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The Beautiful Lady

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"The Beautiful Lady", is another of the short novels from Booth Tarkington's early career. It was originally published in two parts, December of 1904 and January of 1905, in "Harper's Magazine", and then as Tarkington's fifth book in May of 1905. As with many of Tarkington's other works, it is a bit too predictable, though in this case that doesn't detract too much from the story.

The story appears to sets up a love triangle (or in this case it may be a love square), but it does deviate from that a bit. The story is told from the point of the Italian, Ansolini from Naples, living in Paris who due to being down on his luck is forced into a most embarrassing position of acting as a billboard by shaving his head and having an advertisement for a show placed on the back of his bald head. It is while performing this job, that he nearly meets the "beautiful lady", though he keeps his head down and sees only her feet and the hem of her skirt and hears her lovely voice as it has sympathy for his plight. In fact, Ansolini's feelings are appreciative of her beautiful soul, and not that of romance.

The job gets him out of his immediate need for cash, but he is resolved to find a better line of work, and after writing to a friend he is setup for a position where he needs to appear much older, and so he continues to keep his head shaven as to appear older. The job is for him to take care of Mr. Lambert R. Poor's son and keep him out of trouble. The son, Rufus, is likely older than Ansolini is. Ansolini fails miserably at this job, until he learns that the son recognized Ansolini from his previous job, and knows that he isn't as old as he pretended to be. They become friends, and we learn that Rufus Poor also has a woman who he is set on, and to no surprise for anyone who has read Tarkington before that their feelings are for the same woman, Mrs. Landry.

Next, the reader learns that there is another man who appears to be about to become engaged to Mrs. Landry, and again the reader who knows Tarkington knows exactly who this man is. Ansolini is touched by the beautiful soul of Mrs. Landry, and ultimately he comes to her defense to protect her, not for himself, and not initially for Rufus Poor, but for the kindness she showed him with her sympathy for him when he was at his lowest point. It is a fairly quick read, though a bit too predictable. There are better choices if you are looking for an introduction to Tarkington, but there are worse ones as well.