NYRB Classics discussion
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Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
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Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, by Angus Wilson
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I wasn't crazy about this one. The plot seemed to have so much potential, but Wilson's execution wasn't convincing for me at all. It dragged terribly, although it did have some clever and nicely written passages.
It looks like an amazing and puzzling book. I will be reading it.
I will be starting this weekend, and with a nod to Cordelia on her suggestion to read this and Butcher's Crossing from the poll comments, would be willing to do that as soon as I am finished with this one.
Trevor wrote: "Book club read for January 2024."Thanks Trevor!
In reading the novel prior to discussion, I was delighted to find a very humorous family Xmas party which made a lovely tie-in.
Just starting now and yes, the opening is seasonally perfect.
Mod
I've barely started myself, Trevor, so at least a couple of us will be discussing later rather than earlier in the month!
I have finished so I will stand pat till others have read a bit and are ready for discussion. I enjoyed the novel but I thank my last few years on Goodreads for helping refresh my knowledge of all British as the novel is dependent on one's awareness of British manners for its success.
Just checking to see how everyone is doing on this. We should also decide on whether we want to pick a February read pretty soon if we want to post a poll.
I've yet to start. Waiting on book from library. But happy to start thinking about a book for February.In the meantime I have read Butcher's Crossing. It was really quite amazing - I really enjoyed it.
I think we could just do Butcher's Crossing in February, as it only lost by one vote this month. Then have a new poll for the March title. I am not very far with the Angus Wilson but only because I've had time constraints. Still looking forward to discussing this soon.
I agree with Seana that it would be a good idea to have Butcher's Crossing as our discussion selection for February. That will give us an opportunity ro give some consideration to what we might want to read before our next poll and also give the other voters who participated something to look forward to.
Seana wrote: "I think we could just do Butcher's Crossing in February, as it only lost by one vote this month. Then have a new poll for the March title. I am not very far with the Angus Wilson but only because ..."
I like this idea for February.
This was my first dip into Angus Wilson's work. I hadn't realized till I started how much I was in the mood for a comedy of manners till I began it, and though I felt the novel belonged to the period in which it was written, I did not feel the "datedness," distracted from my enjoyment. It rather enhanced the read, for I was left speculating on whether Wilson's treatment of homosexuality in the novel as exploitation and "rent boys," was a consequence of the criminalization of homosexuality prior to 1967. I am poorly read in 1950's and 1960's British literature, so I welcomed the chance to add another book to my background. My favorite parts were, Wilson's exaggerated characters, the very British element to the writing, and the parties. I think Wilson depicted his parties and group gatherings wonderfully. Great read.
I am about halfway through now. I am enjoying it, but am somehow not able to go faster than this. I'm looking forward to reading some thoughts on this book.
Seana wrote: "I am about halfway through now. I am enjoying it, but am somehow not able to go faster than this. I'm looking forward to reading some thoughts on this book."I wish to hear those thoughts Seana.
Well, I've finished it--a couple of days past the end of the month, but still. I have spent some of the time since reading various comments on GoodReads, and the responses are all over the place. I think this may be one of those books that you either connect with or don't, and that you could have a completely different reaction to at another time and place in your life. I also think that if you give yourself over to it, it works on you in a way that may be a bit below the surface and that it may have made more of an inroad than you at first realize. I think we are asked to make decisions, call them moral decisions perhaps, on a variety of ambiguous situations, and that by and large, Gerald is the lens through whom we view them. And it's a little bit about how we get stuck in life through some of the decisions we make but how there is a possibility of review and renewal. I think if you get to a certain point in life, you are more likely to see a bit of Gerald in yourself than not. His decision at the end of the novel is hopeful for all of us, indicating as it does that he has sprung free from a lot of things that have kept him stuck. I found a JSTOR paper on this book which I have just started but it looks promising. Here's the link. I'm not a JSTOR member, nor is my library but a regular person can read 100 articles a month on site, so I'm posting the link:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24777533
Loved this book, but I'm a big anglophile. Thanks for the JSTOR link, something to read this weekend.
Great, Michael. I just finished it and found it quite illuminating.
Seana wrote: "Well, I've finished it--a couple of days past the end of the month, but still. I have spent some of the time since reading various comments on GoodReads, and the responses are all over the place. I..."Unfortunately, I had poor luck with registering with JSTOR to access the essay. I beleve Hahn is a medievalist so from the preview, I felt I could gauge his thoughts I think. I did not give as much thought to deeper levels of meaning implied by the author's use of medievalism as a catalyst beyond the humorous. First, the whole idea of Anglo-Saxon which is actually two separate cultures Angle and Saxon, whose identity got fused from consequences of their clash. Second , the development of the rather coarse joke of the exaggerated physical characteristics of the pagan fertility idol having been found in an otherwise Christian burial site. Wilson exploits that motif to the maximum without overdoing it. I concentrated on the humor which I thought was thr strongest part of the novel when reading it today, again noting, I may have missed elements that would appeal to the British perspective.
I'm sorry you weren't able to access it, Sam. But I do think that it's perfectly fine to just read the novel for its humor. I was curious why it was praised so highly at the time it was written by critics and yet is fairly obscure today. I was just gratified to learn that in addition to the comedy he was working on some other themes. One thing the article mentioned was that Wilson was probably in part responding to a slightly earlier book, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, which also features a medieval historian. We actually read that book together in this very community some years ago, but unfortunately it's too long ago for me to remember much of anything about it. But it did make me think of something more recent, the movie Living which featured Bill Nighy in what to me was a somewhat similar role--someone buried under the weight of an institution and then suddenly wakes up and begins to live for his own values.
I have another link for anyone who's interested. As it's from The Guardian, it should be more accessible. It's about Angus Wilson's career, which in the end was rather sad.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
NYRB Classics
Books mentioned in this topic
Butcher's Crossing (other topics)Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (other topics)
Publication Date: March 15, 2005
Pages: 360
Introduction by Jane Smiley.
Originally published in 1956.
Gerald Middleton is a sixty-year-old self-proclaimed failure. Worse than that, he—s “a failure with a conscience.” As a young man, he was involved in an archaeological dig that turned up an obscene idol in the coffin of a seventh-century bishop and scandalized a generation. The discovery was in fact the most outrageous archaeological hoax of the century, and Gerald has long known who was responsible and why. But to reveal the truth is to risk destroying the world of cozy compromises that, personally as well as professionally, he has long made his own.
One of England’s first openly gay novelists, Angus Wilson was a dirty realist who relished the sleaze and scuffle of daily life. Slashingly satirical, virtuosically plotted, and displaying Dickensian humor and nerve, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes features a vivid cast of characters that includes scheming academics and fading actresses, big businessmen toggling between mistresses and wives, media celebrities, hustlers, transvestites, blackmailers, toadies, and even one holy fool. Everyone, it seems, is either in cahoots or in the dark, even as comically intrepid Gerald Middleton struggles to maintain some dignity while digging up a history of lies.