2016: A Dance to the Music of Time discussion
1st Movement
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[January] A Question of Ubringing, Chapter 1, first impressions
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Simon wrote: "This is a thread for discussion up to the end of chapter 1, so that you don't need to have read the whole first book to start discussing here and avoid spoilers from the other thread.I liked this..."
It is school - and not university. If I remember correctly I believe it was Eton - which is a public school - i.e. a fee paying school for non UK readers. It's a school people would attend until they're 18 and would then go on to university or work. Nicholas Jenkins spent some time in France and then went to university.
Simon wrote: "Thanks for the heads-up!"You're welcome :-)
Thanks for setting up this thread. I was already starting to feel overwhelmed (and left behind).
Me too :) and i want to space out my reading more evenly over the month, so that i'm not out of touch when i start book 2 in February, and that's the pace this group was named for.
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I am doing that too Simon, reading slowly, making it last over the month.Got the Invitation To the Dance: A Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time but don't wanna read too much on the entries cause I would hate to spoil it too much. Nice to look up some of the cast though.
I liked the way Jenkins was surprised to find he was perhaps closer friend to Stringham then he though. That sense of how friendships can shift so fast when you are young. From being a bit of a silent bystander, a narrator, he takes a step forward and at least in the eys of his friends, he is one of them,
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It's a bit strange, but not too difficult for me. Think Klezmer or bid war.
Travelling Sunny wrote: "Am I the only person having a tough time with the name Widmerpool? I stumble over that pronunciation everytime. In my head, I hear Winderpool..."I was doing that too. For some reason, it helped me to think of 'mer' meaning 'sea', since it's right next to 'pool'.
I loved this first chapter. Especially the opening bit with its beautiful descriptive language. I just wanted to bathe in it all!My only experience of the British school experience comes from novels. But I feel all the them (and also that episode of Dr. Who) clamoring around the edges of my brain. I need to do a little research on the system. In the U.S., private schools are those funded via tuition (fee); while public schools are funded through taxes and are attended by the general public K-12. I wonder if the boarding school experience is similar, though.
Yes - I have questioned some of my friends on the differences between the educational instruction used in the US and overseas and I have been having a difficult time finding direct information . I do ; however, have the experience to share fro my own Mama who lived in England during her teen years because her Stepfather( my grandpapa ) was in World WarII . She attended a boarding school along with all of the other local children . She was not allowed to come home except on some weekends and some other various times when her Stepfather could come and get her. Otherwise it was a long bus ride . My Mama said that my Grandpapa spent special money to see she had this opportunity. She said she was not very popular because she was as in a " Question of Upbringing", a stranger and no one knew of her past. Also, she was an American . My Mama said she was often teased about her accent and her appearance, but my Grandmother was an excellent seamstress and could sew anything she saw in a window . My mother would often have clothing sewn for her that no one could tell was home made. My Mama is also very charming and learned exactly the right manners and values set for every occasion while attending this boarding school. They were taught table manners, conversational skills, art history, and went to museums and concerts of classical music, operas, plays , and ballets.
Much of this in our school systems nowadays would never be considered important in a well rounded education . These things are considered frivolous and states cannot support these extra activities to be included . This upbringing is left out of civilized society except by the very wealthiest raising children . We really have stepped back in time .
One thing is for certain in our Southern Society to this day where I live in Mississippi I still am questioned quite often about my upbringing . This has not left our Southern heritage . Whenever you meet someone, often you will hear questions : " Now who are you ?" Or " What did you say your last name was ?" Or " I knew a man with that last name in --- any chance you are kin ? " Or " You look just like someone I use to know . How do I know you???"
These questions are asked of me all of the time . Sometime I must go through my whole lineage and where their houses were located before they say , " Oh My ! I knew your Mama, Betty Rose ! Everyone loved Betty Rose ! My goodness , why didn't you just say so !"
Love this chapter and this book so far! The Uncle is something else and I would love to box LeBas's ears ! I get so frustrated with his dialogue ! HA!
Thank you for listening to mine too !
Dawn
Thank you for that lovely slice of remembrance. :) It puts me in mind of movies where a character introduces himself as Blank Browne of the Connecticut Brownes, connecting himself with family, place, and probably class. And it's funny to think how many last names originally told whose son you were and from what part of the country. Thomson. O'Hara. MacCleod. Schofield. Hyland. Etc.
To answer your first post, public schools in the UK are not only private but exclusive and nowadays very expensive ie $50k per year. The boys in the book are 17-18 yrs old. Public schools in those days were very Spartan and cold with no comforts like heating etc. and of course, all male! Pupils boarded for the term and were not allowed home but were sometimes allowed to have lunch with a relative for Sunday lunch. This is because they had school on Saturday as well, prep in the morning and sport in the afternoons. Lots of chapel too!
Thank you for the clarification Clare. No heat in damp chilly English winter would be difficult to study in - in my opinion.
No heat and ice cold showers. As someone said, our Empire was built on the playing fields of Eton! It prepared them for a life in the colonies, soldiering, prison (of war), etc etc. There was a lot of caning too to toughen you up (now thankfully forbidden)!
Damaskcat wrote: "Simon wrote: "This is a thread for discussion up to the end of chapter 1, so that you don't need to have read the whole first book to start discussing here and avoid spoilers from the other thread...."Really, I thought they were at Cambridge or something...
I liked this humorous first chapter, and those few characters were very well differentiated and colorfully painted. The quirky outsider Widmerpool, the opportunistic unachieved? uncle Giles, the ebullient womanizer Templer, the ultra-strict butler... and Stringham, what was he like again? And the protagonist, the "I" of the novel, Jenkins, about whom we don't learn much yet i think.
A nice, short passage about Le Bas:
"He was a tall, untidy man, clean-shaven and bald with large rimless spectacles that gave him a curiously Teutonic appearance: like a German priest. Whenever he removed these spectacles he used to rub his eyes vigorously with the back of his hand, and, perhaps as a result of this habit, his eyelids looked chronically red and sore."
(p. 26)
One thing i was constantly wondering about was the characters' age. It's clear they are young, but are they actually still in "high school"? Or are they in college? Because the word "school" often comes up, but it's not clear to me what kind of school.