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There’s a certain pleasure to be derived from fitting one’s reading to the season. About this time last year I picked up Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, but its turbulent opening setting –a dark, rain-battered November on Dartmoor – was oppressively at odds with the sunny hopefulness of an Oxford spring. I shelved it for more inclement (but fitting) weather; and when I returned to it in late autumn, there was a perverse cosiness in its bleak landscapes.
Similarly, J L Carr’s sad little novella A Month in the Country is one I reread most summers. But it can be harder to fit a particular mood to the more liminal months. There’s nothing quintessential to grab on to for February or early March: they’re quiet, somewhat sequestered between-times.
I was surprised, then, that my Lenten reading has turned out to be unintentionally fitting. Romola, George Eliot’s behemoth of a historical novel, is set in 1492, and was published in 1863. Romola is the daughter of a blind classical scholar who eventually marries the mysterious, shipwrecked Tito. The characters navigate the political and religious maze of Renaissance Florence, as seen through Eliot’s mid-Victorian lens. But this does not become Romola’s story until well into the narrative. We spend the first – significant – portion of the novel almost exclusively in the company of Tito; our sympathies lie with him from the first because he is affable and, crucially, he is all we know.
Romola’s gradual loss of faith (both on a personal level, in her husband Tito; and in religion, in her deeply emotional response to the teachings of Girolamo Savonarola) is painful, and all the more significant because we have been denied real communion with her for much of the novel. Eliot’s self-restraint here is remarkable: she names the novel after a character in whom we can take only a passing interest for the first couple of hundred pages. It is her feat that the character of Romola does not fall flat, but is revealed incrementally and finally to inspire full sympathy. It feels almost like a parlour game, testing our patience and our sympathies (and it should be mentioned that this is a flawed novel: rambling, over-researched and painstaking. A contemporary – favourable – review in the Spectator stated that “[t]he greatest artistic purpose of the story is to trace out the conflict between liberal culture and the more passionate form of the Christian faith in that strange era, which has so many points of resemblance with the present” – not exactly lighthearted). But Romola’s character is insidious; it is she, rather than the initially charismatic Tito, who has our fulsome support by the novel’s close. Eliot’s moderation and meticulous pacing pays off handsomely.
Penny Boxall Education Officer |
| | Services
—Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharist —
Sunday 9th April Palm Sunday 10.15am- gathering at the Clarendon Building for the blessing of the palms and procession to the church
10.30am Sung Eucharist in the Church
Don't forget to come and meet the donkey on Sunday morning! |
| | A Chance to Think: an open study group to meet at 12.45 - 13.30 each Thursday of Lent, following on from the 12.15 Eucharist. We shall be studying the Gospel of Mark in the light of Rowan Williams' book 'Meeting God in Mark'. Bring your own sandwiches. Tea and coffee provided.
Sermons
We are having some difficulties with putting sermons up in the usual place on the website. They can be temporarily found under 'news' where you will find both Erica and Alan's recent sermons. http://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/news/
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| | 'Understanding'
A new 5-part course for those interested in learning more about Christianity.
Aimed at those preparing for Confirmation, but open to all. Please join us in the Old Library at 12 noon.
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| | | | Date for your diary: Installation of Revd Dr Will Lamb as Vicar
Advanced notice of the date of the installation, induction and institution of Revd Dr Will Lamb as our new Vicar by the Bishop and Archdeacon of Oxford. The service will be on 2nd May at 7.30pm followed by drinks in the church.
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| | | Forthcoming Concerts & Other Events
Saturday 8th April, 7.30pm Oxford Sinfonia
Check our website and Facebook pages for more events.
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| | | Poetry Corner
CALL FOR ACTORS
On 29th July a new reworking of seven of the key York Mystery Plays will be performed in Radcliffe Square and the University Church. These have been rewritten by local Oxford groups, including one play (The Crucifixion and Resurrection) by members of St Mary’s congregation. We are casting a wide range of roles, from the large (God) to the small (Demon 3!). If you are interested in a role, please contact Penny (penny.boxall@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk). All are very welcome to take part in what promises to be an exciting and novel community performance, and for those who are unsure, we prize enthusiasm as much as acting experience. Rehearsals will be held in June and July, before the two performances in the afternoon and evening of Saturday, July 29th.
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| | Community Notices
Frideswide Voices Frideswide Voices - Oxford's choir for girl choristers- will hold taster sessions for interested Year 2 girls on Monday 20th March at Worcester College and on Monday 24th April at Christ Church. Auditions are scheduled for Saturday 6th May 2017 for entry from the start of Year 3 in Sept 2017. See www.frideswidevoices.co.uk for full details
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