Goodbye, Mr. Chips / To You, Mr. Chips

by James Hilton

Book by Hilton, James to You, Mr. Chips, Hilton, James

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Literature, Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Education

Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

James Hilton was an English novelist and screenwriter. He is best remembered for his novels Lost Horizon, Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Random Harvest, as well as co-writing screenplays for the films Camille (1936) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), the latter earning him an Academy Award.

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I cried my eyes out at this beautiful and poignant tale of a schoolmaster recounting his younger days at his college, his love life and his relationships with the schoolboys. I immediately got on to Amazon and ordered Robert Donat's version and can't wait to cry even more at that. Such a small book packed with such emotion that I am still thinking about it, I would highly recommend.

[Lavinia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had seen this old black and white movie of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, but had never read it - so I borrowed it from my dad and LOVED it! It made me laugh, it made me cry! Plus, it is about a professor, and who doesn't love one of their old professors?

[Suzanne Mundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bittersweet story, but a beloved book all the same. Everyone at a British boys school loves Mr. Chips and he loves them. This is the story of an elderly schoolmaster remembering his time as a teacher at Brookfield. He considers the boys his own children. While in the autumn of his life, he has beautiful memories. This is my second reading of the book. If it were my choice, I re-read it every so often out of nostalgia. I recommend this to anyone who wants a short, but good read.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am flabbergasted that this dear story has managed to slip by my radar for so many years. This is as British as it gets and I absolutely fell in love with Mr. Chips. So many reminders of what is really important. I have a bunch of quotes that I want to remember (and yes, I am using the British spellings)...

"And it was a sense of proportion, above all things, that Brookfield ought to teach - not so much Latin or Greek or Chemistry or Mechanics. And you couldn't expect to test that sense of proportion by setting papers and granting certificates."

"Yes, he still had 'em - those ideas of dignity and generosity that were becoming increasingly rare in a frantic world...And they found an adjective just for him - an adjective just beginning to be used: he was pre-War."

"But near him, at Brookfield, and even, in a wider sense, in England, there was something that charmed his heart because it was old - and had survived. More and more he saw the rest of the world as a vast disarrangement for which England had sacrificed enough - and perhaps too much."

"You're growing up into a very cross sorry of world, Winford. Maybe it will have got over some of its crossness by the time you're ready for it."

"To make up for all that I have forgotten of my school education, there is this that I have acquired, and I call it sophistication since it is not quite the same thing as learning. It is the flexible armour of doubt in an age when too many people are certain."

"When later I studied history seriously for a university scholarship, I was continually amazed by the discovery that historical personages behaved, for the most part, with reasonable motivation for their actions and not like the Marx Brothers in a costume-play."

"So I defend a classical education for the very reason that so many people attack it. It is of small practical value in a world whose practical values are mostly wrong; it is 'waste time' in a world whose time had better be wasted than spent in most of its present activities."

"I know that a visiting American would have been sheerly horrified by the plumbing and drainage, but no more horrified than I am when, having duly admired some magnificent million-dollar scholastic outfit on the plains of the Middle West, I learn that it offers a degree in instalment-selling and pays its athletic coach twice as much as its headmaster. This seems to me the worst kind of modern lunacy. Better to have rats in the bathtub than bats in the belfry."

"I can see that countries where high ideals are preached but not practised are at least better off than countries in which low ideals are both preached AND practised."

"Let us hope, however, that they will not forget or regret. which today is in such grave peril because it is in the very nature of tolerance to take tolerance for granted."

"There can be no such thing as a war to save democracy, because all wars destroy democracy. There could have been a peace to save what was left of democracy, but the chance of that came and went in 1919 - the saddest year in all the martyrdom of man."

"True that the boy Dickens toiled in a blacking factory, but he grew up fee to scarify the system that had forced him to it; he had been a child-slave, but he was never a man-slave. True that Huxley was attacked for teaching that mean and monkeys were somewhat the same; but was never exiled for refusing to teach that Jews and Gentiles were altogether different. Scientists may have incurred the wrath of bishops for spreading what the latter considered to be evolutionary nonsense; they were never ordered by government to teach what every acknowledged authority considers to be Aryan nonsense. And while Karl Marx laboriously constructed his time-bomb to explode the bourgeoisie, this victims rewarded him with at ticket to the British Museum instead of a Leipzig trial, and a peaceful grave in Highgate Cemetery instead of a trench in front of a firing-squad."

