 |
 |
In a message dated 22/05/00 4:26:09 PM GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << On page 279 of my copy of Angus Wilson's "The strange ride ..." one finds: " ... from the story of the French spy disguised as a Portuguese castaway on a British naval vessel in "The Birds of Paradise". The Frenchman's overingenious imagination makes him an easy prey ... " >> In an earlier e-mail, Max Rives also asked > On page 210 in the chapter of the Angus Wilson biography called > 'Under-rehearsed for Armageddon' he refers to 'stories of adventures on > board ship like "Birds of Paradise" and "Their Lawful Occasions" '. > > Can anyone tell me where "Birds of Paradise" is to be found? In my second edition of The Strange Ride etc. (Secker and Warburg, London, 1978) the quotation on page 210, including the title 'Birds of Paradise', is as Max gives it and page 210 appears against 'Birds of Paradise' in the index. However, Max's second quotation appears two pages earlier, at the top of page 208 (not 279), but with the title of the story given as 'The Bonds of Discipline' with an appropriate index entry against this title. Was this originally 'Birds of Paradise' in the first edition? When I first read The Strange Ride etc., (before I joined the Kipling Society and very long before this excellent mailbase came into being) I checked many books with references to RK's work, including Livingston and Stewart, but found no trace of a reference to a work called 'Birds of Paradise'. I did not associate it with 'The Bonds of Discipline', because Wilson had described that under its own title only two pages before and I could not, and still cannot, see him consciously referring to the same story in the same chapter under two different names. I came to the conclusion then that the title 'Birds of Paradise' was an error, probably an unchecked reference of the kind that RK so clearly warned authors against. If there was ever such a story, even with a temporary title, called 'Birds of Paradise', I would be delighted to hear of it but I still think that it never existed and Wilson, or his editors, got it wrong. Yours Sincerely, Roger Ayers Membership Secretary, The Kipling Society %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%