The Masters (Strangers and Brothers)

One realizes immediately that if one is not an Anglophile of a certain type that that individual would not have the patience to follow the endless machinations and intrigues of what is a pitifully small world. The essential saving grace of the book is the absolute clarity and incisive examination of the characters psyches. Let the professors plot and contrive to elect a new Cambridge master what matters is the motivations. The final chapter is certainly a downer but the end of any era is such.There is no question that if you find this book appealing, then you should immerse yourself in the series.

Beautifully written, this is a tale of an Oxford University College and the political and to some extent personal experience of the handful of senior scholars responsible for choosing a new Master (the Head of the College). It is a finely detailed story of the political plays and journey of the choosing of one of the two candidates. It is not 'exciting', but it is deliciously complex and detailed. A good read.

I first read the Strangers and Brothers series years ago, and avidly went from one to the next. I vividly remember loving them, the situations, the people, the writing. So, I thought I would read them again, several decades later.I was struck by how very much of a time and place they are, and how the English reticence and manners in the first half of last century shaped the conversations and relationships in the novels.Much is made of a glance, a start, or an averted face.Events unfold in their own pace, and the life and customs living in Cambridge and within a college are detailed and evocative.The Masters is about the succession plans for the leadership in a college when the master is dying, and when he does die, how the decision is made by the fellows. It is decidedly a period piece, but once into it, there is something compelling about the world and the people created by Snow.

This is the second time I have read this book and discovered interesting parts I obviously missed the first time around. Although it was a slow starter for me again, once I reached the midway point the characters took on more dimensions and their emotions came through to me. I also enjoyed the give and take of the politics involved in the Master's election. The men's behavior towards one another, at once childish and,nevertheless, human, proves that politics is timeless. This is still a very good read after all the years.

How does an assortment of 13 professors at an English university choose the next head of their college? "The Masters" examines the personal and university politics that shape this decision through the narrative style of C. P. Snow. This captures a brainy professorial world through heavy reliance on complex and conditional dialogue, acute but unspoken observations, and highly abstract character analysis. Here's an example of his approach: "His manner was deliberately prosaic and comfortable. He was showing less outward sign of strain than any of us; when he was frayed inside, he slowed his always measured speech, brought out commonplaces like an amour, reduced all he could to the matter-of-fact." Still, the story, while minutely imagined, doesn't go deep. It's a tempest in a teapot.

This interesting and intense study of people under pressure (and under glass) as they attempt to elect from their few members a new master of their college is much greater than any summary of its prosaic sounding parts. It is infused with a wisdom, compassion and detail about the machinations of human beings at close quarters that is frank, accesible, and ingenious. Read it.

Wise and sardonic reflections about the intrigues and negotiations surrounding the election of a new Master in a Cambridge University college in the 30's. The writing is elegant and nostalgic of days long gone. I was deeply moved by the author's insights into the frailties if Man.

If you haven't read any of the Strangers and Brothers series, you shouldn't start with this book, because they're sequential, and not everyone's cup of tea. I suggest you try GEORGE PASSANT first, the first one that C.P.Snow wrote, although chronologically second. You'll know by the end of the second chapter whether it's for you. I really like the series - it follows an Englishman, Lewis Elliot, from his childhood in the 1920s to his old age, looking at various public and private events, set in a universily college, war, civil service, houses of the rich etc. The style is perceptive, gentle, almost flat.

My first Strangers and Brothers novel, read as I greatly admired Snow's intelligence and perception in his description of 20th century Physics (The Physicists) and the Two Cultures. Best of all I found, his lengthy foreword to G.H.Hard's " a Mathematician's Apology", a great piece of writing.I'm not familiar with the world of Cambridge Don's but found this a gripping story and very convincing. Its pace is slow but I liked this as I suspect it reflected the pace of life in a Cambridge college (Not for the undergrads of course ). In everything I have read so far by Snow he captures the dialogue, opinion and morality of the time very accurately (in my opinion) and his penetration and insight into human nature (which changes little with time) I find even more perceptive. There are no heroes and villains-just stronger and weaker , greater and lesser, better and worse,foolish and smart aspects of the same characters mixed as in real life. We are all shades of grey and to find a black or white marking is unusual and it may vanish and reappear as time progresses.A great novel, gripping in its enjoyably leisurely way, and I suspect a very accurate rendering of a Cambridge Don's life between the wars.