"Well, I think I can tell you what you are going to be when you grow up. You're going to be either a great man or a confounded nuisance or...both...as so many men are today."

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to its reputation, "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" is an extremely sweet book in the "Feel-Good" category. that deserves nonetheless to be read by those who prefer the "Literature" category. Despite the sentimentality, the writing is very concise and the novel provides a splendid portrait of an historical period that is now 100 years past us.
Mr. Chips is a thoroughly nice teacher who has spent his entire life in academia and is totally lost in any other environment. He is a model for dedication to one's profession and disinterested love in one's fellow man. At the same time, Mr. Chips is aware that what he teaches is of no practical value to any of his students who most learn how to survive and earn a living in the school of hard knocks. He regrets only that this lessons do nothing to save them from dying young on the battlefields of Europe.
I am of two minds as to whether or not the six stories and one essay that comprise "To you Mr. Chips" are worth reading. In the essay, Hilton hammers home the point that Mr. Chip's contribution to the lives of the students lay not what taught but in his simple goodness. One story "Mr. Chips meets a Star" is absolutely dreadful as it self-righteously castigates the star culture of Hollywood comparing it to the discreet virtues promoted in England's schools. On the other hand "Mr. Chips takes a Risk" is an excellent tale about a unethical financier who protects Mr. Chip from one of his crooked schemes. The best story in my opinion is "Gerald and the Candidate" which tells the tale of one Mr. Chips students who dies in World War I within months of leaving the school. Overall the pieces in "To You Mr. Chip" state very loudly what had wisely been left unsaid in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips". They will however please any reader who has fallen under the charm of the delightful old school

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this book for the second time and I believe that I enjoyed it more than when I first read it. It really is such a short book that it should be read in a single sitting or at least in a day or two. Mr. Chips is a simple schoolmaster at an English boys boarding school from the later 1800's through the 1930's. This beloved classic by the author of Lost Horizon will touch your heart and maybe even bring a tear to your eye as you read it. It was made into a movie with Greer Garson back in the 30's or 40's, which is very good, but not entirely true to the book.

[Kay Pelham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice telling of a seemingly less than illustrious life; one of those lives that at first or second or third glance didn't seem to make an impact on the world. Mr. Chips isn't the brightest tool in the shed, but well loved and liked by many generations of boys at the school where he teaches for about 50 years. He is happy with his life and, whether anyone else knows it or not, knows that he was blessed.

Mr. Chips is no crusader like many of the teachers and coaches that we see in the movies. I appreciate very much the author deciding to tell a story about just an ordinary teacher and friend who made a difference in many lives just by being himself and caring about what he taught and those that he taught.

[Mike Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.
Sentimental, whimsical - I don't care, I loved it.

[BaSila Husnain · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are not talking about this. I teach it every year to my college students. Nops. No. Not talking. Worth reading.

[Charles H Berlemann Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay I will admit that this one I didn't read and instead listen to the unabridged version as published by Audible, while on my commute to and from work. However, the story is very interesting and ultimately I think if you ponder the story with the school bits chopped out, our lives are like the main character. That Mr. Chips remembers all the fun he had in his life and the humor filled adventures of people and faces. He retells those stories thru the author as he sits near the end of his life and gets the immortal question of "What did he do for his life", in essence he raise at least two generations of boys at a middle of the road English boarding school. He became an institution at the school and even more so after he was married to a young lady who gave Chips, a life to paraphrase the author. It was with his marriage that Chips lightened up and started to develop his personality. So from the course of the 1890s until his death in 1930s when he passes away that we see and hear of Chips adventures in the school. This is a short novella and some of the stories are told quickly in passing such as some mischief a pair of boys got into meeting a striking rail worker. The biggest item is when Chips is made temporary headmaster of the school and deals with the fallout from the Great War of World War 1. From the deaths that devastate a number of the older and graduated classes to the passing of a former German language head master that was friends with Chips. The story is very enduring and like I said, if you don't have a school version of "Mr. Chips" in your life, then you have at least the background of what makes up the meat of Chips the stories of friends and the faces that go with those stories that make up your life.

