Let me get one thing straight. This is not your average short stories book. These are hilarious short stories with absolutely no point.That's why, I think, its popular (as a classic).Ok, I admit, I didn't really understand head or tail of the book until I got through seven or eight stories. This book doesn't really have a summary, but I can tell you about one of my favorites.
It's called Transients In Arcadia. It takes place in a hotel near Broadway in New York City. This hotel is the only one left that hasn't been ravaged by tourists. It's star visitor is one named Madame Beaumont. She stays only for a week, and meanwhile wearing the most splendid dresses during the day.
During her visit once, she meets a proper gentleman with whom she becomes good friends. Finally, on the day that she is to leave, she tells him her full story. She is actually an ordinary working girl named Mamie Siviter, but once in a year she treats herself to this hotel where she pretends to be the lady she is not. She says that she only wants a vacation for one week.
All her dresses are actually from a cheap store called O'Dowd & Levinsky. She has put up her dresses on an installment plan and she is to pay $1 a week until it is paid for. She trusts the $1 to him and is about to leave when he quickly does some writing and gives a slip of paper to her. He confesses that he has now been the collector for O'Dowd & Levinsky for three years. He, like her, just plans a vacation for a week each year. She is surprised, but goes along with it and they continue to be friends.
