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The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1906
About the author
William John Locke
331 books9 followersWilliam John Locke was a British novelist, dramatist and playwright, best known for his short stories. His works have been made into 24 motion pictures, the most recent of which was Ladies in Lavender, filmed in 2004 and starring Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Probably the most famous of Locke's books adapted to the screen was the 1918 Pickford Film Corporation production of Stella Maris starring Mary Pickford. In addition, four of his books were made into Broadway plays, two of which Locke wrote and were produced by Charles Frohman.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 14, 2015
William J Locke is one of my "comfort- read" authors. Even books that are not his best are never complete duds, and his plots, while improbable and verbose with the vibrant verbiage of a true verbarian, hit the spot for me. There's no explaining it.
In this story, we have a 40 year old, staid philosopher searching for the Great Meaning. He's a little awkward, very "proper" and not particularly attractive, being described as tall, thin, and hatchet faced.
One day, while walking the Enbankment, he comes upon a girl crying on a bench. She has escaped from an arranged marriage and harem life in Syria and come to London where her male rescuer has henceforth disappeared.
What's a man to do? If he leaves her there on the bench, some blackguard may take advantage. It seems the only 'moral' thing to do is take her home under the protection of his guardianship. Where she settles in, stretching and purring like a satisfied cat under the scandolous scrutiny of society.
Well I don't want to say too much more but there are twists and turns which none can forsee (ok, I forsaw it but I read Pride and Prejudice and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but don't think you know what happens cos its not quite like that).
Anyway, while I was reading I was thinking it was a 3- 3.5 star read but the ending totally kicked it up to 4 stars for me. It is perfect. Like, I-almost-cried-perfect. Its worth reading for the ending alone. But the rest is good too.
CONTENT :
SEX: None shown
VIOLENCE: One blow of a fire iron
PROFANITY: Very Mild. A few Ds
MY RATING G- MILD PG
In this story, we have a 40 year old, staid philosopher searching for the Great Meaning. He's a little awkward, very "proper" and not particularly attractive, being described as tall, thin, and hatchet faced.
One day, while walking the Enbankment, he comes upon a girl crying on a bench. She has escaped from an arranged marriage and harem life in Syria and come to London where her male rescuer has henceforth disappeared.
What's a man to do? If he leaves her there on the bench, some blackguard may take advantage. It seems the only 'moral' thing to do is take her home under the protection of his guardianship. Where she settles in, stretching and purring like a satisfied cat under the scandolous scrutiny of society.
Well I don't want to say too much more but there are twists and turns which none can forsee (ok, I forsaw it but I read Pride and Prejudice and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but don't think you know what happens cos its not quite like that).
Anyway, while I was reading I was thinking it was a 3- 3.5 star read but the ending totally kicked it up to 4 stars for me. It is perfect. Like, I-almost-cried-perfect. Its worth reading for the ending alone. But the rest is good too.
CONTENT :
SEX: None shown
VIOLENCE: One blow of a fire iron
PROFANITY: Very Mild. A few Ds
MY RATING G- MILD PG
February 18, 2015
Oh, I loved this! Maybe not as much as Simon the Jester, but close, very close.
Marcus is 40, uninterested in having a part in the world outside his library and not worried about life "passing him by". He's content to keep it that way, having no responsibilities towards anyone. That is, until one day when he finds a young, bedraggled girl sobbing on a bench and can't find it in him to leave the poor thing to the streets. It was a bit like when one takes in a stray kitten, and a whole new chapter of his life opened up centered around this young girl who came from a Turkish harem. Like a kitten she's petted, admired and adored. And like a kitten she takes it sweetly as her due, without caring too deeply about the giver(s). Even though she was thoughtless, slightly selfish and a bit too affectionate, I loved her.
Nearly everyone else does too, and that's what causes all the disquiet in Marcus' carefully made life. You'll have read the tale to find out what happens. It was wonderful and, as another reviewer said, similar to Tess of the D'Urbervilles and in a way like Pride & Prejudice. Why, I'm not saying.
I didn't guess what would happen, that might just be because I did think ahead while reading. Anyway it was an enjoyable foray into Locke's world again.
Marcus is 40, uninterested in having a part in the world outside his library and not worried about life "passing him by". He's content to keep it that way, having no responsibilities towards anyone. That is, until one day when he finds a young, bedraggled girl sobbing on a bench and can't find it in him to leave the poor thing to the streets. It was a bit like when one takes in a stray kitten, and a whole new chapter of his life opened up centered around this young girl who came from a Turkish harem. Like a kitten she's petted, admired and adored. And like a kitten she takes it sweetly as her due, without caring too deeply about the giver(s). Even though she was thoughtless, slightly selfish and a bit too affectionate, I loved her.
