THE BABE, BY HIMSELF
If the Babe had written
his own undergraduate memoirs, he would have done them just in Mr
Benson's spirit and style. “Remarkable and stirring events,” Mr
Benson observes, “do not befall the undergraduate.” They do not.
Some are 'bloods', some are 'smugs', some, if they happen to be at
Oxford, are 'toshers'; some are Union orators. But for picturesque
purposes, as for most others, these are of no account. We prefer the
more characteristic “futility of mind,” as Mr Benson puts it,
“girt about with that flippant atmosphere, in which the truly
heroic chokes and stifles.” Of such was the Babe, who lived in a
land wherein it seemed always afternoon, largely no doubt because of
the good wholesome hour at which he rose. There is no story in Mr
Benson's little volume; he just slings together “a cricket-ball, a
canoe, a football, a tripos, a don, a croquet-mallet, a few
undergraduates, a Greek play, some work, and so forth.” The result
is a pleasingly futile string of sketches, whose local colour and
faith unfaithful to the happy-go-lucky inconsequence of one in
statu pupillari will please any
one who is now or ever has been there. Only, for general working
purposes, here, as in Dodo,
Mr Benson is too smart to last. By which we mean not merely that the
book tails off towards the finish, as it most certainly does, but
that Mr Benson's high pressure cannot be lived up to throughout his
310 pages, short as they are. Butterflies and champagne and
fireworks are delightful in their way; but Mr Benson gives you so
much of them that it is well to take him in short stretches and with
considerable intervals. He is too conscientiously funny, in short.
~Pall
Mall Gazette,
25/01/1897
Mr
E. F. Benson has a manner and a vast but not unpleasant audacity of
his own. He is, moreover, firmly persuaded that the world at large
takes an unfailing interest in Cambridge Undergraduates. But, if
this vanity is amusing, so are the books that result from it,
especially his latest one, The
Babe, B.A., which
professes to be 'The uneventful history of a young gentleman at
Cambridge University' […]. For, though a fair half of it may be
skipped by older folk, the other half contains some excellent comedy
~ only once, in a scene which would have been much better omitted,
degenerating into farce ~ good humour, excellent criticism,
occasional wit, and a few grains of common-sense. Cambridge is
described with unflinching accuracy, names are thinly disguised, or
not disguised at all, and we are, besides, treated to all manner of
surprisingly frank remarks and observations.
[...] the
book is redeemed by the hero, an irresponsible masculine Dodo, whom
everybody likes and humours. When it is added that he is
well-placed, well off, healthy, and no fool, in spite of some
appearances, it is not surprising that he finds life an excellent
amusement, especially, it should be added, as he has a faultless
temper, takes all things leisurely, and none very seriously ~ in
which apparently he resembles Mr Benson.
[...] We
follow this promising youth through the various excitements that
usually beset the way to the Tripos with a good deal of interest and
some liking. Taking the book as a whole, there is one scene ~ that
of the Babe's interview with Feltham, after the cheating at cards ~
that is almost masterly; and most of it will, no doubt, be
interesting to Cambridge Undergraduates, especially to King's men;
even those to whom the University is now a very old story may like it
a good deal; the rest of the world will skip some scnes, and be
amused at others. The
Babe will not enhance
Mr Benson's reputation as a novelist, but, in spite of its
carelessness, it confirms the impressions he had already given his
readers. Some day he will grow serious, which will be a pity; but we
shall not be surprised if he then writes a brilliant book, which,
after all, will be some compensation.
~The
Standard [London],
15/02/1897, abridged
The
Babe, B.A.
[…] is the development of a view already sketched by its author, Mr
Edward F Benson, in his Limitations,
namely, that the exciting, romantic, or sensational features of
university life found in fiction are to be found in fiction alone.
He tells, in the dedication to his present 'Uneventful History of a
Young Gentleman at Cambridge University', how he and a friend with
some solemnity ~
procured
a large sheet of foolscap paper and a blue pencil, and then and there
set ourselves to
put down all the remarkable and stirring events which
happened to us
in those four years we spent together at Cambridge.
How they “drew
blank” in respect of their acquaintances as well of themselves,
until ~
The
uncomfortable conviction dawned on us … that in the majority of
cases
remarkable and
stirring events do not befall the undergraduate, and that if
the book was to
be made at all it must be made of homely, and I hope whole-
some,
ingredients, a cricket ball, a canoe, a football, a tripos, a don, a
croquet mallet,
a few undergraduates, a Greek play, some work, and so forth.
The
ingredients certainly fulfil the promise of wholesomeness, and are
not ill-mixed. But the salad lacks flavour. The truth is that Mr
Benson has too conscientiously set himself to show that university
life lacks interest for outsiders, and refrained from supplying what
is essentially wanting. That some dons are commonplace [ganders] and some undergraduates are commonplace goslings needs no more proof
than that a university is more than superficially unlike the rest of
the world. Perhaps Mr Stewart, the don who spoke of the German
Emperor as “the nicest Emperor he had ever known,” is scarcely to
be regarded as typical; for the rest, Mr Benson keeps
uncompromisingly to mild types which readily lend themselves to mild
satire. Most Cambridge men will find his volume amusing for its
subject's sake, especially if they be of a recent generation.
~The
Graphic [London], 10/04/1897
Mr
Benson's delightful book is rife with clever definitions as well as
graphic character sketches.
~The
Daily Telegraph,
quoted in newspaper ad of 26/01/1897
A bright and humorous
picture of University life.
~The
Scotsman, quoted in
newspaper ad of 26/01/1897
Mr Benson's wit and
easy delineation of character fully atone for lack of plot. The
lightsome chronicle goes gaily one, sufficiently rich in incident
unfailingly rich in bright ideas, and in happy turns of expression,
which provoke the reader to smiles.
~The
Daily Mail, quoted in
newspaper ad of 26/01/1897
Mr Benson's novel is
a photograph of everyday life at Cambridge. His undergraduates play
football and cricket, act in the Greek play, converse on intimate
terms with dons, and occasionally manage to get through a little
reading.
~The
Daily News, quoted in
newspaper ad of 26/01/1897
The
book is indeed by 'Verdant Green' out of Alice
in Wonderland; and it
is as delightful as a book so bred could not fail to be.
~Vanity
Fair, quoted in
newspaper ad of 26/01/1897
Several
attempts have already been made to write what Mr Benson's sub-title
calls the 'History of a Young Gentleman at Cambridge University', but
none of them all has succeeded in approaching the merits of the very
amusing adventures of Mr Verdant Green at Oxford. There was an air
of farcical unreality, however, about the work of 'Cuthbert Bede',
for which even the inimitable portrait of Mr Bouncer could not wholly
atone. Mr Benson has succeeded, where so many have failed, in
painting with much happiness the lighter side of Cambridge life. His
'Babe' occasionally speaks with the voice of Dodo, but on the whole
he is a very agreeable and amusing new acquaintance. He was not
really a babe, of course; his real name was Artbuthnot, and he was “a
cynical old gentleman of twenty years of age, who played the banjo
charmingly. In his less genial moments he spoke querulously of the
monotony of the services of the Church of England, and of the
hopeless respectability of M. Zola. His particular forte was dinner
parties for six, skirt-dancing and acting, and the performances of
the duties of half-back at Rugby football.” Mr Benson's humour
will not appeal to everybody, but those who can taste it will think
it delicious. The long vacation croquet-match is specially realistic
and funny. An added charm is given to the book by the delightful
pictures of Cambridge scenes (apparently from photographs) which
adorn its pages. One hopes it is only the printer who chooses to
speak of Butler' Analogies,
but Mr Benson should have known better than to suggest that
Ranjitsinhji earned his fame whilst 'Stoddard' was still playing
football.
~The
Glasgow Herald,
01/02/1897
The
Babe, B.A. […]
is also set in Cambridge against a background of flippant
undergraduate repartee. It is full of froth signifying nothing,
bright inconsequential chatter at the Pitt Club wrapped in compulsive
cheerfulness. There is a nice buoyancy about the book, but not the
smallest attempt to delve into character. Fred admitted it had been
written piece-meal, and it shows, each chapter independent of its
predecessor and the whole devoid of plot. […] the book looks as if
it was written over a glass of whisky in the early evening, and
within a couple of weeks.
~Brian
Masters in The
Life of E. F. Benson,
1991
