Shrines of Gaiety

Content Warning: The following section contains descriptions of death by suicide.

Shrines of Gaiety is set in 1926 London between World War I and II. While the author emphasizes that the book is fiction, the narrative is carefully contextualized. For example, there are references to the excitement that seized the city after World War I: “On Armistice night there had been couples […] actually fornicating in the shadows in the dance hall” (21). The book largely focuses on the wealthy elites of London post-WWI, depicting their frivolous lives during a post-war economic boom. It captures the spirit of the age for this echelon of society, prompted by financial prosperity and reactions against the devastations of wartime, which is now frequently summed up with the epithet the “Roaring Twenties.”

This is epitomized by the “Bright Young Things,” a term used in the novel that is contemporary to the period (Johnson, Ben. “Bright Young Things.” Historic UK, 2015). The characters themselves use the term “Bright Young Things” (82), referring to the adult children of the middle class and aristocrats who threw wild parties and became famous as their escapades were reported in gossip column written by people such as the character Vivian Quinn in Shrines of Gaiety.