Mrs Harris Goes to Paris: And Mrs Harris Goes to New York (The Adventures of Mrs Harris)

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Mrs. 'Arris’ time in Paris turns out to be so much more than simply an extravagant and ridiculous desire to buy a beautiful Dior gown. The people she meets will forever be changed by the very presence of this timid little lady who at first is so out of place in glittering Paris and, of all places, the Dior salon.

Buying the dress wasn’t as simple as she thought it would be. Well French fashion houses aren’t like London shops!

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This treasure from the 1950s reintroduces the irrepressible Mrs. Harris, part charlady, part fairy godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour. ESta es una novela corta bastante liviana , se le ha comparado con un cuento de hadas de Dior, porque trata de una señora cercana a sus sesenta años que trabaja limpiando casas ajenas y que un dia queda fascinada por un vestido Dior en el armario de una de sus clientas y decide que se va a comprar uno, porque sí, porque es una ilusión que a veces es necesaria para vivir aun en la vida más gris y anodina. Tras algunos traspies y suertes, matizado con comentarios de la vida social de los 50s, que no es demasiado lejana a las de ahora ... consigue ir a Paris donde conoce gente que se ve atrapada, por asi decirlo, dentro de esta fantasia . Veremos hasta dónde llegará la obstinación de la señora Harris para ver realizado su sueño de viajar a Paris y poder comprar su vestido. Leeremos su camino lleno de empeño, ahorros, penas, golpes de suerte y hasta simples coincidencias. What brings her out of her messes is her charm. She never pretends to be anything that she is not. Her dropped aitches, her rough hands and old clothes topped with a battered hat are all a part of her and she does not try to mask herself. She presents herself as she is, and that invariably wins her detractors over. Despite being a charwoman she makes friends with the best of people, the Marquis de Chassagne is a particular friend of hers. The Schreibers, an American couple who employ her, are also in thrall of her.

For it had not been a dress she had bought so much as an adventure and an experience that would last her to the end of her days. She would never again feel lonely, or unwanted. She had ventured into a foreign country and a foreign people whom she had been taught to suspect and despise. Had found them to be warm and human, men and women for whom human love and understanding was a mainspring of life. Ada Harris is standing for no nonsense: she has the money and she is determined. After many misunderstandings, many unusual encounters, and with the help of a distinguished elderly gentleman (who has fond memories of the charlady who brightened his life in his gloomy college room when he studied at an English university) she attends a salon presentation of the latest ‘collection’, and sees the dress she wants to buy. It made a lovely story. About the importance of dreams, about what you can do to make them come true, and about just what really is important in life. This book has two adventures of Mrs. Harris. The first one is Mrs. Harris goes to Paris. In this book, Mrs. Harris is bitten by the bug of acquiring a Dior dress, when she spies one in the wardrobe of one of her clients. I read one more in the Mrs. Harris series when I was young. It was called "Mrs. Harris, M.P." and it is just as charming as the rest in the series.

Notwithstanding Mrs. Harris's grandiose adventures, the tale is told in a very unassuming style which makes it seem like an young adult novel. Mrs. Harris may well be a girl out of Enid Blyton books who has grown old, but not lost any of her zest for adventures. Drab and colourless as her existence would seem to have been, Mrs. Harris had always felt a craving for beauty and colour which up to this moment had manifested itself in a love for flowers.

Description: Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life - a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps, saves and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris. When she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever. Always kind, always cheery and always winsome, the indomitable Mrs Harris takes Paris by storm and learns one of life's greatest lessons along the way. This treasure from the 1950s introduces the irrepressible Mrs Harris, part charlady, part fairy-godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour. The writing is colourfully descriptive and easily read. The story, although a little hard to believe at times, has a wonderful Mary Poppins magic about it. Whilst this fairy tale plot may be a little fanciful, the themes underneath are not. Always be kind. Always be cheery. Sacrifice and hard work can make your dreams come true. Even though you might come from humble beginnings you can rise to heights of greatness. Full of wonderful secondary characters, and some not so wonderful, it all makes for a very charming and delightfully fun read. Rothe, Anna, ed. (1947). Current Biography, 1946: Who's News and why. New York: H.W. Wilson Company. p.202. ISBN 978-0-8242-0112-8. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris (1992) a TV movie stars Angela Lansbury, Diana Rigg, and Omar Sharif. The film was produced by Lansbury's production company Corymore Productions, and directed by Lansbury's son, Anthony Shaw.His short story "The Man Who Hated People" was reworked into an unpublished short story "The Seven Souls of Clement O'Reilly", adapted into the movie Lili (1953) and later staged as the musical Carnival! (1961). The film Lili is a poignant, whimsical fairy tale, the story of an orphaned waif, a naïve young woman whose fate is thrown in with that of a traveling carnival and its performers, a lothario magician and an embittered puppeteer. In 1954, Gallico published the novella The Love of Seven Dolls, based on "The Man Who Hated People". The versions, while differing, share a core theme surrounding the girl and the puppeteer. The puppeteer, communicating with Lili through his puppets as a surrogate voice, develops a vehicle whereby each of them can freely express their inner pain and anguished emotions. En menos de 200 páginas el autor logra crear una historia de deseo que casi podría tratarse de un cuento infantil, que nos enseñará de la importancia de las buenas intenciones, el trabajo duro y la amistad. El mensaje es sencillo pero el camino por el que nos lleva la historia resulta encantador, lleno de sencillas ambientaciones que van desde el humilde trabajo de la señora Harris hasta la elegante boutique parisina. El estilo narrativo es ingenioso y satírico, ya que la novela se burla de la idea inglesa de que los extranjeros son de lo peor, que aunque yo desconozco que tan verdadero es esto, les tengo que decir que es algo que he leído en varias novelas inglesas. La idea de que los extranjeros son bárbaros. Why would I want to make a film about a woman who falls in love with a couture dress,” Fabian asks. “The beginning is that since childhood I’ve been a fan of Paul Gallico as a writer, and when I signed with a manager in L.A. he was also the manager of the Gallico estate. One day, he sent me a manuscript of a book of his I hadn’t read, and I was intrigued by it.” But she is sure she is meant to have it so determination, skimping and saving and simply by believing that dreams can come true, after two years of dreaming, Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris.