The Sunny Side: Short Stories and Poems for Proper Grown-Ups Book

Some of my earliest literary memories are of my mother reading all the original Winnie-the-Pooh books aloud to me, but I didn't discover A.A. Milne's writings for adults until just a few years ago. The Sunny Side is a collection of his short stories and poems for the magazine Punch, and I absolutely love it. It's classic dry British humor and sweet satire on a variety of subjects. The section 'Men of Letters', dealing with all matters literary, is of course a favorite. 'The Complete Dramatist,' a tongue-in-cheek article on the fine art of stagecraft, is one of the most hilarious pieces in the book.

Now the object of [the] soliloquy is plain. The dramatist wished us to know the thoughts which were passing through Hamlet's mind, and it was the only way he could think of in which to do it. Of course, a really good actor can often give a clue to the feelings of a character simply by facial expression. There are ways of shifting the eyebrows, distending the nostrils, and exploring the lower molars with the tongue by which it is possible to denote respectively Surprise, Defiance and Doubt. Indeed, irresolution being the keynote of Hamlet's soliloquy, a clever player could to some extent indicate the whole thirty lines by a silent working of the jaw. But at the same time it would be idle to deny that he would miss the finer shades of the dramatist's meaning. "The insolence of office, and the spurns"'to take only one line'would tax the most elastic face.

By the time he gets through with Hamlet, and has gone through "Entrances and Exits"'well, by the time you get to the finer points of the stage meal I dare you not to be laughing aloud. And that's only one part. There's a section of stories based on Milne's experiences in the army in WWI, pieces on ordinary life at home involving letter-boxes, telephones and neighbors' pianos, and a series of stories on the adventures of some amusing characters vacationing on the French Riviera'all of which have that wonderful sophisticated between-the-wars flavor of the British middle and upper classes. If that's as much your taste as it is mine, or if you're a 'Proper Grown-Up' (as the subtitle says) who still enjoys Pooh, you'll love The Sunny Side.