Telling “a still more dismal story”: Cultural Role-Playing and Surrogate Narration in Kemble's Georgian Journal

In September of 1832, esteemed British actress Fanny Kemble arrived on American soil for the first time, generally displeased with much of what “this new world” had to offer. ¹ Her descriptions of that initial trip to New York City abound with disparaging comments concerning the food’s “infinitely inferior” quality to that of the English, the lodging’s “want of style and neatness which is found in every hotel in England,” and even the likeness of the waiters to “half-savage highland lads.” ² Such descriptions, which appear in the Journal of Frances Anne Kemble (1835), quickly established Kemble’s reputation as an anti-American snob who was as notorious for her derogatory estimations of “that dreadful America” as she was respected for her Juliet. ³