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Strangers and Brothers #5
The Masters
The fifth in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series begins with the dying Master of a Cambridge college. His imminent demise causes intense rivalry and jealousy amongst the other fellows. Former friends become enemies as the election looms.
358 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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882 people want to read
About the author
C.P. Snow
94 books124 followersKnown British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series
Strangers and Brothers
(1940-1970).
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
September 6, 2015
For an academic and someone who reads a lot of fiction, I have an amazingly bad record on campus novels. Malcolm Bradbury, David Lodge, Philip Roth’s The Human Stain … you name it, I have completely failed to read it. Worst of all, I had never read The Masters before now, despite having been a “fellow” (a.k.a. professor) of a Cambridge college for quite a long period of my life—in fact, the very same one where this novel is set.
Having finally got round to it, I enjoyed The Masters much more than I thought I was going to. It’s the kind of unfashionable, half-forgotten novel you fear is going to be rather stodgy, but which turns out to be suprisingly compelling.
The novel is highly condensed in terms of plot and setting, in a way that made me think of the Aristotelian unities. The whole narrative takes place in the arc of a year and almost entirely within the boundaries of the college. The plot is also highly unified, consisting of the scheming and plotting associated with the election of a new master, or head of the college. Snow is pretty rigorous in pushing anything else to the perimeters of the plot. We get a few hints about the private lives and the academic interests of some of the fellows, and some allusions to the rapidly darkening political situation in Europe (The Masters is set in 1937, though written in 1951). Snow’s focus remains tightly on the election plot throughout, however; nothing beyond the college gates is really allowed to intrude.
This all sounds very narrow and claustrophobic, and it is—but Snow manages to work very adroitly within his self-imposed narrative constraints. He writes well, in an unflashy way, and he is strong on characterization, nicely mixing some intriguingly complex and tortured main characters with a few breezy semi-caricatures on the side for light relief. Snow’s main interest is in the psychology and social dynamics of political competition, and on power relations between individuals and within groups. This gives the book a universality that belies its distinctive and cranky college setting (although the college, with its weird rituals and interesting patterns of daytime alcohol consumption, has a folkloristic interest of its own).
The Masters is the fifth book of an eleven-book series, Strangers and Brothers, following the trajectory of Lewis Eliot, the young law fellow who is the first-person narrator here. Given that, I was quite impressed by how well the novel worked as a self-standing narrative. Reading it in isolation actually gives the book a slightly more experimental feel than it would otherwise have, in that so much is alluded to but left unexplained. Eliot is clearly living through some kind of marital tragedy, but we hear virtually nothing of it within the bounds of this novel; we are simply left to speculate how much of his emotional investment in “his” candidate, Paul Jago, has to do with this personal trauma.
In addition to its merits as a novel, The Masters has value as a historical testimonial or memoir. Snow knew the world of the Cambridge colleges very intimately and was a fellow at Christ's College during these same years. One thing I found poignant in The Masters is the contrast between the younger and middle-aged fellows, Snow’s contemporaries, most afflicted with some kind of twentieth-century angst or melancholy, and the much more buoyant surviving Victorians, in their seventies, who seem much happier in their skin. I enjoyed Snow’s sketches of these game old boys: the suave political radical Pilbrow and the preposterously vain elderly toddler Gay, an expert on the Icelandic sagas, whose fond allusions to his marauding “saga-men” offer an ironic counterpoint to the less swashbuckling brand of masculinity on display in the novel.
Having finally got round to it, I enjoyed The Masters much more than I thought I was going to. It’s the kind of unfashionable, half-forgotten novel you fear is going to be rather stodgy, but which turns out to be suprisingly compelling.
The novel is highly condensed in terms of plot and setting, in a way that made me think of the Aristotelian unities. The whole narrative takes place in the arc of a year and almost entirely within the boundaries of the college. The plot is also highly unified, consisting of the scheming and plotting associated with the election of a new master, or head of the college. Snow is pretty rigorous in pushing anything else to the perimeters of the plot. We get a few hints about the private lives and the academic interests of some of the fellows, and some allusions to the rapidly darkening political situation in Europe (The Masters is set in 1937, though written in 1951). Snow’s focus remains tightly on the election plot throughout, however; nothing beyond the college gates is really allowed to intrude.
This all sounds very narrow and claustrophobic, and it is—but Snow manages to work very adroitly within his self-imposed narrative constraints. He writes well, in an unflashy way, and he is strong on characterization, nicely mixing some intriguingly complex and tortured main characters with a few breezy semi-caricatures on the side for light relief. Snow’s main interest is in the psychology and social dynamics of political competition, and on power relations between individuals and within groups. This gives the book a universality that belies its distinctive and cranky college setting (although the college, with its weird rituals and interesting patterns of daytime alcohol consumption, has a folkloristic interest of its own).
The Masters is the fifth book of an eleven-book series, Strangers and Brothers, following the trajectory of Lewis Eliot, the young law fellow who is the first-person narrator here. Given that, I was quite impressed by how well the novel worked as a self-standing narrative. Reading it in isolation actually gives the book a slightly more experimental feel than it would otherwise have, in that so much is alluded to but left unexplained. Eliot is clearly living through some kind of marital tragedy, but we hear virtually nothing of it within the bounds of this novel; we are simply left to speculate how much of his emotional investment in “his” candidate, Paul Jago, has to do with this personal trauma.
In addition to its merits as a novel, The Masters has value as a historical testimonial or memoir. Snow knew the world of the Cambridge colleges very intimately and was a fellow at Christ's College during these same years. One thing I found poignant in The Masters is the contrast between the younger and middle-aged fellows, Snow’s contemporaries, most afflicted with some kind of twentieth-century angst or melancholy, and the much more buoyant surviving Victorians, in their seventies, who seem much happier in their skin. I enjoyed Snow’s sketches of these game old boys: the suave political radical Pilbrow and the preposterously vain elderly toddler Gay, an expert on the Icelandic sagas, whose fond allusions to his marauding “saga-men” offer an ironic counterpoint to the less swashbuckling brand of masculinity on display in the novel.
January 7, 2025
Цей роман — це майже театральна постановка в мініатюрі, де на сцені розгортається битва за владу в коледжі. Здавалося б, події тривіальні, але в цьому й суть.
Давайте розбиратися!
Замкненість системи контрастує з глобальними загрозами, що нависли над світом — 1937 рік, Європа на порозі Другої світової війни. Але герої, здається, зовсім не відчували масштабів зовнішніх викликів.
Коледж, описаний у романі, здається застиглим у часі: все — від статутів до обстановки — залишається незмінним протягом століть. Ця стабільність перетворюється на застій.
Конфлікти й труднощі професорів видавалися такими дріб’язковими, майже комічними. Це науковці, які мали б вражати своїм інтелектом, але натомість вони здаються сміховинними у своїх суперечках.
Я сприймала їхню «боротьбу за владу» радше як гостру сатиру на реальність, на людські амбіції й внутрішні слабкості.
Попри всю іронію, роман піднімає багато важливих питань — як вибори впливають на людину й групу? Чи здатні закриті системи змінюватися? Хто може стати хорошим лідером? Що саме впливає на наш вибір?
Роман актуальний до сьогодні. Я приємно вражена, хоча подібна література — дуже нетиповий для мене вибір. Проте дуже рада, що саме ця книга розширила трохи мої читацькі вподобання.
Давайте розбиратися!
Замкненість системи контрастує з глобальними загрозами, що нависли над світом — 1937 рік, Європа на порозі Другої світової війни. Але герої, здається, зовсім не відчували масштабів зовнішніх викликів.
Коледж, описаний у романі, здається застиглим у часі: все — від статутів до обстановки — залишається незмінним протягом століть. Ця стабільність перетворюється на застій.
Конфлікти й труднощі професорів видавалися такими дріб’язковими, майже комічними. Це науковці, які мали б вражати своїм інтелектом, але натомість вони здаються сміховинними у своїх суперечках.
Я сприймала їхню «боротьбу за владу» радше як гостру сатиру на реальність, на людські амбіції й внутрішні слабкості.
Попри всю іронію, роман піднімає багато важливих питань — як вибори впливають на людину й групу? Чи здатні закриті системи змінюватися? Хто може стати хорошим лідером? Що саме впливає на наш вибір?
Роман актуальний до сьогодні. Я приємно вражена, хоча подібна література — дуже нетиповий для мене вибір. Проте дуже рада, що саме ця книга розширила трохи мої читацькі вподобання.
March 20, 2022
The setting of The Masters is Cambridge in 1937. It is the fifth novel in the eleven novel sequence the comprises C. P. Snow's masterpiece, Strangers and Brothers. Narrated by Lewis Eliot, the story tells of the election of a new Master to replace the old Master who, as the novel opens, lays dying. The choice facing Eliot and the other dons is whether to elect Paul Jago, a scholar of literature, or Crawford, a biologist. The novel slowly, but effectively, develops suspense from the political machinations of the various academic characters while the contrast between the two candidates' personalities clearly becomes an important factor. In the confined sphere of the academy Snow delineates a paradigm of the political process in action.
All this is set against the backdrop of international political changes roiling the continent. There are hints of this when one of the dons visits Berlin and another goes to the Balkans. In clear lucid prose the tale spins out, with a thin veneer of academic respectability continually covering the power struggles in the background. Through it all my interest was maintained by the suspense that builds till the end. While this is only one of several novels in the series that is set in Cambridge it may be read independently of the others. However, I found Snow's story-telling ability such that I will likely return to discover what happens in other novels in the series.
All this is set against the backdrop of international political changes roiling the continent. There are hints of this when one of the dons visits Berlin and another goes to the Balkans. In clear lucid prose the tale spins out, with a thin veneer of academic respectability continually covering the power struggles in the background. Through it all my interest was maintained by the suspense that builds till the end. While this is only one of several novels in the series that is set in Cambridge it may be read independently of the others. However, I found Snow's story-telling ability such that I will likely return to discover what happens in other novels in the series.
January 6, 2025
« — Чому вони не хочуть бачити те, що має значення? Людина повинна усвідомити свою сутність. І жахнутись. І пробачите себе, щоб жити далі».
Перша книжка 2025 року і перше хороше попадання ✅.
І якщо можна було б описати цю книгу одним словом, цим словом було б: напруга.
Директор вигаданого коледжу але в реальному місці (❗️) помирає, але йому про це не говорять, але про це знають усі… І постає доволі логічне питання: а хто буде його наступником? Також може постати інше логічне питання: от ми зараз виберемо директора, а наш як встане з ліжка, як звільнить нас почне знову працювати! Але ні, здається Ройс безнайдійний і вже ніколи не зможе керувати коледжем.
І починається наааайцікавіше і найдраматичніше в цій книзі! 😬Передвиборча кампанія. У нас два кандидати: Джаґо і Кроуффорд. Обидва харизматичні професори, обидва поважні пани. І Рада розділяється на два ворогуючих між собою табори (вони цього не визнають, але напруга цієї книги про це говорить).
1️⃣ Коли я тільки читав анотацію, мені було цікаво, що автор зможе написати про вибори директора коледжу? Ну от вдумайтесь: вибори директора коледжу. Не країни, не, я не знаю там, коледжу!
Але тут просто ТАКА ДРАМА 😵💫, тут така напруга. Герої постійно розмовляють про вибори, вони постійно намагаються переманити на свою сторону. Деякі навіть використовують заборонені мораллю методи.
Я не міг відірватись тому що я знав, що в кінці мене, власне, очікує результат. І мені було цікаво, до чого це все приведе!
2️⃣ Тут дуууже багато персонажів. Коли видавництво Апріорі реагували на мою історію в Instagram, де я це сказав, вони сказали, що потрібно робити схему, щоб втримати в голові хто є хто.
Додавало складності те що це твір 20 сторіччя, в якому посади/титули відрізняються від сучасних, і доводилось багато ґуглити, щоб зрозуміти, як та чи інша посада відповідає на сучасний лад 🫠
Але я таке люблю, це щось нове для мене, тому мені з цим ок.
В цілому мені сподобалось.
«Наставники» розповіли мені про Роман “Наставники” Чарльза Персі Сноу зображає складні відносини між людьми у світі науки та академічних інтриг.
Ну і звісно, цей роман про владу. Про те, як її гіпотетична наявність може посунути людину зі шляху дотримання якихось моральних устоїв і принципів.
І можна навіть сказати, що це такий перший роман «дарк-академії» 🤭
Перша книжка 2025 року і перше хороше попадання ✅.
І якщо можна було б описати цю книгу одним словом, цим словом було б: напруга.
Директор вигаданого коледжу але в реальному місці (❗️) помирає, але йому про це не говорять, але про це знають усі… І постає доволі логічне питання: а хто буде його наступником? Також може постати інше логічне питання: от ми зараз виберемо директора, а наш як встане з ліжка, як звільнить нас почне знову працювати! Але ні, здається Ройс безнайдійний і вже ніколи не зможе керувати коледжем.
І починається наааайцікавіше і найдраматичніше в цій книзі! 😬Передвиборча кампанія. У нас два кандидати: Джаґо і Кроуффорд. Обидва харизматичні професори, обидва поважні пани. І Рада розділяється на два ворогуючих між собою табори (вони цього не визнають, але напруга цієї книги про це говорить).
1️⃣ Коли я тільки читав анотацію, мені було цікаво, що автор зможе написати про вибори директора коледжу? Ну от вдумайтесь: вибори директора коледжу. Не країни, не, я не знаю там, коледжу!
Але тут просто ТАКА ДРАМА 😵💫, тут така напруга. Герої постійно розмовляють про вибори, вони постійно намагаються переманити на свою сторону. Деякі навіть використовують заборонені мораллю методи.
Я не міг відірватись тому що я знав, що в кінці мене, власне, очікує результат. І мені було цікаво, до чого це все приведе!
2️⃣ Тут дуууже багато персонажів. Коли видавництво Апріорі реагували на мою історію в Instagram, де я це сказав, вони сказали, що потрібно робити схему, щоб втримати в голові хто є хто.
Додавало складності те що це твір 20 сторіччя, в якому посади/титули відрізняються від сучасних, і доводилось багато ґуглити, щоб зрозуміти, як та чи інша посада відповідає на сучасний лад 🫠
Але я таке люблю, це щось нове для мене, тому мені з цим ок.
В цілому мені сподобалось.
«Наставники» розповіли мені про Роман “Наставники” Чарльза Персі Сноу зображає складні відносини між людьми у світі науки та академічних інтриг.
Ну і звісно, цей роман про владу. Про те, як її гіпотетична наявність може посунути людину зі шляху дотримання якихось моральних устоїв і принципів.
І можна навіть сказати, що це такий перший роман «дарк-академії» 🤭
July 23, 2013
Four stars for the abilty to portray the psychology of men in a closed society maneuvering to achieve their ends, by both intentional strategy and actions arising from their core natures, outside their control. But Snow simply can't sustain interest in the election of the new Master for 300 pages with only the one plot line. I was bored halfway through, and only the need to finish it for a book group discussion forced me to march through 150 pages more of the same. Perhaps working in higher education for 25 years reduces tolerance for fiction about the academic minutiae of departments and colleges.
