ATDTDA (33) - more on human nature changed--side reading

Tue Jun 3 20:52:01 CDT 2008

Granted, it's about 1911 but maybe there's an inside wink-nod to 1910 in
there.

The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm 
Contributor(s): Nicolson, Juliet (Author)  
   ISBN: 0802143679 
 Review Quotes:
"A hugely interesting portrait of a society teetering on a precipice both
nationally and internationally . . . As page turning as a novel." -- Joanna
Trollope 

Review Quotes:
"A wonderfully evocative portrait of English society on the brink of a
changing world. Juliet Nicolson has invented a new kind of social history."
-- Tina Brown 

Review Quotes:
"Detail makes Juliet Nicolson's portrait of a single Edwardian year such a
fascinating read. . . . I felt transported into what Nicolson felicitously
describes as 'one of the high sunilt meadows of English history.'" --
Antonia Fraser 

Review Quotes:
"Juliet Nicolson transports us back to the enchanted and enchanting summer
of 1911. She guides us through its four months in company with some of the
most delightful people imaginable. It is a wonderful and poignant tour that
proved to be a farewell appearance to their world." -- David Fromkin 

Review Quotes:
"Buried deep within this deliciously evocative book, there is a single
story that involves a grand country house and a lord, a man, not his wife,
a cry of celebratory sexuality. This story alone makes the volume's
purchase price worthwhile. And there are hundreds more like it. Juliet
Nicolson has fashioned for us a treasure-trove, doubly perfect for winter."
-- Simon Winchester 

Publisher Marketing:
Topping the best-seller charts in Britain, The Perfect Summer chronicles a
glorious English summer a century ago when the world was on the cusp of
irrevocable change. In the summer of 1911 a new king was crowned and the
aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next. At a
London debutante charity ball where the other girls came dressed as
virginal white swans, the striking debutante Lady Diana Manners made a late
appearance as a black swan. The Ballets Russes arrived in London for the
first time and people swarmed to Covent Garden to see Nijinsky's
gravity-defying leaps. Through the tight lens of four months, Juliet
Nicolson's rich storytelling gifts evoke for us the sights, colors, and
feelings of a bygone era. But perfection was not for all. Cracks in the
social fabric were showing and the country was brought to a standstill by
industrial strikes. Led by the charismatic Ben Tillett, the Southampton
Dockers' Union paralyzed shipping in the country's ports. Unionist Mary
Macarthur inspired women from the "sweated industries" to take to the
streets in protest of intolerable conditions. Home Secretary Winston
Churchill, fearing that the country was on the verge of collapse, gave in
to demands for wage increases. Temperatures rose steadily to more than one
hundred degrees; by August deaths from heatstroke were too many for
newspapers to report. Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen
sources and narrated through the eyes of a series of exceptional
individuals--among them a debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade
unionist, a butler, and the queen--The Perfect Summer is a vividly rendered
glimpse of the twilight of the Edwardian era. 

Brief Description:
"The Perfect Summer" chronicles a glorious English summer a century ago,
when the world was on the cusp of irrevocable change. Through the tight
lens of four months, Juliet Nicolson's rich storytelling gifts rivet us
with the sights, colors, and feelings of a bygone era. That summer of 1911
a new king was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one
house party to the next. But perfection was not for all. Cracks in the
social fabric were showing. The country was brought to a standstill by
industrial strikes. Temperatures rose steadily to more than 100 degrees; by
August deaths from heatstroke were too many for newspapers to report.
Drawing on material from intimate and rarely seen sources and narrated
through the eyes of a series of exceptional individuals--among them a
debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler, and the
queen--"The Perfect Summer" is a vividly rendered glimpse of the twilight
of the Edwardian era. 

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Mark Kohut markekohut at yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:08:18 -0700 (PDT)
To: dpayne1912 at hotmail.com, kelber at mindspring.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: RE: ATDTDA (33) - pregnancy in Bulgaria or "human nature changed"

1910..?     I cannot think I come close to knowing, feeling I get little
about Pynchon and music---except that he likes it a lot and that it is
usually a very good thing (for humans)

   BUT

  the only quote I know about 1910, and it is pretty famous with some
writers and within literary history is:

  "Round about December 1910, human nature changed".......Virginia Woolf.

David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, 30 May 2008 (09:53:28 -0400), Laura (kelber at mindspring.com) wrote:

> Sleepcoat: "Except that the music stopped two years ago." Any thoughts,
anyone, on what stopped the music?

That would be 1910 -- why would the music stop in 1910?

[According to the The Pynchon Grid
(http://ic.ucsc.edu/~ksgruesz/ltel190f/PynchonGrid.htm) (and the Pynchon
Wiki:
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975),
the current narrative time is 1912.]

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