I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall (1955)

I initially picked up this book knowing it was an Australian Classic but with little knowledge of its content. It had been on our bookshelf, unread for years, until a few months ago when it caught my eye and I decided to use it for our read aloud. It is a fictionalised autobiography of the author and has sold over three million copies.

In the early 1900's, not long after Alan Marshall had just started school, a polio epidemic swept through Victoria. Very little was known about Infantile Paralysis (poliomyelitis) at the time and the word 'Paralysis' was associated with idiocy. When it became known that Alan had been struck down with the disease, the first question many people asked was, "Have you heard if his mind is affected?"

After he contracted polio, Alan's legs were left paralysed. Not long afterwards, the muscles in his legs began to contract and the sinews behind his knees tightened,  forcing his legs into a kneeling position. It was decided that he needed surgery and so he was admitted to the hospital twenty miles away. 

Reading about a young boy's hospital experience in the early 1900's makes you realise and appreciate how much things have changed over the years. 

Alan was the only child in a ward full of adult males. Visiting hours were strict; parents were not allowed to stay with their children and not much was communicated to either patients or families about anything. Admission to hospital was a frightening enough experience for an adult, let alone a six year old boy.

After he had recovered from his surgery, Alan returned home. His parents didn't have enough money to buy a wheelchair so his father made him a long, three-wheeled vehicle out of an old perambulator and each morning he was pushed to school in the pram by the children who lived down the road. Once at school, he left his pram near the door and walked into the school on his crutches.

Children make no distinction between the one who is lame and the one who has the full  use of his limbs. They will ask a boy in crutches to run here or there for them and complain when he is slow.

Alan's father was a horse trainer and Alan had always wanted to be a horseman. After his illness his father explained to him that he could never ride - not until he was a man and could walk again - his legs could not grip and as he had to hold onto the pommel to keep his balance upon the horse, he had no control of the reins. 

I listened to him in silence. I did not believe what he said was true. I wondered that he believed it himself. He was always right; now for the first time he was wrong.

I had made up my mind to ride...

This book is not just the moving story of a little boy who defies and overcomes a major disability but it is also a picture of a period that has passed. In the preface to his book Marshall writes:

The men and women here described are a product of that period and they too are passing. The influences that made them self-reliant, forthright and compassionate, have given way to influences that can develop characters just as fine, but the mould has changed and the product is different.

One of the most memorable and inspiring features of the story was Alan's attitude to his 'disability.' As far as he was concerned, he didn't have one. 

Having a normal mind my attitude to life was that of a normal child and my crippled limbs could not alter this attitude. 

"That's the saddest darn song I've ever heard, but it should never have been sung in front of that kid here." He pointed a dramatic finger at me, shaking it in emphasis. "It's not the right song to sing in front of him." He turned and came towards me. "Don't you take any notice of it, Alan."

I was astonished at his outburst. I had not connected the song with myself...

"What's wrong with it?" Prince protested to Arthur. "That song's all right. Alan knows he's crippled, don't he? So do we."

Arthur stood up and leant across the table so that he could speak confidentially to Prince.

"That's where you're wrong, Prince; he don't know he's crippled. He raised an emphatic finger to support each word with a gesture. "He'll never know it if he lives to be a hundred."

This was an inspiring book to read. Both poignant and humorous, there are some beautifully written nuggets contained within its pages. One of my favourite passages is here, when Alan is taken out into the sunshine after his prolonged stay in hospital. 

Although Marshall wrote the book as an adult looking back on his childhood, he never lost the ability to see with the eyes of a child. My ten and fifteen year olds enjoyed this description of Alan's science lesson:

Once a week we were given a lesson called "Science." I liked this lesson because then we were allowed to stand round he table and you could push and shove and have fun.

Mr. Tucker opened the cupboard contains some test tubes, a spirit lamp, a bottle of Mercury and a leather disc with a piece of string attached to the centre. He placed these things on the table and said, "Today we are concerned with the weight of air which is fourteen pounds to the square inch."

This didn't make sense to me but the fact that I was standing beside Maggie Mulligan made me wish to shine so I proffered the information that my father had told me the fuller you are with air the lighter you are and you couldn't sink in the river. I thought this had some bearing on the subject...

The teacher was not impressed...

He then wet the leather disc and pressed it in the desk and none of us could pull it off except Maggie Mulligan who ripped the guts out if it with one tank and proved air didn't weigh anything.

