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Fathers of Men by E. W. Hornung
Feb. 24th, 2021 05:22 pmThis was the only one of Hornung's non-Raffles books that I'd already got to before beginning my read-through, so I'm revisiting it now. I think it's a particularly rewarding one to re-read—partly because of the perspective I've got on it from knowing more about Hornung and his writing, and partly just because it's one of his best.
In Fathers of Men (1912), Hornung finally devotes a book to a setting which he's been using as a backstory element for some time, memorably in the Raffles books. His take on the school story is equally memorable and very enjoyable.
The book follows our young hero Jan 'Tiger'* Rutter, who never expected to go to public school—the son of a lady who scandalously ran off with the coachman, Jan has been brought up by his father to the life of a stablehand and only finds out about the other side of his ancestry when his father dies and his mother's family suddenly decide to make him into a gentleman after all. He arrives at school, at first against his will, but soon finds a friend in 'Chips' Carpenter; then, to his dismay, he discovers that Evan Devereux, the son of the house where Jan worked in the stables, is unexpectedly attending the same school. Will Evan give Jan's secret away...? From here we follow Jan, Chips and Evan over the next four years of their school career, through various adventures, mishaps, troubles and triumphs. All sorts of school-story trappings make an appearance: evil teachers, stern but fair teachers, bullying older boys, disastrous Latin composition, learning the values of a true gentleman and, most importantly of all, cricket. Lots and lots of cricket. The climax of the plot, taking place in Jan's last term, is a tangle of gentlemanly honour, divided loyalties and peril of terrible but nobly borne punishment worthy of D. K. Broster herself, albeit on a smaller schoolboy scale (and with more cricket).
It's full of details that I can now recognise from Hornung's other books and from his own life. All three main characters take on pieces of Hornung's early biography: Chips has the cricket enthusiasm, literary talents and chronic respiratory problems, Evan has his background as the son of a wealthy northern ironmaster and Jan, apparently, has part of his Australian future. And the book is full of things that Hornung evidently loved—the cricket, the poetry (both in literature studied by the boys and in Chips's own attempts at authorship), the classical references, but most of all the public school itself. Hornung clearly loved his own school and what it did for him, and remembered his time there fondly; while the book does stray a little into sentimentality about this towards the end, and there are some values that a modern reader stumbles over a little, I couldn't help but find the most part of it rather lovely. And Hornung's enthusiasm always elevates his writing. He's at his very best in the prose here, with some really lovely subtle, observant and specific emotional descriptions: Jan's feelings about school in general and the emotions motivating the various admirable and questionable things he does there are complex and frequently change, and Hornung delineates it all with an author's sympathy and with his best turns of phrase. The whole thing is a joy to read.
The relationships between the three main characters are likewise subtle and complicated and really good. Jan can never quite forget his old relation to 'Master Evan', and remains a little devoted to him throughout—a respect which, the book makes clear, Evan doesn't entirely deserve, while being a very long way from all bad. Chips, meanwhile, remains just as loyal to Jan, and clearly resents his stronger feelings for Evan. I thought this triangle was beautifully drawn, and the way in which the three characters' feelings for each other get drawn into the drama of the ending is gripping and kind of heartbreaking. But, of course, it doesn't end badly...
There are also some great and memorable side characters: Mr Heriot, Jan's house-master, with his schoolmaster's wisdom and careful management; Jan's enemy Mr Haigh and his cricketing ally Mr Relton; the various other boys who help and hinder our main characters on their journey. The entire atmosphere of the school setting comes across very evocatively in the little details of minor characters and background. And, despite the single-sex educational setting, Hornung manages to get one of his great female characters in there in Miss Heriot, Mr Heriot's sister—who gets to express her own opinions on education and also happens to have a degree. I want to know more about her!
This book made an interesting comparison with The Hill by Horace Annesley Vachell, which I read a few months ago and discussed here. Both set at public schools and written within a few years of each other, the two books have an intriguing combination of similarities and differences. Both feature a similar central triangle, with the hero torn between an unworthy object of affection and a more trustworthy loyal friend (though Evan certainly isn't quite so bad as Scaife!). Both have a lot to say about class and class differences, but they come to very different conclusions: without being nearly as didactic as The Hill is about its snobbery, Fathers of Men clearly takes the view that it's the person that matters, not the father's profession or the accent. The Hill ('wholesome and thoroughly manly') is more overtly homoerotic, but I think the emotions and relationships in Fathers of Men are more plausible and ultimately more affecting. And The Hill is very much concerned with the role of the public school in shaping the characters of the rulers of Empire—one of the most off-putting things about it—whereas Fathers of Men is more concerned with the public school as a place where individuals learn and grow in character, as an end in itself. Overall I think Fathers of Men is the better of the two!
On the whole, then, this has been one of the best entries in the read-through so far. Highly recommended if you like school stories, E. W. Hornung and/or cricket, and as for me, I think it's going to remain a fave.
