The Properer Man

About the Book

The real tragedy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is not that the title characters die. What is far more tragic is that Juliet actually ends up with a mere player (whose cheesy pickup lines only sound good in iambic pentameter and whose sole goal is to “bed” her) when all the while the perfect-in-every-way Paris is waiting to commit to marriage! The Properer Man spins the characters from Shakespeare’s famous play into a twenty-first-century American setting featuring pop star Rome Ayo, the patient Harvard-educated suitor Con Pierce, Julia Cappell and her real estate tycoon father, and of course, Dr. Shaelyn K. Speare, who supplies a happy ending that’s much more satisfying than a stage littered with corpses. The Properer Man will appeal to readers who simply want to spend a long afternoon in a modern world where perfect males really do exist. Allusions, though, to Shakespeare’s characters, story line, imagery, and even oft-quoted passages mean the novella can also encourage literature students to “analyze how an author transforms source material.” (The answers are even included.)

About the Author

The oldest of four children, Beth Fuchs is a graduate of St. Olaf College and earned a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. On her mission to reform American public schools, she fell in love with teaching. She is especially committed to proving through classic literature that people do not change. The Properer Man was born of that belief (and mentally composed and revised for the most part on her morning runs). When Beth is not teaching, reading, or writing, she’s watching her two sons play baseball. She hopes they’ve been raised to someday qualify as escapees from the island of perfect men.