THESE RUINS ARE INHABITED

by Muriel Beadle ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 1961

Mrs. Beadle, a newspaper woman, her husband George- a geneticist and professor of biology at Caltech, and their fifteen year old son, Redmond, spent a year at Oxford where George had a year's appointment as a visiting lecturer. This is a chatty commentary on that year, and Mrs. Beadle writes with a noticing eye for the small differences which sometimes lead to larger difficulties in living in another country. From the first view of the city (disappointingly like the outskirts of Peoria), to their house (Victorian and cluttered), she gives a rundown of the impedimenta to be overcome (cooking, driving, the currency, the language) along with Red's accommodation to Magdalen College School. They travelled, both in England- and abroad (George got a Nobel prize during the year's stay); with a special interest in education she writes at length about the changes in the English school system; she covers the social activities and forms of the Oxford wife (who must make a life of her own) - and of English women in general who must keep house (and do keep up the silver) without servants and without the conveniences American women enjoy. Some of this material has appeared in the S.E.P., and Mrs. Beadle shares her university year, her many interests (while perhaps more feminine in accent) and her observations, pleasantly, companionably.

Pub Date: June 9, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION