Again, perhaps due to the unforgettable impression left by the three men on the boat and on the bummel, one expects a laugh riot or at least something humourous to show one how silly people can get at tea table talk. Perhaps that is there, too, but not overtly like the furniture or light or paintings on the wall - more like the air one does not quite notice when it is just right, neither a blowing breeze in winter nor a dead dull in heat of summer, while one goes about one's occupation.
So there is the tea table talk, with tea and a sumptuous English one accompanied by various usual stuff and servants on hand, all of it as little noticed by one while reading this as it would be while being a part of the conversation that takes place here - going from topic to topic, each serious enough, and dealt with seriously enough, by the half dozen or so people that are characters in this. And there is the subtle humour like the air, the tea and the sandwiches, scones, cakes and pastries that one notices but in passing - that serious topics are being discussed and decided on in this manner, at a tea table, in a drawing room to begin with and later switching to the garden as the evening descends.
To suit the point, the characters are not named, but given merely the types, Woman of the World and Minor Poet and Girton Girl and so on - so one feels a part of it, being sure one could be at such a gathering or a similar one, with similar serious discussions taking place. And the topics range from men vs women to love to marriage to society to home versus large scale managements, and one forgets what else - after all one does not go about memorising or looking back into the book just to be able to enumerate the topics.
Quite often what is said - by the author, of course, since it could hardly be a real gathering with a recording turned into a book by the author, after all it came into being long before individuals could do that - is quite serious, and one wonders if one should stop reading to reflect. Then one goes on because one cannot help it, and one knows one will remember whatever when necessary - like tools stored at home one finds when needed.
Quite a surprise too, never mind one might have read another one by the author that was not a laugh riot either but a serious one.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014.
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