Nearly everyone else does too, and that's what causes all the disquiet in Marcus' carefully made life. You'll have read the tale to find out what happens. It was wonderful and, as another reviewer said, similar to Tess of the D'Urbervilles and in a way like Pride & Prejudice. Why, I'm not saying.
I didn't guess what would happen, that might just be because I did think ahead while reading. Anyway it was an enjoyable foray into Locke's world again.
February 17, 2015
Four stars based on the first and largest part of the book, which was funny and original. The last third or so was pretty melodramatic and felt like a downer to me, but things ended well. With William J. Locke, I've discovered that you never can quite tell what's going to happen next, and his characters are sometimes a random bunch.
Sir Marcus Ordeyne, an ex-schoolteacher turned nobleman after some distant relatives die, is priggishly pleased with his chosen lifestyle. He's a detached, philosophic book collector who can toss off medieval or ancient names and stories in regular conversation. He's actually a pretty nice guy but in need of some shaking up. This happens when he meets Carlotta, a teenage Turkish beauty who was trying to elope but was abandoned by her fiancé. She appeals to Sir Marcus for advice, and circumstances dictate that he more or less adopt her. This scandalizes London. It also begins the process of humanizing Sir Marcus. Carlotta is alarming and charming, and Sir Marcus's reactions play very well.
Things get topsy turvy by the end and there are mental and moral catastrophes that are darker than the rest of the book. But the bulk of it felt so original that I overall enjoyed it.
Sir Marcus Ordeyne, an ex-schoolteacher turned nobleman after some distant relatives die, is priggishly pleased with his chosen lifestyle. He's a detached, philosophic book collector who can toss off medieval or ancient names and stories in regular conversation. He's actually a pretty nice guy but in need of some shaking up. This happens when he meets Carlotta, a teenage Turkish beauty who was trying to elope but was abandoned by her fiancé. She appeals to Sir Marcus for advice, and circumstances dictate that he more or less adopt her. This scandalizes London. It also begins the process of humanizing Sir Marcus. Carlotta is alarming and charming, and Sir Marcus's reactions play very well.
Things get topsy turvy by the end and there are mental and moral catastrophes that are darker than the rest of the book. But the bulk of it felt so original that I overall enjoyed it.
February 18, 2015
I've struggled with William Locke before, not finding myself able to finish his books that I started. They were too light for me, too much talk and not enough going on. But this one kept my attention. I'm not certain of the difference, except this narrator sounded and felt very authentic. Maybe that means I related to him. But his foibles, pride, weakness, and more all made for a very believable character who served very well as an unreliable narrator. Each supporting character felt well rounded. All the characters went through changes, they grew, they learned, they fell and picked themselves back up again, it was all very well done. And while Locke's books often don't have a whole lot of plotting to them, this one was designed to be mostly inside one man's head. I mean by that, that while things happened, much more happened within Marcus. It made for good reading with feeling and heart.
The descriptions of some scenes were exquisite. The said-and unsaid- of certain scenes just made me want to weep. It was a great book. I kind of want to re-read this later and see how that feels.
The descriptions of some scenes were exquisite. The said-and unsaid- of certain scenes just made me want to weep. It was a great book. I kind of want to re-read this later and see how that feels.
April 30, 2016
Sometimes our reasons for reading a book are peculiar.
In this case, they certainly are. A friend who is a composer has been working on an opera based on the 22 men Shackleton left on Elephant Island in 1916 when he went to get help from South Georgia. One scene includes the men discussing the entries they have been reading in the several volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica that they kept with them after the Endeavour sank. This led me to wonder what other books Shackleton took for the expedition library. I did some research. One of Shackleton's chosen texts was 'The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne'. So I thought it would be interesting to see what he might have considered reading appropriate for an Antarctic library, and I found a popular edition dated 1906 from ebay. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now, if you have an antipathy to a 40 year old narrator who is emotionally undeveloped and who protects himself from life by pomposity and learning, and whose views on women are decidedly unimaginative, then this is probably not for you. But I confess to having trusted the author to put the eponymous narrator through the process of learning his humanity, and thoroughly enjoyed the way everything came right in the end. I was less certain about Carlotta, the escapee from the clutches of the wickedly unreformed Ottoman, Hamdi Effendi. Her flirtatious ingenuousness seemed to me unfounded, and that she was simply a useful and very entertaining device to bring about Sir Marcus' transformation.
But in the character of Judith Mainwaring, Sir Marcus' long-suffering lady friend, social companion, and patient confidante, who clearly loves him and who knows that to tell him so would be to lose him, there is a more believable female lead. Her suffering, so pragmatically borne, was, for me, the most touching aspect of the novel. And good use is made of the rascally Sebastian Pasquale. The London world of the flaneur which he and, on its outer orbit, Sir Marcus inhabit was well portrayed, too.
