Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

Patrick Dennis

Feb 2002 · Sold by Crown

About this eBook

With a wit as sharp as a vodka stinger and a heart as free as her spirit, Auntie Mame burst onto the literary scene in 1955--and today remains one of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary fiction.

Wildly successful when it was first published in 1955, Patrick Dennis’ Auntie Mame sold over two million copies and stayed put on the New York Times bestseller list for 112 weeks. It was made into a play, a Broadway and a Hollywood musical, and a fabulous movie starring Rosalind Russell. Since then, Mame has taken her rightful place in the pantheon of Great and Important People as the world’s most beloved, madcap, devastatingly sophisticated, and glamorous aunt. She is impossible to resist, and this hilarious story of an orphaned ten-year-old boy sent to live with his aunt is as delicious a read in the twenty-first century as it was in the 1950s.

Follow the rollicking adventures of this unflappable flapper as seen through the wide eyes of her young, impressionable nephew and discover anew or for the first time why Mame has made the world a more wonderful place.

"Outrageous, hilarious, ribald, sophisticated, slapsatiric." The Denver Post

Ratings and reviews

I read this book in high school. It has stayed with me, becoming my favorite book. A young boy is sent to live with his aunt after becoming parentless. She is an eccentric socialite who treats him like an adult. I love their relationship and how he keeps up with her, through letters, in his later years. ***Side note--you will build your vocabulary if you, like me, read this in your younger years. His eclectic aunt plays host to the rich and famous with salacious parties at her home. It is a captivating read.

I really love this book. I first saw the movie when I was a kid and was struck dumb by Auntie Mame; the book has struck me dumb again. Dennis created a character who steps outside the pages with her incredible Mame coolness.

I was raised on the movie. Reading the source material enriches and broadens my perception of the content wonderfully. Though I think the movie improved on the wit and pacing, I can't say a bad word about this fun, eternally modern book.

About the author

Patrick Dennis, the fictional narrator of Auntie Mame and Little Me, was the pen name of Edward Everett Tanner III (1921–1976). One of the most eccentric, celebrated, and widely read authors of the 1950s and '60s, Tanner wrote sixteen novels in all, a majority of which were national bestsellers.