Going Abroad

by Rose Macaulay

Here's a bit of spoofing at the expense of the Oxford Group which may offend a few of your customers who take it at all to heart -- but which will tickle the risibles of those who understand its foibles and appreciate its sincerities and keep their sense of humor uppermost. Picture the missionary spirit getting too much for a group, and setting the Basque Coast by the ears. All must be converted, from the good Bishop of Zanadu down to the Basque fisher folk. A ludicrous kidnapping further complicate things -- but achieves what it was designed to do. There's a spot too much religion, spoofed and otherwise -- but for the most part it is delicious irony, unique and hugely entertaining. Rose Macaulay has a distinct following -- this will delight them. (Kirkus Reviews)

Genres: Fiction

316 pages

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Emilie Rose Macaulay, whom Elizabeth Bowen called "one of the few writers of whom it may be said, she adorns our century," was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master. Descended on both sides from a long line of clerical ancestors, she felt Anglicanism was in her blood. Much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa, and memories of Italy fill the early novels. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read history at Somerville, and on coming down lived with her family first in Wales, then near Cambridge, where her father had been appointed a lecturer in English. There she began a writing career which was to span fifty years with the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.

From BookRags: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ros...

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I recently finished "Towers of Trebizond", which was a masterpiece. So good that I immediately went on AbeBooks and bought another four books by Rose Macaulay. To see if all her work compares to her masterpiece. Alas, in this spirit, I found "Going Abroad" quite disappointing. Maybe because Trebizond was so good, the comparison did lasting damage to this novel. Or maybe because Rose had only one major story to tell. I've started now her book "Idiots", so lets see - and I'll tell you what I find out. However, for those who are looking for an amazing book by a little-known author, read Trebizond. I think "Going Abroad" will disappoint you.

A final point. I was reading the other day an article that asserted that a novelist only gets worse over time. They their work degenerates. Perhaps this is due to laziness of some authors to rewrite the same story over and over and over again (Harry Potter series comes to mind). Or maybe its because when young and filled with hubris you don't realize just what a task you are embarking upon, in whose footsteps you are daring to walk by putting pen to paper. The intellectual descendants of Homer and Cicero. Whatever the reason, I don't agree. I don't think the order matters at all. Some people write their first masterpiece and never write again. Rose, with Towers of Trebizond, wrote this novel two years before she died as the capstone of a career and it was magnificent. There are no set rules for this sort of thing, it's about inspiration. And that makes writing even more difficult.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can be mean about interwar British culture but I suppose when else were you going to get camp but semi-serious novels about evangelical Christians on holiday partly written in Basque?