Rating: 
Summary: A treat to read the original novel!
Review: I just finished Richard Tyler Jordan's delightful, illuminating and photo-filled new (2004) paperback original, BUT DARLING, I'M YOUR AUNTIE MAME: THE AMAZING HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAVORITE MADCAP AUNT and I learned so much about how the Auntie Mame character was created by Patrick Dennis (a.k.a. Edward Tanner) and how she evolved from the novel to a Broadway play, smash hit movie with Rosalind Russell, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical starring Angela Lansbury and finally a movie musical starring Lucille Ball. That book sent me back to the original material and I'm glad it did, because both AUNTIE MAME and AROUND THE WORLD WITH AUNTIE MAME are gems worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good....
Review: I liked it, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought I would be reading a book about an orphan who is forced to live with his cruel, lazy, alcoholic aunt. All in all, it's still a pretty entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I liked it, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought I would be reading a book about an orphan who is forced to live with his cruel, lazy, alcoholic aunt. However, it's much better. The aunt is sweet and wise and loads of fun. I love the little pearls of wisdom scattered throughout. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Compulsary reading material
Review: I read the Mame books when I was 12, after my first attempt my mother took them away, said I was too young, after a while she gave in and promised I could read them during the school vacation. Since then I've reread them every couple of years and every time it feels like a vacation. Back then in the late sixties I had the same list of difficult words as young Patrick, looked them up in the dictionary and learned a lot !!! Auntie Mame was and is a fascinating rolemodel, a deliciously open-minded free spirit and there absolutely should be more people like her in this world.
Rating:
Summary: Laugh Aloud Read - A Jolly Good Read At That!
Review: I remember checking out this book from my hometown library while in high school. Never have I read a book that made me laugh out loud! I remember my wife and I were laying in bed one evening after putting down our three children. I picked up this book and started reading. I was laughing outloud so much my wife had to jab me in the ribs to "pipe down! You'll wake the kids!" I would love to have a hardbound copy as my softbound copy is coming apart.
Rating:
Summary: This ain't the Movie
Review: If you are buying this book because of the movie, go ahead, but the book is not the movie. In the mid to late 50's people would read this book with a cover over it. The book was considered to be very Risque'when it was published. If you saw the movie before you read this book as I did, Rosilind Russell will always be Auntie Mame. There is a lot in the book that could not have made it to the movie or play.
One of the funniest parts that comes to mind is Patrick sneaking in and out of Agnes Gouches hotel room, but I won't go into that. And if you thought Beau was innocent at the foxhunt, and Sally the guilty one your in for a surprise. The sequel to this book "Around the World With Auntie Mame" is equally entertaining if you can find it.
Rating:
Summary: The Original Mame
Review: Patrick Dennis' famous "Auntie Mame" has so many incarnations that it can be hard to keep track. In the 1950s there was a famous stage version and still more famous film version, both starring the illustrious Rosalind Russell; in the 1960s there was an extremely popular stage musical starring Angela Lansbury and then a critically disasterous screen musical starring Lucille Ball. But this is the first, the original: AUNTIE MAME, one the 1950s' most talked-about books, a true runaway bestseller and one of the great classics of American humor.The episodic book concerns an orphaned child, Patrick Dennis, who is sent to live with an aunt he has never before seen in 1920s New York--and the aunt is Mame Dennis, a fast-living, intellectually sharp, and decidedly eccentric woman beset by both the fads and fashions of the day and the money and social connections with which to indulge them. Although time has rather blunted the actual way in which Patrick Dennis writes (his framing device of a magazine article is more than a little tiresome), it certainly has not blunted the character herself: madcap Mame runs riot through the roaring twenties, goes through largely self-induced hysteria during the Depression, works for the boys during World War II, and along the way gets involves in art movements, theatrical performances, fox hunts, Southern country society, war orphans, a wealthy husband, an Irish poet, a college lover, and most famously her beloved nephew's unfortunate engagement to the shallow and snobbish Gloria Upson. Each comic disaster is more memorable than the last, and Mame herself lingers in the mind as an inspiration to live life to the fullest no matter the consequences. Fans of the Rosalind Russell film version will quickly realize that Russell has captured the character perfectly; the book, however, is at once less structured and considerably broader than the Russell playscript and film. Very episodic and considered quite riske for its time, it contains a number of adventures (such as Mame's seduction of one of Patrick's college friends or her introduction of Patrick to the Maddox sisters) that never made it to any performance version. Both fans of the various plays and films and even the completely uninitiated will adore meeting the sparkling original, certainly one of the greatest comic creations in 20th Century literature. AUNTIE MAME deserves a special place on the shelf of any one who enjoys a range of humor that runs from sly giggles to screaming laughter. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Original Mame
Review: Patrick Dennis' famous "Auntie Mame" has so many incarnations that it can be hard to keep track. In the 1950s there was a famous stage version and still more famous film version, both starring the illustrious Rosalind Russell; in the 1960s there was an extremely popular stage musical starring Angela Lansbury and then a critically disasterous screen musical starring Lucille Ball. But this is the first, the original: AUNTIE MAME, one the 1950s' most talked-about books, a true runaway bestseller and one of the great classics of American humor. The episodic book concerns an orphaned child, Patrick Dennis, who is sent to live with an aunt he has never before seen in 1920s New York--and the aunt is Mame Dennis, a fast-living, intellectually sharp, and decidedly eccentric woman beset by both the fads and fashions of the day and the money and social connections with which to indulge them. Although time has rather blunted the actual way in which Patrick Dennis writes (his framing device of a magazine article is more than a little tiresome), it certainly has not blunted the character herself: madcap Mame runs riot through the roaring twenties, goes through largely self-induced hysteria during the Depression, works for the boys during World War II, and along the way gets involves in art movements, theatrical performances, fox hunts, Southern country society, war orphans, a wealthy husband, an Irish poet, a college lover, and most famously her beloved nephew's unfortunate engagement to the shallow and snobbish Gloria Upson. Each comic disaster is more memorable than the last, and Mame herself lingers in the mind as an inspiration to live life to the fullest no matter the consequences. Fans of the Rosalind Russell film version will quickly realize that Russell has captured the character perfectly; the book, however, is at once less structured and considerably broader than the Russell playscript and film. Very episodic and considered quite riske for its time, it contains a number of adventures (such as Mame's seduction of one of Patrick's college friends or her introduction of Patrick to the Maddox sisters) that never made it to any performance version. Both fans of the various plays and films and even the completely uninitiated will adore meeting the sparkling original, certainly one of the greatest comic creations in 20th Century literature. AUNTIE MAME deserves a special place on the shelf of any one who enjoys a range of humor that runs from sly giggles to screaming laughter. Strongly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: Since it was reprinted, the topic of Mame Dennis has crept into a lot of online reviews and conversations over cocktails. I recently got into a screaming match on an airplane over the topic of Mame's relevance today. Even some of the reviews on this site are less than flattering and I want to answer them all by suggesting that the authors (and readers) read the book again. Mame is an icon, even today. She is our Alice in Wonderland all grown up, smarter, wittier and more interesting than Mary Poppins, and I wish that she had been sent to Oz instead of that Dorothy girl or allowed to poke around the back of C.S. Lewis' wardrobe. No other heroine of modern fiction would have kept the Japanese Ito in her employ, or stood up to such ugly anti-Semitism in polite New York society. She rallies behind a pregnant Agnes Gooch and looks after her nephew (and a whole lot of other children during the war) as few other figures might have; dominating four decades as no other could have, she knows the benefit of a good drink and the power of humour in bleak times. This book and its title character are as remarkable today as when the book was first released, and I daresay that she will be for a long time to come.
Rating:
Summary: A TIMELESS CLASSIC!!!
Review: This book was one of the most enjoyable books that I've read all year! Patrick Dennis created the most interesting, risque, fun, and suprising character with Auntie Mame. This book was a fast, easy, and enjoyable read to say the least. This is my first Patrick Dennis book and I have to say that before I even finished it, I had already went out and bought the sequel. For anyone who wants a little adventure in their reading, this is the book for you.
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