I first read C.P. Snow's 'Strangers and Brothers' series some time ago, and it became a favorite. The novels focus on an English barrister/civil servant, Lewis Elliot, who rises from poverty to a position of influence in the early-to-mid 1900s. Elliot is present in the entire eleven-book series, but he's not always the central character.
The Light and the Dark is part of the series, but it works fine as a standalone. The story is about Roy Calvert, a young Cambridge scholar who studies Orientalism and linguistics. Roy is a brilliant researcher, but his moods alternate between profound depression and exuberant elation, probably due to (what's now called) bipolar disorder.
The novel covers the period from the prewar mid-1930s until 1940, when England has entered WWII.
*****
As the story opens, narrator Lewis Eliot is a 30-year-old law don at Cambridge, and has rooms there as well as a home in London with his wife Sheila. Roy Calvert resides on the same staircase as Lewis, and the two men have become close friends.
As members of the college, Roy Calvert and Lewis Eliot socialize with the Master, John Royce, and his wife Lady Muriel. This leads to acquaintance with the Royces' daughter Joan as well as Lady Muriel's aristocratic brother and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Boscastle, all of whom are important to the story.
Calvert and Eliot are amused by the snobbery of the aristocrats, who are obsessed with family, breeding, social standing, and knowing the 'right' people.
Lewis feels the sting when the Master's wife, Lady Muriel, consistently addresses Roy by his given name and Lewis as 'Mr. Eliot.' Lady Muriel favors Roy's company because he's more socially acceptable: Roy's family is wealthy, he's at ease among the upper classes, he's witty and polished, and he's a sought after dinner guest. Conversely, Lewis pulled himself up from poverty and is self-conscious and guarded.
Nevertheless, over time the other aristocratic woman, Lady Boscastle, comes to like Eliot, and to engage him in private tête-à-têtes. Describing Lady Boscastle, Lewis writes, "She was fragile, thin with an invalid's thinness, and she helped herself along with a stick; in the other hand she carried a lorgnette...she had aged through illness...but it was easy to believe that she had once been noted for her beauty."
Lewis writes, "I had twice visited Lady Boscastle by myself. She invited me so that she could indulge in two pleasures - tell stories of love affairs and nag me into being successful as quickly as might be." Lady Boscastle trusts Lewis, and tells him about her lovers, marriage, and youthful affairs, which made her husband jealous and unhappy.
Dinners at the Master's table are important because the guests discuss Cambridge affairs as well as other topics. They exchange gossip about college appointments, elections, academic reputations, rivalries, indiscretions, and so on. There are also discussions of politics, Germany, Hitler, Nazis, the prospect of war, what stand Britain should take, etc.
Roy Calvert becomes a 'dinner topic' when he's nominated for a college fellowship. Roy is an exceptional linguist whose specialty is Manichaean Sogdian, an ancient Eastern Iranian language. Roy deciphers Sogdian manuscripts, reconstructs the language's grammar and vocabulary, translates texts, and publishes papers about the language and the Manichaean religion.
In part, Calvert uses intense scholarship to mitigate his periods of despondency. Eliot describes Roy's sitting-room as follows: "There were all kinds of desks in a glazed and shining white - an upright one, at which he could work standing...several for sitting at...and one very low which he could use by lying on cushions on the floor....Most days he worked in this room for seven or eight hours without a break. The whole room was full of gadgets for work, most of which he had designed. There were holders for his manuscripts, lights to inspect them by, a small X-ray apparatus, card indexes which stood up and could be used with one hand."
Calvert's suave appearance, pleasant demeanor, and superb research make him a favorite with the Master and Tutor Arthur Brown (Roy's mentor). Thus the Master and Brown push for Calvert to get a college fellowship, citing Roy's well-received Sogdian publications. A fellow is accorded academic status, a stipend, permission to keep rooms at the college, and freedom to do research.
New fellows must be voted in (like academic tenure). The voters are current fellows of the college, usually senior academic members and clergy. The election strongly resembles a political election, and Roy's candidacy takes up a good portion of the book. Tutor Arthur Brown is like a campaign manager: he lobbies, counts heads, sounds people out at college dinners, tries to persuade doubtful fellows, and arranges for two respected linguists to attest to Roy's much-hallowed work. Through all this, Eliot (who's a 'yes vote' of course) agonizes over how it's all affecting Roy's moods.
The biggest stumbling block to Roy being elected are staid conservative fellows who disapprove of Roy's lifestyle. Roy is a womanizer and has a lively nightlife, drinking and partying. In part, this behavior stems from Roy's neurodivergence, which isn't understood at the time. The book is almost a suspense novel around the issue 'Will Calvert be elected or not?'
There's more going on in Roy's life as well:
➤ At separate times, two women - Rosalind Wykes and Joan Royce - fall in love with Roy and scheme to marry him. Roy can't bear to hurt a woman, which makes this especially difficult for him.
➤ Calvert yearns for religion, to no avail. Calvert wants there to be a God and wants to be able to believe, but he just can't make himself. This is a source of tremendous anguish for Roy, and contributes to his depression.
➤ Roy is fluent in German, spends a lot of time in Germany, and supports Hitler and the Nazis. Roy abhors Hitler's brutality and treatment of Jews, but he believes a German led-Europe will be beneficial in the long run. This puts Roy at odds with some Cambridge fellows, as well as many of his friends and acquaintances.
The most humorous scene in the story occurs during Calvert's visit to Berlin in 1938. Roy is a jokester and mimic, and likes to tease people and make them smile. On the other hand, Roy has little patience for social snobbery and enjoys puncturing the pretensions of those who take status too seriously. Thus when the University of Berlin wants to give Roy the title 'visiting professor' - to acknowledge his expertise in Orientalism and linguistics - Roy agrees to speak at a seminar.
Lewis Eliot is in Berlin at the time, and attends Roy's presentation. This is Eliot's description: "Roy dressed with exquisite care...He put on his most fashionable suit, a silk shirt, a pair of suede shoes. As he sat on the Rector's right in the oriental lecture room at the university, he looked as though he had strayed in by mistake. Most of the attendees were homely, academic, middle-aged [men], dressed in sensible reach-me-downs." When it was Roy's turn to speak, he began in English, saying 'the subject is intricate and I have to use my own language, which of course you can understand' (most couldn't).
Eliot writes, "Roy lectured for an hour and twenty minutes. His face was imperturbably solemn throughout - except that twice he made a grotesque donnish pun, and gave a shy smile. At that sign, the whole room rocked with laughter. When he frowned, they shook their heads. When he sounded triumphant, they nodded in unison. Even those who could understand his English must have been little the wiser. For he was analyzing some esoteric problems about words that he had just discovered; they were in a dialect of Sogdian which he was the only man in the world to have unraveled. To add a final touch of fantasy, he quoted long passages of Sogdian, so much of the lecture seemed to be taking place in Sogdian itself. He would recite sentence after sentence in the language, completely incomprehensible to anyone but himself."
Eliot goes on, "I was sitting with a handkerchief pressed to my mouth. It was the most elaborate, the most ludicrous, the most recherché, of all his tricks."
Through the entire story, Calvert has debilitating periods of depression, made worse by the fact Roy knows they'll never stop, that he'll be plagued for his whole life. As Calvert's best friend, Eliot is privy to Roy's low moods and tries to help him, but knowledge at the time is inadequate to the purpose.
Inevitably, Britain enters WII in 1939. Lewis becomes a government minister (this story is covered in another book) and Roy becomes a flyboy. The aristocrats know they have a duty to their country, and act accordingly.
I'd recommend the novel to readers interested in historical fiction and WWII.
Rating: 4 stars
