Other editions of book Our hearts were young and gay 1943

Actress Cornelia Otis Skinner and journalist Emily Kimbrough offer a lighthearted, hilarious memoir of their European tour in the 1920s, when they were fresh out of college from Bryn Mawr. Some of the more amusing anecdotes involve a pair of rabbit-skin capes that begin shedding at the most inopportune moments and an episode in which the girls are stranded atop Notre Dame cathedral at midnight. And, of course, there's romance, in the form of handsome young doctor Tom Newhall and college "Lothario" Avery Moore.

A sparkling - true - account of a trip to Europe. A mere summary of the adventures of the starry-eyed Emily and the almost equally unworldly Cornelia would convey nothing of the delicious quality of the book and its illustrations. The account of their travels is ridiculous and enchanting. Whether you laugh till you cry because it is all so funny, or cry for the zest and simplicities that may never come your way again, you will almost certainly end up by laughing, because the authors laugh so abandonedly at themselves, and understand nonsense as well as the dignity of youth and sights that can raise the heart. The Ulverscroft Large Print Series offers famous books by well-known writers for those who no longer find it possible to read from a normal print size.