family Jars
24 Two in Heaven
25 The Private History of Didymus Daisy, Esq.--By Fanny Fern
26 The Wedding Dress
27 Is it Best to Use Envelopes?
28 Feminine Wisdom
29 Always Speak the Truth
30 Moses Miltiades Madison
31 Tom Versus Fan; Or, A Little Talk about Little Things
32 A Letter to the True Flag
33 The Orphan--By Fanny Fern
34 An Answer to Mrs. Crowe--By Fanny Fern
35 Mrs. Farrington on Matrimony
36 A Whisper to Romantic Young Ladies
37 A Woman with a Soul
38 Clerical Courting
39 What Fowler Says
40 The Other Side
41 The Good-Natured Bachelor
42 Catching the Dear--By Fanny Fern
43 Helen, the Village Rose-Bud
44 Single Blessedness
45 That Mrs. Jones
46 Mrs. Jupiter’s Soliloquy, Taken Down in Short-Hand--By Fanny Fern
47 The Unfaithful Lover
48 Petticoat Parliament
49 Fanny Fern on Widowers
50 An Hour with Fanny’s Father
51 John Bull’s Opinion of Ruth Hall
53 Another Fern
54 “The Best of Men Have Their Failings”
55 The Mistake of a Life-Time
56 A Wife’s Devotion
57 Mrs. Zebedee Smith’s Philosophy
58 Interesting to Bashful Men
59 The Angel Child
60 Uncle Ben’s Attack of Spring-Fever
61 Connubial Advertisement
62 What Fanny Thinks about Sewing Machines
63 The Time to Choose
64 Our Nelly
65 I Can’t
66 Mrs. Smith’s Reverie, Written out by Fanny Fern
67 A Night-Watch with a Dead Infant
68 A Little Good Advice--From Fanny Fern
69 The Other One
70 A Pen and Ink Sketch--By Fanny Fern
71 Fanny’s “Rules for Ladies”
72 The Little Pauper
73 What Fanny Thinks about Friendship
74 Truth Stranger than Fiction--Respectfully Dedicated to Jealous Husbands--By Fanny Fern
75 “Don’t Disturb Him!”
76 A Model Husband
77 What to Do When You Are Angry
78 The Early Blight--By Fanny Fern
79 There’s Room Enough for All
80 The Cross and the Crown
81 Tom Fay’s Soliloquy
82 A on Clergymen
83 Fanny Fern on Husbands
84 Fanny’s Ideas about Money Matters
85 A Letter to a Self-Exiled Friend in the Country
Preface
In preparing for the press “THE LIFE AND BEAUTIES OF FANNY FERN,” we have given to the reader a statement of the most prominent incidents in her eventful career, which is authenticated, not only by the testimony of her nearest relatives, but by communications from her own lips. The lives of distinguished men or women have always been accounted public property, and, in narrating that of Fanny Fern, we have confined ourselves to simple facts, leaving the fancy-pictures to be filled up by others.
In giving selections from her “Beauties,” we present the reader with a bouquet of “Ferns,” all freshly gathered. In so doing, we have infringed on no one’s copy-right; the sketches having been copied, in every instance, from the papers to which they were originally contributed. A large proportion of them have never before appeared within the covers of a book. These latter are the very articles upon which Fanny made her reputation. We have given quotations which do justice to every variety of her versatile style. One page flashes with the keen edge of satire, another brims over with mirth, and a third is tearful with pathos.
We have shown Fanny at home, on the street, and in church, and have thus furnished a key which will unlock many of the mysteries of “Ruth Hall,” and “Fern Leaves.”
