Mistress Masham's Repose :: Author: T.H. White

1926!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1726.

Yes yes, I fixed it.

T.H. White's sequel to Gulliver's Travels is from 1946 I believe.

The professor, of course, is White himself - just as he is Merlin in his very famous "The Once and Future King" - (which Disney hunted down, captured, killed and made a cartoon of - at least the first book of the series: "The Sword in the Stone") and the professor in "The Elephant and the Kangaroo" , down whose Irish chimney came the Archangel Gabriel one fine day - and ordered said professor to build a new Ark for lo, a great Deluge was coming!

As can be seen, White was possessed of an unusual imagination and this, and his wide learning, and fascinating obsessions (eg ants, hawks, fish, jousting, mediaeval history and literature, Irish setters, the literature of the 18th century and so on) make his light works fascinating and instructive. Oh dear -I think I digressed.

(White, in a book called "The Goshawk", recounts the incredible and doomed experience of attempting to train a hawk using the mediaeval method of "watching" {typically, for White, unaware of far easier modern methods} and, in his usual way, elucidating much of the metaphor of one of my un-favourite Shakespeare plays, "The taming of the Shrew" as well as writing beautifully and almost insanely.)

Anyway, I love 18th C lit too - and it is this Palladian background as well as the wondrous conception of a "modern" girl actually finding The People (oh, HOW I wish they had saved the horses!!!) and - in White's lovely, idiosyncratic, learned prose - negotiating the moral dilemmas of power and inner demons.

Which in the end, as Craven says, he stuffs royally - having the denouement comprise all the qualities, in terms of the peoples' fate, against which he has argued so beautifully all along. Poor chappie always did shoot himself in the foot, though....

Sadly, Craven - we may be the only two a2kers who have read this book - 'twas out of print for years and I am unsure how much White penetrated the American market, except for The sword in the Stone. I do hope I am wrong.

I hope you're wrong, too, Deb. I loved the Once and Future King, and am fascinated by the way you described this one, Craven. I'm going to look for it.

Sounds like a story with a great plot, Craven
It tugs at your heartstrings,your sympathy for
the poor girl, (who, like Harry Potter, has
abominable parents/caretakers) as well as
some unexpected help from a magical source,
like Cinderalla - a story of archetypes, isn't
it .

Oh - how wonderful if others would read it! I love sharing books with friends above most things, and this book, for all its faults, has been a great joy to me since I discovered it as a weelowan - as was much of White's writing, as you may have gleaned from my post above.

I was thinking more about the book while I shopped - and it became apparent to me that much of the joy is seeing the Lilliputians from the POV of Maria - who is a most delightful heroine - clever, vulnerable, determined, intensely human, sensitive, honourable and deeply tempted to dishonour, most quirky and wonderful.

Now - the Liliputians were always a fascinating and ravishing concept - and have survived in the public imagination on this, even for those who are unfamiliar with Swift and the satirical and deeper purpose of "Gulliver's Travels", and who view them only through the lens of "adaptations".

However, as befits the needs of Swift's wonderful book, Lemuel Gulliver is a plodding, pedestrian, practical soul - an "everyman" - an innocent, in a sense, whose reasonable and uninspired responses (full of ells and cubits and suchlike) allow the joys of the concept of Lilliput to shine through, but somewhat dimmed.

Maria, however, is a consciousness through whose lens the full wonder and delight and breathless fascination of the being of Lilliputians is focussed most gloriously!

White excels in his exploration of the scales, "oeconomy", subterfuges, and practical means of survival of The People, as well as the lovely contrast of their "frozen" culture with the mores and imaginative landscape of the mid 20th Century world of Maria and the other protagonists - the professor doesn't count - he is a "beastly anachronism" already!

He also excels in delineating the moral situation and choices of Maria in dealing with real people unable to resist her effectively, and whose stature tempts her to see them as less than totally autonomous adults - this is the philosophical centre and struggle of the book.

The rest - the tiresome struggle against the forces of externalised evil, in the persons of the Governess and the Vicar - are bathetic, I feel, and the end sad. But oh, the wonder of the real "matter" of the book!!!!!

A bit like the dilemma of a huge, young, naive and deeply human - in all its denials, projections, suppressions and repressions - power like the USA..... but I digress......or do I?

Er - does anybody else have "Mistress of Lilliput" by Alison Fell? 'Tis a book from the POV of Gulliver's wife, Mary. I haven't read it yet, but it seems a most intriguing book - the jacket blurb describes it as "...imagin(ing) a life for her and in doing so tak(ing) us on a subversive and brilliant adventure."

Deb,

I hadn't known that the prof. was White. It makes sense given the lectures that the old guy gave.

Incidentally we both share the same reasons for diskiling the ending. Why the people had to lose their secret to characters hardly introduced (and with their character not having been established) is a mystery to me.

And I wish they had horses too! Why do they have to ride rats?

Rats! yecccch!

I mean - I like rats - but when you could have had Lilliputian horses! What was wrong with the man!?

He completely screwed up by missing all the fun that could have been had with animals.

Odd - because he loved them - and wrote about them a great deal in other books. I think he didn't wanna get caught up in "cute"? But, then why that bothersome army thingy?

I've read it, Deb. Also the Goshawk, TOAFK, England Have My Bones and the Victorian somethin' or other ... didn't care enough for that one to rightly recollect the name.

I should have known, Deb!!!

So - what did you think of MMR?

I just found my copy, by the way - well, I found A copy - but it wasn't the copy I thought I had, so I had two copies - balmy, eh?

Was it "Farewell Victoria"? He wrote poems, too.

Come back Craven, you promised quotes and stuff!!! Me appetite was all whetted and excited and happy in anticipation!

Have you read "The Borrowers", Deb?

Now I'm really excited. I went to the library today and found Mistress Masham and it's now on my bedside table, on top of Rohinton Mistry's new book and a wonderful mystery (no pun intended) by Iain Pears. If I get rather uncommunicative it's because I'm reading.

OoOH! It was available in the USA? Hardback or paperback?

Which Ian Pears is that? I have a lovely new one on me coffee table - with SO many other books!!

I do hope you love MMR - 'twould be wonderful to have mor epeople to discuss it with.

Aye, that be the wascal, Farewell Victoria. Have found my MMR ... took me about an hour to dredge it from the depths. (I'll eventually sort out these ruddy book stacks -- been on my things to do list for nigh on forty year now, so it's not as though I've forgot about it.) Anyrood, I'm giving the book a quick runthrough just to recharge my recollector. Mine is only a paperback copy I bought back in the 70's, though it has nice drawings.



dream2020, I returned Mistry's new one to the library this very morning. Only got through about 4 or 5 chapters. It's a good un, but I've got about 14 other books going at once. It's definitely one I plan to finish in time. Family Matters, I'm assuming you mean.

I liked "Farewell Victoria", I think - 'tis a long time since I read it. I had a passion for White when I wa a weelowan.

Deb, I'll try to do a run through my favorite parts of the bookmaybe around Tuesdayish.

I'll be doing military stuff (chosing MOS, signing, swearing in etc.) till Tuesday.