A few months ago The Land of Spices by the Irish novelist Kate O'Brien was featured in this blog. This month our subject is an Australian novel which has some similarities to the Irish one. The Getting of Wisdom, published in 1910 by Henry Handel Richardson (1870-1946, real name Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson) is like the somewhat later Irish novel set in a private girls' school whose pupils largely come from privileged backgrounds. Both novels are set in a period not long before the First World War, and the main student character in both comes from a home where there are financial problems not experienced by many of the other students. (It might also be mentioned that Richardson was rather proud of her Irish descent!)
The differences are nevertheless considerable. The Irish novel has two central figures, whereas The Getting of Wisdom is very much the story of Laura, whose experiences in the novel are to a considerable extent based on Richardson's own as a pupil at Presbyterian Ladies' College Melbourne. For much of the novel Laura is the only school character who is developed to any extent , and throughout the novel, apart from a few cameos, the teachers are all minor figures, or caricatures, like the preposterously formidable 'dragon', Mrs Gurley. Both novels were unpopular with the schools that their authors had attended, but it is far easier to understand the unhappiness of PLC Melbourne. Teachers and pupils at the school almost all seem obsessively snobbish and mean-minded. Until the later chapters it would be difficult to name a sympathetic character.
Much of the book is the story of the bruising encounters between Laura's unsophisticated impulsive, high spirits, and desire to fit in, and her companions' relentless determination to exclude or ostracise here, often on the basis of evidence that her family in not well-to-do that she inadvertently provides. It is comic, because Laura's is often her own worst enemy, but it also fills the reader with a contempt for those around her who are so eager to take offence. In the later chapters of the book, following a summer in the company of her sister when she comes to feel that little though she may fit in at school, she has grown apart from her family at home, Laura does make some friends and win a measure of acceptance. She gains the friendship of the priggish 'M.P.' and her offsider 'Cupid' by cleverly exploiting M.P.'s wish to be a moral arbiter, and later becomes the chosen companion of the school's most beautiful and most privileged student, an older girl called Evelyn. Richardson makes very clear that Laura's infatuation with the older girl has a strong element of the sexual in it, but the reader may perhaps wonder at Evelyn's choosing Laura as her companion.
The title of the book is clearly ironic. The wisdom Laura learns is that of outwardly conforming, and saying what her companions expect of her. One of Richardson's achievements is that despite the autobigraphical element Laura never becomes a heroine whose inner strength and genuine moral superiority set her apart. It is quite clear that Laura objects to snobbery and bullying because she is the victim, not because she dislikes snobbery and bullying per se. The final scene, when Laura, having just walked out the school gates for the last time as a pupil, runs joyfully through a park, is somewhat ambivalent. We must wonder how free she really is.
H.G. Wells is said to have described this book as the best school story he knew. It has been in print almost continuously since 1910, and a new edition, with an introduction by Germaine Greer, is about to appear. It is a splendidly narrated book, vivid, entertaining, and convincing, and impressive in the honesty of its presentation of the flawed but ultimately rather attractive central figure.
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
This novel is the story of a young man who at the age of eighteen volunteers to serve in the First World War. It follows him from before enlistement through most of the war to his death in its final weeks. He fights on the Western Front, and experiences the wellknown horrors of trench warfare in that theatre.
A rather similar description could of course be applied to many novels. The classic example of the genre is probably still Im Westen nichts Neues by Erich Maria Remarque, first published in 1928 and translated into English the following year as All Quiet on the Western Front. The question might be asked why we need yet another book on the subject, though arguably the horrors of the mass slaughter of young men who at the start of the war had no idea what they would encounter have a powerful resonance that permits repeated treatments of the subject.
A Long Long Way has distinctive features, however. Willie Dunne is Irish, a Dublin construction worker, the son of a senior police officer who is firmly loyal to the British Crown in an Ireland then still part of the United Kingdom. Willie seems to enlist without much thought, in part from a desire to prove himself to his father, who has been disappointed by his dimunitive son's failure to reach the minimum height required to join the police. Willie's enlistment does not favourably impress his girlfriend, Gretta, who feels that it demonstrates a certain lack of knowing his own mind in a man who wants to marry her, and Gretta's ultimate decision to marry another man who has not gone to war forms part of Willie's private tragedy.
The fact that Willie is Irish and Catholic, part of what is initially an Irish regiment, is central to the novel, because it leads him to uncertainties and troubles of mind not experienced by soldiers from different backgrounds. Willie finds himself, perhaps a little too coincidentally, marching through Dublin on the day the Easter Rising of 1916 breaks out, and he is soon a bit confused as to where his loyalties lie, something he tentatively indicates in a letter to his father, who responds with fury. One of the successes of the novel is its treatment of this inner conflict: Willie never resolves it, and this is presented in a way that seems entirely convincing.
Willie is in some ways an 'everyman' (or at least every Irish World War I soldier) figure, but he comes vividly to life. He is of ordinary intelligence, likeable, brave enough but no hero, often confused, often frightened, but capable of snatching what happiness he can from his circumstances. His letters home are poignant and seem utterly convincing for someone who is, of course, little more than a boy.
The book has won considerable praise, though some military historians have pointed to errors of fact, particularly in regard to the command structure of the British Army. The suggestion that towards the end of the novel Irishmen were rarely encountered in the ranks seems exaggerated: 200,000 of them served, of whom 30,000 were killed. It is true, however, that for a variety of reasons, not all alluded to in the novel, recruitment from Ireland became sparse in the last years of the war. (Of course it must be remembered that Barry is writing a novel, not history, though the creator of an historical novel does probably have to observe some of the historian's obligations.)
There is much that is powerful and moving in this novel. Not least moving is the way towards the end Willie, having lost Gretta and having being more or less disowned by his father, feels real happiness at getting back to the front and rejoining the few of his longterm fellow soldiers who are still alive. The book is the work of an author well known as a poet as well as a novelist, and the style throughout is poetic. For this reader, at least, the poetic element in the style quite frequently seemed a bit overwrought. An example taken at random is from the opening paragrapy of chapter 20: 'Like an old ash tree he feared he would slowly hollow out, the rot taking him inwardly ring by blackened ring, until the winter wind came and blew him down'.
I was moved, and impressed, by this novel, though more on the first reading than the second. I did find that the style tended to irritate slightly the second time round. But I am glad to have read it.
A rather similar description could of course be applied to many novels. The classic example of the genre is probably still Im Westen nichts Neues by Erich Maria Remarque, first published in 1928 and translated into English the following year as All Quiet on the Western Front. The question might be asked why we need yet another book on the subject, though arguably the horrors of the mass slaughter of young men who at the start of the war had no idea what they would encounter have a powerful resonance that permits repeated treatments of the subject.
A Long Long Way has distinctive features, however. Willie Dunne is Irish, a Dublin construction worker, the son of a senior police officer who is firmly loyal to the British Crown in an Ireland then still part of the United Kingdom. Willie seems to enlist without much thought, in part from a desire to prove himself to his father, who has been disappointed by his dimunitive son's failure to reach the minimum height required to join the police. Willie's enlistment does not favourably impress his girlfriend, Gretta, who feels that it demonstrates a certain lack of knowing his own mind in a man who wants to marry her, and Gretta's ultimate decision to marry another man who has not gone to war forms part of Willie's private tragedy.
The fact that Willie is Irish and Catholic, part of what is initially an Irish regiment, is central to the novel, because it leads him to uncertainties and troubles of mind not experienced by soldiers from different backgrounds. Willie finds himself, perhaps a little too coincidentally, marching through Dublin on the day the Easter Rising of 1916 breaks out, and he is soon a bit confused as to where his loyalties lie, something he tentatively indicates in a letter to his father, who responds with fury. One of the successes of the novel is its treatment of this inner conflict: Willie never resolves it, and this is presented in a way that seems entirely convincing.
Willie is in some ways an 'everyman' (or at least every Irish World War I soldier) figure, but he comes vividly to life. He is of ordinary intelligence, likeable, brave enough but no hero, often confused, often frightened, but capable of snatching what happiness he can from his circumstances. His letters home are poignant and seem utterly convincing for someone who is, of course, little more than a boy.
The book has won considerable praise, though some military historians have pointed to errors of fact, particularly in regard to the command structure of the British Army. The suggestion that towards the end of the novel Irishmen were rarely encountered in the ranks seems exaggerated: 200,000 of them served, of whom 30,000 were killed. It is true, however, that for a variety of reasons, not all alluded to in the novel, recruitment from Ireland became sparse in the last years of the war. (Of course it must be remembered that Barry is writing a novel, not history, though the creator of an historical novel does probably have to observe some of the historian's obligations.)
There is much that is powerful and moving in this novel. Not least moving is the way towards the end Willie, having lost Gretta and having being more or less disowned by his father, feels real happiness at getting back to the front and rejoining the few of his longterm fellow soldiers who are still alive. The book is the work of an author well known as a poet as well as a novelist, and the style throughout is poetic. For this reader, at least, the poetic element in the style quite frequently seemed a bit overwrought. An example taken at random is from the opening paragrapy of chapter 20: 'Like an old ash tree he feared he would slowly hollow out, the rot taking him inwardly ring by blackened ring, until the winter wind came and blew him down'.
I was moved, and impressed, by this novel, though more on the first reading than the second. I did find that the style tended to irritate slightly the second time round. But I am glad to have read it.
