Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man: The Memoirs of George Sherston: 1 (George Sherston Trilogy)

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Our narrator's natural Conservatism and patriotism evaporate on exposure to the realities of trench warfare. And the measured judgements of this cheerful innocent are much more powerful than any number of angry denunciations from other quarters. Memoirs Of a Fox-Hunting Man is the first of three fictionalized memoirs written by Sassoon detailing his life prior to, during, and following the First World War. George Sherston is an orphan who is adopted and raised by his spinster aunt. His childhood, while somewhat lonely and blighted by his own shyness, is spent in luxurious surroundings in the South of England, and he is somewhat spoiled by his aunt Evelyn, to whom he means everything in the world. Tom Dixon, his aunt’s groom, forges a close friendship with the boy. He convinces Evelyn to allow George to ride a horse, hoping to transform him into a respectable gentleman.

This is an interesting novel, not the simple evocation of a lost past that I was expecting; there is much more nuance and Sassoon was clearly expressing a good deal of ambivalence (sitting on the fence if I am being cynical). The asides make it more interesting as do the evocations of Proust. The impact of the deaths of those he loved (he gave them pseudonyms), killed in WWI, was expertly recounted. Absent was his famous turnaround and stance against WWI, but perhaps that comes in the next instalment given this is the first in a trilogy. Where the war verses are bayonet-hard and sharp, this prose is soft and gentle as the "river mist" George lovingly describes, down in a valley, where "a goods train whistled as it puffed steadily away from the station with a distinctly heard clanking of buffers. How little I knew of the enormous world beyond the valley and those low green hills." Memoirs of a fox hunting man, written by Siegfried Sasssoon, is a book about the growing up. The main character, George, takes us through the course his life. He is a sportsman as well as a hunter. urn:lcp:memoirsoffoxhunt00sieg:epub:df610145-94c6-4765-8a78-8c54981abb3a Extramarc Columbia University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier memoirsoffoxhunt00sieg Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t14n0g53b Isbn 057106454X

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The air was Elysian with early summer and the early shadows of steep white clouds were chasing over the orchards and meadows; sunlight sparkled on green hedgerows that had been drenched by early morning showers. As I was carried past it all I was lazily aware through my dreaming and unobservant eyes that this was the sort of world I wanted. For it was my own countryside, and I loved it with an intimate feeling, though all its associations were crude and incoherent. I cannot think of it now without a sense of heartache, as if it contained something which I have never quite been able to discover."

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2011-10-14 21:13:04 Boxid IA161301 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City London Date-raw January 1, 1960 Edition Repr. [d. Ausg.] 1960. External-identifier If truth be known, more than fame or money or prestige, I most crave to not ”be interfered with too much.” I’ve thought about trying to put my personal desire into words for many years, but until I read those words by Sassoon, I’d never really found the proper ones before. I can hear the creak of the saddle and the clop and clink of the hoofs as we cross the bridge over the brook by Dundell Farm; there is a light burning in the farmhouse window, and the evening star glitters above a broken drift of half-luminous cloud.”George Sherston, AKA Siegfried Sassoon, is a young man of modest means. His family left him a small legacy that allows him to drift through life without working for a living. His Aunt Evelyn susses him up properly: I liked this memoir. It’s likely not for everyone and I would find it difficult to filter out to whom I could recommend it, but if anyone gives it a go, I’d be interested in any thoughts. Mine maybe slightly biased by the benefit of reading previous works about and by the author. This is a long-term project for me. I do intend to read the follow-up semi-autobiographical memoirs at some stage. Can you recall the novel that took you away from the nursery bookshelves and into the realms of Grown-Up Books – a gateway book, if you like? I happened upon mine after months of resisting efforts both at home and at school to get me to read something more challenging. Until then, as a pony-mad child without a pony, I’d sought refuge in my tattered copies of thrilling stories like Show-Jumping Secret and We Hunted Hounds by the Pullein-Thompson sisters. Then one day, entirely of my own volition, when I was perhaps 12 or 13, I reached for the blue, cloth-bound copy of Siegfried Sassoon’s Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man.