April 14, 2016
Interesting for its precise and analytical treatment of the election and its psychology. It's a shame that Snow is no longer much read.
I was also struck by the fact that several voters choose a candidate with radically different politics than themselves, feeling that the candidate was, despite these differences, better suited for the office as an individual. I cannot image that happening today.
I was also struck by the fact that several voters choose a candidate with radically different politics than themselves, feeling that the candidate was, despite these differences, better suited for the office as an individual. I cannot image that happening today.
October 15, 2015
When I was a young man, in the first of my undergraduate years, the head of our department retired. This started the process of finding a successor. Should the next head be an economist of belong to one of the ancillary disciplines? Should they be a macro-economist or a micro-economist? Ought the department promote internally or seek the successor externally? From my position of insignificance I could see all sorts of discord in the Olympian heights, so I asked my tutor what was going on. He replied that the department had become a real bear garden. The atmosphere had become poisonous. "It's very much like" he said, "'The Masters'". That was my introduction to this book. A vague reference from a tutor to explain a degree of discord within a provincial university economics department. I just had to go out and read it for myself.
I have read this book several times. I now find that I even own three copies of it. It is so good. There is an element of mystery in that the final vote could have gone one way or another, right up to the very end. There is the high drama that surrounds the election to office. And there is the pathos in that much of the action in the book covers a period when there wasn't, actually, a vacancy to fill.
This book introduced me to a number of characters in the Strangers & Brothers series. In terms of where it sits, it is at the pivotal middle point in the life of Lewis Eliot. He had just left his early life behind, but had not quite found his later life. This book had me hooked to C P Snow as an author, and I find myself still enjoying his work. It certainly spurred me to read the whole of the Strangers & Brothers series.
I think that what I like about the book the most is the writing it contains. The characters are very closely observed. The narrative manages to capture a feature of life in Britain - the small committee. Such bodies, even today, can command a great deal of emotional input. They are personality driven, and it is the interaction of the personalities that gives them their drama. It is something of my life that I recognise.
I think that, if a reader wants to get at the heart of British public life, there is no better starting point than here. This has to be one of the best books you will ever read.
I have read this book several times. I now find that I even own three copies of it. It is so good. There is an element of mystery in that the final vote could have gone one way or another, right up to the very end. There is the high drama that surrounds the election to office. And there is the pathos in that much of the action in the book covers a period when there wasn't, actually, a vacancy to fill.
This book introduced me to a number of characters in the Strangers & Brothers series. In terms of where it sits, it is at the pivotal middle point in the life of Lewis Eliot. He had just left his early life behind, but had not quite found his later life. This book had me hooked to C P Snow as an author, and I find myself still enjoying his work. It certainly spurred me to read the whole of the Strangers & Brothers series.
I think that what I like about the book the most is the writing it contains. The characters are very closely observed. The narrative manages to capture a feature of life in Britain - the small committee. Such bodies, even today, can command a great deal of emotional input. They are personality driven, and it is the interaction of the personalities that gives them their drama. It is something of my life that I recognise.
I think that, if a reader wants to get at the heart of British public life, there is no better starting point than here. This has to be one of the best books you will ever read.
February 14, 2025
Камерний і атмосферний роман, в якому події відбуваються у стінах багатосотрічного університету, де заледве щось міняється від покоління до покоління. Сюжет абсолютно неважливий, на мою думку: теперішній директор при смерті і університету треба вибрати наступного. Рада розділяється на дві партії, які починають боротьбу один з одним. Постійні дискусії не зупиняються протягом всього року, допоки не настає день виборів і один із кандидатів буде вимушений прийняти поразку.
Чим далі, тим більше розкриваються мотиви кожного голосуючого, які ніяким чином не повʼязані з якостями та характеристиками кандидатів. У протистоянні розкривається сутність людини. Але чи зміниться щось для життя університету? Чи це буде крахом тільки одної людини?
Було приємно поринати в неспішність академічного життя, де немає щурячих бігів, немає невтомного розвитку заради розвитку, де століттями немає змін і життя пливе розмірено, хоча це 1937 рік і відчуття бурі, яка насувається, все ж таки присутнє. Це моє «комфортне читання», яке багатьом може здатися нудним, але для мене є медитативним.
Чим далі, тим більше розкриваються мотиви кожного голосуючого, які ніяким чином не повʼязані з якостями та характеристиками кандидатів. У протистоянні розкривається сутність людини. Але чи зміниться щось для життя університету? Чи це буде крахом тільки одної людини?
Було приємно поринати в неспішність академічного життя, де немає щурячих бігів, немає невтомного розвитку заради розвитку, де століттями немає змін і життя пливе розмірено, хоча це 1937 рік і відчуття бурі, яка насувається, все ж таки присутнє. Це моє «комфортне читання», яке багатьом може здатися нудним, але для мене є медитативним.
October 6, 2014
Definitely the most boring English book I have ever (half) read. It was recommended by my literature professor (who physically resembled P.C. Snow) back in my college days. I finally decided to read it, years later, to my regret. The issue being the upcoming election of a new Master in an imaginary college in Cambridge, a limited group of lecturers/dons/scholars are continually meeting, walking in the court yard, meeting, having dinners served by the butler, meeting, drinking fine wines and whiskey, meeting, visiting each other privately, walking back to their rooms, meeting again the next day and so on. Throughout this repetitive pattern: talks, talks and talks about who would be the best candidate, how to support our best man, how the opposing party would promote their man, what do you think? I think, it's going to be difficult. What is your opinion? You ought to have told us. You owed it to us, I'm dreadfully sorry. That is nice of you. I'm definitely sorry. You're not far off the mark. I should have been told about it. I don't see why.... and on and on and on it goes. The language is irritatingly ornate for those who like Hemingway's conciseness ('I must say it looks perfectly splendid' - Hemingway: 'Splendid!'). Perhaps it is all 'happening' while nothing is happening (a bit like: 'life is what happens while we are making other plans') but if so, I missed the point entirely. And the patience to feel it happen. I closed the book half way.
October 10, 2018
Отличная книга. Всю дорогу практически абсолютно ничего не происходит, а оторваться невозможно.
April 9, 2021
Fourth in the series as far as I'm concerned as I'm reading them in the order they were published. In this one the thirteen Fellows of a minor Cambridge college treat their vote for a new Master as if it affects the wellbeing of the country as a whole. The more ironic when all their agonising about a backwater, parochial decision of little moment is happening in 1937 – the very brink of world war.
Against my inclination to dismiss the machinations of the Fellows living their feather-bedded lives pre-occupied by feasts and wines, I was swept – no, not swept but nudged – along by the pace and tension in CP Snow's writing. But the nagging niggle that this was a fuss about nothing was always there.
In my own moments of introspection (while still under the influence of CP Snow's style) I have to admit that my negativity to this book owes much to the chip on my shoulder about my own failure to get into any university and my antipathy towards those who dwell in the Oxbridge college milieu of scouts, porters, servants, tea ordered and taken at one's fireside, the difficult decision as to whether to take port or claret after dinner etc – I could (and given free rein, would) go on.
I was outraged when one Fellow's face-to-face with a student was curtailed abruptly so that the fellow could attend an impromptu caucus planning meeting: As soon as Francis Getliffe left me, I rang up Brown. He said that he was kept by a pupil but would get rid of him and come. The primary purpose of this college appeared to have little to do with the education of its students and much more with the welfare and comfort of its Fellows.
The novel is very much of its time. An example of this is that one of the primary reasons for voting against one of the candidates is that his wife wants the job of being hostess in the Master's Lodge too much and too obviously.
