Bambi: [Illustrated] - Marjorie Benton Cooke

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Résumé :
Professor James Parkhurst, I consider you a colossal failure as an educator, said Francesca, his daughter, known to friend and family as Bambina, or Bambi for short. Professor Parkhurst lifted a startled face from his newspaper and surveyed his only child across the breakfast table. My dear, what causes this sweeping assertion of my incompetence? I do! I do! Just what did you expect me to do when I grew up? Why, to be happy. That's the profession you intended me for? Who's to pay the piper? It's expensive to be happy and also unlucrative. I have always expected to support you until your husband claimed that privilege. Suppose I want a husband who can't support me? Dear me, that would be unfortunate. It is the first duty of a husband to support his wife. Old-fashioned husbands, yes-but not modern ones. Lots of men marry to be supported nowadays. How on earth could I support the man I love? You are not without talents, my dear. Talents? You almost said accomplishments! If you were not living in the Pliocene age, Professor James Parkhurst, you would know that accomplishments are a curse-accomplishment is the only thing that counts. I can sing a little, play the piano a little, auction bridge a good deal; I can cook, and sew fancy things. The only thing I can do well is to dance, and no real man wants to be supported by his wife's toes. The Professor smiled mirthlessly. Is this a general discussion, or are you leading to a specific point, Bambi? he inquired.

Biographie:
Marjorie Benton Cooke (1876 - April 1920) was an American monologist, playwright, and novelist. A specialist in comic dramatic sketches and light romantic fiction.
She was born in Richmond, Indiana to Joseph Henry Cooke and Jessie Benton Cooke and attended the University of Chicago, graduating with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1899.

She began working as a journalist soon after and by 1902 was touring the United States as a monologist. Several of her monologues and one-act plays were published in booklets and collected form. Her first novel, The Girl Who Lived in the Woods, was published by A. C. McClurg & Co. in 1910 and, like many of her future works, concerned the overcoming of conflicts between an unorthodox romantic couple.