Oliver Barrett IV, a Harvard student from a wealthy WASP family, fell in love with Jennifer, a Radcliffe music major, daughter of a pastry chef of Italian descent. Jennifer returned his love. The two of them started talking about marriage, thinking they were made for each other. A banker and a squeamish parent, Oliver Barrett III refud to give his blessing to the propod alliance. Oliver and Jennifer thereupon went ahead on their own, contented with their love in a cottage.
We join the novel in Chapter 13, three years after Oliver married Jennifer regardless of his father’s fierce opposition. One day, they received an invitation from Oliver’s parents to the old man’s sixtieth birthday party. Jennifer preferred accepting the invitation, regarding it as a good opportunity for a reconciliation between father and son. But Oliver wouldn’t give it a thought. Thus the two of them had a violent quarrel ...
Love story
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Barrett 3
Request the pleasure of your company
At a dinner in celebration of
Mr.Barrett’s sixtieth birthday
Saturday, the sixth of March
At ven o clock
Dover Hou, Ipswich, Massachutts
R.S.V.P.
“Well?” asked Jennifer.
“Do you even have to ask?” I replied .I was in the midst of abstracting The State v. Percival, a very important precedent in criminal law. Jenny was sort of waving the invitati
on to bug me.
“I think it’s about time, Oliver , ” she said .
“For what?”
“For you know very well what,” she answered. “Does he have to crawl here on his hands and knees? ”
I kept working as she worked me over.
“Ollie ----he’s reaching out to you! ”
“Bullshit, Jenny, My mother addresd the envelope!”
“I thought you said you didn’t look at it!” she sort of yelled.
Okay, so I did glance at it earlier. Maybe it had slipped my mind. I was, after all, in the midst of abstracting The State V. Percival, and in the virtual shadow of exams. The point was should have stopped haranguing me.
“Ollie, think,” she said, her tone kind of pleading now. “Sixty goddamn years old. Nothing says he’ll still be around when you’re finally ready for the reconciliation.”
I informed Jenny in the simplest possible terms that there would never be a reconciliation and would she plea let me continue my studying. She sat down quietly, squeezing herlf onto a corner of the sofa where I had my feet. Although she didn’t make a sound, I quickly became aware that she was looking at me very hard. I glanced up.
“Someday, ” she said , “when you’re being bugged by Oliver V--”
“He won’t be called Oliver, be sure of that!” I snapped at her. She didn’t rai her voice, thought she usually did when I did.
“Listen, Ol, even if we name him Bozo the Clown that kid’s still going to rent you becau you were a big Harvard athlete. And by the time he’s a freshman, you’ll probably be in the Supreme Court!”
I told her that our son would definitely not rent me. She then inquired how I could be so certain of that. I couldn’t produce evidence. I mean, I simply knew our son would not rent me, I couldn't say precily why. Jenny then remarked:
“Your father loves you too, Oliver. He loves you just the way you’ll love Bozo. But you Barretts are damn proud and competitive, you’ll go through life thinking you hate each other.”
“If it weren’t for you, ” I said jokingly.
“Yes,” she said.
“The ca is clod.” I said, being, after all, the husband and head of houhold. My eyes returned to the State V. Percival and Jenny got up. But then she remembered.
“There’s still the matter of the RSVP.”
I said that a Radcliffe music major could probably compo a nice little negative RSVP without professional guidance.
“Listen, Oliver, ” she said, “I’ve probably lied or cheated in my life. But I’ve never deliberately hurt anyone. I don’t think I could. ”
Really, at that moment she was only hurting me, so I asked her politely to handle the RSVP in whatever manner she wished, as long as the esnce of the message was we wouldn’t show unless hell froze over. I returned once again to The State V. Percival.
“What’s the number?” I heard her say very softly. She was at the telephone.