I Can Jump Puddles used to be required reading in Australian schools but it has largely been forgotten and most of Marshall's books are out of print. It's surprising that a book that deals with overcoming disability, written by someone who has been such an inspiration to children and adults in many different parts of the world has been neglected, especially when we now have a greater awareness of the needs and rights of the disabled.

Alan Marshall was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to the physically handicapped in 1972 and died in 1984.

This article was written for the 100th anniversary of Alan Marshall's birth and I quote from it below:

"...I think sooner or later, the Education Department will once again promote his work as an example of not giving in to adversity. And I think that's one of the reasons he was universally accepted. You could take his story and present it to any people in any country, and they could identify with his struggle against his pain and suffering. He really made good.''

I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall is my entry for 'A Forgotten Classic' in the Back to theClassics Challenge.

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

The Man in the Brown Suit is the fourth book I've read by Agatha Christie, the 'Queen of Crime.' I read Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile years ago and wasn't inspired enough to read any more of her novels but a couple of my children really liked The Secret Adversary so I eventually decided to read that. This is the first of Christie's Tommy & Tuppence books (she wrote five starring these two characters) and the setting involves the World War I sinking of the Lusitania. I did enjoy this book, probably because Hercule Poirot wasn't in it. I really don't like his character and it was interesting to read that even Agatha Christie got fed up with him and his idiosyncrasies.

I was trying to decide on a title written in the 20th Century as part of the Back to the Classics Challenge. I had a few books in mind but the other week I decided to clean our floor to ceiling bookshelves and discovered a whole lot of books that I'd forgotten or hadn't read yet. They included a row of Agatha Christie titles. 

I've always wondered why she has been so hugely popular - her books have been translated into over one hundred languages and she is the best-selling novelist of all time. I really didn't think Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile were notable at all. The Secret Adversary gave me some hope that I might actually enjoy some other titles.

Then along comes The Man in the Brown Suit and I think I've totally changed my mind about Christie. 

Published in 1924, this book was a pleasure to read. Fast paced and delightful - and no Hercule Poirot. 

Anne Beddington, an attractive young woman, is left orphaned and penniless when her archaeologist father dies. When she witnesses the accidental death of a stranger who falls and is electrocuted on an Underground platform, she also sees a man in a brown suit examine the body, pronounce him dead,  and then quickly leave. As she turns to go also, she sees the 'doctor' break into a run, dropping a piece of paper as he does so. With this piece of paper and its cryptic message, Anne embarks on a journey which takes her all the way to South Africa on a wild adventure. With a backdrop of political intrigue and murder, stolen diamonds, kidnappings and threats on her own life, Anne determines to solve the mystery of the man in the brown suit.

The book is written by two narrators: Anne, and Sir Eustace Pedler, MP and it is a thrilling story. I really enjoyed the humour sprinkled throughout this book, which was in keeping with Anne Beddington's personality, and the conclusion of the story was novel and unexpected.

It's an excellent introduction to Agatha Christie for ages around 14 years and up.

The Secret Adversary is a good introduction to Agatha Christie for a younger reader as it lacks the romantic elements of The Man in the Brown Suit.

'I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.'

Agatha Christie 

 

The BBC archives have a short video from 1955 in which Agatha Christie talks about 'her lack of formal education and how boredom during childhood led her to write 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles', which was completed when she was still in her twenties. She outlines her working methods and discusses why it is much easier to write plays than novels.'

 

This book is my entry in the Back to the Classics: 20th Century Classiccategory.

The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (?1730-1774)

Oliver Goldsmith counted among his friends the distinguished 'man of letters,' Dr.  Samuel Johnson and the famous artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was admired by Goethe, Sir Walter Scott and William Makepeace Thackery, author of Vanity Fair, but he when he arrived in London in 1756, he was penniless, unknown and had a face disfigured by smallpox - the result of a severe attack of the disease when he was a boy.

His friends included some of the best and greatest men in England, among them Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds. They all, doubtless, laughed at and made a butt of him, but they all admired and loved him. At the news of his death Burke burst into tears, Reynolds laid down his brush and painted no more that day, and Johnson wrote an imperishable epitaph on him. The poor, the old, and the outcast crowded the stair leading to his lodgings, and wept for the benefactor who had never refused to share what he had (often little enough) with them. 

