- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (18 Oct 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192818546
- ISBN-13: 978-0192818546
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,109,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
A new edition of the famous stories first published in magazines in the 1930s
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
A series of studies of a rural reprobate. Uncle Silas was a wencher, a liar, a poacher, a toper and at the same time he possessed a certain integrity, a rough charm.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent book, full of gentle humour and times long forgotten when summer's were lazy and beautiful. If you can, then listen to David Neal reading a dozen of the stories on the BBC Radio Collection audio tape - excellent, he brings the characters to life.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book, used by LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) for verse and prose examinations at Grade 7, has been out of print for sometime now. A wonderful, colourful story, it describes an old man - Silas, in a captivating way. I think this book, although reasonably short which is a shame, is wonderful. It has many comic moments which will have you in stitches - a grumpy old man is a hilarious subject and H E Bates explores this in an easily 'accessible' fashion. His housekeeper is the source of many entertaining arguments; for example, getting into the bath (!), along with the rest of his family and friends. Suitable for all ages.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Uncle Silas was based on Joseph Betts the husband of Bates' maternal grandmother's sister, Mary Ann. Described by Bates as a "rural reprobate" Silas is a wonderfully drawn picaresque character who is fully in love with life, nature, the ladies and his favourite tipple, cowslip wine.
Based on real stories, tall-tales and rural apocryphal legends V. S. Pritchett notes that Bates avoids the tales descending into farce by the device of the "passive, wondering audience" of the boy narrator. The collection contains three of Bates' masterpieces - `The Revelation', `The Wedding' and `The Return' as well as three other outstanding stories - `The Lily', `A Silas Idyll' and `The Death of Uncle Silas', where Silas is still bickering and arguing with his cantankerous housekeeper till the last.
Bates remembers `The Wedding' as one of the "golden days" of his childhood and the story is flawless because as Bates said "it virtually wrote itself". In many ways the beginning and end are reminiscent of another of Bates' gems, `The Watercress Girl', with the journey in the trap and the lovely, dreamy ending amidst the lamplight. In fact the final paragraph in each story is almost identical in length, cadence, rhythm and sentiment.
`The Lily' is set on a blistering July day as, coupled with magical descriptions of Silas' garden and flowers, he recalls the tale of how he stole his beautiful lily. There is plenty of sly, lascivious insinuation at the story's end as Silas wistfully replies "she gave me the lily" when asked what happened between him and the girl in the moonlit garden.
`The Revelation' first hints at the relationship between Silas and his irascible housekeeper and is an important story in making sense of `The Return'. The last few pages are simply beautiful as Silas describes a far distant day and the girl stealing his clothes while he swam in the mill pond. The tender and unexpected revelation at the story's close is sublimely executed.
The use of the narrator cleverly allows Bates to end the stories in a masterful tale, `The Return', where the boy is now a grown man and visits Silas' cottage after his death. After tricking his way in he manages to get Silas' gun and several bottles of wine that lay in the cellar. Before he leaves he learns that Silas' housekeeper has also returned and, bewilderingly to the new owner, asked for Silas' bathtub and begins to cry in the garden. As the narrator walks away the story ends on a highly poignant note as he thinks about "that tart and irascible house-keeper ..... standing there in the summer garden, all broken up and stupefied, weeping her heart out for something nobody would ever understand".
These tales are richly steeped in the rural tradition and contain elements of comedy, outlandishness, teasing and pathos, and reflect on the joy of life and the beauty of nature. They are lush, sorrowful, life-enhancing and magical. And six of the stories get as near to perfection as any short stories ever written.
Based on real stories, tall-tales and rural apocryphal legends V. S. Pritchett notes that Bates avoids the tales descending into farce by the device of the "passive, wondering audience" of the boy narrator. The collection contains three of Bates' masterpieces - `The Revelation', `The Wedding' and `The Return' as well as three other outstanding stories - `The Lily', `A Silas Idyll' and `The Death of Uncle Silas', where Silas is still bickering and arguing with his cantankerous housekeeper till the last.
Bates remembers `The Wedding' as one of the "golden days" of his childhood and the story is flawless because as Bates said "it virtually wrote itself". In many ways the beginning and end are reminiscent of another of Bates' gems, `The Watercress Girl', with the journey in the trap and the lovely, dreamy ending amidst the lamplight. In fact the final paragraph in each story is almost identical in length, cadence, rhythm and sentiment.
`The Lily' is set on a blistering July day as, coupled with magical descriptions of Silas' garden and flowers, he recalls the tale of how he stole his beautiful lily. There is plenty of sly, lascivious insinuation at the story's end as Silas wistfully replies "she gave me the lily" when asked what happened between him and the girl in the moonlit garden.
`The Revelation' first hints at the relationship between Silas and his irascible housekeeper and is an important story in making sense of `The Return'. The last few pages are simply beautiful as Silas describes a far distant day and the girl stealing his clothes while he swam in the mill pond. The tender and unexpected revelation at the story's close is sublimely executed.
The use of the narrator cleverly allows Bates to end the stories in a masterful tale, `The Return', where the boy is now a grown man and visits Silas' cottage after his death. After tricking his way in he manages to get Silas' gun and several bottles of wine that lay in the cellar. Before he leaves he learns that Silas' housekeeper has also returned and, bewilderingly to the new owner, asked for Silas' bathtub and begins to cry in the garden. As the narrator walks away the story ends on a highly poignant note as he thinks about "that tart and irascible house-keeper ..... standing there in the summer garden, all broken up and stupefied, weeping her heart out for something nobody would ever understand".
These tales are richly steeped in the rural tradition and contain elements of comedy, outlandishness, teasing and pathos, and reflect on the joy of life and the beauty of nature. They are lush, sorrowful, life-enhancing and magical. And six of the stories get as near to perfection as any short stories ever written.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Memories
This book is identical to the one I first read as a teenager over 50 years ago and brings back so many memories...... ...may be fanciful, of a bye-gone age. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Old Head
Beautiful and evocative.
I first heard these stories read by David Neal on BBC7.They are quite simply beautiful and evocative of a time I am not sure ever existed,but I really can believe did. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mrs Cambridge
Marvellous
I was given this book as a present for Christmas on request. Having seen the TV series, I found the book to be so very like the characters portrayed on TV and the stories... Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2010 by Bookworm
WONDERFUL!
Read it at 9 and instantly fell in love with it. Had me in stitches! READ IT!
Published on 23 Jan 2000
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