“Trop de perversité règne au siècle où nous sommes, Et je veux me tirer du commerce des hommes.” (Molière)
An enigmatic quotation even in English: Too much perversity reigns in the century where we are, And I want to get out of the trade of men. Here is where I read it.
I am going to re-read this book as I have finished three volumes of Dirk Bogarde’s rather repetitive autobiography; he covers the same ground more than once albeit introducing some new characters in each instalment.
Do you remember The Shooting Party, an excellent 1984 film based on Isabel Colegate’s novel of the same name? It is James Mason’s last film. Other members of the cast whose names leap out are Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Gordon Jackson, Robert Hardy, Daniel Chatto (now married to Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones), Dorothy Tutin and Frank Windsor.
To digress slightly, the film is about a house party in 1913 who gather to shoot partridge. The original actor cast to play the host, Sir Randolph Nettleby, was Paul Scofield but he sustained a serious injury on the first day of shooting (the film, I think, not the partridge). Most films portray English country pursuits at wildly inappropriate times of the year. Fox hunting scenes are filmed in high summer with so much leaf on the trees that the hounds disappear. Alan Bridges, director of The Shooting Party, wanted authenticity and unless a replacement for Scofield could be found pronto he was going to delay filming for a year. Fortunately James Mason was already in Europe and could take the role six weeks later.
Alan Bridges directed The Hireling in 1973. It has a good cast (Robert Shaw, Sarah Miles, Peter Egan et al) and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival that year. Sorry, an educational digression. The Palme d’Or is the top prize at Cannes; the Grand Prix is second best, awarded by the festival jury. However, these days the film is seldom screened, unlike The Shooting Party, so I am unable to compare it to Hartley’s book.
LP Hartley dedicated The Hireling to Roderick Meiklejohn, a distinguished civil servant nineteen years his senior. Sir Roderick, KBE, CB, was a bachelor who befriended younger men so no doubt Leslie Poles Hartley enjoyed being taken to his clubs (Brooks’s and the Beefsteak) repaying him with a dedication. There is no suggestion that Hartley saw him as anything but an indulgent avuncular figure.
The Shooting Party is one of my favourite films. I can’t recall having seen The Hireling, so interest piqued, a quick search suggests it’s available for rent on YouTube & Amazon prime. So that’s my evening viewing sorted.
How is Bertie coping in the heat?
He lies on a wooden floor splooting and with a fan. (Splooting: on hot days dogs keep cool by stretching out on cool surfaces to reduce body heat.) Yesterday his bandages were removed and although his paw is very red it is a stage on the road to recovery.
Ah, the hazards of splooting dogs! We have slate floors downstairs, and of course these are the perfect cool spot for hot dogs…but with curtains part drawn and low light, they are a permanent trip hazard!
Glad Bertie is on the mend. Do you have to bathe it in salt water?
We use Hibiscrub, an antimicrobial skin cleanser.