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Jill
A subtle and moving account of a young English undergraduate from the provinces, this portrait of Oxford during the war is now regarded by man critics as a classic of its kind.
"Jill is, in a sense, a kind of cryptic manifesto. It is a novel about writing, about discovering a literary personality, and about the sorts of consolation that art can provide." -Andrew Motion
"Jill is, in a sense, a kind of cryptic manifesto. It is a novel about writing, about discovering a literary personality, and about the sorts of consolation that art can provide." -Andrew Motion
256 pages, Paperback
Published March 3, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 28, 2025
Jill by Philip Larkin – author of A Girl in Winter, which is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read – hundreds of those works have been reviewed on my blog, where the best take might be this: https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
9 out of 10
Philip Larkin was a good, maybe the best friend of Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, and he is very present in The Memoirs https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... a good reason for this reader to try and get to the next level, after more than twenty books by Kingsley Amis, move to his circle
There is another reason tom expect enchantment from Jill, and that is the fact that I have read Girl in Winter and that was a ten out of ten experience for the under signed https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... albeit Jill gets only 9 of 10
John Kemp is the main character in the novel, notwithstanding the title, and the fact that indeed, there is a Gillian aka Jill that enters the stage, but for a comparatively short time, and with less impact than the hero
The protagonist comes from a rather poor family, not destitute, but clearly out of the privileged classes, and the boy is lucky to have this teacher, Mr. Crouch, who decides to support the pupil and see him get access to higher education, he has some selfish motives, and eventually gets bored with this goal, nevertheless, it may work
We have a back and forth, the main character remembers how his teacher made some comments, looking for deserving apprentices, he found that Kemp was doing well in tests, then there was the suggestion that he should continue his studies, based on the fact that he would get a scholarship, seeing his financial challenges
John does not believe he can do that; this will be in contrast with another student he would meet at Oxford – thus, I am anticipating the fact that he would get accepted – who had been so determined, against ball odds, poverty and distrust of the others, however, the boy is very resilient and hardworking, stubborn
The formula that comes to mind is from Outliers https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... by Malcolm Gladwell, if you work for ten thousand hours, during ten years, that is three hours daily, then you have a good chance to get to the top, other conditions pending.
Once in Oxford though, our man is not happy, on the contrary, he has a roommate, Christopher Warner, who has taken his cups and things, takes money from John, albeit the former is much richer, and does not rush to give it back, worse, he talks to Elizabeth, the girl he wants to have coitus with, and we hear them mocking Kemp
The hero invents Jill, as his sister, to get Chrsitopher interested, the savoir faire, panache, arrogance, bravado, insolence, carelessness impresses upon the rather shy, well raised young man, who admires this defiance, even if he has to think about the demeaning dialogue that he has heard and then, they come to a clash
In real life, he meets this fifteen years old girl, Gillian called Jill, and he ‘falls in love at first sight’, we could say, or dispute that, first because he has had her in his mind for some time, as a creation of his, then the problem with defining love was expressed by many thinkers, and one that had a strong impact on yours truly is
Thomas Mann https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... has this personage who is horrified by the ease with which people say ‘my love is so great, there are no words to use’, when in fact, this is a feeling that we find only in literature, art, in real life, when tested, it proves to be just infatuation or arousal…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
9 out of 10
Philip Larkin was a good, maybe the best friend of Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, and he is very present in The Memoirs https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... a good reason for this reader to try and get to the next level, after more than twenty books by Kingsley Amis, move to his circle
There is another reason tom expect enchantment from Jill, and that is the fact that I have read Girl in Winter and that was a ten out of ten experience for the under signed https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... albeit Jill gets only 9 of 10
John Kemp is the main character in the novel, notwithstanding the title, and the fact that indeed, there is a Gillian aka Jill that enters the stage, but for a comparatively short time, and with less impact than the hero
The protagonist comes from a rather poor family, not destitute, but clearly out of the privileged classes, and the boy is lucky to have this teacher, Mr. Crouch, who decides to support the pupil and see him get access to higher education, he has some selfish motives, and eventually gets bored with this goal, nevertheless, it may work
We have a back and forth, the main character remembers how his teacher made some comments, looking for deserving apprentices, he found that Kemp was doing well in tests, then there was the suggestion that he should continue his studies, based on the fact that he would get a scholarship, seeing his financial challenges
John does not believe he can do that; this will be in contrast with another student he would meet at Oxford – thus, I am anticipating the fact that he would get accepted – who had been so determined, against ball odds, poverty and distrust of the others, however, the boy is very resilient and hardworking, stubborn
The formula that comes to mind is from Outliers https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... by Malcolm Gladwell, if you work for ten thousand hours, during ten years, that is three hours daily, then you have a good chance to get to the top, other conditions pending.
Once in Oxford though, our man is not happy, on the contrary, he has a roommate, Christopher Warner, who has taken his cups and things, takes money from John, albeit the former is much richer, and does not rush to give it back, worse, he talks to Elizabeth, the girl he wants to have coitus with, and we hear them mocking Kemp
The hero invents Jill, as his sister, to get Chrsitopher interested, the savoir faire, panache, arrogance, bravado, insolence, carelessness impresses upon the rather shy, well raised young man, who admires this defiance, even if he has to think about the demeaning dialogue that he has heard and then, they come to a clash
In real life, he meets this fifteen years old girl, Gillian called Jill, and he ‘falls in love at first sight’, we could say, or dispute that, first because he has had her in his mind for some time, as a creation of his, then the problem with defining love was expressed by many thinkers, and one that had a strong impact on yours truly is
Thomas Mann https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... has this personage who is horrified by the ease with which people say ‘my love is so great, there are no words to use’, when in fact, this is a feeling that we find only in literature, art, in real life, when tested, it proves to be just infatuation or arousal…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
August 25, 2024
Some of it was quite sweet and there really definitely tones of innocence about John’s character. But on the whole, I didn’t quite understand the point of the book - John outgrows his former life but emerges as a wafty, indifferent, boring young man. Really he is passionless about anything other than ‘Jill’ who, is real, and is about as two dimensional as he is. What emotion he expresses comes out in these random paroxysms of drunken disorder.
Didn’t understand what the book was trying to say. Didn’t get the point.
Didn’t understand what the book was trying to say. Didn’t get the point.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 30, 2026
“Forget yesterday, forget tomorrow, forget who you are and what you're going to do next. Then start."
“And then again, it was like being told : see how little anything matters. All that anyone has is the life that keeps him going, and see how easily that can be patted out. See how appallingly little life is.”
“I mean I know things will get worse, but I don't mind because they'll get better and better, too. I wouldn't go back, not for millions.”
“What did it matter which road he took if they both led to the same place?”
“And then again, it was like being told : see how little anything matters. All that anyone has is the life that keeps him going, and see how easily that can be patted out. See how appallingly little life is.”
“I mean I know things will get worse, but I don't mind because they'll get better and better, too. I wouldn't go back, not for millions.”
“What did it matter which road he took if they both led to the same place?”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2025
First published 1946
May 27, 2025
Started off extremely strong, but the main character of John ended up becoming extremely unlikeable as the story progressed. The prose was beautiful and worth reading for the descriptions of Oxford. I definitely felt like I was inside the story.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews