James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)

James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)

Their marriage disintegrating, Leopold and Molly Bloom remember when they were in love and picnicked on Howth Head. They vividly remember Molly feeding Bloom a seedcake. (Joyce considered this sensual, but the visual image is of a bird feeding its young.) Bloom and...
Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” (1922)

Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” (1922)

Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” describes the Sheridan family’s Wellington, New Zealand, summer picnic garden party. The day is early summer, the weather ideal, the air warm and windless, and the blue sky has a veil of gold: “They could...
Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April (1922)

Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April (1922)

There is no picnic in von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. When the narrative ends, the four women vacationing at San Salvatore pack up and leave for London. But Mike Newell’s film ends with a picnic. For a discussion, see Picnicsonfilm.org. See Elizabeth von...
Emily Post’s Etiquette>/em> (1922) mm

Emily Post’s Etiquette>/em> (1922) mm

“Regard for Others” is Post’s picnic advice heading. It’s not what you might expect because it’s about trash! “People who picnic along the highway leaving a clutter of greasy paper and swill (not a pretty name,” Post sputters, “but it is not a pretty object! for...
Gertrude Stein’s “Every Afternoon. A Dialogue” (1922)

Gertrude Stein’s “Every Afternoon. A Dialogue” (1922)

Stein is a demanding writer, especially when she experimented with eliminating adjectives, imagery, and grammar. She argued that you either got her meaning or you didn’t. The results were hit or miss. They still are. Ben Hecht reviewing Geography and Plays...
May E. Southworth’s The Motorist’s Luncheon Book (1923)

May E. Southworth’s The Motorist’s Luncheon Book (1923)

Southworth’s The Motorist’s Luncheon Book hypes motor picnicking. “The love of the great outdoors grows with each new automobile,” she writes, “The friendly road beckons, the trusty motor champs at the brake.” It’s very like...
Colette’s The Ripening Seed (1923)

Colette’s The Ripening Seed (1923)

It’s a momentous picnic for a young couple to understand they are courting in Colette’s The Ripening Seed. With the summer half gone, Phil Adebert (sixteen and a half) and Vinca Ferret (fifteen and a half) pack their picnic baskets and walk down the rocky cliffs  like...
George Bellows Picnic [Cooper Lake, Woodstock, NY] (1924)

George Bellows Picnic [Cooper Lake, Woodstock, NY] (1924)

Bellows’s The Picnic is an example of a stylistic experiment with the technique of distorting the field of vision. He called Dynamic Symmetry. The picnic suggests a panoramic view of Cooper Lake, Woodstock’s water source. * The picnic is a family affair. Bellows is...
Erich von Stroheim’s Greed (1924)

Erich von Stroheim’s Greed (1924)

Von Stroheim’s picnic at Schuetzen Park is a loose adaptation of Frank Norris’s episode in McTeague. For the film, von Stroheim does not provide the food details. In the novel McTeague, Norris describes the Sieppe’s abundant picnic: clam chowder,...
E. M. Forster’s Passage to India (1924)

E. M. Forster’s Passage to India (1924)

The Caves” section A Passage to India is an extended metaphor for the irreconcilability of the English and the Indians in India. The excursion to the Barabar Caves is a series of miscues, misunderstandings, and failed friendships between Dr. Aziz, Mrs. Moore,...