Foreword
Author V.R. Conway has written on a subject that has lain dormant too long. He is bringing to the American reading public's attention an institution that has long been the subject of concern on the European continent. That of the "Au Pair" girl. We as Publishers, considering the fact that the wealthier families in the United States have begun using them in lieu of servants, are pleased to present the problems that have long been connected with the practice.
First, we should explain exactly what an "Au Pair" girl is. She is a foreigner, who by virtue of advertising or through agencies established for this purpose, goes to live with a family in another country in order to learn the language of that country. She is not a maid and actually becomes a part of the family, eating at the same table, etc. In effect, she becomes a "daughter" to the household. She is expected to do light household chores much as any other member of the family and is given a small allowance for her own personal use, but no salary is paid. The practice works extremely well in theory and is the basic reason, aside from the requirements of the European school system that most of them are capable of speaking several languages quite fluently. How often has it been said, "My, those Europeans are clever at languages." Well, this is not exactly the case. They merely work at it harder than we do.
Mr. Conway has interwoven a beautiful and suspenseful story of one of these girls attempting to adjust to an American family with the age old problem of "the middle age marriage slump." Mona, the wife, who is approaching her middle thirties finds her husband showing less and less interest in her. She is beset by fears that he is carrying on extra-marital affairs-which confidentially he is. He too has the typical fear of all men that his life is becoming meaningless and leading nowhere. He is approaching the point of no return and knows that he must make a change now or it will be too late and he will never again be in the position to fulfill all of his idealistic childhood dreams.
These factors, according to major psychologists, with whom we concur, are the chief reasons for the present high-level of divorce in our country. Most, under these circumstances and if they could afford to be that honest in our present puritanical society, would recommend a very discreet and carefully selected affair for both parties. This would fulfill the necessity of change which one periodically requires and at the same time would hold the family unit together as it should be. He has brilliantly interwoven these elements with the predicament of the lonely European girl who has come into their home to be the "daughter." She, in effect, becomes the vicarious instrument that replaces the extramarital affair for both parties. She saves the marriage, though at the time she is not aware that it is happening, but in the end loses her own identity. She becomes merely a thing, whose sole value to the other parties is as a medium to re-kindle the flames of their dying marriage. It works and the only loser is the piteous young Swedish girl who has taken the position of "Au Pair" in the almost broken home.
We, as Publishers, considering the fact that more and more young girls are coming to this country in this capacity and are going to be exposed to the varying psychological factors in each, are happy to bring the deeper problems that will arise from these arrangements to the American reading public. Protective measures should be enacted prior to that time to make certain that such a story, as envisioned by Mr. Conway, shall have no basis in fact.
THE PUBLISHERS 1968