A World Without Men

Summary

In a Berlin that still smells of gaslight and freshly poured lager, three sisters—Augusta with the gaze of an excommunicated saint, Ethel humming Schubert in her sleep, and Clara dissecting frogs as if they were tiny suitors—swear a blood-oath against the entire bristly gender. Their apartment becomes a hermitage of petticoats and pianissimo scales, a fortress whose drawbridge is an ironing-board flipped across the yawning courtyard. Yet the city keeps slipping its calling cards under the door: clerks who leer like gargoyles, attorneys who mistake a stenographer’s chair for a throne of seduction, a fugitive barrister named Carl who scampers across the makeshift plank as though it were the last tightrope between bachelorhood and the abyss. Every escape route loops back to the same carnivalesque truth: the more violently Augusta repels the masculine orbit, the faster its planets ricochet into her gravity. Positions are gained, lost, regained; fists fly; hearts somersault; and by the time the ironing-board has become a matrimonial gangplank, all three sworn virgins have been ambushed by the oldest coup de théâtre—love, that consummate saboteur of manifestos.

Synopsis

Three charming sisters vow to one another eternal adherence to the blessing. of single life. Augusta, ring-leader of the three, is particularly violent toward the sterner sex. She looks for a position, obtains several, but resigns them because of the unwelcome attentions forced upon her by various men. Meantime her sister Ethel gives music lessons in their apartment, while Clara, the third sister, a medical student, secures a position as assistant to young Doctor Squibb. In the same apartment house with the sisters lives a girl who is receiving attentions from Carl Waldeck, a young attorney. Her father has forbidden the young man to call upon her. Carl calls upon her one day and barely manages to escape the angry father. He seeks refuge in the apartment of the three sisters and entreats them to permit him to stay there to avoid his pursuer. To get rid of him they make a bridge of their ironing-board. On this he escapes through a window into another flat. The morning after Augusta receives her answer to a position in an office of two attorneys. She makes such a good impression upon Mr. Speck, one of the attorneys, that she secures a position. Here she undergoes the same annoyances that she has received before, which only ends when she knocks the office manager down. This causes him the loss of his position. She is now promoted to his position and requests that her former position be given to her sister, Ethel. Mr. Speck consents. Ethel makes a hit with the office clerk. Clarence Hallroom, a confirmed bachelor. He and Ethel make eyes at one another and are intercepted by Augusta, who asserts her authority and puts a stop to the lovemaking. One day Carl returns from his vacation to his work, and is recognized as the ironing-board tourist. The beauty of Augusta has made a profound impression on him but in seeking to obtain from her a corresponding feeling he receives a rebuff. He decides to teach her a lesson. He arouses her jealousy by a flirtation with Ethel. Augusta resigns her position and leaves and compels poor Ethel to leave with her. Clarence cannot forget her and seeks an excuse to call upon her. Freed from the grim censorship of Augusta, they shortly come to an understanding. A little later Augusta, now returning to her home, receives a call from Waldeck. As she will not admit him by the door, he enters the apartment through the window by means of the ironing-board. His eloquence sweeps away the last vestiges of her old-time man-hate, and she also becomes engaged. That very same day the charming Clara joins the ranks of the brides-to-be becoming engaged to Dr. Squibb.