Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Audiobook Book

3.75 stars. In this 1938 book, the proper Miss Pettigrew, a 40 year old faded and timid governess who's fallen into desperate poverty, is sent to a new job by her employment agency.



The address she's given is for a sexy nightclub singer, Miss LaFosse, who's in the throes of Man Troubles: she's juggling two lovers, with a third hopefully waiting in the wings. Miss Pettigrew is scandalized but intrigued. Miss LaFosse begs Miss Pettigrew to help her out:



... and somehow Miss Pettigrew rises to the occasion. A friendship starts to form, and one thing leads to another in the most crazy, wonderful day the downtrodden Miss Pettigrew has ever experienced in her life.

In so many ways this novel is delightful, fluffy fun, with a delicious sense of humor. It's wonderful to see Miss Pettigrew start to blossom, Cinderella-like; even a makeover is included in the fun: Miss Pettigrew, rapt, thrilled, transported, gazed at herself as her dreams had painted her. A lump came into her throat. Her eyes became misty.

'Guinevere,' screamed Miss Dubarry in a panic. 'For God's sake, control yourself.'

'Guinevere,' gasped Miss LaFosse. 'Control, I implore you. Your make-up. Remember your duty to your make-up.'

Miss Pettigrew made a valiant effort. 'Most certainly,' said Miss Pettigrew with dignity. 'England expects!'Unfortunately, the occasional, casual racism (against Italians in particular - the word "dago" is used) and anti-Semitism (this guy looks like he has Jewish blood! Oh noes!!) left a bad taste in my mouth. I give older books somewhat of a pass on being dated and non-PC, but I'm still shaking my head over the wholehearted embrace of racist ideas by our heroine. (Whether the author agreed with Miss Pettigrew is, I suppose, up for debate. See the thread for discussion.) A lot of readers are able to handwave this kind of thing in an older book, and it's occasional here (maybe 6 or 8 different passages in the book), but be advised. If you're going to be deeply offended by this sort of thing, or by things like a man physically trying to shake some sense into the woman he loves, you should probably give this a hard pass.

Miss Pettigrew, like Valancy in L.M. Montgomery's delightful The Blue Castle, is a dispirited, bullied woman ready to start breaking society's rules. The company Miss Pettigrew starts keeping lives a fast lifestyle, but ultimately the story affirms friendship and old-fashioned values, which I wouldn't have expected initially.



The Kindle version of this novel (which is far too expensive for an 80 year old novel) does have the original illustrations, which are delightful. On the down side, it really needs another round of copy editing. If you have a choice, get a hard copy.