[Kanv Garg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by my favourite professor. It reminds me of Him. I love the simplicity with which the author conveyed his thoughts on insecurities, love, passion and the measurement of life. One thing which hit me the most was that when author explained how mr Chips realised that he was not a super intelligent person and then he made the best out of his situation.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book "Goodbye Mr,Chips" is about a man named Mr.Chips. Mr.Chips is a schoolmaster. in the book he is telling the story. He is saying about what is gong on. Also what it is like to be a schoolmaster. In the beginning of the book on the first page he is tell the readers that he is on the type writer.
In the middle of the book he is at the age 56 and he is thinking about not being schoolmaster. He still wants to take the class across the road. He said that he would visit sometimes after all he was the schoolmaster. Many crazy things happen in the book but he is able to manage them.
Mr.Chips is a very nice man. To prove this he is talking with another teacher and the teacher is having trouble with this boy. He asks Mr.Chips if he can talk to the boy. Mr.Chips replies that he thinks that the bot is very nice and that what ever he was doing he did not mean to.
What I think the lesson in this story or book if you will i that everyone is nice once in there lives. Sometimes you have to crack the surface as you would with a egg and then you would get to the soft part. The soft part of the egg resembles the nice in everyone. Do not be afraid to become there friend and find out what made them like that. Hey you never know, you may find something very special.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One cannot help loving this stoic, steady, old fashioned school master who won't budge from routine and discipline though he loves his students and is a very gentle person, and his firmness is without any accompanying meanness or violence or cruelty, an ideal of what a school teacher or parent ought to be - and he is fortunate enough that he meets and loves and is loved entirely by the very counterpart he needs, a woman with intelligence and beauty and lightness of heart who sees his worth in his honesty and his defending her rights as a person, never mind she is a stage dancer (not considered quite respectable those days) - and their happy marriage makes his life and his work far easier for him for ever.

There is life not so personal affecting the times and lives, war for instance, affecting all those living in England shattering peace of their small towns and the school is no exception what with boys at front and planes dropping bombs. Mr. Chipping carries on, just as gently and firmly, with ducking for cover when planes roar above included.

As all other Hilton works do, this one too goes to heart - and stays there.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this from a box of unused and untaught books at my school (that will change as I will now read it with my sophomores). This work made me laugh and cry. I appreciated the nod to the work and lives of dedicated pedagogues. I adored that our story's hero knows the difference between a Gerund and Gerundive as well as teaches the Ablative Absolute. In a significant scene, Mr. Chips teaches Latin verb conjugations while WWI bombings from the Germans carry on right outside the cellar classroom. I especially love this book's testament against ageism while highlighting the wisdom of elders and the need for them in all contexts. Mr. Chips maintains "...ideas of dignity and generosity that were becoming increasingly rare in a frantic world." These are traits I admire, lack, and work to improve upon. Thanks, Mr. Chips!

[Blake Etheridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the first books I ever read that made me cry. It isn't the most amazing thing you'll ever read, but it's sweet and honest with a quiet, simple, and good-hearted protagonist. It made me want to be a teacher (then became one for a time and quickly changed my tune.) This one I reread every few years. I love it.

[Snehal · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very different kind of flow, the writing in the book. It is written in disconnected memories of an old man, which sounds weird and unreadable. But somehow James Hilton has managed to make disjointed memories define so very clearly, a man that you begin to wish would walk through the door so that you could sit and talk to him. Totally LOVED the book and the style of writing.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended by my 5th grade teacher who I now correspond with through written letters.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Chips is a quintessential ISFJ, which is also my Myers Briggs type, so I loved it. So sweet and lovely.

[Martin Ramsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is shocking how modern ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’ feels to me given that it was written by James Hilton in 1934. According to the blurb at the back Hilton, “became famous in the United States on the eighth day of June, 1934, when his little masterpiece ‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’ first appeared.”

