BABE BA

by Edward Frederic Benson

General Books publication 2009 Original publication 1896 Original G.P. Putnam's Sons Education / Higher Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. III. -- The Babe. O bitter world, where one who longs To be recorded unforiven, Bewitched and wild, 1s called a child Fit to be seen in any heaven. Hotchpotch Verses. The Babe was a cynical old gentleman of twenty years of age, who played the banjo charmingly. In his less genial moments he spoke querulously of the monotony of the services of the Church of England, and of the hopeless respectability of M. Zola. His particular forte was dinner parties for six, skirt dancing and acting, and the performances of the duties of half-back at Rugby football. His dinner parties were selected with the utmost carelessness, his usual plan being to ask the first five people he met, provided he did not know them too intimately. With a wig of fair hair, hardly any rouge, and an ingenue dress, he was the image of Vesta Collins, and that graceful young lady might have practised before him, as before a mirror. But far the most remarkable point about the Babe, considering his outward appearance and other tastes, was his brilliance as a Rugby football player. He was extraordinarily quick with the ball, his passing was like a beautiful dream, and he dodged, as was universally known, like the devil. It was a sight for sore eyes to see the seraphic, smooth-faced Babe waltzing gaily about among rough-bearded barbarians, pretending to pass and doing nothing of the kind, dropping neatly out of what looked like the middle of the sc...

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Edward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.

E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.

Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.

Last paragraph from Wikipedia

Reviews

[ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cambridge student from the leisure classes plays rugby like a god but is partial to performing skirts dances; plays the lead female role in the student production of a Greek tragedy; and is generally Wildesque (epigrammatic speech, flamboyant dress, etc). Everyone loves and respects him, including his tutor, who is possibly more Wildesque than him.

Sounds like fun, but it isn't, really. I happily concede that the main character is likeable, and that the book has its moments. But they're all too few, and easily forgotten when you find yourself yawning at extended descriptions of rugby or cricket matches (which I made sure to skip, but still resented). Mostly it's tediously self-indulgent and borderline moronic (page upon page of fatuous young men talking rubbish -- or 'rot', as they themselves would say).

Despite all that, it is intriguing for its documentary value, providing an insight into how some elite young men experienced University life in Edwardian England, and into how Oxbridge institutions made room for some modes of queer existence despite the criminalisation of same-sex sexuality