Re-reading Puck Of Pook's Hill
Aug. 11th, 2017 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI had thought my copy of Puck of Pook's Hill was a hand-me-down from my grandmother but I checked the flyleaf last night and found it once belonged to Reginald Soundy who was the (deceased) husband of our next-door neighbour in Croydon in the 1950s- so it was a gift from her.
Reginald Soundy had it as a Christmas present in 1908. He was born in 1894- so that would make him 14 at the time. I know this much because he was a flier with the RFC and then the RAF- and an outline of his service record is available on line.
I'm re-reading Puck because we were in Kipling's particular corner of Sussex the other day- Wadhurst, Heathfield, Burwash, Etchingham. I wapped one of Peter Bellamy's CDs in the stereo as we were driving through and that strengthened the connection.
Kipling is so economical. Puck contains enough material to have furnished a more diffusive writer with a whole string of novels. And yet nothing is skimped.
Here's a vignette that gives us all we need to know about the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings.
"Half-way up the King's Hill we found a false fellow from Picardy- a sutler that sold wine in the Duke's camp- with a dead knight's shield on his arm, a stolen horse under him, and some ten or twelve wastrels at his tail, all cutting and slashing at the pigs. We beat them off and saved our pork. One hundred and seventy pigs we saved in that great battle."
So few words, so much information, so much texture. And all in character. We know exactly what happened, what the speaker's values are and also that he doesn't take himself too seriously....
Reginald Soundy had it as a Christmas present in 1908. He was born in 1894- so that would make him 14 at the time. I know this much because he was a flier with the RFC and then the RAF- and an outline of his service record is available on line.
I'm re-reading Puck because we were in Kipling's particular corner of Sussex the other day- Wadhurst, Heathfield, Burwash, Etchingham. I wapped one of Peter Bellamy's CDs in the stereo as we were driving through and that strengthened the connection.
Kipling is so economical. Puck contains enough material to have furnished a more diffusive writer with a whole string of novels. And yet nothing is skimped.
Here's a vignette that gives us all we need to know about the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings.
"Half-way up the King's Hill we found a false fellow from Picardy- a sutler that sold wine in the Duke's camp- with a dead knight's shield on his arm, a stolen horse under him, and some ten or twelve wastrels at his tail, all cutting and slashing at the pigs. We beat them off and saved our pork. One hundred and seventy pigs we saved in that great battle."
So few words, so much information, so much texture. And all in character. We know exactly what happened, what the speaker's values are and also that he doesn't take himself too seriously....
no subject
Date: 2017-08-12 06:07 am (UTC)That is extremely neat. I love books with their histories in them.
I still owe you a Bellamy CD! My life became complicated.
I remember Rewards and Fairies being even stronger than Puck of Pook's Hill (although Puck has Parnesius of the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix), so I look forward to hearing what you think of it.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-12 08:16 am (UTC)Ailz and I were talking about Puck and Rewards and which we prefer. She likes Puck best- but I refuse to have a favourite. On the one hand I think the Parnesius stories are the strongest in the series, on the other hand Rewards has the best of the poems. She doesn't like Pharaoah Lee- but I do.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-12 08:34 am (UTC)Agreed on the poems. I like several of the stories, too: "Brother Square-Toes," "A Priest in Spite of Himself," "The Conversion of St. Wilfrid." The latter has the praise of the seal that I have always loved:
"Surely . . . God has made the seal the loveliest of His creatures in the water. Look how Padda breasts the current! He stands up against it like a rock; now watch the chain of bubbles where he dives; and now—there is his wise head under that rock-ledge! Oh, a blessing be on thee, my little brother Padda!"
She doesn't like Pharaoah Lee- but I do.
Heh. I very much like Pharaoh Lee.