•
C. S. Lewis's character Mark Studdock in
That Hideous Strength refers to her in a ghost-written article for an unnamed British periodical (which is intended to promote the interests of a group of Satanists). "''If you hear anyone talking about the liberties of England (by which he means the liberties of the obscurantists, the Mrs. Grundies, the bishops, and the capitalists), watch that man. He's the enemy.''" •
Aldous Huxley refers to her in the essay "To the Puritan All Things Are Impure" in his book
Music at Night. •
Walter de la Mare described her in his poem of that title: "High-coifed, broad-browed, aged, suave but grim, A large flat face, eyes keenly dim, staring at nothing ... on each of those chairs has gloated in righteousness". •
Aimée Crocker refers to her throughout her autobiography ''
And I'd Do It Again''. •
P. T. Barnum refers to her in the preface to his non-fiction booklet
Art of Money Getting (1880). •
Oscar Wilde in a letter to the
St. James Gazette describes her as "Mrs Grundy, that amusing old lady who represents the only original form of humour that the middle classes of this country have been able to produce" (1890). •
Charles Dickens mentions her in his novel
Hard Times. •
William Makepeace Thackeray mentions her in his novel
Vanity Fair. •
William Gilbert refers to her in the patter song "At the outset I may mention it's my sovereign intention" in the second act of
The Grand Duke, and in the (cut) song "Though men of rank may useless seem" for the Duke in
Patience (opera). •
George Gissing wrote a novel, ''Mrs Grundy's Enemies
, which was never published and is now lost. In his novel Born in Exile'' he describes the guests at a garden party as “not one of them inclined to disregard the dictates of Mrs Grundy in dress, demeanour or dialogue.” •
G. K. Chesterton mentions her in chapter III of
Orthodoxy and titled a chapter "The Humility of Mrs Grundy" in his book ''What's Wrong With the World''. •
Lewis Carroll often refers to "Mrs Grundy" in his letters as a characterization of those who may disapprove of his friendships with children. •
James Joyce refers to her in the "Eumaeus" chapter of
Ulysses. Gifford's
Ulysses Annotated characterizes her as "the ultimate arbiter of stuffy middle-class propriety". •
Robert A. Heinlein also mentions her, for example, in his novels
The Number of the Beast,
To Sail Beyond the Sunset,
Stranger in a Strange Land, and in the second intermission of
Time Enough for Love. "Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite." •
Philip José Farmer's characters in the
Riverworld series also refer to Mrs Grundy as prudishness incarnate in a negative way. •
Peter Fryer's book
Mrs Grundy: Studies in English Prudery concerns
prudish behaviour, such as the use of
euphemisms for
underwear. •
Jack London uses Mrs Grundy in his books
The People of the Abyss and
The Sea-Wolf. In the former he describes the early twentieth century attitude of the English working class towards drunkenness: "Mrs Grundy rules as supremely over the workers as she does over the bourgeoisie; but in the case of the workers, the one thing she does not frown upon is the public house ... Mrs Grundy drew the line at spirits." In
The Sea-Wolf, on the 1st page of chapter 10, the protagonist says of his race that it's, "...sober-minded, clean-lived, and fanatically moral and which in this latter connection has culminated among the English in the Reformed Church and Mrs. Grundy". •
Mohandas Gandhi refers to Mrs Grundy as an unsuitable reason to end his *brahmacharya* experiment. •
Louisa May Alcott alludes to Mrs Grundy in her book
Little Women when speaking of the changes Laurie undergoes as a result of Amy's admonitions to him (1868). •
Anthony Trollope's character Lady Glencora in
Can You Forgive Her? says, "Sometimes I wish there were no such things as looks. I don't mean anything improper, you know; only one does get so hampered, right and left, for fear of Mrs Grundy." •
Martin Seymour-Smith refers to Mrs Grundy throughout his biography of
Thomas Hardy, noting the writer's struggles with what he called "an unexpected Grundian cloud… 'excessive prudery'". •
Thomas Hardy disparages the "Grundyist" in his essay "
Candour in English Fiction" (1890). •
Walter Lippmann dismisses the "exploded pretensions of Mr and Mrs Grundy" in his
A Preface to Politics (1913). • On the British television show
Absolutely Fabulous, the prudish Saffron is called a Mrs Grundy by Patsy, a hedonist. • A long-time character in
Archie Comics is the teacher
Miss Grundy. When first introduced, she fit the Mrs Grundy archetype well, being judgmental and old-fashioned. However, the character has been softened considerably over the years, and her current incarnation is not particularly Grundyesque. •
P. G. Wodehouse's lyrics to the song "Till the Clouds Roll By" from the musical
Oh Boy! contain the line "What would Missus Grundy say?" in Verse 1. •
H. G. Wells's character Ewart in the novel
Tono-Bungay, during a long dialogue about the Grundys says, "There's no Mrs Grundy." (book 1 chapter 4, section iii) •
Vladimir Nabokov refers to Mrs Grundy in his novel
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941). •
Dossie Easton and
Janet Hardy refer to "Mrs Grundy" in Chapter 12 of
The Ethical Slut (2nd Edition, 2009). •
Harry Turtledove refer to "Mrs Grundy" in Chapter 3 of
Colonization: Down to Earth. •
E. M. Forster - The Clever Lady says "If it is Mrs Grundy who is troubling you..." in Chapter 2 of
A Room with a View, and "Grundyism" generally in
Two Cheers for Democracy. •
Patrick O'Brian in "
Treason's Harbour" describes Jack Aubrey's wife as "...completely different. She was not a prude, and she cared no more for Mrs Grundy than Diana..." •
Vesta Tilley's song "Bazaar Maids" refers to all the pretty, witty girls "under Mother Grundy's laws". •
John Galsworthy refers to an English family holidaying in Switzerland as "English Grundys" in his novel "The Dark Flower" (1913). •
Carrie Chapman Catt references Mother Grundy in her 1916 Presidential Address to
NAWSA. ==See also==