Despite my dislike of the characters in this book and the way they lived their lives, I was engrossed. Isn't this is one test of what makes a good read?
Against my inclination to dismiss the machinations of the Fellows living their feather-bedded lives pre-occupied by feasts and wines, I was swept – no, not swept but nudged – along by the pace and tension in CP Snow's writing. But the nagging niggle that this was a fuss about nothing was always there.
In my own moments of introspection (while still under the influence of CP Snow's style) I have to admit that my negativity to this book owes much to the chip on my shoulder about my own failure to get into any university and my antipathy towards those who dwell in the Oxbridge college milieu of scouts, porters, servants, tea ordered and taken at one's fireside, the difficult decision as to whether to take port or claret after dinner etc – I could (and given free rein, would) go on.
I was outraged when one Fellow's face-to-face with a student was curtailed abruptly so that the fellow could attend an impromptu caucus planning meeting: As soon as Francis Getliffe left me, I rang up Brown. He said that he was kept by a pupil but would get rid of him and come. The primary purpose of this college appeared to have little to do with the education of its students and much more with the welfare and comfort of its Fellows.
The novel is very much of its time. An example of this is that one of the primary reasons for voting against one of the candidates is that his wife wants the job of being hostess in the Master's Lodge too much and too obviously.
Despite my dislike of the characters in this book and the way they lived their lives, I was engrossed. Isn't this is one test of what makes a good read?
April 8, 2020
CP Snow's The Masters is the fifth chronologically of the Strangers and Brothers sequel. Like all the books in the series, The Masters can be read either as a self-sufficient novel or as part of the lengthy autobiographical novel sequence which is Strangers and Brothers. If all novels are close to autobiography, this is so close to autobiography, that the narrator in the novel and the novelist become indistinguishable, for I have little doubt that the story which gave rise to this drama could easily be traced and closely reflected in C.P. Snow's own life. The novel is focussed on, and does not digress from, the matter of the election of a new master in a Cambridge College at a time in the inter-war years. The fellows of the college are bitterly divided on the subject of who is the best candidate for the job until one group gets its way and the other does not, thus the drama ends. It might well seem of only academic interest, so to speak, to care which fellow is elected to become master of an anyway fictional Cambridge College at a date many years past.
The fact that the event is so remote in time and of superficially such small account, yet so gripping, is explained by the insight and craftsmanship of the writer. For the reader a long forgotten dispute is brought to life again and the reader is intrigued by events long past and settled. CP Snow makes the dispute over the new mastership exciting and contemporary. Events unfold as though we are being updated on the latest developments in events happening at the present moment in our own lives.
“the latest in the unfolding drama at Cambridge, our reporter on the spot, CP Snow. "Percy, can you tells us about the latest developments in this extraordinary saga? We hear that Crystal has been to see the Master.. " "Yes John that's right, well I've just heard that leading fellow Chrystal, who as you will remember..."
CP Snow succeeds in rising to this daunting challenge of making a subject exciting which is by no means exciting of itself and intriguing when we might be inclined to shrug it of as of little interst one way or another, part of our lives as though we ourselves were fellows of the college, by virtue of two great talents. The first is that he is a deft story teller, telling his tale succinctly and confidently within a cultural milieu that he understand and not experimenting with himself or the reader by exploring milieux which he does not know. CP Snow is intimately acquainted with English university college life and The Masters belongs firmly to the tradition of novels set in the Western academic closed community. His accounts are accurate with no unnecessary comment, no discursion or digression and the narrative pace does not slacken before the day of the election. The writer has an ear for dialogue. He recalls exactly how people speak, with the memory and power of observation of the professional scientist whose job it is to provide succinct and accurate reports or the professional lawyer for whom it is necessary to have an accurate memory. CP Snow's second talent which accounts for the achievement of this novel is in his psychological shrewdness. He understands "what makes people tick" and I think he would have been a very successful psychiatrist had he chosen to be so. He describes intrigues credibly and compassionately because he observes well and understands the deepest resentments, the ideals and motivations open or concealed, (and can empathise if not always sympathise) which play their role in causing people to make the often unexpected decisions and follow the course of action that they do. This novel is both a fascinating and instructive study in human psychology and remains despite that, a very enjoyable and easy read, a remarkable achievement in itself.
The fact that the event is so remote in time and of superficially such small account, yet so gripping, is explained by the insight and craftsmanship of the writer. For the reader a long forgotten dispute is brought to life again and the reader is intrigued by events long past and settled. CP Snow makes the dispute over the new mastership exciting and contemporary. Events unfold as though we are being updated on the latest developments in events happening at the present moment in our own lives.
“the latest in the unfolding drama at Cambridge, our reporter on the spot, CP Snow. "Percy, can you tells us about the latest developments in this extraordinary saga? We hear that Crystal has been to see the Master.. " "Yes John that's right, well I've just heard that leading fellow Chrystal, who as you will remember..."
CP Snow succeeds in rising to this daunting challenge of making a subject exciting which is by no means exciting of itself and intriguing when we might be inclined to shrug it of as of little interst one way or another, part of our lives as though we ourselves were fellows of the college, by virtue of two great talents. The first is that he is a deft story teller, telling his tale succinctly and confidently within a cultural milieu that he understand and not experimenting with himself or the reader by exploring milieux which he does not know. CP Snow is intimately acquainted with English university college life and The Masters belongs firmly to the tradition of novels set in the Western academic closed community. His accounts are accurate with no unnecessary comment, no discursion or digression and the narrative pace does not slacken before the day of the election. The writer has an ear for dialogue. He recalls exactly how people speak, with the memory and power of observation of the professional scientist whose job it is to provide succinct and accurate reports or the professional lawyer for whom it is necessary to have an accurate memory. CP Snow's second talent which accounts for the achievement of this novel is in his psychological shrewdness. He understands "what makes people tick" and I think he would have been a very successful psychiatrist had he chosen to be so. He describes intrigues credibly and compassionately because he observes well and understands the deepest resentments, the ideals and motivations open or concealed, (and can empathise if not always sympathise) which play their role in causing people to make the often unexpected decisions and follow the course of action that they do. This novel is both a fascinating and instructive study in human psychology and remains despite that, a very enjoyable and easy read, a remarkable achievement in itself.
September 6, 2014
Slow in unwinding, not particularly well-styled but absorbing if you like groves of academe/government settings. Like Trollope's
Barchester novels, but without the humor and vividness and caricaturing. Good psychology.
The best entry into Snow's roman a fleuve called Strangers and Brothers, of which this is I think fifth. I like the portrait of major character Lewis Eliot that develops throughout the series. Another one well worth reading is the later Homecomings, to which I would give three stars as it is not a penetrating as The Masters though it is moving.
Read first in 1970s. again in 1980s.
Barchester novels, but without the humor and vividness and caricaturing. Good psychology.
The best entry into Snow's roman a fleuve called Strangers and Brothers, of which this is I think fifth. I like the portrait of major character Lewis Eliot that develops throughout the series. Another one well worth reading is the later Homecomings, to which I would give three stars as it is not a penetrating as The Masters though it is moving.
Read first in 1970s. again in 1980s.
August 14, 2020
For a work in which nothing happens, The Masters is surprisingly good. It's all down to the excellent characterisation and sense of claustrophobia that CP Snow generates. Every chapter takes place in the college, and only a few events from the outside world are permitted to intrude - the novel is set in 1937.
It's therefore not a work for everyone - some will find it a drag - but of its kind I think it will give pleasure to the discerning reader.
It's therefore not a work for everyone - some will find it a drag - but of its kind I think it will give pleasure to the discerning reader.
