Leslie Lynnton Benedict's House

Are you acquainted with Mrs. Benedict? Mrs. Jordan Benedict? Of the Reata Ranch in Texas? Heroine of Edna Ferber's novel Giant?

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Yes, they made a movie of Giant in 1956 and it is a magnificent film starring Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Lynnton Benedict, and Rock Hudson as Jordan (Bick) Benedict.

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Some critics claim the movie is better than the book. Pooh! Some critics just don't like Ferber's writing. Who cares what critics say? Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber cried all the way to the bank.

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The film is one of my favorites and another actor, James Dean who played Jett Rink, gave the performance of his much too short life in it. But Ferber's book is the masterpiece. Much of both the movie and the book takes place in Texas at the cattle ranch called Reata, in an imposing but charmless ranch house run by the sister-in-law from hell, Luz Benedict. Thank heaven she goes on to her reward pretty quickly and leaves her brother Bick Benedict and his bride Leslie alone, or alone with the hordes of fellow Texans that seem to consider Reata their home away from home.

Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Benedict are a stunning couple, aren't they? The Hollywood version anyway?

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But let's not talk about Reata. Instead, let's talk about the charming home Leslie left behind in Virginia when she married Jordan. I know, the movie says it's in Maryland but Edna Ferber placed it in Virginia and that's good enough for me.

Bick Benedick went to Dr. Horace Lynnton's house to buy a horse by the name of My Mistake. He left not too long afterwards with the horse and with the filly named Leslie, one of Dr. Lynnton's three daughters. Don't believe it when the movie says there were two daughters or that Leslie and Jordan had three children, or that the horse's name was War Winds. But if Hollywood can make believe they had three children, then I can make believe that the house below is the house Ms. Ferber had the Lynntons reside in.

 I'll let Ferber's own words describe the house.

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"Though there was only a physician's income behind it,

profusion was characteristic of the Lynnton menage.

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"Horses in the weathered stables;

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"the most delicate and savory of American cooking in the kitchen...

Sweet-scented flowers in the rambling garden...

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"The two men entered the house...

[Emyl Jenkins' Southern Hospitality,
photographs by Walter Smalling, Jr.]

"They peered into the big living room.

Here was a feminine world, all crystal and flowers and faded yellow satin curtains.

Bits of jade. The ruby glow of Bohemian glass.

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"Stuck, he [Bick] thought as he entered his room, but then instantly

there came over him a sensation very strange--

a mingling of peace and exhilaration.

A large square high-ceilinged room, cool, quiet, Chintz curtains,

flowers in a vase, a fire in the fireplace,

a bathroom to himself,

shaving things and sweet-smelling stuff in bottles in the bathroom,

and big thick soft towels.

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"Breakfast at the Lynntons' was a pleasant thing...

A noble old room, high-ceilinged, many-windowed...

[Emyl Jenkins' Southern Hospitality,
photographs by Walter Smalling, Jr.]

"A brilliant bay at the south end led to a terrace and the haphazard garden.

Inside shone mahogany and silver and crystal.

[Emyl Jenkins' Southern Hospitality,
photographs by Walter Smalling, Jr.]

"Bick Benedict, entering the room rather diffidently,

noted that the napkins were neatly darned,

the flower-patterned carpet threadbare.

It's the luxuries that matter, Leslie had said.

Who cares about the necessities."

[from Edna Ferber's Giant]

And where was Leslie Lynnton when Jordan came down to breakfast? She had been upstairs in her own bedroom...

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Awake half the night reading every book in her father's library that she could find about Texas. She came down to breakfast to join Jordan Benedict and argue with him until he was so exasperated that...

Well, before Jordan could catch a deep breath they were aboard a train, on their way to Reata and Texas where Leslie Lynnton Benedict had a giant job ahead of her adapting to Texas, and Texas to her. I assume that before they left Virginia they stopped here first...

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Have you read the book? Seen the movie? Which did you prefer?

While the book gets my vote, I've got to have them both. The movie makes me wish I were a Texan while the book persuades me that Leslie Lynnton Benedict stayed in Texas because she was deeply in love with Jordan. And if there's anything I love better than houses, even a charming Virginia house, it's a good love story.