The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China by Lu Xun
I enjoyed this very rich collection which is the complete fictional works of Lu Xun (Penguin Classics Ed'n, 2009 ) . I have just re-read it but I need to say that introducing it for discussion has been more daunting than other books I have jumped in and had opinions about. I think it is the cross cultural experience which makes me timorous so I apologise upfront for any ineptitude of my comments about these stories to anyone more familiar with the cultural and literary background here so masterfully represented.
First-we need to note , we are reading a book in translation which rings smoothly in English with fine prose and good story lines and content. There are many favourable commentaries acknowledging the work of the translator , Dr Julia Lovell , a Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Literature at the University of London. You can find interviews with her by googling her name or the title. She talks of Lu Xun in one of her interviews as China's "Dickens and Joyce rolled into one" because of his range of social comment and criticism and the new form of language in which it was expressed.
Lu Xun , 1881 - 1936, came from a privileged background of the classical ,Confucian upper class educational and professional tradition. His break with that tradition to write in vernacular prose rather than using the classical tradition of the time set him apart from many of his contemporaries. Of course it was an iconoclastic period in modern Chinese history so he found both acceptance along with much antagonism at times. I will just add one startling , seminal fact about his professional life and then leave the rest for you to follow through for yourselves either in the introduction to this edition or the many short summaries in the usual google sources.
Lu Xun set out to study Western style medicine in Japan ,which in itself was radical given his family background and expectations. However an epiphany when seeing a Japanese lecturer (during the time of the Russo-Japanese War) showing a film of a beheading of a Chinese Nationalist by a Japanese executioner with a passive crowd of Chinese people watching - changed his point of view. He became concerned with the mental health of his countrymen rather than the physical. He determined to become a story telling writer.
Lu Xun met his goal well. His 34 stories in this collected edition are full of irony and black humour . The whole makes up a very rich body of work. He uses his talents to explicate social norms which are stultifying the progress of his people as he sees it. I think he makes many universal observations however despite the special and particular mores of his nation and its immense cultural history. This universality comes through particularly in the rich characterisations of the principal characters and also in the many smaller players in the stories. Ah-Q for instance is so puffed up and stupid he could indeed be a Dickensian player in another setting. I am empathetic to poor old Ah-Q and I think the reader is drawn by this empathy to look keenly at the situations applying to him and what made him the way he is. "Diary of a Madmen" as a comparison is rather Freudian and highly satirical and I am reminded of "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift . I find Lu Xun uses many vivid literary ways to get his points across.
By contrast again some of the stories in the large sub collections in the work "Outcry" and "Hesitation" are poignant and lyrical . Try "My old home" for instance with its nostalgia plus yearning for a new life for a new generation and ending with a beautiful and insightful description of "Hope" as "an intangible presence that can neither be affirmed nor denied - a path that exists only where others have already passed".
The wry humour of "The Divorce" in the "Hesitation" collection makes an observation of the human condition and psyche over and above the sad human comedy and social inequality it evokes.The public authoritarian figures in the story and the economically yet excellently drawn lower class characters just jump from the pages- they are so real and dare I say, modern.
The final collection in this complete fictional works of the author is called "Old stories retold". I liked these stories very much - whilst the "creational" mythological ones are a bit obscure, the re-tellings of Daoist, Confucian legendary myths/tales are marvellous. For example, two Daoist tales "Leaving the Pass" and "Bringing back the Dead" are both approachable and strong reminders of the ancient cultural tradition we are reading about. "Bringing back the Dead" - a cautionary tale if ever there was one is told in dramatic dialogue format which would be a perfect little drama piece to enact." Leaving the Pass" about "Laozi" the mythical founder of the Daoist tradition, ca 600 BC is a witty telling of a venture of the Master as he tries to negotiate a Customs House Police Barracks and needs to sing for his supper by teaching his captors the ways of wisdom . I think the joke is that he unwittingly (or not) bored them to tears and was sent on his way. Universality comes out clearly in these re-told ancient myths just as well as with the "modern" tales in the collection.
I would recommend the Introductory essay to gain an overview of Lu Xun's career. His avowed position as a social critic and reformer took place throughout the formative and tumultous period of modern China's development with revolutions, civil wars and ultimately the rise of Mao Zedong and Communism . After his death in 1936 he was feted by the Communist hierarchy and became a cultural hero. It is fascinating to consider what he would have thought about it all - he was such a complex man.
In the short afterword Yiyun Li ,an awarded Chinese American writer who was educated in Beijing , speaks of re-reading Lu Xun in English "in this great volume of translations and in the original" and coming once again under his spell. She wonders however whether "the posthumous fame would have pleased Lu Xun" She is questioning the role he set for himself and whether literature can change social behaviour as such.