*Nicknames are, of course, a vital element of the public-school setting. And isn't there an anime or something called Tiger & Bunny...?
In Fathers of Men (1912), Hornung finally devotes a book to a setting which he's been using as a backstory element for some time, memorably in the Raffles books. His take on the school story is equally memorable and very enjoyable.
The book follows our young hero Jan 'Tiger'* Rutter, who never expected to go to public school—the son of a lady who scandalously ran off with the coachman, Jan has been brought up by his father to the life of a stablehand and only finds out about the other side of his ancestry when his father dies and his mother's family suddenly decide to make him into a gentleman after all. He arrives at school, at first against his will, but soon finds a friend in 'Chips' Carpenter; then, to his dismay, he discovers that Evan Devereux, the son of the house where Jan worked in the stables, is unexpectedly attending the same school. Will Evan give Jan's secret away...? From here we follow Jan, Chips and Evan over the next four years of their school career, through various adventures, mishaps, troubles and triumphs. All sorts of school-story trappings make an appearance: evil teachers, stern but fair teachers, bullying older boys, disastrous Latin composition, learning the values of a true gentleman and, most importantly of all, cricket. Lots and lots of cricket. The climax of the plot, taking place in Jan's last term, is a tangle of gentlemanly honour, divided loyalties and peril of terrible but nobly borne punishment worthy of D. K. Broster herself, albeit on a smaller schoolboy scale (and with more cricket).
It's full of details that I can now recognise from Hornung's other books and from his own life. All three main characters take on pieces of Hornung's early biography: Chips has the cricket enthusiasm, literary talents and chronic respiratory problems, Evan has his background as the son of a wealthy northern ironmaster and Jan, apparently, has part of his Australian future. And the book is full of things that Hornung evidently loved—the cricket, the poetry (both in literature studied by the boys and in Chips's own attempts at authorship), the classical references, but most of all the public school itself. Hornung clearly loved his own school and what it did for him, and remembered his time there fondly; while the book does stray a little into sentimentality about this towards the end, and there are some values that a modern reader stumbles over a little, I couldn't help but find the most part of it rather lovely. And Hornung's enthusiasm always elevates his writing. He's at his very best in the prose here, with some really lovely subtle, observant and specific emotional descriptions: Jan's feelings about school in general and the emotions motivating the various admirable and questionable things he does there are complex and frequently change, and Hornung delineates it all with an author's sympathy and with his best turns of phrase. The whole thing is a joy to read.
The relationships between the three main characters are likewise subtle and complicated and really good. Jan can never quite forget his old relation to 'Master Evan', and remains a little devoted to him throughout—a respect which, the book makes clear, Evan doesn't entirely deserve, while being a very long way from all bad. Chips, meanwhile, remains just as loyal to Jan, and clearly resents his stronger feelings for Evan. I thought this triangle was beautifully drawn, and the way in which the three characters' feelings for each other get drawn into the drama of the ending is gripping and kind of heartbreaking. But, of course, it doesn't end badly...
There are also some great and memorable side characters: Mr Heriot, Jan's house-master, with his schoolmaster's wisdom and careful management; Jan's enemy Mr Haigh and his cricketing ally Mr Relton; the various other boys who help and hinder our main characters on their journey. The entire atmosphere of the school setting comes across very evocatively in the little details of minor characters and background. And, despite the single-sex educational setting, Hornung manages to get one of his great female characters in there in Miss Heriot, Mr Heriot's sister—who gets to express her own opinions on education and also happens to have a degree. I want to know more about her!
This book made an interesting comparison with The Hill by Horace Annesley Vachell, which I read a few months ago and discussed here. Both set at public schools and written within a few years of each other, the two books have an intriguing combination of similarities and differences. Both feature a similar central triangle, with the hero torn between an unworthy object of affection and a more trustworthy loyal friend (though Evan certainly isn't quite so bad as Scaife!). Both have a lot to say about class and class differences, but they come to very different conclusions: without being nearly as didactic as The Hill is about its snobbery, Fathers of Men clearly takes the view that it's the person that matters, not the father's profession or the accent. The Hill ('wholesome and thoroughly manly') is more overtly homoerotic, but I think the emotions and relationships in Fathers of Men are more plausible and ultimately more affecting. And The Hill is very much concerned with the role of the public school in shaping the characters of the rulers of Empire—one of the most off-putting things about it—whereas Fathers of Men is more concerned with the public school as a place where individuals learn and grow in character, as an end in itself. Overall I think Fathers of Men is the better of the two!
On the whole, then, this has been one of the best entries in the read-through so far. Highly recommended if you like school stories, E. W. Hornung and/or cricket, and as for me, I think it's going to remain a fave.
*Nicknames are, of course, a vital element of the public-school setting. And isn't there an anime or something called Tiger & Bunny...?
