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= Lavengro =
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Introduction
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'Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest' (1851) is a work by
George Borrow, falling somewhere between the genres of memoir and
novel, which has long been considered a classic of 19th-century
English literature. According to the author, is a Romany word meaning
"word master". The historian G. M. Trevelyan called it "a book that
breathes the spirit of that period of strong and eccentric
characters".
Its protagonist, whose name is George, is born the son of an officer
in a militia regiment and is brought up in various barrack towns in
England, Scotland and Ireland. After serving an apprenticeship to a
lawyer he moves to London and becomes a Grub Street hack, an
occupation which gives him ample opportunities to observe London
low-life. Finally he takes to the road as a tinker. At various points
through the book he associates with Romany travellers, of whom he
gives memorable and generally sympathetic pen-portraits. 'Lavengro'
was followed by a sequel, 'The Romany Rye'. However, neither of the
two books are self-contained. Rather, 'Lavengro' ends abruptly with
chapter 100, and carries on directly in 'The Romany Rye'. Thus, both
need to be read together, in order.
Borrow began work on 'Lavengro' in 1842 and had written most of it by
the end of 1843, but progress was then interrupted by a tour of
eastern Europe and by bouts of ill-health, physical and mental. He
certainly intended the book to be an autobiography when he first set
to work, and while writing it he more than once called it his Life in
letters to his publisher, John Murray. In 1848 Murray advertised it as
a forthcoming work to be called 'Lavengro, an Autobiography'. However
the version Borrow finally delivered had been reshaped into an
autobiographical novel whose fictional episodes are inextricably
intertwined with genuine memoir. Only the "scholar" in the book's
subtitle refers to Borrow.
The first edition had a print-run of only 3000 copies; it was such a
slow seller that no reprint was needed until 1872. Nor was it a
critical success, reviewers being annoyed by the mix of fact and
fiction and finding the treatment of Romany life insufficiently
quaint. 'Blackwood's Magazine' brought in a typical verdict:
We looked for some new revelations on the subjects of
fortune-telling, hocus-pocus, and glamour. Lavengro, with his three
attributes like those of Vishnu, might possibly be the Grand Cazique,
the supreme prince of the nation of tinkers!
We have read the book, and we are disappointed. The performance bears
no adequate relation to the promise…The adventures, though interesting
in their way, neither bear the impress of the stamp of truth, nor are
they so arranged as to make the work valuable, if we consider it in
the light of fiction.
After Borrow's death in 1881 'Lavengro' began to find a new audience
and enthusiastic praise from critics. Theodore Watts, in an
introduction to the 1893 edition, declared that "There are passages in
'Lavengro' which are unsurpassed in the prose literature of England".
This edition started a run of reprints which produced one or more
almost every year for 60 years. 'Lavengro' was included in the Oxford
University Press World's Classics series in 1904, and in Everyman's
Library in 1906.
External links
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*
*
*
[
https://archive.org/stream/lavengroscholar07borrgoog/lavengroscholar07borrgoog_djvu
Page scans at the Internet Archive]
* [
http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/bookreviews/r/borrow.html Review] of
'Lavengro' and 'The Romany Rye' by Anthony Campbell
* [
https://georgeborrow.org/works George Borrow Society on Lavengro]
License
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavengro
