[ Sidney / "My Friend Spanner" ]


"My Friend Spanner" is a comic work of short fiction by Samuel Sidney, poking fun at the foibles and extravagances of young elite Englishmen (and women) who come into money and manage it poorly. Sidney (1813 - 1883) was an English lawyer and journalist best known for his essays on emigration, railways, and agricultural topics.

This story appeared in the January 1, 1853 edition of Household Words, the weekly magazine created, edited, and partly owned by Charles Dickens; it ran from 1850 to 1859. It published primarily fiction and non-fiction, often concerned with social issues of the time.


The "hero" of this work, the young nobleman Henry Spanner, spends most of his time (and money) acquiring fancy clothes and being irresponsible, such as in the incident of the Newfoundland dogs:


Meanwhile, I removed to London, and took up my abode in the Borough, to walk Guy's. Where soon a horrid rumour reached me that Harry Spanner had been rusticated for ploughing up the quad, of St. Bezant's College, with a sofa harnessed to a brace of Newfoundland dogs, one moonlight night, after a wine party at Lord Foodle's rooms; that he had spent all his legacy, had been cut by his rich brothers, and disowned by his venerable father. (Vol. 6, no. 145, p. 369)


Harry, in classic Victorian-moralizing fashion, ends up a broke, seedy drunk.




[ blank this frame ]

.my friend spanner / household words