Publisher's Synopsis
My Lady Nicotine by J. M. Barrie is a novel about a man's first love. The love as can be told by the title is not for a woman but for tobacco more particularly a specific blend of it. The story is mostly about his days of youth when he meets with a group of friends to smoke their Arcadia blend of tobacco which they consider the greatest thing in the universe. In many ways the story is less about tobacco and more about the ideas of victorian England and the way that a group of guys could get together to discuss things and enjoy life. While the Arcadia blend is what ties the friends together most of the story is what they do or see when they are together. There are of course many simularities in the style between this book and the Little White Bird by the same author. Both deal with single bachelors who spend much of their time in idleness with close friends who share the same vices while being watched over by lesser people who are only fit to be servants. The elements of his nephews visit also bears an earie simularity to his own games with his stepchildren. I found after reading the book a desire to have a deep friendship with others like the books characters have with each other. Though it is a fictional work I have seen the same thing happen in friends that I know who smoke who seem to have an attachment to others who they smoke with. Although I would never smoke as I know enough of the damaging aspects of the hobby I can easily see the attraction in having groups around who I can experience life with. Overall it was a pleasant book which is very much British and very much victorian.
