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From the Four Winds
by (John Sinjohn),
John Galsworthy.
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Reminds one of W. Somerset Maugham stories, most of which are set in colonial Southeast Asia, at the outset. Except Galsworthy jumps in with a dialogue proceeding unlike the Maugham stories that take it slow, building atmosphere and setting up characters. But then this was an early work.
Generally the tales involve characters who have lived and worked in the colonial regions, from southern tropical regions of of Africa, Southeast Asia (from straits of Malaya to Fiji and extending it to South Pacific), Australia, Canada, et al, and effect thereof on their lives, their psyche.
At the end, or much before, one is left with an impression that he collected these tales of life in the course of his travels.
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CONTENTS
THE RUNNING AMOK OF SYNGE SAHIB
DICK DENVER’S IDEA
ASHES
TALLY HO BUDMÂSH
THE DOLDRUMS
THE CAPITULATION OF JEAN JACQUES
THE SPIRIT OF THE KARROO.
A PRAIRIE OYSTER
ACCORDING TO HIS LIGHTS
THE DEMI-GODS
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THE RUNNING AMOK OF SYNGE SAHIB
This one reminds, apart from Maugham's South Sea tales, of another one read over two decades ago, involving a white man in Borneo and a native wizard of magic.
" ...His eyes were blazing and glaring with a sort of green light like a wild cat’s. That devilish silver streak was his Malay kriss, and he brandished it like one possessed. I’ve seen Malays run amok twice — once in Bangkok, and once in Sumatra — and if Synge wasn’t at that moment a Malay, and a Malay amok, I’m a German Jew. He didn’t look mad, only mad murderous. ... "
June 20, 2021 - June 20, 2021.
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DICK DENVER’S IDEA
" ... The ship was bound for the West Indies; he discoursed of the islands and his own experiences there, and she listened, with an evident interest in spite of her fears. Never yet was woman (or man either, for the matter of that) uninterested when Dick Denver talked, which he did but seldom; his voice, as he might have phrased it himself, was ‘kind of seductive. ... "
Extraordinary tale of gallantry from a stranger to a much harassed wife of a guy who couldn't resist a challenge.
June 20, 2021 - June 20, 2021.
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ASHES
This would be confusing enough without the added challenge of alternating reading this with reading White Nights simultaneously. As it is one begins to wonder if one is finally experiencing the spell of Russian literature that one heard one's colleagues talk so devotedly about - they didn't call it a spell, they were too devoted - whereby all other literature pales. It takes a determined reading to begin to suspect that it's not ones own state but the author's when he wrote this, likely his having been strongly influenced by Russian literature in his early years.
To add to the confusion, this one begins with a young Pole amongst older Russian and other characters, with a setting of dinner and gambling in a 'place'. This one is set obviously not in the remote lonely corner of the colonial era of the first story, but more of a town or city. Like the preceding stories, this one too is seemingly set in "straits", (which seems to mean all of South China Sea, up to Fiji , and not just the straits of Malaya indicated by Google maps); seemingly, until he mentions Cabbé Roquebrune, which gives neighbourhood of Menton in Southern France on Google maps; could the name have been then used for a spot in French colonial part of Southeast Asia? Finally a sentence clears it -
"The little bay near Cabbé Roquebrune — that little bay that recalls so greatly the far-away lagoons of the blessed South Seas."
The story retains its mystery to the end - was there, in fact, a murder, committed by the protagonist? Or was he shot by the villain?
June 20, 2021 - June 21, 2021.
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TALLY HO BUDMÂSH
This one involves a colonial pair, a little British boy and a "Hindu" manservant, with a story beginning set in Piccadilly. But Galsworthy has the boy speak a dialect that's of Chinese, not Indian, servants of the colonial era speaking English, so one wonders why. Explanation comes soon.
"Foo Ching, the Chinese cook of the steamer which had two days before achieved the honour of safely bearing from India, and landing one ‘Tally Ho,’ baptismally known as Geoffrey Standing Blount, was that young man’s latest bosom friend, and at that time mainly responsible for the eccentricities of his speech."
Delightful tale of a little boy from Northwest Frontier Provinces, lost in London, until one finishes - and can no longer ignore the empire and it's grip on the colony looted, bringing down from a prosperous land to a state of starvation in two centuries, while breeding a new caste of British rulers, portrayed herein the boy and the general, the club and the major.
June 21, 2021 - June 21, 2021.
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THE DOLDRUMS
"‘I think,’ said the mate slowly—’ I don’t know, of course, — but I think you have seen what very few people have seen. I think there is a time, you know, which comes between life and death. It is perhaps the twilight of the body you know, and the dawning of the soul, — it is that breathless space which these old crafts of our bodies have to go through, you know, where there is no life, and not yet death, — the Doldrums of our individualities hanging in the wind.’ There was a long silence."
June 22, 2021 - June 22, 2021.
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THE CAPITULATION OF JEAN JACQUES
Two escaped convicts care for the child they abducted as a hostage.
June 22, 2021 - June 22, 2021.
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THE SPIRIT OF THE KARROO.
Ghastly tale of a murder of an Englishman in Southern Africa by a half native Boer who left his victim to be devoured by jackals.
What's far more ghastly is the certainty that the jackal follows the murderer with, of finding the easier and better feast than the animals of the camp.
Were murders in Africa, between European and halfcaste, so common, with victims left for wild beasts to finish off?
June 22, 2021 - June 22, 2021.
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A PRAIRIE OYSTER
Story about shipwreck survivors in Morocco, told on a train journey through Canada on the Northwest prairie stretch.
June 22, 2021 - June 23, 2021.
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ACCORDING TO HIS LIGHTS
Perhaps in his time in England, the introduction by Galsworthy was clearer.
"What was his offence? The law called it by an awkward name having consequences; these consequences the law applied to a man who had come back of his own accord from Australia to ‘face the music,’ as he phrased it. ..."
Today, one has to wonder, was one automatically imprisoned for having "come back of his own accord from Australia"?
One forgets it was an open prison until post WWII.
June 23, 2021 - June 23, 2021.
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THE DEMI-GODS
And accidental release from separation for a pair?
June 23, 2021 - June 23, 2021.
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June 20, 2021 - June 23, 2021.
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