Miss Cayley’s Adventures, written in 1899, is so adorable that if it were a person I’d marry it. I loved this book so much, particularly the first half, which is pure delight. In the second half of the book, Miss Cayley’s travels bring us face to face with some racial issues which are treated somewhat progressively but fall far short of achieving a successful resolution. While the book is quite progressive in terms of race given the year in which it was written, I will be addressing some failings on the part of our heroine to fully accept a character from India as her peer.

Miss Cayley’s Adventures starts with these delightful words, “On the day when I found myself with twopence in my pocket, I naturally made up my mind to go around the world.”

Miss Cayley’s stepfather left her well-educated but penniless. Having no desire to teach, Miss Cayley decides to be an adventuress. Miss Cayley heads into London to see what opportunities she might encounter, and sure enough, she overhears a Cantankerous Lady complaining that she can’t find a decent companion to travel with her to Germany. Miss Cayley introduces herself to this lady, and her adventures begin. Miss Cayley foils many dastardly schemes by a con man who appears everywhere she goes, and she earns her way as a lady’s companion, a seller of bicycles, a reporter, and a stenographer. Her travels take her through Europe, to Egypt, and to India.

“Adventures are for the adventurous. They abound on every side; but only the chosen few have the courage to embrace them. And they will not come to you: you must go out to seek them. Then they meet you half-way, and rush into your arms, for they know their true lovers.”

While this isn’t a romance novel, it does have a delightful and unconventional romance. You see, the Cantankerous Lady has a nephew, Harold. Harold and Miss Cayley hit it off right away, but the Cantankerous Lady fears that Miss Cayley is after Harold’s money. Even after she declares that she was only trying some reverse psychology on the couple, Miss Cayley insists that she can never marry Harold while he is wealthy. But, if he lost all his money and social standing, she would show her loyalty by marrying him on the instant. Harold is crazy about Miss Cayley. Although he goes his way and she goes hers, he just keeps popping up wherever she is, and he’s frequently in need of rescue. He appreciates Miss Cayley’s unconventional ways:

“A man ought to wish the woman he loves to be a free agent, his equal in point of action, even as she is better and nobler than he in all spiritual matters. I think he ought to desire for her a life as high as she is capable of leading, with full scope for every faculty of her intellect or her emotional nature.”

 

One of the joys of the story is how progressive it is in terms of women’s rights, given the year in which it’s written. Miss Cayley loves the Cantankerous Old Lady, who is shrewd and stubborn, and she loves her best friend, who is frail and nervous, and she saves Harold from falling off a cliff as well as from other trials.

When it comes to racial issues, the book is more of a mixed bag. Miss Cayley dislikes Egypt, where she rescues a white woman from captivity. In India, she encounters an Indian prince who was educated in Britain at the same school as Harold. It drives Miss Cayley absolutely crazy that she can’t figure out how to categorize this person, who looks Indian and acts British. Miss Cayley may claim to love new experiences, but this social challenge makes her very uncomfortable and annoyed.

However, despite her inward confusion and annoyance, she treats the prince with respect. In one scene, he thanks her for not calling him the “n-word” (in Britain, that word meant any foreigner with dark skin, particularly people from Asia and Africa, as seen in this Wikipedia article and a more detailed article about the use of the word in literature from the 1920s). Trigger warnings for discussion of racism, including use of the “n-word”:

Miss Cayley, you are new to India, and therefore-as yet-no doubt unprejudiced. You treat a native gentleman, I see, like a human being. I hope you will not stop long enough in our country to get over that stage-as happens to most of you countrymen and countrywomen. In England, a man like myself is an Indian prince; in India, to ninety-nine out of a hundred Europeans, he is just ‘a damned nigger.’

I smiled sympathetically. ‘I think,’ I said, venturing under these circumstances on a harmless little swear word-of course in quotation marks-‘you may trust me never to reach “damn nigger” point.’

‘So I believe,’ he answered, ‘if you are a friend of Harold Tillington’s. Ebony or ivory, he never forgot we were two men together.’

 

This is a pretty remarkable passage for 1899. It’s even more remarkable (and a masterful example of satirical, heart-breaking humor) when moments later The Cantankerous Lady’s other nephew, who Miss Cayley despises and who sees himself as a rival for Harold, walks up to her and uses the very word that Miss Cayley and the prince have been discussing.   Miss Cayley is neither charmed nor amused.

But she is also not entirely a paragon of racial harmony. She is polite to the prince because she is polite to everyone unless she has specific cause to be rude. She’s shocked by some of the behaviors of the Indian prince, especially his callous attitude towards villagers eaten by a tiger: “Then I perceived that The Maharajah was a gentlemen, but still a barbarian.”

I was sad that Miss Cayley never fully accepted the prince as her equal, (this is why I gave the book an A rather than an A+), but I was also immensely touched by his character. Of course I was thrilled by the escapades of Miss Cayley, and even better I was wildly entertained. The book is romantic, funny, exciting, and interesting. The illustrations, by Gordon Browne, are charming.  Miss Cayley never has to repent for her daring – her actions have consequences but always ones she can cope with, and she revels in a happy ending. The book is sparkling and hopeful and for the most part, it made me happy.