Originally Posted by issybird (Post 3267489)

I have to say that Tey, as with Wodehouse and cricket and golf, made me interested in a subject about which I know and care nothing at all.



Ultimately, I wasn't swayed by the attempt to make Brat a moral person. And I'm glad you mentioned Loding, since this is another area where Tey pulled her punch, I think. It's impossible to believe that anyone but Alec could have had the knowledge to coach Brat. A woman who emigrated to Canada? Faugh! They must have know, on some level, that it was Alec. But again, they preferred to smooth things over, ignore the issues, and save face.



Well, as a by-blow, Brat wasn't entitled to the Ashby name, but I suspect he'd have it changed, sigh. But you raise a point that occurred to me - just how would the Ashbys have reacted if it turned out that Brat wasn't a relative, but the offspring of some "slattern" and just happened to have a resemblance? I'm thinking the love wouldn't have been there.

Originally Posted by bfisher (Post 3267725)

Loved that "Faugh".

Yes, Tey seemed to have been very willing to cut Brat some moral slack. Would it have been because he was the product of centuries of breeding? I don't think that it was a coincidence that the Ashbys seem to be centered on horse breeding. Tey hints at that, with the Ledinghams next door having failed, and only the long grey line of Ashbys carrying on in their squire-ly way. Why else would she have written "Bee hoped that it would go on sheltering Ashbys for centuries to come"? Note, Tey left her estate to the National Trust.

I found it very odd that Brat, brought up in a foundling's institution and living as an adult in the fo'c'sle and in bunkhouses, was able to fit so seamlessly into the Ashby household, as if to the manor born. I think Tey was saying that breeding is crucial in people as well as in horses and dogs.

Originally Posted by CRussel (Post 3267567)

This has certainly been one of our better discussions. I think the shortness of the book, and its obvious quality, have allowed more of us to read it, and yet it's failings give us something to talk about. Interesting dichotomy.

Originally Posted by issybird (Post 3268399)

I think you're spot-on with the analogy of breeding in people and horses. I'll extend that a bit to Timber, who seems to me to personify both Simon and Brat. Like Simon, he's killed, but Brat is sure he can be broken, as indeed Brat is by his tumble into the quarry, with the implication that he's purged of his own evil tendencies.

Your comment about Brat's assuming the mantle of gentry so seamlessly reminds me of a quote in a novel I was reading recently, spoken by a Polish Jew who's a student at Harvard, "You can only get so far from where you start." That seems to be to be more accurate.



I agree! I'm going to move this to the Discussion/Suggestion Thread to comment.