Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

I don't think so.  "Tart" is an old-fashioned term in the US that
isn't used that much anymore by anyone under, say, 60.  It is
ideomatic, however.  The combination of "homemade" and "tart", though,
is just something that RPW put together and not something that would
have been widely used.  If you're asking "Is it something we'd
understand when we read it?", the answer would be "yes".  

It's something that most of us would pass over without thinking about
when we read it.  Start analyzing it, though, and it doesn't seem
right.  "Homemade" as opposed to what?  Store-bought?  That doesn't
work.  Jake didn't feel "tart" was descriptive enough, but he should
have left it stand alone.

Too bad RPW wasn't a Brit.  He could have described Sybil as the town
bicycle and listed everyone who took a ride.  It works better than
"homemade tart".

It's a pun, but not well-known.  Many puns are original or particular to
the person who creates them.  "Tart" as a pun is OK, but rather
over-worked.  In other words, while it may have been OK in RPW's world,
it is trite nowadays.

As for homemade, that would indicate that as a tart the girl is
countrified, simple, amateurish and not up to Jake's sophisticated
standards.  The usual expression would be "a homegrown _______".  As a
matter of fact, RPW could have used "half-baked" to better purpose.  But
I don't really know the language of his place and time.

Just every now and then, RPW tends to get a bit awkward in his selection
of words and in his usage.  I would find it wearing and would stop
reading this work in frustration and irritation, if I were reading it
for leisure.