John Fowles expects much from his readers

John Fowles expects much from his readers. His novels are full of unusual words and foreign phrases, and he assumes that readers are widely familiar with the arts of Western culture. The dictionary can help to bridge a vocabulary “gap”, but few readers have the resources to appreciate the phrases in French, Latin, or Greek. Even ordinary British usage can be an obstacle to a non-British reader.

Clegg’s language: uses quotation marks in Miranda’s speeches, no in his own. Describing abdication of Miranda, uses many entomological terms.

7/11. Spec: Slang for prospect.

8/12. Posh: Expensive and stylish, in a status- affirming way.

La-di-da: Artificial, pretended.

9/12. The manner born: English upper-class people are said to be “to the manner born” if their aristocratic behaviour seems natural, as if inborn. Clegg’s remark reinforces the idea that such characteristics cannot be learned, that his capacity for change is limited.

15/17 FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD: The advertisement adapts the title of a novel by Thomas Hardy in 1874.

15/18. Mod cons: real estate jargon for “modern conveniences.”

17/19. Gormless: slang for stupid.

22/24. Tube: slang for the Underground, that is the London subway.

54/51 var: variations.

58/54 with a plum in their throat: to say that someone speaks as if with a plum in a mouth or throat is a common (lower-class) way of describing an upper-class accent.

Miranda’s language: uses a variety of styles. As she becomes increasingly ill, her entries in the journal become short, declarative sentences and lamentations.

61/57 Mozart: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91), whose name evidently means nothing to Clegg, is probably the world’s best-known composer at classical music.

62/58 Caliban: a monster in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611), half-man and half-fish, Caliban lives on an island with Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, whom Caliban once tried to rape. The shipwrecked sailor who falls in love with her is named Ferdinand.

77/71 “Come thou tortoise”: from one of Prospero’s first address to Caliban in The Tempest.

137/122 chessgame with death: Miranda is thinking about a scene in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957).

Real Places:

15/17 Lewes: a town about forty miles south of London.

34/35 R.A.P.C.: Royal Army Pay Corps.

38/38 M.G.: Morris Garage, a car manufacturer.

180/158 Marks and Spencer: a middle-income department store chain that deals mainly in clothing.