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Harvey

by Mary Chase

An imaginary friend upends a family’s plans

Regular price $11.08 USD
Regular price $13.85 USD Sale price $11.08 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

An imaginary friend upends a family’s plans

Mary Chase’s play turns Elwood P. Dowd’s introductions to Harvey—a six-and-a-half-foot rabbit no one else can see—into a chain of mistaken assumptions. Hoping to prevent further embarrassment, Elwood’s sister Veta takes action, but her explanation to the doctors leads them to commit her instead. The ensuing search brings Elwood and Harvey back into the orbit of the sanitarium staff, where the boundary between Elwood’s supposed delusion and other people’s perceptions becomes part of the story. Family reputation, eccentricity, and the question of whether an invisible companion is necessarily a problem shape this American drama.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Those interested in American drama and plays built around mistaken identity.
  • Readers seeking a family-centered story featuring an imaginary companion.
  • Younger readers, in keeping with the supplied kids/all-ages audience designation.

Themes

Family reputation and embarrassmentEccentricity and social expectationsImagination and perceptionMistaken identity

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

THE STORY: When Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend, Harvey, a six-and-a-half-foot rabbit, to guests at a society party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family from future embarrassment. Problems arise, however, when Veta herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the verge of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! The doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.

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