The Sapphire Bracelet

[from review in the San Francisco Call and Post, 13 Nov 1910] Few writers of the day have such complete mastery of comedy as Edward Salisbury Field. His short stories have been the delight of magazine readers for several years, and it is a pleasure to find one within the cover of a book. "The Sapphire Bracelet" is scarcely the length of half an average novel of the day, but longer than the average magazine short story, and we close the book on the last page of it with the keenest regret that the tale is done.

If a young girl at the summer resort walks out to her own particular pet retreat and finds a young man asleep in her very own hammock you wouldn't blame her if she was quite put out, now, would you? And if after shaking the hammock until he awakened she found he was amusing to talk with you couldn't blame her, either, could you? To make an excuse for conversation the young lady pretends that she thinks he is a detective she has sent for to find a sapphire bracelet which she describes as having been stolen from her. He, to prolong the conversation, pretends to be the detective, and gets an accurate description for the bracelet before they part. When we learn that the bracelet described is a real one being worn by another guest at the summer resort, and she as suspicious-looking character, we may know there are going to be complications -- and there are. It is all told in the lightest, gayest fashion possible. There is not one jarring note in the whole pleasing little comedy.

The book is daintily bound and printed on decorated pages and contains some good illustrations by Will Grefé.

The Sapphire Bracelet is another of Field's tasty little bonbons of books. Decorated pages -- all ribbons and cherubs (with magnifying glasses! in winged racecars!) -- illustrated in best knock-off Gibson style, sparkling dialogue, frolics of the idle rich, short enough to be consumed in a sweet single bite. Fields wrote five, by my count of these little...if not gems, brilliants, and though they're the ultimate beach (or stolen-hammock!) read, they were actually marketed for December: "A Sure Holiday Winner" "Its handsome getup is certain to make it the prime Christmas gift in fiction." As best I can tell, he wrote one a year from 1906-1911 (skipping 1908) and they seem to have been popular: many copies in good-to-excellent condition are still floating around out there at decent prices. Some even still "Handsomely boxed". I don't know about Christmas, but Valentine's or Easter? With a box of See's? Perfection.

For more on Fields and his style, see my review of Cupid's Understudy, and know that Sapphire runs in the same lively and amusing vein. Fields seems to have personally favored, strong, smart women, and Sapphire features, again, a beautiful, clever young New Woman and the "agreeably stupid young man" who falls head-over for her. The plotting and repartee have all the evanescence of early Hollywood (Field also wrote for the screen) and, while the details won't stick with you even overnight, that will just make it more fun to read again next summer.

Great early-automobile talk: at one point, our agreeably stupid hero is TIED TO HIS SEAT in his car with its tow-rope so he can sleep on the (chauffeured) night drive up to New York without falling out. (72)

Flag: Very brief old terminology and dialect used re. train porter.

Appeal: If you know where I can find a reasonably-priced The Pursuit of Priscilla (1906), please reach out!