October 17, 2008
My economics professor recommended this book to me. I finally found it at the strand (for only 48 cents). I think he was saying that this book is a good example of ex-ante transaction costs in governance structures that use elections. The book also has interesting descriptions of college life and the ambitions of the professors involved in the election, which go far beyond the intellectual.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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July 3, 2020My feelings generally remain unchanged. While I find flashes of brilliance in Snow, he is not at all as comfortable to me as is Powell. One interesting comparison re this novel might be made with David Lodge’s more recent novels of academia. Someone (I can never remember who) once called Strangers and Brothers a sort of Dance to the Music of Time as narrated by Widmerpool. I don’t think Lewis Eliot is quite in Kenneth Widmerpool’s league, but he is certainly much more dry (and self-focused) than is Nicholas Jenkins. This particular novel in Snow’s sequence might be thought of as chapter 4 of Powell’s A Question of Upbringing as narrated by Sillery and thereby stretched to the length of an entire novel.
September 11, 2021
Worth it for the fascinating historical appendix at the end. The novel itself is an interesting enough read from a historical point of view but its plot is not really exciting enough to justify an entire novel in my view. There’s an element of bathos in trying to find eternal truths about politics and human nature in an internal college election. But as an elegy to a college life in the hey day of pre-WWII Cambridge it is an interesting read.
February 25, 2021
Though it is in many ways a period piece, this book captures the intricacies of electing a master for a college at Cambridge in the late 1930s. Snow’s characterizations are so well created, it is easy to feel present at all the gatherings, even taste the multiple courses of wine served. I found this book very enjoyable though I have to object to the way women are portrayed, even if the book is a period piece.
April 20, 2024
One of the classics - mesmerising portrayal!
July 12, 2024
Set in the very small world of a Cambridge college in the mid-1930s, this is a novel of well-drawn characters, managing affairs that are meaningful, yet which will seem strangely inconsequential in the hindsight of the war. It makes me worry about our own academic woes and the crises of our time.
September 28, 2010
It looks like I may be the first person on goodreads to ever read this book and mark it down on the site.
I've grown a very personal relationship with this book, having taken so long to read it. This book has taken me forever to read. I regret all the books I've missed reading in this slow, slow time. It does make you feel rather personally attached to it, though. There's a strong sense of companionship in this book. That doesn't necessarily make it good, though.
I picked this up at the public library at Williamsburg. I suppose this is where my relationship begins. After reading Auster's New York Trilogy after my final semester at William and Mary, I immediate sought more post-modern anti-detective novels. I did Crying of Lot 49, and thought about my past experience with Pierrot, Mon Ami (my favorite book), but I went to fellow William and Mary student Bobby Moeller, and I said, "Bobby, I'm looking to read some good post-modern anti-detective fiction. Have any suggestions." Then he handed me a book with a chapter on just the subject. That chapter brought me to the Amanda Cross/Kate Fansler novels (not all that great), another boring detective novel, and a great academic satire called Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard. I loved this latter one, and it led me to academic satires. I fell in love with Lucky Jim by Kingsly Amis, I stumbled upon The Petty Demon which reminded me much of Ferdydurke. All these books, I'd borrowed from the Williamsburg Public Library. The Masters, I'd BOUGHT from the library for 50 cents. I judged the book by its cover (which I far later discovered was illustrated by Edward Gorey--no wonder my attraction!), and hoped for another hilarious academic satire.
This academic satire lacks the qualities of a satire, but retains those of the academic. It's a very unexciting book that should have been far shorter. It just wasn't gripping enough to call "good".
But I don't dislike it, and I'm glad I've read it. There's a certain charm to it. The characters are likable, and some are humorous--just not in a way that evokes laughter or smiling.
I think the most important message is this:
I recommend this book to absolutely no one.
I've grown a very personal relationship with this book, having taken so long to read it. This book has taken me forever to read. I regret all the books I've missed reading in this slow, slow time. It does make you feel rather personally attached to it, though. There's a strong sense of companionship in this book. That doesn't necessarily make it good, though.
I picked this up at the public library at Williamsburg. I suppose this is where my relationship begins. After reading Auster's New York Trilogy after my final semester at William and Mary, I immediate sought more post-modern anti-detective novels. I did Crying of Lot 49, and thought about my past experience with Pierrot, Mon Ami (my favorite book), but I went to fellow William and Mary student Bobby Moeller, and I said, "Bobby, I'm looking to read some good post-modern anti-detective fiction. Have any suggestions." Then he handed me a book with a chapter on just the subject. That chapter brought me to the Amanda Cross/Kate Fansler novels (not all that great), another boring detective novel, and a great academic satire called Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard. I loved this latter one, and it led me to academic satires. I fell in love with Lucky Jim by Kingsly Amis, I stumbled upon The Petty Demon which reminded me much of Ferdydurke. All these books, I'd borrowed from the Williamsburg Public Library. The Masters, I'd BOUGHT from the library for 50 cents. I judged the book by its cover (which I far later discovered was illustrated by Edward Gorey--no wonder my attraction!), and hoped for another hilarious academic satire.
This academic satire lacks the qualities of a satire, but retains those of the academic. It's a very unexciting book that should have been far shorter. It just wasn't gripping enough to call "good".
But I don't dislike it, and I'm glad I've read it. There's a certain charm to it. The characters are likable, and some are humorous--just not in a way that evokes laughter or smiling.
I think the most important message is this:
I recommend this book to absolutely no one.
September 27, 2019
A curious and pure window back in time to an all male college culture. I mean the characters don't mean to be sexist, this was just a completely different time. If the women are "oppressed" they certainly, cheerfully, don't know it. But the society is so segregated it's not just weirdly fascinating, it's interesting. On the one hand, it makes all these 50 year old guys act kind of high-school. On the other hand, when a society is unadulterated male they sure drink a lot. One wonders how they get any work done staying up beyond midnight essentially gossiping, although I suppose they would characterize their actions as "scheming."
I read this book because an acquaintance of mine said it was his favorite book. He goes back and re-reads it every couple of years. There isn't a whole lot of movement / action, it's a subtle books. It's more about relationships and motivations. I thought it painted a clear picture of how things used to be. Although it was written later (in the 50s) it reads like a primary source for life in the 1930s. It's not a book I would have chosen for myself but I am not sorry I read it.
For such a short book, slightly over 300 pages, this book took me a long time to read. And I'm really not sure why, perhaps it didn't really capture my imagination. But that's not right, every time I opened it I enjoyed the time traveling back to a pre-screen lifestyle: no smartphones, TVs, wi-fi. . . . No, it's not that I didn't appreciate the setting. It's not that I didn't like the characters - - I think it's just the subject matter itself: the election of the new master, was a hard thing to relate to. I get that it is a career at stake, and basically a life time appointment but it was a very slow moving target to put at the center of a fiction novel. It embraced me more than grabbed me.
I read this book because an acquaintance of mine said it was his favorite book. He goes back and re-reads it every couple of years. There isn't a whole lot of movement / action, it's a subtle books. It's more about relationships and motivations. I thought it painted a clear picture of how things used to be. Although it was written later (in the 50s) it reads like a primary source for life in the 1930s. It's not a book I would have chosen for myself but I am not sorry I read it.
For such a short book, slightly over 300 pages, this book took me a long time to read. And I'm really not sure why, perhaps it didn't really capture my imagination. But that's not right, every time I opened it I enjoyed the time traveling back to a pre-screen lifestyle: no smartphones, TVs, wi-fi. . . . No, it's not that I didn't appreciate the setting. It's not that I didn't like the characters - - I think it's just the subject matter itself: the election of the new master, was a hard thing to relate to. I get that it is a career at stake, and basically a life time appointment but it was a very slow moving target to put at the center of a fiction novel. It embraced me more than grabbed me.
July 13, 2012
هي من الروايات التي انتهيت منها وصرخت بسعادة "أخيراً تخلَّصتُ منكِ" .. .. فقد كانت كابوساً أرجوا أن لا يتكرر مجدداً
كانت قابعة في رفٍ سُفلي، مَنسي في المكتبة ،يعلوها الغبار، وغلافها أنهكه الزمن، وهذا ما جعلها باهتة، شاحبة .. .. قرأت ملخصها فقررت أن أمنحها فرصة جديدة للحياة بقراءتها فاشتريتها
بين موت مدير الكلية بمرض عضال، ومعارك انتخابية بين شخصين للفوز بالمنصب الشاغر دارت أحداث الرواية .. .. قمة الملل وصراع كبير مع النفس لإنهائها .. .. فلو كانت من الكتب المستعارة لتوقفت وأرجعتها، ولو كانت نسخة إلكترونية لتخلَّصت منها بضغطة زر، ولكنها ملك شخصي سيقبع في مكتبة قيد الإنشاء، فكان لزاماً عليَّ أن أعلم بمحتواها لأعرف أي رف سيحتويها
كانت قابعة في رفٍ سُفلي، مَنسي في المكتبة ،يعلوها الغبار، وغلافها أنهكه الزمن، وهذا ما جعلها باهتة، شاحبة .. .. قرأت ملخصها فقررت أن أمنحها فرصة جديدة للحياة بقراءتها فاشتريتها
بين موت مدير الكلية بمرض عضال، ومعارك انتخابية بين شخصين للفوز بالمنصب الشاغر دارت أحداث الرواية .. .. قمة الملل وصراع كبير مع النفس لإنهائها .. .. فلو كانت من الكتب المستعارة لتوقفت وأرجعتها، ولو كانت نسخة إلكترونية لتخلَّصت منها بضغطة زر، ولكنها ملك شخصي سيقبع في مكتبة قيد الإنشاء، فكان لزاماً عليَّ أن أعلم بمحتواها لأعرف أي رف سيحتويها
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June 25, 2023Классическая проза, со всеми традициями длинных книг, однако легко читается. Очень много фактов про героев, про жизнь, мало воды. Рекомендую всем, кому нравится длинные романы, с главным героем, побочными сюжетными линиями, в общем эпос. Тема - жизнь британской элиты в 1920-1940-е годы.
December 10, 2020
Am example of why old college men shouldn't be the only ones with time & support to write books. No characterisation, tedious plot, like a romance for power rather than marriage.
October 31, 2024
As I prepared to write this review I skimmed through other reviews and gagged at the first which described the Master's death as "imminent", a comment which can only be described as a gross misreading. The lingering death of the incumbent master is crucial to the story as the fellows conspire to influence the election of his successor which can only take place after his death.
The first ever review I read of this novel which encouraged me to look for a copy, described it as an accurate account of how men behave in groups. What I found interesting was Snow's description of a rather select group of Cambridge dons, not your usual band of brothers. I knew that in the days of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (Lewis Carroll) the fellows lived in the college and were single men. In 1937 married men could serve as fellows and live outside the college but there are no women and no one who was not British and white; a rather select group.
Snow through the action and his dialogue shows us many other characteristics of this group which makes them a distinct social minority. They speak to each other as Master, Bursar, Mr Deputy, Senior Tutor or by their surnames. It seems only very close friends use first names. It is also rather formal in manner, language and dress.
It also describes the English class system, in all its peculiarities. While Sir Horace Timberlake is feted at the college as a potential donor, the fellows feel just a bit superior that they don't dirty their fingers in commerce. Lewis Eliot has a servant who arrives early on cold winter mornings to start his fire and to prepare his breakfast. He dines in the hall with the other fellows and the students as part of a rather formal proceedings. The fellows living outside have domestic help as well. Eliot also has some petty criticisms of his servant's performance. I can't help but feel what could be done to improve education if the money spent on maintaining this lifestyle as diverted to more worthwhile purposes.
In 1959 Snow gave a lecture, The Two Cultures, which was soon expanded and published as a book. In it, he argued that the British education system had produced two cultures, one who read Shakespeare and one who understood concepts of physics such as mass and acceleration. My reading of that, is that Snow was on the side of the scientists. Yet in this novel we might well feel that Snow was criticizing the attitudes of Sir Horace Timberlake, who wanted to sponsor research in applied science, as this would benefit commerce and manufacturing. On the other hand, Snow exposes Maurice Gay's conceit, making the point that his work on the Icelandic sagas was scarcely the popular read that he imagines it to be. Next, the appendix to the novel explains how the need for expensive laboratories had weakened the power of the colleges and restored that power to the university. While I can not see how this novel is a commentary on the topic. we can see that he was developing the ideas which inform The Two Cultures as he wrote The Masters.
The subject, the machinations of the fellows of a Cambridge college, as they prepare to elect a new Master may seem such a dry subject but Snow crafts his story with care, keeping the narrative moving along and building to a climax. However, once the vote is taken, I felt an unexpected sense of anticlimax. Placing the events of the novel in 1937 and having Calvert, Nightingale and Pilbrow visit Berlin means this story plays out as a sideshow to the events taking place in Europe. Snow certainly has Getliffe and Pilbrow bring in the global context and suggest the vote is a vote for liberalism or conservatism, but we are left with the feeling that the other fellows visit Berlin for more academic concerns and think nothing of the German Jewish scholars who were expelled from Germany in the years before 1937. Snow does not emphasise this point but, like other reviewers, I think he is saying that all this energy expended on this election is out of proportion to its wider importance and the fellows would have done better to look outside their ivory tower.
Snow and many of the reviewers suggest that the experience he describes in the novel are universal. I agree that human beings are social beings and that our interactions are complex and various, but the election of a college master in the 1930s is a product of its time and place. As I have suggested, the fellows of the college are a privileged group who are scarcely typical of human kind. What made this novel interesting for me was the parallels between the behaviour of the Cambridge dons and teachers in a large secondary school, just so long as you do not stretch the parallels too far. A college of thirteen dons is not fertile breeding ground for toadying and social exclusion, although Snow covers backstabbing and the more petty forms of blackmail. I wonder though what we would see if performance pay was introduced into our schools.
The first ever review I read of this novel which encouraged me to look for a copy, described it as an accurate account of how men behave in groups. What I found interesting was Snow's description of a rather select group of Cambridge dons, not your usual band of brothers. I knew that in the days of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (Lewis Carroll) the fellows lived in the college and were single men. In 1937 married men could serve as fellows and live outside the college but there are no women and no one who was not British and white; a rather select group.
Snow through the action and his dialogue shows us many other characteristics of this group which makes them a distinct social minority. They speak to each other as Master, Bursar, Mr Deputy, Senior Tutor or by their surnames. It seems only very close friends use first names. It is also rather formal in manner, language and dress.
It also describes the English class system, in all its peculiarities. While Sir Horace Timberlake is feted at the college as a potential donor, the fellows feel just a bit superior that they don't dirty their fingers in commerce. Lewis Eliot has a servant who arrives early on cold winter mornings to start his fire and to prepare his breakfast. He dines in the hall with the other fellows and the students as part of a rather formal proceedings. The fellows living outside have domestic help as well. Eliot also has some petty criticisms of his servant's performance. I can't help but feel what could be done to improve education if the money spent on maintaining this lifestyle as diverted to more worthwhile purposes.
In 1959 Snow gave a lecture, The Two Cultures, which was soon expanded and published as a book. In it, he argued that the British education system had produced two cultures, one who read Shakespeare and one who understood concepts of physics such as mass and acceleration. My reading of that, is that Snow was on the side of the scientists. Yet in this novel we might well feel that Snow was criticizing the attitudes of Sir Horace Timberlake, who wanted to sponsor research in applied science, as this would benefit commerce and manufacturing. On the other hand, Snow exposes Maurice Gay's conceit, making the point that his work on the Icelandic sagas was scarcely the popular read that he imagines it to be. Next, the appendix to the novel explains how the need for expensive laboratories had weakened the power of the colleges and restored that power to the university. While I can not see how this novel is a commentary on the topic. we can see that he was developing the ideas which inform The Two Cultures as he wrote The Masters.
The subject, the machinations of the fellows of a Cambridge college, as they prepare to elect a new Master may seem such a dry subject but Snow crafts his story with care, keeping the narrative moving along and building to a climax. However, once the vote is taken, I felt an unexpected sense of anticlimax. Placing the events of the novel in 1937 and having Calvert, Nightingale and Pilbrow visit Berlin means this story plays out as a sideshow to the events taking place in Europe. Snow certainly has Getliffe and Pilbrow bring in the global context and suggest the vote is a vote for liberalism or conservatism, but we are left with the feeling that the other fellows visit Berlin for more academic concerns and think nothing of the German Jewish scholars who were expelled from Germany in the years before 1937. Snow does not emphasise this point but, like other reviewers, I think he is saying that all this energy expended on this election is out of proportion to its wider importance and the fellows would have done better to look outside their ivory tower.
Snow and many of the reviewers suggest that the experience he describes in the novel are universal. I agree that human beings are social beings and that our interactions are complex and various, but the election of a college master in the 1930s is a product of its time and place. As I have suggested, the fellows of the college are a privileged group who are scarcely typical of human kind. What made this novel interesting for me was the parallels between the behaviour of the Cambridge dons and teachers in a large secondary school, just so long as you do not stretch the parallels too far. A college of thirteen dons is not fertile breeding ground for toadying and social exclusion, although Snow covers backstabbing and the more petty forms of blackmail. I wonder though what we would see if performance pay was introduced into our schools.
June 28, 2025
‘Masters’ is the fifth of a series of eleven novels by CP Snow entitled ‘Brothers and Strangers,’ which cover a time period from between 1930 to 1940. Each is a standalone novel, like ‘Masters,’ but deals with a wide range of human ambition, actions and/or failings.
It is not really essential to come to ‘Masters’ after you have become familiar with the recurrent characters in one or two of the earlier books. ‘Masters' is about the election of a new Master (Provost, Dean, Principal are the various names by different colleges at Oxford and Cambridge for exactly the same job) when the current Master dies after a brief but terminal illness.
The course of the election brings out the worst – and occasionally the best – in human nature as the dons, deans, fellows and bursars spend all their time huckstering for their preferred candidate. What is more important to each of the little group eligible to take part in the election: the fact that with a new Master from among their number, there will be automatic promotions and a corresponding rise in salary? Is it the personality of the candidate and his ability to make himself agreeable to everyone? The number of years he has served in College, from a junior lecturer to a fellowship, holding various important posts along the way? Is it his success, through his papers and lectures and published work, in the outer world? Or in the long run, his political leanings? Will these have an effect in a closed, academic seclusion? It doesn't seem likely. Until the return one day of a don from a brief sojourn in pre-war Germany, pale at the politics of fascism, conservatism and bigotry and determined not to support Chamberlain’s supporters.
Throw in a couple of women in the mix. Neither is a major player. One is the widow of the former Master, from a titled family, and the other is the wife of one of the candidates, with no self-confidence or dignity, and the question arises: will she fit in? Add an old don with the onset of senility, who, as the seniormost, is required by statute to conduct the election.
In the end, Snow’s own reflections suggest the answer:
“Envy and pique and vanity, all the passions of self-regard: you could not live long in a society of men and not see them often weigh down the rest.”
As a study in psychology and University or college politics, this is one of the most riveting books I've come across in a long time. In respect of plot or character development, ‘Masters' is not an action thriller. It is a novel of cupidity, spite and greed amongst the most idealistic and learned collection of men, and their whispers in corners about the diminishing chances for this candidate or the other, is reminiscent of bookies at a racecourse. And as in all other elections, it is about money. It is also about loyalty, and that rare creature, married love and devotion.
But more than anything else, it shows us how the best of friends end their friendship of many years with a bitter quarrel over the election, over politics and over money.
There is an appendix of special interest to students of English social history as Snow discusses the establishment and growth of European Universities from earliest times, and then goes on to the history of the Lodges and Masters in Oxford and Cambridge; how, from glorified landlords who took in student lodgers, a man became a master because he gave private tutorials to the lodgers, and later became an academic and then an administrative Officer in the University itself, and how a Master gained the weight and value he holds in the present day, and why the post of Master is so sought after.
It is not really essential to come to ‘Masters’ after you have become familiar with the recurrent characters in one or two of the earlier books. ‘Masters' is about the election of a new Master (Provost, Dean, Principal are the various names by different colleges at Oxford and Cambridge for exactly the same job) when the current Master dies after a brief but terminal illness.
The course of the election brings out the worst – and occasionally the best – in human nature as the dons, deans, fellows and bursars spend all their time huckstering for their preferred candidate. What is more important to each of the little group eligible to take part in the election: the fact that with a new Master from among their number, there will be automatic promotions and a corresponding rise in salary? Is it the personality of the candidate and his ability to make himself agreeable to everyone? The number of years he has served in College, from a junior lecturer to a fellowship, holding various important posts along the way? Is it his success, through his papers and lectures and published work, in the outer world? Or in the long run, his political leanings? Will these have an effect in a closed, academic seclusion? It doesn't seem likely. Until the return one day of a don from a brief sojourn in pre-war Germany, pale at the politics of fascism, conservatism and bigotry and determined not to support Chamberlain’s supporters.
Throw in a couple of women in the mix. Neither is a major player. One is the widow of the former Master, from a titled family, and the other is the wife of one of the candidates, with no self-confidence or dignity, and the question arises: will she fit in? Add an old don with the onset of senility, who, as the seniormost, is required by statute to conduct the election.
In the end, Snow’s own reflections suggest the answer:
“Envy and pique and vanity, all the passions of self-regard: you could not live long in a society of men and not see them often weigh down the rest.”
As a study in psychology and University or college politics, this is one of the most riveting books I've come across in a long time. In respect of plot or character development, ‘Masters' is not an action thriller. It is a novel of cupidity, spite and greed amongst the most idealistic and learned collection of men, and their whispers in corners about the diminishing chances for this candidate or the other, is reminiscent of bookies at a racecourse. And as in all other elections, it is about money. It is also about loyalty, and that rare creature, married love and devotion.
But more than anything else, it shows us how the best of friends end their friendship of many years with a bitter quarrel over the election, over politics and over money.
There is an appendix of special interest to students of English social history as Snow discusses the establishment and growth of European Universities from earliest times, and then goes on to the history of the Lodges and Masters in Oxford and Cambridge; how, from glorified landlords who took in student lodgers, a man became a master because he gave private tutorials to the lodgers, and later became an academic and then an administrative Officer in the University itself, and how a Master gained the weight and value he holds in the present day, and why the post of Master is so sought after.
August 1, 2022
This is one of my favourite novels ... ever!
I first read ‘The Masters’ more than thirty years ago, while in my final year as an undergraduate, as I ploughed through the whole of C P Snow's eleven volume semi-autobiographical novel sequence ‘Strangers and Brothers’. I remember from that first reading that I considered this novel, and indeed the sequence as a whole, as being singularly lacking in emotion. While I clearly recall having enjoyed this volume more than the rest, I didn't really think of it again until five or six years later, when the Conservative Party went through its internal leadership selection process to appoint a successor to Margaret Thatcher after she was ousted in November 1990.
Out of the blue something prompted me to re-read this novel, and I was amazed: it seemed to be a different book to the one I had read just a few years earlier and I found that it positively seethes with emotion.
The book was written in the 1950s but is set in 1937 in an unnamed Cambridge College (generally believed to be King's, where Snow himself had been a Fellow before the war). Like the rest of the sequence it is narrated by Lewis Eliot, a barrister who had at that time been a Fellow of the College for about three years, though he still also maintained up his private practice in London. Eliot has had his own personal turmoil in the past and had decided to pursue the field of academic law for a while as a form of emotional rehabilitation.
The novel opens with the news that Vernon Royce, the Master of the College, has just been diagnosed as terminally ill, and is expected to die within the next few months. The remaining Fellows have to elect a successor from among themselves, and it soon emerges that there are only two candidates likely to draw any viable support: Dr Redvers Crawford, an eminent physiologist, and Dr Paul Jago, an English scholar scarcely known beyond the walls of the College, but viewed as having great insight into people and known for the ambition of his ideas. Crawford is to the left of centre politically while Jago is a true-blue reactionary.
Snow captures the different personalities, and animosities, marvellously. There are bitter rivalries, jealousies and conflicting aspirations, all of which prey upon the Fellows and render the forthcoming election particularly sensitive. Among the Fellows there is a wide range of scholarly accomplishment. Some have achieved success and recognition far beyond the ivory tower while others have lost their way after a promising start. The portrayal of the Senior Fellow, Professor M H L Gay, is particularly effective. He is a medievalist, renowned and honoured around the world for his success in translating the Icelandic sagas, and never tires of reminding his fellow Fellows about his honorary degrees.
The tension mounts as the old Master's health gradually fails, and the election draws closer. Snow's dissection of the emotions of a tight-knit group of colleagues and the relations they have to maintain is utterly engaging, and grips the reader with the same compulsion as the best spy or mystery stories. Since re-reading it in 1990 I seem to read it again every two or three years, and the conclusion and the various twists still contrive to surprise me.
I first read ‘The Masters’ more than thirty years ago, while in my final year as an undergraduate, as I ploughed through the whole of C P Snow's eleven volume semi-autobiographical novel sequence ‘Strangers and Brothers’. I remember from that first reading that I considered this novel, and indeed the sequence as a whole, as being singularly lacking in emotion. While I clearly recall having enjoyed this volume more than the rest, I didn't really think of it again until five or six years later, when the Conservative Party went through its internal leadership selection process to appoint a successor to Margaret Thatcher after she was ousted in November 1990.
Out of the blue something prompted me to re-read this novel, and I was amazed: it seemed to be a different book to the one I had read just a few years earlier and I found that it positively seethes with emotion.
The book was written in the 1950s but is set in 1937 in an unnamed Cambridge College (generally believed to be King's, where Snow himself had been a Fellow before the war). Like the rest of the sequence it is narrated by Lewis Eliot, a barrister who had at that time been a Fellow of the College for about three years, though he still also maintained up his private practice in London. Eliot has had his own personal turmoil in the past and had decided to pursue the field of academic law for a while as a form of emotional rehabilitation.
The novel opens with the news that Vernon Royce, the Master of the College, has just been diagnosed as terminally ill, and is expected to die within the next few months. The remaining Fellows have to elect a successor from among themselves, and it soon emerges that there are only two candidates likely to draw any viable support: Dr Redvers Crawford, an eminent physiologist, and Dr Paul Jago, an English scholar scarcely known beyond the walls of the College, but viewed as having great insight into people and known for the ambition of his ideas. Crawford is to the left of centre politically while Jago is a true-blue reactionary.
Snow captures the different personalities, and animosities, marvellously. There are bitter rivalries, jealousies and conflicting aspirations, all of which prey upon the Fellows and render the forthcoming election particularly sensitive. Among the Fellows there is a wide range of scholarly accomplishment. Some have achieved success and recognition far beyond the ivory tower while others have lost their way after a promising start. The portrayal of the Senior Fellow, Professor M H L Gay, is particularly effective. He is a medievalist, renowned and honoured around the world for his success in translating the Icelandic sagas, and never tires of reminding his fellow Fellows about his honorary degrees.
The tension mounts as the old Master's health gradually fails, and the election draws closer. Snow's dissection of the emotions of a tight-knit group of colleagues and the relations they have to maintain is utterly engaging, and grips the reader with the same compulsion as the best spy or mystery stories. Since re-reading it in 1990 I seem to read it again every two or three years, and the conclusion and the various twists still contrive to surprise me.
September 17, 2025
Beautifully written
I first read this many years ago, and picked it up to re-read last week. It's a skilfully told tale of the election of the new Master of a Cambridge college in 1937. There's a tight focus on the personalities of the college Fellows, and the interactions between them as alliances are formed, supporters are cajoled, bitter rivalries and disappointments are aired and hopes are gloriously fulfilled or cruelly dashed. The author cleverly brings the characters to life and delineates them using their habits of speech: "Just so", "If you please", "Speaking now as a fellow and not as a former medical man", "Jago is *amusing*", "It's lamentable", "I'll take you up on that", "I congratulate you", and so on. There's a similar sharp ear for the cadences of their interactions in meetings - for example [p118]:
"Imagine though [...] people of my way of thinking were trying to help the college with - a fairly substantial sum. Do you see what I mean?"
[...]
"If the fellowships were restricted to science - "
"I am interested to hear what you think, Mr Chrystal."
"If there were, it might raise difficulties."
"I don't quite see them."
"Put it another way [...]"
Just about all the action takes place within the college, but the occasional description of the outside world is adeptly sketched in as well [p166]:
"Without our having noticed the light go, the garden now lay in deep twilight; the apple-green sky had changed to an illuminated, cerulean blue; the first stars had come out."
The assured hand of the author guides the reader through this emotional, stimulating story. The characters also appear in the other volumes of the Strangers and Brothers sequence, which I've yet to read - but hope to.
Originally reviewed 14 September 2018
I first read this many years ago, and picked it up to re-read last week. It's a skilfully told tale of the election of the new Master of a Cambridge college in 1937. There's a tight focus on the personalities of the college Fellows, and the interactions between them as alliances are formed, supporters are cajoled, bitter rivalries and disappointments are aired and hopes are gloriously fulfilled or cruelly dashed. The author cleverly brings the characters to life and delineates them using their habits of speech: "Just so", "If you please", "Speaking now as a fellow and not as a former medical man", "Jago is *amusing*", "It's lamentable", "I'll take you up on that", "I congratulate you", and so on. There's a similar sharp ear for the cadences of their interactions in meetings - for example [p118]:
"Imagine though [...] people of my way of thinking were trying to help the college with - a fairly substantial sum. Do you see what I mean?"
[...]
"If the fellowships were restricted to science - "
"I am interested to hear what you think, Mr Chrystal."
"If there were, it might raise difficulties."
"I don't quite see them."
"Put it another way [...]"
Just about all the action takes place within the college, but the occasional description of the outside world is adeptly sketched in as well [p166]:
"Without our having noticed the light go, the garden now lay in deep twilight; the apple-green sky had changed to an illuminated, cerulean blue; the first stars had come out."
The assured hand of the author guides the reader through this emotional, stimulating story. The characters also appear in the other volumes of the Strangers and Brothers sequence, which I've yet to read - but hope to.
Originally reviewed 14 September 2018
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