Amazon Consumer’s Reviews About To The Hermitage
Prescient
A first novel with the kind of
uneveness that you might expect, but a very good read, and often very funny --
especially if you've spent some time around universities. Liberal academics are the target
here, although the book is not unsympathetic or mean-spirited; he's writing
about Britain, but it connects with the US scene pretty seamlessly.
"Liberal" here refers to the 1950s version (the book came out in 1959)
of the well-meaning socialist left, with its ideological moorings in the 1930s
and beginning to entertain guilty doubts about the perfectibility of either man
or society. Bradbury was writing before the appearance of the New Left, Black
Power, militant feminism, and political correctness, but his antennae were up
and humming. He saw what was coming, and something about why it would all find
a home among university liberal arts faculty. There is a fascinating Afterword,
where Bradbury writes about the context of the times, and how he came to write
the book.
Posted in
February 21, 2006
By meadowreader
Hilarious, sophisticated, but most
important: very humane
This a sensitive, hilarious, thought
provoking and well thought-out novel. Its settings is a provincial British
University where you encounter Mr. Eborebelosa, a student from Africa and a son
of a tribal chief, who escapes the pecularities of the British life by locking
himself in public lavatories and promising sensitive Emma Fielding of
attractive African clothing if she is to join his long line of domesticated
African wives. There is the would-be poet Lous Bates, a prospective genius for
some of the time and a madman for the most of the time. There is the almost
beautiful Emma who invokes images of Virginia Wolf especially if you hadn't
seen Virginia Wolf on or off the screen. But above all there is Treece, a true
liberal acting as liberals should, he has to carry out other people's burdens
when they don't have the capacity to carry it out for themselves, and if the
immoralities of others didn't disturb their conscience it was not his place to
condemn them, but if had been around while those immoralitites were commited he
felt it his duty to square them. A major English novel.
Posted in May 13, 2005
Often hilarious, often dull...
The best thing going for this book is its
title--which, in many ways, is also the funniest thing about the book. I enjoyed
sitting in front of my dorm reading it, to have people ask "what are you
reading?" to which I replied, "Eating people is Wrong."
"That's true," they'd say.
There are
many funny passages in this book. Many funny moments.
Malcolm Bradbury has a sharp wit--he's the author. The plot is fairly simple--a
college professor in a British school has a sort-of mid-life crisis as he
interacts with the arrogant-madman Louis Bates and as they both fall in love
with the gentle and mildly attractive Emma Fielding. Things happen, but I felt
somewhat claustrophobic in the book as it didn't move around much. It was
confining.
But maybe
that's the point. Reading this book made me feel like the protagonist, Stuart Treece, probably felt---weary, disillusioned, and not
wanting to go on but feeling compelled to (with the book, at least).
There are
great passages, and I underlined a few. "Life is catalysed
by knowing interesting people. That's where the vivid moments come from. And
there just isn't time for bores and fools" (193). I agree with that.
"Moreover,
all his life, Treece had been doing things that he
did not exactly want to do, journeying off on holidays he had no intention of
taking, watching plays he did not wish to see, playing sports he detested,
simply because someone had gone to the trouble to persuade him, simply because
he felt they cared, simply...well, simply because he could not say no. He
always thought what a hard time of it he would have had if he had been a woman;
he would have been pregnant all the time" (149).
There were
moments that I loved this book, that I laughed and
reread the passage aloud. Then there were moments where I found myself lost in
a paragraph, completely uninterested, irritated that I was stilling reading
this, asking myself, "is this going anywhere?" So I'm not sure if I
recommend it. If any of this sounded interesting to you, then you should read
it. If not, then don't. I'm not passionate about it or anything...but in the
end, I'm glad I read it. After all, like Treece,
since Bradbury had gone to the trouble of writing it, I couldn't say no.
Posted in May 31,
2000
Hilarious. Bar
none.
The most amusing, scintillating, ascerbic book
yet. Keep up the excellent work, Malcolm!
Posted in October
29, 1999
The title and the characters remain
vivid in my mind.
The college setting and the main characters
have remained with me since reading this book approximately 3 years ago. Rather
highbrow, although expected from Malcolm Bradbury's background as a professor.
Well worth the time and money.
Posted in March 29,
1999
By A Customer
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Creada: 06/110/2008 Última Actualización:
06/11/2008