In fact I can well see why the novel was popular, and why Shackleton took it with him. It would be a reminder of home, it is emotionally satisfying, it is comfortably rooted in a middle-class world, it is optimistic and a reflection on manliness in its vulnerability and nobility (or what I imagine might have been considered nobility at the time) - it would appeal to men on their own with neither many creature comforts, nor women and the dream of domestic happiness, and who would perhaps have sorely missed what Sir Marcus realises is the highly desirable 'inevitability of the commonplace'. I hope many of Shackleton's expedition read it and enjoyed it, and that it sustained them while they sat on cracking ice facing leopard seals or with nothing but penguin legs and pea flour to eat.
And for those who like polysyllables and obscurities (which I do): mirific, hymenomania, reprehensory, appanage, autothaumaturgist, repressory, contradictious, glou glou,
mumchance, pietism, glossopharyngeal, plasmon lozenge, 'ignoratio elenchi', metempsychosis, dithyrambic, excogitate, gueridon, recrudescence.
In this case, they certainly are. A friend who is a composer has been working on an opera based on the 22 men Shackleton left on Elephant Island in 1916 when he went to get help from South Georgia. One scene includes the men discussing the entries they have been reading in the several volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica that they kept with them after the Endeavour sank. This led me to wonder what other books Shackleton took for the expedition library. I did some research. One of Shackleton's chosen texts was 'The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne'. So I thought it would be interesting to see what he might have considered reading appropriate for an Antarctic library, and I found a popular edition dated 1906 from ebay. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now, if you have an antipathy to a 40 year old narrator who is emotionally undeveloped and who protects himself from life by pomposity and learning, and whose views on women are decidedly unimaginative, then this is probably not for you. But I confess to having trusted the author to put the eponymous narrator through the process of learning his humanity, and thoroughly enjoyed the way everything came right in the end. I was less certain about Carlotta, the escapee from the clutches of the wickedly unreformed Ottoman, Hamdi Effendi. Her flirtatious ingenuousness seemed to me unfounded, and that she was simply a useful and very entertaining device to bring about Sir Marcus' transformation.
But in the character of Judith Mainwaring, Sir Marcus' long-suffering lady friend, social companion, and patient confidante, who clearly loves him and who knows that to tell him so would be to lose him, there is a more believable female lead. Her suffering, so pragmatically borne, was, for me, the most touching aspect of the novel. And good use is made of the rascally Sebastian Pasquale. The London world of the flaneur which he and, on its outer orbit, Sir Marcus inhabit was well portrayed, too.
In fact I can well see why the novel was popular, and why Shackleton took it with him. It would be a reminder of home, it is emotionally satisfying, it is comfortably rooted in a middle-class world, it is optimistic and a reflection on manliness in its vulnerability and nobility (or what I imagine might have been considered nobility at the time) - it would appeal to men on their own with neither many creature comforts, nor women and the dream of domestic happiness, and who would perhaps have sorely missed what Sir Marcus realises is the highly desirable 'inevitability of the commonplace'. I hope many of Shackleton's expedition read it and enjoyed it, and that it sustained them while they sat on cracking ice facing leopard seals or with nothing but penguin legs and pea flour to eat.
And for those who like polysyllables and obscurities (which I do): mirific, hymenomania, reprehensory, appanage, autothaumaturgist, repressory, contradictious, glou glou,
mumchance, pietism, glossopharyngeal, plasmon lozenge, 'ignoratio elenchi', metempsychosis, dithyrambic, excogitate, gueridon, recrudescence.
September 4, 2015
One of my two favorite books that I've read so far this year. This one resonated with me on so many levels - and I really didn't want it to end. Exquisite reading in Standard British English with other dialects by Simon Evers on Librivox. Highly recommended!
March 3, 2013
Three and a half stars. The machinery got too creaky towards the end.
February 26, 2021
After reading a collection of Locke's short story, I wanted to try one of his novels. I did enjoy this, but I almost felt that it was too long (and it is less than 300 pages).
November 10, 2010
A very entertaining book. Downtrodden schoolmaster Ordeyne suddenly comes into a title and fortune and as Sir Marcus Ordeye he has no idea of what to do with his wealth and new idleness. Walking through a London park he finds a young girl weeping- it turns out that she is a Harem Girl who has been imported to England for an arranged marriage, but who has run away. The wonderful and thoroughly improbable plot takes off from there, with a few poignant observations along the way. Highly recommended if you've got a taste for turn of the century light reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2016
3.3 You are writing a lot of rubbish,' says Carlotta. "'And a little truth. The mixture is life,' I answer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews