Fathers and Sons by Alexander Waugh

Author:Alexander Waugh [Waugh, Alexander]
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-48469-7
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2004-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

McMaster is not, of course, a precise character portrait of Arthur, but Arthur must have recognised Henty's entrapment in the house of a Dickens fanatic as a criticism of himself and a clear message from his son that he was desperate to escape his father's house. The story was reused the following year as the bitter dénouement to Evelyn's fourth novel and some say his greatest masterpiece, A Handful of Dust.

Arthur's exasperation with Evelyn reached a new peak at the time of the publication of ‘The Man Who Liked Dickens’. In September 1933 when Alec and Joan had their first child, Arthur wrote a letter to his mewling grandson to be cherished when he was older. In it Arthur reveals, by a deliberate act of omission, that he has, by this time, more or less disowned his younger son:

My dear Andrew,

I send you my love and every fondest wish for Sunday. I am sorry I shall not be there; and I hope your father and mother are not vexed with me for not coming. But I should not see anything of you three in the crush; and my thoughts and hopes can be ever closer to you all here in the quiet. I shall be thinking of you all, all the time, and sending you every wish of love and hope.

If your parents put this letter away for you, so that you can read it when you are older, I should like to tell you that your father has been one of the three great things in my life. If you are half as good a son to him, as he has been to me, you will bring untold happiness into his life, and into your Mothers. The three great things in my life have been my mother, my wife, and my son – your father. Nothing else has mattered much to me but their love. You have a splendid mother. May you have as good a wife and may you and your father understand each other as well as he and I have done, all the days of our life together.

Your Grannie and I are sending you a Bible, which I hope you may like to read in the years to come… May you have love beside you all your days, my dear Grandson, and it will lead you into peace. God bless you.

Your loving grandfather Arthur Waugh

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.