Wednesday, August 6, 2008

From the Shelves of the Paco Library



Evelyn Waugh was not only one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century, but also a fine travel writer who brought the same powers of observation and keen wit to bear during his excursions and expeditions as he employed in penning his masterpieces of fiction. Between 1929 and 1935, he wrote four travel books - Labels, Remote People, Ninety-two Days and Waugh in Abyssinia- and substantial selections from these were later collected in an anthology entitled When the Going Was Good, today’s “Shelves” feature.

The book covers journeys Waugh made to South America, Africa and the Middle East, with numerous interesting stops along the way. Take Naples, for example:

“As soon as I landed a small man in a straw hat ran to greet me, with evident cordiality. He had a brown, very cheerful face, and an engaging smile.

‘Hullo, yes, you sir. Good morning,’ he cried. ‘You wanta one nice woman.’

I said, no, not quite as early as that.

‘Well, then, you wanta see Pompeian dances. Glass house. All-a-girls naked. Vair artistic, vair smutty, vair French.’

I still said no, and he went on to suggest other diversions rarely associated with Sunday morning. In this way we walked the length of the quay as far as the cab rank at the harbour entrance. Here I took a small carriage. The pimp attempted to climb on to the box, but was roughly repulsed by the driver. I told him to drive me to the cathedral, but he took me instead to a house of evil character.

‘In there,’ said the driver, ‘Pompeian dances.’

‘No’, I said, ‘the cathedral.’

…I paid him and went into the cathedral. It was full of worshippers. One of them detached himself from his prayers and came over to where I was standing.

‘After the Mass. You wanta come see Pompeian dances?’

I shook my head in Protestant aloofness.

‘Fine girls?’

I looked away. He shrugged his shoulders, crossed himself, and relapsed into devotion…”
* * *

Some of Waugh’s finest reporting came from his two trips to Abyssinia (which later furnished him with much rich material for his novels, Scoop and Black Mischief). It is perhaps rare for people these days to stumble across potential journeys in such a haphazard fashion, but what a pity that it should be so:

“Six weeks before, I had barely heard Ras Tafari’s name. I was in Ireland, staying in a house where chinoiserie and Victorian gothic contend for mastery over a Georgian structure. We were in the library, discussing over the atlas a journey I proposed to make to China and Japan. We began talking of other journeys, and so of Abyssinia. One of the party was on leave from Cairo; he knew something of Abyssinian politics and the coming coronation. Further information was contributed from less reliable sources; that the Abyssinian Church had canonized Pontius Pilate, and consecrated their bishops by splitting their heads; that the real heir to the throne was hidden in the mountains, fettered with chains of solid gold; that the people lived on raw meat and mead; we looked up the royal family in the Almanach de Gotha and traced their descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba; we found a history that began: ‘The first certain knowledge we have of Ethiopian history is when Cush ascended the throne immediately after the Deluge’; an obsolete encyclopaedia informed us that , ‘though nominally Christian, the Abyssinians are deplorably lax in their morals, polygamy and drunkenness being common even among the highest classes and in the monasteries.’ Everything I heard added to the glamour of this country. A fortnight later I was back in London and had booked my passage to Djibouti.”
* * *

At the coronation of the Emperor in Addis Ababa, Waugh is assisted in understanding the Coptic Mass by an “expert”:

“Professor W., who was an expert of high transatlantic reputation on Coptic ritual, occasionally remarked: ‘They are beginning the Mass now,’ ‘That was the offertory.’ ‘No, I was wrong; it was the consecration,’ ‘No, I was wrong; I think it is the secret Gospel,’ ‘No, I think it must be the Epistle,’ ‘How very curious; I don’t believe it was the Mass at all’…”
* * *

And in Aden, Waugh tells a rather charming tale of a local troop of Boy Scouts:

“One unifying influence among the diverse cultures of the Crater was the Aden troop of Boy Scouts. It is true that Arabs cannot be induced to serve in the same patrol with Jews, but it is a remarkable enough spectacle to see the two races sitting amicably on opposite sides of a camp-fire, singing their songs in turn and occasionally joining each other in chorus. The scoutmaster, an English commercial agent, invited me to attend one of these meetings…Later a Somali boy presented himself for examination in scout law. He knew it all by heart perfectly. ‘First scoot law a scoot’s honour iss to be trust second scoot law…’ et cetera, in one breath.

‘Very good, Abdul. Now tell me what does “thrifty” mean?’

‘Trifty min?’
‘Yes, what do you mean, when you say a scout is thrifty?’

‘I min a scoot hass no money.’”
* * *

The best travel writers skillfully manage to subordinate their own presence altogether, letting the landscapes and peoples of far away lands unroll before the reader in their own element, almost cinematically. And yet the subtle hand of the writer in its crafting of the prose, and in the selection and arrangement of incidents and conversations and locales, can nonetheless be detected, and, in Waugh’s case, truly savored for its genius.

I invite readers to note some of their own favorite travel books in the comments section.

10 comments:

RebeccaH said...

Currently I'm reading the travels of Michael Totten in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, online - Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, etal. It's a fascinating present-day study of a part of the world I never knew anything about, and never realized was so diverse.

kc said...

I'm not reading ANYTHING! Well, I am, but it's not about travel, it's about ...well, it's not about travel, except for 'trudging the road' & that doesn't exactly fit here.

