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unearths some literary gems.
From Ring for Nancy: A Sheer Comedy*, by Ford Madox Hueffer**
[*aka The Panel: A Sheer Comedy][**aka Ford Madox Ford][This is a strange book. At its best moments, it's not unlike the Lucia/Mapp novels, but much of it is rather a sordid, and at times tedious, soap opera. The best scene (see link below) I recommend in full; and, speaking as a writer, I suspect that scene might have originated as a freestanding story or humor piece that got wedged in here.]***"Oh, my aunt!" [...] "Oh, my uncle!"[It turns out these oaths are at least partially allusive to an actual aunt and uncle.]***"No, I was born in Peckham," the manager answered,--"silly Peckham."[I'm not sure why Peckham is or was silly, but I'll take it. Fwiw, Wikipedia does note that "the late 19th century also saw the arrival of George Batty, a manufacturer of condiments."]***[Okay, now for the "big scene," which follows up a railway-station incident early in the book and relates to the attached Henry James business (thus raising a chicken-and-egg question regarding the inclusion of that, as well as this, in the book to begin with). The link should take you to Part III, chap. IV:]https://archive.org/details/ringfornancyshee00fordrich/page/278/mode/1up?view=theater[Many snippets attached. Note: While I wouldn't put it past the showbiz folks, then or now, to turn the short story "Pigs Is Pigs" into a full-blown musical comedy, I find no evidence that this actually happened--so Ford is pulling our leg with that, and the songs can be filed under Nonexistent Songs from Nonexistent Musicals Based on Actual Literature.]
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