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Loading... The Loom of Youth (1917)by Alec Waugh
![]() No current Talk conversations about this book. Alec Waugh (elder brother of Evelyn Waugh) wrote this semi-autobiographical and thinly disguised account of his teenaged student years at Sherbourne School in Dorset. In his next to last year, Alec and another boy were caught engaged in homosexual activity (later described as a "mild flirtation" and which his great-nephew, Alexander Waugh, opined was likely nothing more than kissing.) Nevertheless, Alec was expelled. In a fit of nostalgia and rebellion, Alec wrote The Loom of Youth over two months in early 1916 when he was 17 1/2 years old and training with the Army O.T.C. The Loom of Youth was published by his father's firm in 1917 just as Alec was shipped to France in The Great War. (Happily, Arthur Waugh was a writer and publisher in his own right.) It was considered a sensational evocation of public school life. It was notable for its frank portrayal of homosexuality which Alec wrote was "the inevitable emotional consequences of a monastic herding together for eight months of the year thirteen year old children and eighteen year old adolescents." Although initially well reviewed, the book was later subject to a virulent letter campaign by public school masters and graduates decrying (and denying) its scandalous allegations. Alec Waugh went on to write novels (some of them quite racy), travel stories, magazine articles on wine and spirits and to briefly teach writing at a small college in Oklahoma. How has the book aged over the past near century? Like other 'school days' books of the time, we are treated to tales of athletics, cribbing for papers and exams, ragging masters and tricks played on other students. (I admit to skipping through the passages on rugby and cricket -- completely inscrutable to this American-bred reader.) Other readers have likened the novel to 'Tom Brown's School Days.' However, the greater debt is likely to Arnold Lunn's 'The Harrovians' (1913), which is discussed in The Loom of Youth. (Lunn's papers contain correspondence with Alec in 1917-18). Usual school boy antics can give readers a 'step back in time' frisson. Waugh's novel transcends, delving deeper as his protagonist Gordon nears graduation. Here is a real grappling with the purpose of education and the student's own complicity in and responsibility for his academic growth. To modern eyes, the 'shocking' portion dealing with Gordon's 'romance' with Morcombe is anything but. Alec in the 1955 preface admits to its don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it quality. Readers looking for racy boy sex will be disappointed. Readers will be rewarded with a remarkably well written book, particularly by one so young. no reviews | add a review
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Classic Literature.
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HTML: Hailing from a renowned literary family, the writer Alec Waugh caused a scandal with the publication of his autobiographical novel/memoir, The Loom of Youth. The book treats the subject of homosexual relationships among British schoolboys with a degree of frankness that was unprecedented at the time, and due to its risque nature and keen insights, it went on to be a runaway bestseller. .No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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I thought the book was compelling for it's immediacy, I was surprised by some of the slang Waugh used, I would have dated some of it much later than 1916, however, it really is an awful book, horribly written, repetitive and clearly written by an author who didn't revise, or even remember what he had written a few chapters earlier. I can't imagine it would have been published if his father hadn't been running Chapman and Hall.
Oddly, I remember reading a much later book by Alec Waugh, "The Fatal Gift", which picked up some of the same themes, but was much better written. (