Paco, I hope you will indulge my off-topic question, I can't think of a better way to find out tham to ask the well-read, well-educated, well-informed denizens of Paco's World.

What, pray tell, are these "cafe standards" I hear in reference to building new cars? Did I spell it right? I don't read the newspaper or watch network tv, so I don't have a clue about it, but I heard the term 3 times this week. Took me that long to figger out I don't know what it means!

The refugees from Blair's old place who stop by here are some of the smartest in the nation (and the world), just like their host, so I know the answer will be informative AND POSSIBLY AMUSING! Gotta love it! Thanks for taking my question!

Paco said...

KC: Cafe standards? Why, that's an easy one! You see, every state has a board of health that inspects restaurants, and restaurants in most states have to post the rating they get. In North Carolina, for example, you get an 'A' for satisfactory, and a 'B' for "needs work", and a 'C' for "One Step Above Toxic Landfill". I remember one time, Old Paco took me and my brother to this little diner near Siler city that had a 'C' rating, and...Hold on, there's the telephone.

Hello? RJ! How you doin', buddy? What's new in the engineering racket? Huh? What's that? They don't have anything to do with restaurants? Cafe stands for what? "Corporate Average Fuel Economy." And those are standards mandated by Congress for the kind of gas mileage new cars have to get. And the law is enforced by the EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Oh, ok. Thanks

Well, KC, I reckon you heard that. But that was going to be my second guess.

Anonymous said...

Paco

You may have induced a long comment!

Re Waugh, on the trip you mention out to Abassynia he stayed with my grandmother in Khartoum where my grandfather was serving as district medical officer. Granny is now long dead alas but I have strong memories of her describing him. He was apparently very charming, witty and drank like a fish.

Scoop is obviously his best comic novel but I think my favourite is the Sword of Honour trilogy. I somehow suspect you've read it but if not, highly recommended. It is both funny and deeply sad.

My favourite travel books are probably those of Patrick Leigh Fermor, who walked from the Hook of Holland to Instanbul before the war. It's full of extraordinary scenes such as the menace of nazis in german pubs and the remnants of turkish settlements and ruritanian nobility in Eastern Europe which had hung on for hundreds of years before WW2 and communism swept them away.

He also had a very good war including time with the resistance in Crete including capturing the german general in charge there and spiriting him back to Cairo by submarine. This led to the following from Words of Mercury which I think captures his mixture of poetry, action and erudition brilliantly: 'a brilliant dawn was breaking over the crest of Mount Ida: "We were all three lying smoking in silence, when the General, half to himself, slowly said: ' Vides ut alta stet nive candidum Socrate'. It was the opening lines of one of the few Horace odes I knew by heart. I went on reciting where he had broken off ... The General's blue eyes swivelled away from the mountain-top to mine - and when I'd finished, after a long silence, he said: 'Ach so, Herr Major!' It was very strange. 'Ja, Herr General.' As though for a moment, the war had ceased to exist. We had both drunk at the same fountains long before; and things were different between us for the rest of our time together.'

Paco said...

CAC: Waugh stayed with your grandmother? That makes you the Paco Enterprises in-house celebrity! "Charming, witty and drank like a fish" - sounds just like him!

I believe I've probably read all of Waugh's novels. I once sat up practically all night reading The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh, and the two books of letters (Nancy Mitford and Diana Cooper) are also fascinating.

There's a biographical tome out there entitled Evelyn Waugh and His World which contains essays by many of the people who knew him best, and an added bonus is that it's filled with photographs. Waugh's special service in Yugoslavia alongside of Randolf Churchill furnished some extraordinarily funny stories.

Anonymous said...

The first Waugh book I ever read was The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, which was bizarre and not at all what I had been expecting. Somewhat disturbing, in fact. Shortly thereafter I read The Loved One and felt much better about Waugh. Apparently I had not been steered wrong by friends' recommendations.

My favorite travel book isn't really one, as such: Strolling Through Istanbul, by Hilary Sumner-Boyd and John Freely. It's a walking guide to Istanbul (which obviously you would never guess from the title) I picked up in that city. It's crammed full of interesting, amusing, entertaining, and informative material, and is laid out in various suggested walking tours.

My preferred use was to simply strike out on my own, wander around until I was either tired or saw something I wanted more detail on. Then I'd sit in a cafe with a glass of that amazingly strong, yet not at all bitter Turkish tea and a piece of baklava, dig through the book until I found where I was, and read until I felt like continuing on.

It was a wonderful companion to a city I dearly wish to revisit some time.

Minicapt said...

My favourite travel book was more of a generic/how-to book on crossing potentially unfriendly territories in relative safety: "The Tank Troop Leaders Manual".

Anonymous said...

Oh, right, MiniCapt... in that case, I nominate Nathanial Bowditch's American Practical Navigator.

Anonymous said...

paco, I'm afraid that I'm not much of a reader of travel books. Except for various field manuals, technical manuals, and references on Warsaw Pact forces back when I was a tactical intelligence officer (like the Good Captain), once upon a time.

I really just wanted to remind you not to lock up my courier, who is stopping by tomorrow to drop off my consulting bill, and pick up my payment. This time, I prefer gold; the ink came off the last bundle of cash you sent.

Which is why the forthcoming bill is substantially larger, by the way.

Paco said...

RJ: Well, I need to give you a heads up. If this gold starts turning a little green, it's just because it's a tad moldy; I mean, it's not because it's - heh -brass or anything like that.