When we first meet Mr Chips, he is a staid character who belongs to a small group of insiders for whom a knowledge of dead languages gives them a great sense of privilege. Hilton writes, “To be among the dwindling number of people who understood such things was to him a kind of secret and valued freemasonry; it represented, he felt, one of the chief benefits to be derived from a classical education.” (21)

Mr Chips at this point rejects the idea of social change. To him the world outside the school was full of “the strangest and most reprehensible opinions; there was Ibsen, too, with his disturbing plays; and there was this new craze for bicycling which was being taken up by women equally with men. Chips did not hold with ally this modern newness and freedom.” 27)

Then Mr Chips marries a much younger woman and is finally able to reach the potential previously beyond his reach. Hilton describes him before marriage as being a “fixture that gave service, satisfaction, confidence, everything except inspiration.” (36) After marriage he is transformed. “The one thing he had always had, a sense of humour, blossomed into a sudden richness to which his years lent maturity. He began to feel a greater sureness; his discipline improved to a point at which it could become, in a sense, less rigid; he became more popular.” (37)

Later, in the twilight years of his long career, Mr Chips has a ‘row’ with Ralston, the new principal who is described as being, “a live wire; a fine power transmitter, but you had to be beware of him.” (73) Ralston decides Mr Chips needs to retire. He tells Mrs Chips, “Your methods of teaching are slack and old-fashioned; your personal habits are slovenly; and you ignore my instructions in a way which, in a younger man, I should regard as a rank insubordination.” (75)

Mr Chips takes the position that, “Ralston was trying to run Brookfield like a factory - a factory for turning out a snob culture based on money and machines.” (79)

Ultimately the school board sides with Mr Chips as he has become, over the decades, the school personified and Ralston moves to ‘one of the greater public schools’. (85)

It is significant that Mr Chips comes to the conclusion that, “Ralston was trying to run Brookfield like a factory…” This is where Hiltons’s novel follows in the direction Dickens had taken in ‘Hard Times’ published in 1854. Today, this criticism of educational practices is still relevant. The obsession with data is mind numbing and the funding disparity between public and private schools in Australia, is unethical. Very much designed to promote a ‘snob culture’. Then there is the fact that Ralston is criticised by the School Board for “some monkeying on the Stock Exchange”. This resonates loud and clear with the conflicts of interest that have been exposed in recent years in the education department.

[M.J. Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodbye Mr Chips was penned in 1934 by James Hilton.
The film was released in 1939 and won the Oscar even though it had formidable opposition in the shape of the excellent and lavishly budgeted ‘Gone with the Wind.’
I have to admit that the film is the chief reason I read this classic tale, for it ranks alongside other epics as one of my favourites and I have seen it countless times since childhood. I still love it today.
Firstly, I will state that I was surprised to learn this was a short story of around 30,000 words.
I had expected a large novel for some reason, given how famous and revered it is. I was even a little disappointed truth be told.
However, I needn’t have been.
This is a rare gem. I’m not sure quite why, but this simple tale tugs hard at your heart strings in a way other novels simply do not. Perhaps it is a cultural thing shared largely by my countrymen and women? I don't know about that but it would be perfectly understandable were it true.
You see, it is laden throughout with nostalgia references, decentness, old British values of honesty and humility, self-sacrifice and selflessness.
It is a product of a bygone age and a symbol of a time vilified now by modern standards. A time of empire and colonialism, of patriotism and pride.
And yet, there was something so great about the British public back then which is perfectly captured and celebrated within these pages. It may ignore every evil; the class system, social injustices, bigotry etc. but the novel is not about the wider context; it is about one man's tiny corner of England in which he cultivated his own little area of extreme contentment.
I expect it may be hard for others to understand just why this book is considered a classic. Well, in all honesty, I believe it is because it is so well-written. It describes one ordinary, charming schoolteacher’s devotion to the boys in his charge, the way in which he was transformed by the all too brief love of a good woman who was devoted to him despite his eccentricities, or maybe because of them. How he affected all those he came into contact with with his warmth, wit, experience and generosity of spirit…
To use the language of the time, it is quite simply, delightful.

