Esther awakens in the tastefully furnished Jacobs household to enjoy her awareness of her body and to chastise Katy for becoming a victim of strong drink. This episode ends with Esther musing further on what she’s made of her life and the wonder she feels about her lot as a beautiful, talented, admired woman (bMS Am 1883 [933]). Following their separate awakenings, Fritz and Esther come together. He proudly reads reviews of her stage designs for an otherwise undistinguished play. Together, they revel in her success. On his way to his office, he thinks about the lies, thefts, and chicanery of his driver, dismissing his behavior as typical of servants. Upon reaching his office, he meets a fellow broker, Rosenthal, who is a bona fide crackpot. Tales of Rosenthal’s crazy behavior are told by his Irish secretary (bMS Am 1883 [934]).

As arranged in the Wisdom Collection, the next manuscript indicates further development of the story.

Synopsis

1. Before sunrise

2. Morning [Jacob’s Dream
[Character of Jacobs The Day
[Jacobs getting up
Mrs. Esther Jacobs
Esther with Jacobs
Esther’s morning-canceled
Esther with Alma, Edith, Freddy
Esther’s morning

3. Noon

4. Afternoon

5. Evening

The chronological scheme set down here would hold throughout Wolfe’s many revisions and provide a classic touch to his use of time, less than twenty-four hours from the awakening scenes to George Webber’s farewell words to Esther Jack. In outline form as Wolfe looked forward to embodying this material in his chronicle of his new protagonist’s (George Webber’s) life, that scheme appears in the William Wisdom Collection of Wolfe manuscripts at the Houghton Library under the index bMS Am 1883 (1336).

Part IV
You Can’t Go Home Again
(1930–1938)
Book
The Party at Jack’s (1930)

Chapters:

Morning

Morning: Jack Asleep

Morning: Jack Erect

Morning: Jack Afloat

Morning: Mrs. Jack Awake

Morning: Mrs. Jack And The Maid

Morning: Jack And His Wife

Morning: The World That Jack Built

The Great Building (April, 1930)

The Elevator Men

Before The Party (Mrs. Jack And The Maids)

Piggy Logan

The Family (Mrs. Jack, Alma, etc.)

The Party Beginning

The Guests Arriving

The Lover

Mr. Hirsch Was Wounded Sorrowfully

Piggy Logan’s Circus

The Guests Departing: The Fire

The Fire: The Outpouring of the Honeycomb

The Fire: The Tunneled Rock

After The Fire: These Two Together

This outline probably reflects the story as Wolfe had shaped it before leaving New York for a speaking engagement at Purdue University in 1938. (It is the basis of our reconstruction of The Party at Jack’s.)

Exactly how Wolfe arrived at this scheme cannot be precisely traced in surviving versions of the story. The central event, a party and fire at the Park Avenue apartment of Aline Bernstein, his mistress and patron, occurred on 3 January 1930 and was to be included as part of Eugene Gant’s story. But over a period of years, Wolfe added actions and characters, finally reshaping the story to show shifts in characterization, symbolic import, and values (more about these later). Although he had settled on a time scheme, he remained uncertain about whether his fictional surrogate would attend the party and witness the fire. One draft (bMS Am 1883 [985]) follows the storyline from preparation for the party through Piggy Logan’s circus on to the fire and its aftermath. In this version, Esther telephones her lover to report on the party and to tell him about the unexpected fire. With George Webber not on the scene, Stephen Hook figures more prominently here than in the version where Esther’s lover makes a belated appearance at the party. As he filled out the action, Wolfe faced decisions about what his surrogate would do once Wolfe had decided to have him appear. How would he show his resentment that Esther had insisted that he be there? With whom would he converse? How much would he eat and drink? How would he respond to Piggy Logan and his wire circus act? What would he do during the fire and its aftermath? How would he reveal his decision to break with Esther? In one episode involving Esther’s lover—not called George or Eugene—Esther, seeing her lover and Lily Mandell talking together, comes to them, calls them her best friends, and wishes they could know each other better. She senses the raw sexual attraction between Lily and her lover and leads them off to a bedroom, where they become the two-backed animal.