[ilds] Oxbridge

[Bruce Redwine]

Ilyas,

Before I read MacNiven, I took Durrell at his word and assumed he  
failed the entrance exams to Cambridge.  MacNiven presents another  
view, fairly convincingly, given the lack evidence, that Durrell never  
even tried to get into Oxbridge.  In either case, I think he was later  
disappointed, as you state, at never attending one of those  
universities.  Like you, I see his attempt, either real or imagined,  
as a "failure," which he later uses in his various fictions.  Most of  
the great writers of English letters in the 20th century attended a  
British university.  The only one who didn't -- correct me if I'm  
wrong -- was George Orwell, although he went through Eton.  (Remember  
the sarcasm attached to "Eton boy," smacking of envy, somewhere in the  
Quartet.)  As Sumantra notes, many of these writers barely got through  
their schools and ended up with third class degrees.  Nevertheless,  
they had that certificate, which was a stamp of approval and entry- 
pass into English society.  The English seem impressed by degrees;  
I've seen many a card listing degrees and awards.  E.g., "John Doe,  
BA, MA, Cantab., OBE, etc."

Bruce


On Oct 4, 2009, at 6:31 AM, Ilyas wrote:

> Marc, I agree that he lived the experiences, but my point really was  
> an
> attempt to try and further examine whether LD's failure to get into  
> oxbridge
> would have affected him adversely or not. I don't mean that his career
> suffered, but whether or not he personally felt disappointed. It is  
> my view
> that he did, but of course my view is rather distant.
>
> The other thing that came to mind was that LD did try his hand at a  
> lot of
> things, and not only did he take his poetry seriously, but he wanted  
> to be
> taken seriously as an important poet. Not breaking through as a poet  
> had an
> impact on his other experiences, and the characters that litter AQ  
> do carry
> the burden of failure or a rather musty ordinariness.
>
> Ilyas
>
>
> On 04/10/2009 12:10, "Marc Piel" <marcpiel at interdesign.fr> wrote:
>
>> Hello, May I pick up on one of your phrases
>> "He was all these things"
>>
>> May I suggest that rather than "things", he lived
>> all these "experiences".....
>> Surely that influences character, personality, and
>> selected fictions?
>>
>> BR
>> Marc
>>
>> Ilyas a écrit :
>>> Bruce, a number of thoughts occur to me on the back of your  
>>> comments below.
>>>
>>> Durrell had many selfs – even outside his writing. He was,  
>>> initially, a
>>> poet. His early work, including the precocious ballade of slow decay
>>> written I think in the early 1930’s, is a fine example of some  
>>> signs of
>>> that “negative capability”. But durrell was a good poet who showed
>>> promise, rather than a great poet. Who now remembers his poetry as  
>>> being
>>> the equal or even similar to Eliot, auden and spender ? And then  
>>> he was
>>> a painter, in fact I possess a couple of his works. An interesting
>>> painter, but hardly notable, and one who would not be collected  
>>> (however
>>> lethargically) were it not for his writing. And then he was a
>>> journalist, and a civil servant, and a lover. Even a magazine  
>>> editor. He
>>> was all these things, and these personalities litter his later  
>>> writings.
>>>
>>> I don’t mean, here, to suggest that he was good at many things, but
>>> brilliant or exceptional at none (since I consider him a hugely
>>> under-rated writer, and AQ as a truly great work), and therefore  
>>> somehow
>>> an apologist, through his fictive creations, for his failings. But  
>>> I do
>>> know that Oxbridge would have been the norm for LD and many of his
>>> friends and colleagues, and I feel that he carried the burden of  
>>> failure
>>> more than he rejoiced at the freedom thus gained by not spending  
>>> time
>>> amongst those glittering spires.
>>>

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