[Bobby D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m guessing not many of today’s younger generations have seen the 1939 black and white movie version of Goodbye Mr. Chips. I must have seen it first on television. It made a very deep impression on me and is a terrific tear jerker. (Peter O’Toole made a musical version that is not very good.) The book is really a long short story at 115 pages and I enjoyed it a great deal maybe because it brought back memories of a favorite movie.
Who can resist the story of the old, shy, unassuming British professor who finds himself the temporary dean of Brookfield boys school during World War One when most of his students go off matching and dying; Or of his transformational marriage to a much younger woman who teaches him empathy. At the end two fellow professors discuss his long career with each other…”Poor old chap—must have lived a lonely sort of life, all by himself. …Not always by himself. He was married, you know. …She died.”
“Pity. Pity he never had any children.” Chips hears them and says, “…I thought I heard you—one of you—saying it was a pity—umph—a pity I never had—any children… eh? BUT I HAVE, YOU KNOW…I HAVE…”
“THOUSANDS OF “EM…THOUSANDS OF ‘EM…AND ALL BOYS.” Then Chips thinks of the names. The names of the boys he has taught and remembers and soon falls asleep.
Young Linford hears Chips has died…”I said good-by to Chips the night before he dies…”
(My edition is a 1957 paperback priced at 35 cents. Thought it would be good to read while visiting Britain again this year.)

[Glenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sentimental and nostalgic look at the value that relationships give our lives. Getting to know Mr. Chips’ heart through his actions makes everyone who underestimates him at different points look like fools, though in my heartbreak of wanting him to have *all* that he deserves, the ending was a reminder that I, too, was underestimating the richness of his life. This book is a testament to character and commitment enduring through changing times, traditions, and expectations. And it is a reminder that no one can truly understand the whole of another person’s life unless they have experienced it with them. I cried through the entire thing and especially at the end.

My parents used to rent the black-and-white movie version from the library for us to watch as a family when we were little. I didn’t understand it then and didn’t understand my parents’ tears, but now that I am older and a teacher who is grateful everyday for her students, I understand and appreciate my parents for introducing me to Mr. Chips. I will read this book many times throughout my life as a sort of compass that points toward compassion and truth.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time I came across this story was as the 1939 film. I didn't realize it was a book at the time, but my mother-in-law remembered that I liked the movie and found the book for a birthday surprise. Read it in one afternoon as it's not a very long book, but the emotions and sentiments still made me tear up just like the movie had so long ago. I absolutely love how Mr. Chips develops in this tale as a teacher and as a person. The little snippet of his romance his heartbreaking. Anyone who aspires to be a teacher ought to take some lessons from Mr. Chips.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. It is about that one teacher who can change a student's life. Or, in this case, several students' lives over the course of many years. This book is the answer to anyone who would dismiss an educator as being 'just a teacher'. This book shows why teaching is one of the hardest and most influential of all professions.

When I read this book, I thought of my Latin teacher from my secondary school days, but I pictured Peter O'Toole. It turns out I had perfectly cast the movie.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilton produces a number of remarkable passages that unexpectedly hit you with a weight of subtle poignancy, humanity, wit, and substance beyond the surface. Instances that seem ordinary or casual at first glance often carry a much greater weight and depth. Hilton's execution of these moments (set up by the steady progression of the life of Mr. Chips) is deft and powerful, mixing comedy and tragedy to great effect.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodbye Mr Chips (1938) by James Hilton is a moving short book about an English schoolmaster and his life.

Mr Chipping was a schoolmaster at the fictional Brookfield school. There he started teaching in the latter part of the 1800s. He continues on to teach through until just after the First World War. It’s hard to say much about the book without spoilers.

It’s a fine, moving book. Well worth a read.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down. I’m sure it needs a good slow read to truly take it all in...perhaps next time. It was absolutely splendid! A book about the passage of time. A book about how important a seemingly unimportant person can have on a life or many lives. A book that will remind us all of those teachers that changed us. A must read!

[Shash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of heartwarming memories of a mild mannered, jovial and devoted school master who will not fail to remind all of us of that one lovable teacher in our lives who's touching words still remain with us, who's lessons we all never forget, and whom we all still look up to even after these many years. Such books do not deserve to be scrutinized any further.

[Andrew Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. The black and white film version is also very moving and won the lead actor an Oscar. It’s a beautiful story of love, loss and finding meaning at the end of a life. It’s pretty short and can be read in a day or two. I recommend it to anyone who is moving into retirement or a significant career change.

[Akrosh L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella tells the story of a beloved teacher now past his prime. The tone is nostalgic, as the narrator relives his past: “And there he was before the fire, dreaming again of times and incidents in which he alone could take secret interest….” The novella traces his gentle slide into forgetting and confusion. A little book with a lot to say.