Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Mid A 15 wrote:John Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos and George Orwell's Animal Farm are two books which spring to mind from Maine A junior dormitory 65/66 courtesy, mainly, of Geoff Fordham and John Lloyd the two monitors most involved with us squits.

Ah, Lloyd and Fordham, not seen those two names together for a while.
I read Day of the Triffids and another Wyndham book, as well as Dr No and probably others designed to drift the little B´s off to sleep.
What I can´t remember is whether it was every night or only Saturdays and after exams.

Can I suggest that the Moderator combines a previous thread ( "Reading to the House" started on 12 Oct 2013) with this one? Chris T

Roger Martin bought Norman Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" and read it to us in Prep A.
I read it to my kids and noticed a recent review in the Guardian.
Magical book ... and RM was magical master.

Chris T wrote:Can I suggest that the Moderator combines a previous thread ( "Reading to the House" started on 12 Oct 2013) with this one? Chris T

[flash=][/flash]

Link please to save me time !!!

J.R. wrote:

Chris T wrote:Can I suggest that the Moderator combines a previous thread ( "Reading to the House" started on 12 Oct 2013) with this one? Chris T

Your Wish Is my Command.

(It'll soon be panto season !!)


DONE !!

John Wexler and Paul Wade (monitors) used to read Gerald Kersh to us in Col A Junior dorm - short stories were best, because if you went to the sicker you'd miss an instalment. In the Prep B dorm I remember Peter "Austin"-Jones read Ayesha by Rider-Haggard to us, I think it took him a whole term.

ColeridgeA40 wrote:John Wexler and Paul Wade (monitors) used to read Gerald Kersh to us in Col A Junior dorm - short stories were best, because if you went to the sicker you'd miss an instalment. In the Prep B dorm I remember Peter "Austin"-Jones read Ayesha by Rider-Haggard to us, I think it took him a whole term.

I suppose you mean 'She'. The pre-Freudian undertones in that book I suppose would be lost on 10-year-olds. Why do you put 'Austin' in quotes? It was his middle name, but used as a sort of double barrel to distinguish him from the senior housemaster of Prep A.

We were read The Cruel Sea. John Page thought it was the 'Cadet' edition, which was left lying visibly around, but as soon as he'd gone, we got out the unexpurgated version. I believe there was a semi-expurgated 'Midshipman' edition too.

I remember a copy of 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' actually appearing during the court case.

Needless to say, it was NEVER read in the dorm !!!

J.R. wrote:I remember a copy of 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' actually appearing during the court case.

Needless to say, it was NEVER read in the dorm !!!

When the fuss started we asked Kit if he would be reading it. His reply was along the lines of "No, I'll wait for the film"

I believe it later became a set book for O level GCE or GCSE!

Of all the books in the English literary canon, Lady Chatterly's Lover is probably the one most thoroughly pervaded by Nazi ideology: throw the disabled on the scrapheap, glory in the supremacy of primal urges over civilized behaviour. Not suitable for dormitory reading.

michael scuffil wrote:Of all the books in the English literary canon, Lady Chatterly's Lover is probably the one most thoroughly pervaded by Nazi ideology: throw the disabled on the scrapheap, glory in the supremacy of primal urges over civilized behaviour. Not suitable for dormitory reading.

A touch harsh, Michael as it is now rated as a classic

J.R. wrote:

michael scuffil wrote:Of all the books in the English literary canon, Lady Chatterly's Lover is probably the one most thoroughly pervaded by Nazi ideology: throw the disabled on the scrapheap, glory in the supremacy of primal urges over civilized behaviour. Not suitable for dormitory reading.

A touch harsh, Michael as it is now rated as a classic

Certainly a classic, and I've no objection to its being read and studied. But one gets the impression that Lady C. & Mellors are role models in Lawrence's eyes, in a way that for example Lolita and Humbert Humbert are certainly not in Nabokov's.

The book was long banned because of the sex, and now it's mostly read because of the sex -- which takes people's mind off the much worse immorality of regarding Clifford Chatterly, a disabled war hero, as a useless and degenerate nuisance, symbolizing the upper classes generally.

Bertrand Russell wrote: 'The world between the wars was attracted to madness. Of this attraction, Nazism was the most emphatic expression. Lawrence was a suitable exponent of this cult of insanity.' (Russell and Lawrence knew each other well.)

I am currently reading '50 Shades of Grey'. (a present to 'Er Indoors').

A literary classic it will NEVER be. Good luck to the author for making a fortune - God knows how.

Erotic in places but as an example of Englishish literature, a complete and utter disaster.

michael scuffil wrote: Bertrand Russell wrote: 'The world between the wars was attracted to madness. Of this attraction, Nazism was the most emphatic expression. Lawrence was a suitable exponent of this cult of insanity.' (Russell and Lawrence knew each other well.)

A bit off-topic but...
On a social level the first sentence is definitely accurate -hedonism (often on an international level) taken to an extent that today's stars are only trying to emulate. More difficult was that certain practices were illegal and subject to imprisonment but were carried out. As to the reference to Nazism I don't know.