Books recently read

My reading schedule is a bit higgledy piggledy but I have recently finished three unrelated books of various sizes. One was George Orwell's first novel Burmese Days which is a fine novel, despite what Orwell came to think, and an unsentimental insight into English attitudes in the 1920s as the British Raj began to wind down. The more Orwell I read the more I admire his skill. The other two books are non-fiction. Victorians Undone is a large roving thing by the journalist Kathryn Hughes. With chapters on Darwin's beard and George Eliot's hand it is an unusual approach to history but a fascinating read. Some will want to avoid the book because of some of the subject material it gets into and the very occasional lapse of judgement in the expressions used. Otherwise it is well written, informative and thought provoking. The third and final one to mention is a little SPCK hardback by Tudor historian John Guy. The first half is excellent but it is supplemented in the second half with discussions of More's impact down the years, including the fascinating story of how he was made saint and how first Robert Bolt and then Hilary Mantel got hold of the character and shaped him to their own purposes. Really worth a read.

Glossary Chapters 2-4 Burmese Days

1. Chokra Young man, boy "The invisible chokra who pulled the punkah rope outside was falling asleep in the glare."

2. Eheu! fugaces labuntur anni Alas! our fleeting years pass away (Latin) "Ah well, eheu fugaces! Those days are gone for ever, I am afraid."

3. Havildar British Indian Army rank equivalent to Sergeant, next above Naik (Indian)

4. Bo-kadaw A white man's wife (Burmese)

5. Machan  A safety platform in a tree used when hunting big animals such as tigers and leopards Indian)

6. Catlap Milk or weak tea, "only fit for the cat to lap" (English)

7. Dudh Milk? (Indian)

8. Talab Payment; wages? (Burmese?) "...wail something about his 'talab', which was eighteen rupees a month."

9. Civis Romanus sum I am a Roman citizen (Latin) "Good gracious, no one would believe anything against ME. Civis Romanus sum. I'm an Englishman - quite above suspicion."

10. Durwan A live-in doorkeeper (Indian)

(Also Pax Britannica The British Peace (Latin); Pukka Genuine; authentic (Indian) B.F. Bloody Fool? (English) "With the curious air of spite that some men can put into their tiniest action, he re-pinned the notice on the board and pencilled a tiny, neat 'B. F.' against Mr Macgregor's signature.")

Glossary Chapter 1 Burmese days

Unspecified, Indochina c. 1930, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I'm currently reading George Orwell's Burmese Days. He uses quite a few unfamiliar terms. Here are a number from Chapter 1

1. Dak Bungalow - A traveller's rest-house (for a postal service)

2. Topi - A light-weight hat

3. Sahib European man spoken to or of by Indians

4. Burra Great, used as title of respect; e.g. Burra sahib: important official, manager, chief. (Indian)

5. Pwe Burmese dance (Burmese)

6. Punkah Large fan consisting suspended from the ceiling

7. Longyi/Longyi Coolie  Sheet of cloth worn around the waist/Unskilled labourer (Burmese)

8. Dah Large knife with curved blade?

9. Sepoy Private soldier of the Indian infantry

10. Mali Gardener

(Also Rickshaw Two-wheeled cart for one passenger; pulled by one person; Dacoit Armed robber)

Watercolour of Awan sepoy by Major A.C. Lovett, c early 20th century
Painting included in the book, The Armies of India (publised 1911).
Public Domain via WIkipedia

10 Animal dangers

Ruud Loeffen, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Just one more list from George Orwell. He also reminisces on how dangerous various animals were. He again gives about six which we have supplemented.

1. Horses (and dogs) bite (and kick)

2. Bats get in your hair

3. Earwigs get in your ears (another myth I understand)

4. Swans break your legs or arms (highly unlikely)

5. Bulls toss you

6. Snakes poison you

7. Wasps and bees and spiders sting

8. Cats scratch

9. Seagulls peck

10. Crabs nip

10 Things said to be bad for you

Looking for inspiration to Orwell's Coming up for air once again, he has a list of six things his mother would always tell him were bad for him. It's the basis for this current list.

1. Raw potatoes are poisonous (apparently they are unlikely to kill you but it's not recommended)

2. Raw gooseberries give you colic and raw raspberries a skinrash

3. Swimming after meal causes stomach cramps (Orwell has having a bath)

4. A cut between the thumb and forefinger gives you lockjaw (my mother passed on this myth to me - untrue although that area is a likely one for tetanus if you do cut it)

5. Sweets are bad for your teeth (true if you don't clean them pretty soon)

6. Eating between meals is bad for you

7. Not drying properly will give you a yeast infection

8. Wearing unaired clothes or going out with wet hair will give you a cold (another favourite axiom with my mam)

9. Egg shells or water used to boil eggs will give you warts

10. If you swallow chewing gum it just stays there (apparently not)

10 items to collect on a fool's errand

Also in Orwell's Coming up for air is a list of items for a fool's errand (new apprentices, etc). He only gives four examples. I start with his and then add others.

1. Ha'porth worth of penny stamps

2. Rubber hammer (my dad was sent for one of these and actually got one as they do exist, a glass hammer is a better alternative)

3. Left-handed screwdriver (or hammer or spanner)

4. Striped paint (also available in tartan)

5. A new bubble for the spirit level

6. Sparks for the grinder

7. Bucket of steam

8. Straight hook

9. Long weight/wait

10. Skirting board ladder

(Bags for a Dyson is more modern; sky hooks is an old one)

10 names for coarse fish

I found this list in George Orwell's Coming up for air. Coarse fish are any freshwater fish apart from salmon or trout. (I know nothing about fishing but I tried this question on my wife's brother-in-law and he came up with the same names unprompted).

1. Roach

2. Rudd

3. Dace

4. Barbel

5. Bream

6. Gudgeon

7. Pike

8. Chub

9. Carp

10. Tench

(Orwell also has Bleak, the one my relative failed to get at first)

10 Novellas

One of my sons famously thought novella was a posh word for a novel. It just refers to a short novel - about 150 pages or less. Here is a list of ten. These are ones I have actually read.

1. Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853
2. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1885
3. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899
4. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911
5. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937
6. Animal Farm George Orwell 1945
7. The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958
9. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Alexander Solzhenitsyn 1962
10. A Month in the Country J L Carr 1960

The Top 10 novels on Abebooks since 2000

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

5. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

6. Night by Elie Wiesel

7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

9. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

 (Next come Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury)

I've read 1, 2, 7, 9 and 10 plus Fahrenheit 451, all worth the effort, and would like to read the other non-Potter ones. I've missed out three non-novels from the original list of 100 here)

Unusual Words 18 Matutinal

In his Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell uses the word matutinal, as in

"The matutinal tub divides the classes more effectually than birth, wealth, or education."

The word relates to or rfers to soemthing occurring in the morning or early in the day. Other examples

He was an imposing and sombre personage, before whom the choir boys in alb and in jacket trembled, as well as the machicots, and the brothers of Saint-Augustine and the matutinal clerks of Notre-Dame, when he passed slowly beneath the lofty arches of the choir, majestic, thoughtful, with arms folded and his head so bent upon his breast that all one saw of his face was his large, bald brow. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

"Ata," explained So-ta, when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite; but that was later.

The Land That Time Forgot by  Edgar Rice Burroughs

Unusual words 15 Glozing

In George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier he writes these words, quoting someone and then commenting

 

'Have another cream cracker, Mr Reilly. You'll like a cream cracker with your cheese' - thus glozing over the fact that there was only cheese for supper.

 

It is, of course, just an archaic form of "glossing" in the sense of underplaying or minimising. It is in Milton's Paradise Lost

"For man will heark'n to his glozing lyes".

Down and out in Paris and London

Cassowary Colorizations, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

I first came across George Orwell in school and have read 1984 and Animal Farm and some of his essays. I recently picked up and read his mainly factual account of poverty first in Paris then in London, which first appeared in 1933 and was Orwell's first full length work. I love his lean style. He's very journalistic. The book has the distinction of having been rejected by T S Eliot.

While in Paris he is on the breadline working as a plongeur in hotels. In London he is a fully fledged tramp for 30 days. The two halves are not a neat join and the Paris section is probably more interesting. Apparently the supposed order of events is fictional.

The book reminded me a little of W H Davies' Autobiography of a Supertramp but when I checked that came out some 15 years before. Davies did review it favourably. Orwell mentions Jack London in the book and was apparently an admirer of hiss People of the Abyss about life in London's east end, which came out in 1903.

The book is interesting for opening the door on other worlds and the many anecdotes it contains. The thought that some people are wholly occupied simply with feeding themselves, working and sleeping is sobering. Perhaps some of us have too much time on our hands.

 

Was Orwell racist?

Radio 4 have been celebrating George Orwell recently and I have been reading his Down and out in Paris and London. On page 127 of my edition I notice that in an unusually editorial passage he says

 

Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor, as though they were two different races, like negroes and white men.

 

Racism is a notoriously difficult word to define but it sounds racist and no doubt had he lived in this era he would have expressed himself differently. See an old discussion here.

The Lottery

I was reminded recently of this quotation from George Orwell's 1984.

They were talking about the Lottery. Winston looked back when he had gone thirty metres. They were still arguing, with vivid, passionate faces. The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made a living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets.

Book Buys February

Book buying in February included five freebies thanks to The Times who were giving away 10 Penguin paperbacks free. I didn't get the all but did get A Clockwork Orange, The Day of the Triffids, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Great Gatsby and Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was sorry to miss Out of Africa, Mrs Dalloway and Animal Farm.

I also made an impulse buy rushing through Tesco's one day and spotting Hugo Hamilton's The Sailor in the Wardrobe for just £3. I really enjoyed his The Speckled people.

I also bought 10 copies of Richard Gibson's collection of Jewish testimonies The unusual suspects to sell in church.

At the Affinity Conference I bought the first volume of Douglas Kelly's Systematic Theology, a book of essays on Worldliness edited by C J Mahaney, which I have almost finished, addresses from a previous conference The Forgotten Christ and Iain D Campbell's little book The seven wonders of the world.

Do badly Orwell?

How about these five beginnings from novels by George Orwell? Do you recognise them? The first two are easy.

1. Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.

2. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

3. The first sound in the mornings was the clumping of the mill-girls’ clogs down the cobbled street. Earlier than that, I suppose, there were factory whistles which I was never awake to hear.

4. The clock struck half past two. In the little office at the back of Mr McKechnie’s bookshop, Gordon—Gordon Comstock, last member of the Comstock family, aged twenty-nine and rather moth-eaten already—lounged across the table, pushing a four-penny packet of Player’s Weights open and shut with his thumb.

5. The rue du Coq d’Or, Paris, seven in the morning. A succession of furious, choking yells from the street. Madame Monce, who kept the little hotel opposite mine, had come out on to the pavement to address a lodger on the third floor. Her bare feet were stuck into sabots and her grey hair was streaming down.

[Answers: animalfarm1984theroadtowiganpierkeeptheaspidistraflying

downandoutinparisandlondon]