In summary , there is perhaps doubt on whether his literary prowess worked to change the outlook or fortunes of the Chinese people but his storytelling has left a very witty literary legacy to ponder and wonder at through the characters and situations he created. I would be very pleased to receive any comments about favourite stories a reader may like to share.
First-we need to note , we are reading a book in translation which rings smoothly in English with fine prose and good story lines and content. There are many favourable commentaries acknowledging the work of the translator , Dr Julia Lovell , a Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Literature at the University of London. You can find interviews with her by googling her name or the title. She talks of Lu Xun in one of her interviews as China's "Dickens and Joyce rolled into one" because of his range of social comment and criticism and the new form of language in which it was expressed.
Lu Xun , 1881 - 1936, came from a privileged background of the classical ,Confucian upper class educational and professional tradition. His break with that tradition to write in vernacular prose rather than using the classical tradition of the time set him apart from many of his contemporaries. Of course it was an iconoclastic period in modern Chinese history so he found both acceptance along with much antagonism at times. I will just add one startling , seminal fact about his professional life and then leave the rest for you to follow through for yourselves either in the introduction to this edition or the many short summaries in the usual google sources.
Lu Xun set out to study Western style medicine in Japan ,which in itself was radical given his family background and expectations. However an epiphany when seeing a Japanese lecturer (during the time of the Russo-Japanese War) showing a film of a beheading of a Chinese Nationalist by a Japanese executioner with a passive crowd of Chinese people watching - changed his point of view. He became concerned with the mental health of his countrymen rather than the physical. He determined to become a story telling writer.
Lu Xun met his goal well. His 34 stories in this collected edition are full of irony and black humour . The whole makes up a very rich body of work. He uses his talents to explicate social norms which are stultifying the progress of his people as he sees it. I think he makes many universal observations however despite the special and particular mores of his nation and its immense cultural history. This universality comes through particularly in the rich characterisations of the principal characters and also in the many smaller players in the stories. Ah-Q for instance is so puffed up and stupid he could indeed be a Dickensian player in another setting. I am empathetic to poor old Ah-Q and I think the reader is drawn by this empathy to look keenly at the situations applying to him and what made him the way he is. "Diary of a Madmen" as a comparison is rather Freudian and highly satirical and I am reminded of "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift . I find Lu Xun uses many vivid literary ways to get his points across.
By contrast again some of the stories in the large sub collections in the work "Outcry" and "Hesitation" are poignant and lyrical . Try "My old home" for instance with its nostalgia plus yearning for a new life for a new generation and ending with a beautiful and insightful description of "Hope" as "an intangible presence that can neither be affirmed nor denied - a path that exists only where others have already passed".
The wry humour of "The Divorce" in the "Hesitation" collection makes an observation of the human condition and psyche over and above the sad human comedy and social inequality it evokes.The public authoritarian figures in the story and the economically yet excellently drawn lower class characters just jump from the pages- they are so real and dare I say, modern.
The final collection in this complete fictional works of the author is called "Old stories retold". I liked these stories very much - whilst the "creational" mythological ones are a bit obscure, the re-tellings of Daoist, Confucian legendary myths/tales are marvellous. For example, two Daoist tales "Leaving the Pass" and "Bringing back the Dead" are both approachable and strong reminders of the ancient cultural tradition we are reading about. "Bringing back the Dead" - a cautionary tale if ever there was one is told in dramatic dialogue format which would be a perfect little drama piece to enact." Leaving the Pass" about "Laozi" the mythical founder of the Daoist tradition, ca 600 BC is a witty telling of a venture of the Master as he tries to negotiate a Customs House Police Barracks and needs to sing for his supper by teaching his captors the ways of wisdom . I think the joke is that he unwittingly (or not) bored them to tears and was sent on his way. Universality comes out clearly in these re-told ancient myths just as well as with the "modern" tales in the collection.
I would recommend the Introductory essay to gain an overview of Lu Xun's career. His avowed position as a social critic and reformer took place throughout the formative and tumultous period of modern China's development with revolutions, civil wars and ultimately the rise of Mao Zedong and Communism . After his death in 1936 he was feted by the Communist hierarchy and became a cultural hero. It is fascinating to consider what he would have thought about it all - he was such a complex man.
In the short afterword Yiyun Li ,an awarded Chinese American writer who was educated in Beijing , speaks of re-reading Lu Xun in English "in this great volume of translations and in the original" and coming once again under his spell. She wonders however whether "the posthumous fame would have pleased Lu Xun" She is questioning the role he set for himself and whether literature can change social behaviour as such.
In summary , there is perhaps doubt on whether his literary prowess worked to change the outlook or fortunes of the Chinese people but his storytelling has left a very witty literary legacy to ponder and wonder at through the characters and situations he created. I would be very pleased to receive any comments about favourite stories a reader may like to share.
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