Again, Truepenny asks for book recommendations

[truepenny]

A conversation on someone else's LJ reminded me of a long-standing curiosity. And now that, hey, I have people around who are extraordinarily well-read, I thought I'd pose the question.

Books about boarding schools that get it right.

There's a long post I made back in December about a number of reasons why Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week is a better res (Latin for "thing"--I can't think of a word for what I want) than the Harry Potter books. One of those reasons is that Rowling's vision of what boarding school is like doesn't ring true, even to an American reader such as myself. But, when I grumble, Someone ought to write a book that does this properly, I can't put my money where my mouth is, because I don't actually know what I'm talking about. I can just tell a dreamy delusion when I see one. So I'm interested in finding books that achieve a more accurate representation.

Obviously, if the book is sf/f/h, that's a big bonus, but for the purposes of this book-quest, it's the boarding-school-ness I'm looking for. All suggestions welcome and appreciated!

Comments

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Okay, up front I will say I did not attend boarding school. But I've been told Kipling's classic STALKY AND COMPANY (really a collection of stories) is good for its time period. Also, they're fun reading, or at least they were when I read them years ago.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That I've actually read. And, yeah, it's closer, but I want the deconstructed version of it. (Because, my god, the later stories get nauseating.) Actually I think Kipling (Kipling? Somebody else? Roald Dahl? Oh, no, Truepenny, that's the laudanum talking.) has a couple of short stories ... there's one about the poor hapless narrator, as an adult, ending up sharing a train compartment with the bully he used to fag for. Ring any bells for anybody? 'Cause now I can't remember where I read that. Dammit.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

Just asked my wife, the ever handy Kipling fan and it doesn't ring any bells with her and she reckons that "it doesn't sound very Kipling somehow."

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

No, it really really doesn't. But who the heck is it?

Thanx for rec re: Jennings.

[cija.livejournal.com]

I'm almost certain you're right, but my Roald Dahl Collected Stories is (are?) 2500 miles away in a big box so I can't check. Was any sort of gruesome psychological revenge exacted? If so, it's definitely Dahl.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I can't remember how the story went. I just remember the situation and the narrator's horribly vivid memories of being caned (?) by the bully. I thought for sure my attribution to Dahl was purest nonsense, but maybe my memory is better than I think it is.

O the agonies of being separated from any part of one's book collection! Ten boxes worth of my books are in storage, and I miss them. *sobs* But at least they're only a few floors away, not thousands of miles. I sympathize very much.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

It is Dahl. I'm pretty sure it's in the "Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More" collection, or at least some version of it is. Doesn't it involve a really thick camelhair bathrobe and burnt toast?

.m, possibly mad

[cija.livejournal.com]

I had a sudden flash of memory. Dahl was the one who said you had a choice between 10 strokes with your gown on or 5 with it off (or whatever the numbers were) and there's a moment when he realizes he's made the wrong choice and it's to late to stop it. I think that was in Boy. It was very vivid.

CS Lewis talks about caning too - who doesn't? - but was a lot more resentful about the enforced enthusiasm for games and lack of privacy and leisure. He hated not so much that it was cruel, but that it was stupid.


The worst thing about not having my books is that I was sure I had taken the ones I'd need to refer to and left the ones I wouldn't, and I think I had my categories backwards. I always need to look up something that's not here.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Boy, that's it. Perhaps some of it was excerpted in "Henry Sugar." But it's definitely in boy, because I remember the caning. It was 10 strokes with his thick robe on, 5 with it off. Can't remember which he chose, though. *g*

.m

[vass]

You probably already know about it, but Roald Dahl's first volume of autobiography, "Boy," is all about boarding school.

I'll also recommend Stephen Fry's quite obscene play on the subject. I can't remember the title, but it's published in the back of his book of essays, "Paperweight," and they're worth reading too. I wouldn't say the play's *realistic*, precisely, but it's almost certainly not a dreamy delusion, and he did go to boarding school. His memoir, "Moab is my Washpot," deals with his school career too, and it's far from dreamy and idealistic (he wasn't the most honest or law-abiding of students.)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I've read Moab is my Washpot, but did not know about Paperweight. Thanks!

Stephen Fry's play

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

...is called _Tobacco and Boys_. I read it in _Paperweight_, and saw it performed last year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is the kind of place where you see that kind of play. It was fun, but lightweight.