The Golden Honeymoon (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

At a glance:

Unlike “Some Like Them Cold,” “The Golden Honeymoon” is an example of Lardner the light humorist who has a hopeful view of human nature. Lucy and Charley Frost travel from New Jersey to Florida to enjoy their golden wedding anniversary in the warm sunshine of Tampa. However, early in their trip they run into the Hartsells. Fifty years before, Charley had won Lucy away from Frank Hartsell, to whom Lucy had been engaged. In true Lardner fashion, pettiness and jealousy prevail, and Charley and Frank spend several days trying to prove that the other is the lesser man. Naturally, they only embarrass themselves, and when Charley finally confronts Frank directly, telling him that if he was really the better man he would never have lost Lucy to him, the explosion the reader has been anticipating is at hand.

Finding out that she was Frank's second choice, Mrs. Hartsell is mortified. Charley accuses Lucy of liking Frank better than him; Lucy accuses Charley of being stupid. However, Charley and Lucy reconcile, laugh at themselves, and enjoy the rest of their honeymoon. Their love proves to be stronger than their fears.

Bibliography

Cervo, Nathan. “Lardner's ’Haircut.’” Explicator 47, no. 2 (Winter, 1989): 47-48.

Cowlinshaw, Brian T. “The Reader's Role in Ring Lardner's Rhetoric.” Studies in Short Fiction 31, no. 2 (Spring, 1994): 207-216.

Evans, Elizabeth. Ring Lardner. New York: Ungar, 1979.

Jones, David A., and Leverett T. Smith, Jr. “Jack Keefe and Roy Hobbs: Two All-American Boys.” Aethlon 6, no. 2 (Spring, 1989): 119-137.

Lardner, Ring, Jr. The Lardners: My Family Remembered. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Robinson, Douglas. Ring Lardner and the Other. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Yardley, Jonathon. Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner. New York: Random House, 1977.