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kittymamers's review against another edition
3.0
lugesin seda raamatut, sest see on eluaeg mu ema riiulis olnud (eesti keeles välja antud 1970), aga pärast seda, kui ma varateismelisena kindlaks tegin, et mitte SELLES mõttes poosid, kaotasin ta vastu huvi, kuni nüüd hakkas hoopis see anglosaksi osa pealkirjast intrigeeriv tunduma.
no ta on väga anglosaksi küll ja ma ei kujuta hästi ette, palju seistmekümnendate nõukogude eesti lugeja sellest kõigest aru sai ja suhestuda suutis. aga mulle siin ja nüüd tundusid need vanaaegsed (tegevus toimub 1910ndatel ja 1950ndatel) inglased küll päris huvitavad. pool raamatut läkski justkui lihtsalt tegelaste ja nendevaheliste suhete kirjeldamise peale ära, siis pikapeale tekkis ka intriig (kas väljakaevamistel leitud puuslik oli võltsing või ei olnud?) ja lõpuks isegi lahenes kuidagi. kirjutati ikka aeglaseid raamatuid!
"Anglosaksi poosid" on fraas Lewis Carrolli "Alice peeglitagusel maal" raamatust ja Wikipedia andmetel viitab see spetsiifilisele joonistamisstiilile 10.-11- sajandi Inglismaalt.
no ta on väga anglosaksi küll ja ma ei kujuta hästi ette, palju seistmekümnendate nõukogude eesti lugeja sellest kõigest aru sai ja suhestuda suutis. aga mulle siin ja nüüd tundusid need vanaaegsed (tegevus toimub 1910ndatel ja 1950ndatel) inglased küll päris huvitavad. pool raamatut läkski justkui lihtsalt tegelaste ja nendevaheliste suhete kirjeldamise peale ära, siis pikapeale tekkis ka intriig (kas väljakaevamistel leitud puuslik oli võltsing või ei olnud?) ja lõpuks isegi lahenes kuidagi. kirjutati ikka aeglaseid raamatuid!
"Anglosaksi poosid" on fraas Lewis Carrolli "Alice peeglitagusel maal" raamatust ja Wikipedia andmetel viitab see spetsiifilisele joonistamisstiilile 10.-11- sajandi Inglismaalt.
bookbelle5_17's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Review of Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
By: Angus Wilson
Satire doesn’t always work for everyone and from other reviewers this novel didn’t work for them. For me it did with its criticism of English snobbery and a question of academic morality. Professor Gerald Middleton knows that the excavation of the Bishop Eorpwald’s body buried with the pagan relic is a hoax, a practical joke from a colleague. He lives with the guilt and wants to expose it, but there is no tangible proof and most want to sweep in under the rug. As people are determined to protect reputations. A lot of the book focuses on his relationship with his Ex-wife Inge and his children Johnnie, Robin, and Kay. His children don’t respect him, only tolerating Gerald, and his wife is so afraid of conflict she seems to easily forgive.
At least for me, there were only a couple likable characters in this work, and I couldn’t stand Gerald’s family, but I liked Gerald. All three of the children were selfish, horrible people, but it’s the parents who shape the children. Inge coddles them and Gerald isn’t an active parent. They don’t respect them, but Inge babies them referring to Kay as her little girl even when she’s an adult. She calls John “Johnnie” and is hurt that his friends take him away from her. Whenever things turn nasty, she closes her eyes and ears to it, literally. She hasn’t matured emotionally, and Gerald pities her. Inge’s Scandinavian heritage makes him look down on her and he sees her as un-English. Gerald’s English behavior makes it difficult for them to connect as a couple. When Gerald is pushed aside and hides behind his academics, because it is the only thing he can understand. Robin is little nicer to his father, but he doesn’t think highly of him. Robin and John have opposing views on politics, a common antagonism that occurs between family members that can destroy relationships. John is also gay something Gerald had no idea about and his current boyfriend, Larrie, is a thief and drunkard. He charms Inge, because he brings John back, but she refuses to see his criminal behavior. Larrie is able to bully her when she catches him stealing her jewelry. The plot of the hoax takes second place to the drama of his family but takes center stage in the last half of the story as Gerald decides to dive deep into proving this was a hoax.
theprankquean's review
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ashleylm's review against another edition
4.0
An awfully good book, held back to 4 stars because I wasn't emotionally engaged (when compared to the somewhat similar John Irving, Charles Dickens, or Robertson Davies--it's that kind of book). A very large cast (dauntingly large at first, but eventually you work out that everyone knows everyone else, and what those relationships are, and the book narrows its focus to a particular person/family and you realise who are the leads and who are the supports).
Not as funny as I was expecting--really, not funny at all, or at least not in the way where I would tell others "it's so funny!" because it's not. It's a slightly satiric soap-opera. I was particularly surprised by the openness with which characters' homosexuality, adultery, etc., was dealt with (I suppose books from the time period aren't necessarily as chaste as the movies/tv from then!) so that's also a mark in its favour.
Not as funny as I was expecting--really, not funny at all, or at least not in the way where I would tell others "it's so funny!" because it's not. It's a slightly satiric soap-opera. I was particularly surprised by the openness with which characters' homosexuality, adultery, etc., was dealt with (I suppose books from the time period aren't necessarily as chaste as the movies/tv from then!) so that's also a mark in its favour.
katevane's review
5.0
I was surprised when I looked at a few review sites and saw that Anglo-Saxon Attitudes wasn’t particularly popular among recent readers.
The plot is at first glance flimsy. Gerald Middleton is a 60-year-old retired historian. He is independently wealthy and well liked by his academic peers, but there is a sense of unfulfilled potential. He lives a comfortable life but is dogged by thoughts of his great unfinished work on Cnut.
Gerald was one of a group of people who were in the village of Melpham forty years earlier when an Anglo-Saxon bishop was apparently discovered with a pagan ornament in his grave. This has caused a major re-evaluation of what was known of the period. However Gerald has reason to believe that the find was a hoax.
It seems that Gerald’s life has a kind of paralysis. He can’t commit to his academic work, because he feels a fraud, but nor does he have the courage to tell anyone about his suspicions. His marriage is long over, but he has not divorced and continues to maintain an ostensibly amicable relationship with his estranged wife, Ingeborg.
Gerald is drawn back into the academic world when he is asked to edit a new history book, not least because the other candidates are so unpopular. Meanwhile he becomes drawn into a number of complicated situations with Ingeborg and his adult children. However events come to a head when a prominent archaeologist discovers a grave with some similarities to Melpham and draws inferences based on both finds. Gerald has to decide whether to speak out.
While the Melpham storyline gives the novel its shape, it is a fairly small part of the novel with no major twists of surprises, which is perhaps why contemporary, more plot-driven readers are disappointed. The book has a profusion of characters, who are all connected somehow with Gerald or Melpham and they are each acting out their own sub-plot, while contributing to the overall arc. (We don’t think of our lives as sub-plots in someone else’s story, so why should they?) It is an elegant and entertaining structure, though the list of characters at the beginning did prove useful once or twice.
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes is such fun it’s easy to dismiss it as a light social comedy, but over time the themes creep up on you. Its characters are all, in their own esoteric ways, embroiled in matters of truth and faith. Gerald’s son, John, a former MP turned campaigning journalist, is championing the cause of a man who he thinks has been mistreated by the civil service, while his other son, Robin, who runs the family business, is more sympathetic with the civil servant and attempts to intervene on his behalf.
Then there is an incident in Gerald’s daughter, Kay’s, childhood which he has views about, which, as with Melpham, he has never articulated. There are the conflicting, but entrenched, beliefs of his academic colleagues, which reflect their temperaments as much as their learning.
The title of Anglo-Saxon Attitudes is drawn from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. The novel plays with what it means to be Anglo-Saxon both in the historical sense of the term and the contemporary popular use. This is a post-war society where the classes are more fluid, where social norms around class and sexuality are being eroded. John is openly gay – among his friends, at least – and socialises with the son of his father’s former cleaner.
There are characters of various nationalities (although they are overwhelmingly white and European) who both highlight and subvert national stereotypes. The most prominent is Ingeborg, the socially liberal Dane, who in her very acceptance of her husband’s affair manages to undermine it, and whose apparent reasonableness exerts a powerful control over her children.
Reading this book feels like being at a party where everyone is just a little more witty and colourful than in real life. I definitely want to read more of Wilson's work.
The plot is at first glance flimsy. Gerald Middleton is a 60-year-old retired historian. He is independently wealthy and well liked by his academic peers, but there is a sense of unfulfilled potential. He lives a comfortable life but is dogged by thoughts of his great unfinished work on Cnut.
Gerald was one of a group of people who were in the village of Melpham forty years earlier when an Anglo-Saxon bishop was apparently discovered with a pagan ornament in his grave. This has caused a major re-evaluation of what was known of the period. However Gerald has reason to believe that the find was a hoax.
It seems that Gerald’s life has a kind of paralysis. He can’t commit to his academic work, because he feels a fraud, but nor does he have the courage to tell anyone about his suspicions. His marriage is long over, but he has not divorced and continues to maintain an ostensibly amicable relationship with his estranged wife, Ingeborg.
Gerald is drawn back into the academic world when he is asked to edit a new history book, not least because the other candidates are so unpopular. Meanwhile he becomes drawn into a number of complicated situations with Ingeborg and his adult children. However events come to a head when a prominent archaeologist discovers a grave with some similarities to Melpham and draws inferences based on both finds. Gerald has to decide whether to speak out.
While the Melpham storyline gives the novel its shape, it is a fairly small part of the novel with no major twists of surprises, which is perhaps why contemporary, more plot-driven readers are disappointed. The book has a profusion of characters, who are all connected somehow with Gerald or Melpham and they are each acting out their own sub-plot, while contributing to the overall arc. (We don’t think of our lives as sub-plots in someone else’s story, so why should they?) It is an elegant and entertaining structure, though the list of characters at the beginning did prove useful once or twice.
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes is such fun it’s easy to dismiss it as a light social comedy, but over time the themes creep up on you. Its characters are all, in their own esoteric ways, embroiled in matters of truth and faith. Gerald’s son, John, a former MP turned campaigning journalist, is championing the cause of a man who he thinks has been mistreated by the civil service, while his other son, Robin, who runs the family business, is more sympathetic with the civil servant and attempts to intervene on his behalf.
Then there is an incident in Gerald’s daughter, Kay’s, childhood which he has views about, which, as with Melpham, he has never articulated. There are the conflicting, but entrenched, beliefs of his academic colleagues, which reflect their temperaments as much as their learning.
The title of Anglo-Saxon Attitudes is drawn from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. The novel plays with what it means to be Anglo-Saxon both in the historical sense of the term and the contemporary popular use. This is a post-war society where the classes are more fluid, where social norms around class and sexuality are being eroded. John is openly gay – among his friends, at least – and socialises with the son of his father’s former cleaner.
There are characters of various nationalities (although they are overwhelmingly white and European) who both highlight and subvert national stereotypes. The most prominent is Ingeborg, the socially liberal Dane, who in her very acceptance of her husband’s affair manages to undermine it, and whose apparent reasonableness exerts a powerful control over her children.
Reading this book feels like being at a party where everyone is just a little more witty and colourful than in real life. I definitely want to read more of Wilson's work.
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