« In Which Martin Amis References Almost Everything »

A Young Brit

by JEFF GOLDBERG

Much anticipated and widely reviewed, The Pregnant Widow satisfied my desire for a weighty Martin Amis novel even if it did not entirely satisfy my desire for consistency. 

Keith, a young Brit summering in an Italian castle with several beautiful women, might be the least despicable of Amis's protagonists unless he is the most. Does one feel sorry for him, ashamed by him, or embarrassed for him? As for whether this one summer could truly impact the rest of his life in such a way: I am neutral on the point. In a novel, the central event is always the most important in the characters' lives because the characters don't have lives outside of the novel depicting that particular event.

The sheer amount of literary references struck me more than anything else. Here are the books read by the protagonist over the course of one summer:

Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (p 32)
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (p 39)
Pamela by Samuel Richardson (p 43)
Shamela by Henry Fielding (p 43)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (p 80)
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (p 81) [Closed after 15 pages]
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen (p 108)
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (p 125)

Emma by Jane Austen (p 125)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (p 135)
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (p 158)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (p 197)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (p 199)
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (p 202)
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (p 217)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (p 253)
Pansies: Poems by D. H. Lawrence (p 278)

That's actually not as many books as I remember. I'm not including books read by other characters, and I'm not including some invented non-fiction books (such as Religions of the World) read by the author. I may have missed a few.

amis' room Books alluded to by the protagonist but not necessarily read that summer:

Dracula by Bram Stoker (p 161)
Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (p 224)
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (p 224)
The Odyssey by Homer (p 253)
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (p 253)
Middlemarch by George Eliot (p 268)
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (p 268)

I'm not including books alluded to by other characters. I definitely have missed a few.

Most of all, I thought this novel did a better job of quoting relevant poetry than any other novel I've read. Unfortunately such quotes stopped after around page 100 and didn't pick up again until the end.

Sexual intercourse began
In 1963
(Which was rather late for me —
Between the end of the Chatterly ban
And the Beatles' first LP.

— Philip Larkin, "Annus Mirabilis"

Mind and Body run on
Different timetables:
Not until our morning
Visit here can we
Leave the dead concerns of
Yesterday behind us,
Face, with all our courage,
What is now to be.

— W. H. Auden, "The Geography of the House"

photo by tom craig

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell.

— William Shakespeare, Ariel's song from The Tempest

Action is transitory--a step, a blow.
The motion of a muscle--this way or that--
'Tis done, and in the after-vacancy
We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed:
Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark.
And shared the nature of infinity.

- William Wordsworth, "The White Doe of Rylstone"

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I, the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah, my deare,
I cannot look on thee.

— George Herbert, "Love"

Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever-dew...

— John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

...where they work, and age, and put off men
By being unattractive, or too shy,
Or having morals...

— Philip Larkin, "Letter to a Friend about Girls"

O Rose, thou art sick!
The Invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of Crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

— William Blake, "The Sick Rose"

There is a willow grows aslant a brook . . . but long it could not be. Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death.

— William Shakespeare, Gertrude's speech from Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 7

What man has bent o'er his son's sleep, to brood
How that face shall watch his when cold it lies?
Or thought, as his own mother kissed his eyes,
Of what her kiss was when his father wooed?

— Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "The House of Life"

I think the above speaks for itself.

Jeff Goldberg is a contributor to This Recording. He is a writer living in Manhattan. You can find his blog here.

"Feels So Real" - Rusko ft. Ben Westbeech (mp3)

"You're On My Mind Baby" - Rusko (mp3)

"Kumon Kumon" - Rusko (mp3)

Comments

[jeff]

Bonus quiz: Which of the quoted poems is about pooping?

[bloom]

Um...the Auden?

[jeff]

That is correct! It's the greated poem about using the bathroom ever.

[jeff]

Now that I reread some of the other poems, it seems I can interpret any number of them as bathroom metaphors. Especially the Wordsworth, with phrases such as "action is transitory," "motion of a muscle," "after-vacancy," (after-vacancy!) and "nature of infinity." But I'm pretty sure the Auden is actually intended to reference using the toilet.