A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin

Goldsmith was considered to be something of a genius by his friends and was admired as a poet, essayist, dramatist and historian. The Vicar of Wakefield, published in 1766, was Goldsmith's only novel but it has become one of the most popular minor classics of English Literature.

The book is a moral fable with many similarities to the Old Testament account in the Book of Job.

Dr. Primrose, clergyman and father to two beautiful daughters and four sons, narrates the story. My first impression of Dr. Primrose was that he was rather pompous and legalistic but I soon changed my opinion.

Dr. Primrose and his wife Deborah are quite loveable and I enjoyed the portrayal of their relationship with each other and their children - a little eccentric but charming. 

When a sudden change of fortune occurs, the family move to a more modest dwelling but before long are faced with the loss of everything they own. 

Calamities and hardships follow. One of their beautiful young daughters is led astray and seduced and Dr. Primrose ends up in prison when he confronts the villain.

All through their misfortunes, Dr. Primrose is benevolent and faithfully counts his blessings, with a few lapses into despair now and again - like Job.

The chapters had interesting titles, such as:

'None but the Guilty can be long and completely miserable'

'No Situation, however wretched it seems, but has some sort of Comfort attending it'

'Former Benevolence now repaid with unexpected Interest'

My copy has 192 pages and I will be adding this to the Back to the Classics Challenge in the category of:  A Classic Novella -- any work shorter than 250 pages.

The Vicar of Wakefield is one of the Literature options in the Ambleside Online Year 9 curriculum.

 

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

When The Old Curiosity Shop was first published in serial form in 1840 to 1841, its Victorian readers were enamoured with it. The story became an immediate success and so I was a little surprised upon reading the book at how much less enjoyable I found it compared to other books I've read by Dickens.

Whilst still retaining his wonderful way with words and introducing some remarkable characters, Dickens unfortunately overwhelms the story with sentiment, especially in regards to the main character, Nell.

Nell and her Grandfather are reduced to poverty and are forced to flee from their home in the old shop. Begging as they go, they travel away from the city and into the unknown. While they are wandering around the countryside, the story returns to events back in the city and Nell disappears for long periods in the narrative. 

While she is sidelined, other characters appear who are more interesting, such as Quilp, the grotesque tyrant, evil and cunning: 

Quilp...ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so many horrifying and uncommon acts that the women were nearly frightened out of their wits, and began to doubt if he were really a human creature.

Richard Swiveller, an idle young man who regularly uses literary quotes to bemoan his fate, is a character who doesn't show much promise at first but his character develops and expands as the story progresses. And then there's the Marchioness, the mistreated 'small servant,' - nameless, parentless, locked up and deprived.

I mentioned in my post on A Tale of Two Cities that one of the delights of reading Dickens is his skilful ability to intertwine tragedy and humour. His clever juxtaposition of the two creates an atmosphere that makes for natural sympathy with his characters. This ability was less obvious in The Old Curiosity Shop.
    

G.K. Chesterton in Appreciations and Criticisms of the Work of Charles Dickens, made this observation regarding Dickens' use of pathos:

He strained himself to achieve pathos. His humour was inspiration; but his pathos was ambition. His laughter was lonely; he would have laughed on a desert island. But his grief was gregarious. He liked to move great masses of men, to melt them into tenderness, to play on the people as a great pianist plays on them; to make them mad or sad. His pathos was to him a way of showing his power; and for that reason it was really powerless. He could not help making people laugh; but he tried to make them cry. 

I agree with Chesterton that:

The real hero and heroine of The Old Curiosity Shop are of course Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness. It is significant in a sense that these two sane, strong, living, and lovable human beings are the only two, or almost the only two, people in the story who do not run after Little Nell. They have something better to do than to go on that shadowy chase after that cheerless phantom. They have to build up between them a true romance; perhaps the one true romance in the whole of Dickens. 

 

The short story, Dick Swiveller and the Marchioness, can be read online here.

'This poor little Marchioness has been wearing herself to death!’ cried Dick.

‘No I haven’t,’ she returned, ‘not a bit of it. Don’t you mind about me. I like sitting up, and I’ve often had a sleep, bless you, in one of them chairs. But if you could have seen how you tried to jump out o’ winder, and if you could have heard how you used to keep on singing and making speeches, you wouldn’t have believed it — I’m so glad you’re better, Mr Liverer.’

‘Liverer indeed!’ said Dick thoughtfully. ‘It’s well I am a liverer. I strongly suspect I should have died, Marchioness, but for you.’