I’m due to present this in September to the book group that is doing vintage writers. I read the whole of the Strangers and Brothers series in 1979 (when it and I were less vintage than we are now), remembered this one as impressive, and wasn’t disappointed. In 1937, the imminent death of the Master of a Cambridge college triggers intense rivalry and machinations among the other fellows as they group and regroup to elect his successor from among themselves. Sounds dry, but somehow it’s not. Every page is eventful and involving, the outcome is a cliffhanger, and there’s some beautiful writing. No heroes or villains – each troubled, flawed character shown with penetrating understanding.

This is one of my favourite novels ... ever!Having briefly served as a Fellow of an Oxford College I have always enjoyed reading novels set in academia. My own short-lived Fellowship, at Oriel College, was during the mid-1980s, almost fifty years after the events in this novel were set, and The Masters is set in that other place, over in the fens. However, I could recognise so much of what happened in this book. The conversations between the Fellows, the orotundity of speech, the rigidity and formality of their manners … it all just seemed like yesterday!I first read The Masters thirty years ago (probably to the month), as I ploughed through the whole of C P Snow's eleven volume semi-autobiographical novel sequence Strangers and Brothers. I remember from that first reading that I considered this novel, and indeed the sequence as a whole, as being curiously lacking in emotion. I enjoyed this volume more than the rest, but didn't really think of it again until five or six years later, when the Conservative Party went through its internal leadership selection process to appoint a successor to Margaret Thatcher after she was ousted in November 1990. It occurred to me then to re-read this novel, and I was amazed - it seemed to be a different book to the one I had read a few years earlier - it positively seethes with emotion.The book was written in the 1950s but is set in 1937 in an unnamed Cambridge College (generally believed to be King's, where Snow himself had been a Fellow before the war). Like the rest of the sequence it is narrated by Lewis Eliot, a barrister who has been a Fellow of the College for about three years, and who still keeps up his private practice in London. Eliot has had his own personal turmoils in the past and had decided to pursue the field of academic law for a while as a form of emotional rehabilitation.The novel opens with the news that the Master of the College has just been diagnosed as terminally ill, and is expected to die within the next few months. The remaining Fellows have to elect a successor from among themselves, and it soon emerges that there are only two candidates likely to draw any viable support: Dr Redvers Crawford, an eminent physiologist, and Dr Paul Jago, an English scholar scarcely known beyond the walls of the College, but viewed as having great insight into people and known for the ambition of his ideas. Crawford is to the left of centre politically while Jago is a true blue reactionary.Snow captures the different personalities, and animosities, marvellously. There are bitter rivalries, jealousies and conflicting aspirations, all of which prey upon the Fellows and render the forthcoming election particularly sensitive. Among the Fellows there is a wide range of scholarly accomplishment. Some have achieved success and recognition far beyond the ivory tower while others have lost their way after a promising start. The portrayal of the Senior Fellow, Professor M H L Gay, is particularly effective. He is a medievalist, renowned and honoured around the world for his success in translating the Icelandic sagas, and never tires of reminding his fellow Fellows about his honorary degrees.The tension mounts as the old master's health gradually fails, and the election draws closer. Snow's dissection of the emotions of a tight-knit group of colleagues and the relations they have to maintain is utterly engaging, and grips the reader with the same compulsion as the best spy or mystery stories. Since re-reading it in 1990 I seem to read it again every two or three years, and the conclusion and the various twists still contrive to surprise me.

As another reader has pointed out, this Kindle edition makes nonsense of the novel. The story line is muddled as many pages are in the wrong order. I'm going to ask for my money back.

The transcription to Kindle is appalling. Pages have been transcribed in the wrong order and the book makes no sense whatsoever. That's in addition to the various typos and mis-spelled words. Don't buy!