The Bishop's Apron. A Study in the Origins of a Great Family (1906)
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Description
The skeleton of the story is already present in the story “Cupid and the Vicar of Swale” (1900), then it was written in 1902 as a novel called Loaves and Fishes; when it failed to find a publisher, Maugham rewrote it into a play of the same name in 1903. However, its fortune didn’t improve and it had to wait for another three years when Maugham, as himself declared, needed money to entertain the extravagance of a certain young person (probably Harry Philips, to whom the book was dedicated) that he rewrote the play into a novel, which became The Bishop’s Apron. As for the play, Loaves and Fishes, it wasn’t produced until 1911, after Maugham had swept the London Theatre off its feet.
Summary:
Canon Spratte, the Vicar of St. Gregory’s, aspires to become the Bishop of Barchester, a post that is recently vacated by the death of the said predecessor. However, there is resistance in the Prime Minister who leans heavily (spiritually and physically) towards another candidate, the schoolmaster Dr. Gray.
Meanwhile, Canon Spratte is busy arranging his two children’s matrimony, being a widower himself he has to look after his children’s future solo.
Then there are three bystanders overlooking all the actions: Lord Spratte, the Canon’s brother and successor to the family relatively new-gained title (their father rose from obscurity to become Lord Chancellor; Maugham gave the father the scene of his own grandfather throwing potatoes at the pictures in the dining room), who is flippant and unashamed of his family's humble origin; Lady Sophia, the Canon’s sister, who is cynical but sympathetic; and Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was once madly in love with the Canon (without him knowing it) but has got over him.
The Canon’s daughter, Winnie, falls in love with a radical, Bertram Railing, whom the Canon likes well enough, but not so much as his son-in-law. Lord Wroxham, on the other hand, a young peer full of promise with a full purse, is deeply in love with Winnie. The Canon devises a series of manipulations to divert Winnie’s love towards young Wroxham and succeeds in the end. This part contains a masterfully hilarious scene of Railing’s mother and sister going to tea at the Canon’s house in South Kensington.
The Canon’s son, Lionel, can’t make up his mind to propose to the prosperous and powerful brewer Sir John Durant’s buxom daughter, Gwendolen. At the end, the Canon, in his fifties, takes her himself.
Finally, with Durant’s political influence, his own unfailing charm winning Gwendolen’s heart, and his unscrupulous cutting his son Lionel's undecided amorous interest in Gwendolen off, the Canon gets more than what he sets out for.
Collation:
p. [iii] fly-title, p. [iv] "This Edition is issued for Circulation in India and the Colonies only.", p. [v] title, p. [vi] printer, p. [vii] dedication, "TO HARRY PHILIPS", 312 pages, 8 pages ads [George Bell & Sons], 7 pages ads. [Bell's Indian and Colonial Library], 9 pages ads [Bohn's Libraries]