Customer Reviews

Mr Sermon

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whenever I smell lilacs, I think of "Mr. Sermon." I have read this book every springtime for the past 20 years. I was 19 when I first tripped across it and liked it so much that three years later I pretended I had lost it, paid the Lake Charles, La., library its purchase price and kept the book. This worn copy is by my bedside, along with the Bible, "Dracula," "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Sense and Sensibility." Mr. Sermon's journey from a frustrated 50-year-old British schoolmaster to a fully alive 51-year-old master of his destiny has comforted, entertained and inspired me for two decades. The book falls open to my favorite sections. I have been known, on a bad day, to rush upstairs to pick it up and be soothed by certain familiar passages. Definitely not PC, R.F. Delderfield's book somehow doesn't offend even a feminist like myself. And now as I approach my own midlife crisis, I plan to use it as a sort of "Pilgrim's Progress."

I love this book. I've read it too many times to count, and I enjoy it each and every time. I don't approve of all that Mr. Sermon does, but he's basically such a decent and honorable person that one almost forgives his lapses. The reader comes to understand why that one last straw sends him over the edge and on to an adventure that is so entertaining to read about. There is humor, the characters are quirky yet realistic, and the plot ties up neatly. If you are having a midlife crisis or want an explanation of why a person might experience one, this is the book for you. It's just a great entertaining read, and I'm sorry my copy is in tatters!

Whenever I smell lilacs, I think of "Mr. Sermon." I have read this book every springtime for the past 20 years. I was 19 when I first tripped across it and liked it so much that three years later I pretended I had lost it, paid the Lake Charles, La., library its purchase price and kept the book. This worn copy is by my bedside, along with the Bible, "Dracula," "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Sense and Sensibility." Mr. Sermon's journey from a frustrated 50-year-old British schoolmaster to a fully alive 51-year-old master of his destiny has comforted, entertained and inspired me for two decades. The book falls open to my favorite sections. I have been known, on a bad day, to rush upstairs to pick it up and be soothed by certain familiar passages. Definitely not PC, R.F. Delderfield's book somehow doesn't offend even a feminist like myself. And now as I approach my own midlife crisis, I plan to use it as a sort of "Pilgrim's Progress."

As another reviewer put it--not PC. It's very much patriarchal, which reduced my appreciation of it. What I'd like to see is the same events as seen by Mrs Sermon. I hope someone will write such a book.