voskresenskaya_e_g_i_dr_sost_sovremennye_angliiskie_romany

The Castle of Mystery

The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

The Rotters' Club

The Sunset Bell

Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B. S. Johnson

The Rain Before It Falls

What a Carve Up!

8Read what Jonathan Coe writes about What a Carve Up! on his official website and blog (http://www.jonathancoewriter.com). What inspired him?

“After The Dwarves of Death I knew that it was time to write a more ambitious novel. For a while I toyed with a couple of ideas: there had recently (in 1990) been a number of horrible attacks on the London Underground, where women had had acid thrown in their faces, and I tried to frame a story around this. I also jotted down some ideas for a novel about a travelling salesman driving the length and breadth of Britain's motorway network – the story that would eventually become The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim.

Neither of these ideas took flight at the time, however. Instead, after more than a decade of Thatcherism in the UK, I thought it was a good moment to write a book about some of the changes imposed upon the country in that time. By chance, the BBC had recently screened (for the first time in about twenty years) an old comedy film which I remembered seeing when I was a child. Its title was What a Carve Up, and after watching it again after more than two decades, the first thing I knew about my new novel was that I wanted to use this title.

I decided that I could borrow more from this film than just the title, though. It belongs to a sub-genre of movie which I particularly enjoyed when I was a young boy: comedy/horror films, centered around a creepy old house, where relatives are gathered for the reading of a will, there is a terrific thunderstorm outside, and a series of mysterious killings start to take place. (Bob Hope, to name but one, used to specialise in this kind of film in the 1940s.) It occurred to me that I could take one such family and use them as a kind of metaphor for the British ruling elite, whether they were

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involved in politics, finance, food production, culture or any other area of national life.

Despite having such a narrow focus on British politics, What a Carve Up was the first of my novels to reach an international audience. That title to which I was so attached proved to be a real headache for my overseas publishers, all the same. Almost nobody managed to come up with an exact version of the phrase, although I'm told that the Swedish attempt, Huggsexa, comes pretty close. Probably the least faithful translation was that suggested by my German publishers, who chose to call the book Allein mit Shirley, emphasising my hero's erotic obsession with the actress Shirley Eaton. In fact the title even had to be ‘translated’ for American readers as well, and in the UK the novel was renamed The Winshaw Legacy.”

http://www.jonathancoewriter.com/books/whatAcarveUp.html

9 Discuss the questions below with your group.

1)What is the book What a Carve Up about? How did he come up with its idea?

2)Why did overseas publishers have problems translating the title?

3)Do you think the translation of the title into Russian «Какое надувательство!» is successful? Could you suggest an alternative?

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Orpheus and Eurydice are each distracted by the illusion of falling in love with others who do not really exist. They return to everyday reality to realize the importance of the love which they feel for each other.

(From http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/orpheus.html)

Louis Philippe Yuri Gagarin

Louis Philippe (real name: Philippe Auclair) is a London-based French singer, songwriter, arranger and producer who has been active from the mid-80's onwards. His name is associated with the short-lived, but very influential él record label; since this label's demise (1989), he has grown into one of the 'elder statesmen' of indiepop.

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Philippe_(musician))

Yuri Gagarin

Brush back

The hair on your temple

Wipe off

The tears on your freckles

The City has a cloud 'round her walls

Opium's free for us all

Take a puff from my cigarette

And open the Heaven's Gate

"Meet me"

He'd said and forgotten "Love me"

But of love we are frightened

We'd rather leave and fly for the moon Than say the right words too soon We'd lose our cruel strength

We're so proud to waste a chance

Don't forget

Yuri flying to a star Don't forget

Just how much he went too far (Repeat)

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Cheated

Like women are cheated

Defeated

Like I was defeated

When I found out when men are to cry

That is never, out of pride

We'd lose our cruel strength

We're so proud to waste a chance

Chorus: Don't forget ... (Repeat) http://www.louisphilippe.co.uk/cd_yurigagarin.html

ACTIVE READING

Vocabulary Practice

2Find the following words in the text, give their definitions, derivatives and translations. Give the context they

are used in.

ruthlessness; appalling; recurrent; inkling; deteriorate; asylum; outcast; withdraw; ordeal; diversion; inconsolable; torment

3 Find the English equivalents to the following words and expressions. Give the context they are used in.

передать ч-л. к-л.; размышлять над ч-л., распространяться на какую-либо тему; склонность к; пасть жертвой; разразиться (слезами, смехом и т. д.)

4 Match the words (1–15) to their synonyms (a-o).

6 Fill the gaps in these sentences with a suitable word or expression from the box below. Put it in an appropriate form. Some words and expressions are used more than once.

1)Between the … attacks of delirium, weak though he was, he managed to reach the brook once a day and fill a tiny can that had been among the few appointments of the lifeboat (The Return of Tarzan by E.R.Burroughs).

2)He found himself an … in the midst of the populous camp (White Fang by J.London).

3)That is not a subject I want to … … .

4)She's troubled by her son's … toward atheism.

5)Street children in this part of the world often … … to drug dealers.

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6)There is great deal of horror and astonishment being expressed about the greed, … and lack of even any pretence of professionalism in the conduct of managers and leaders in the financial community.

7)He was kept in … conditions in prison.

8)I do not know why I had an … that it would appeal to Strickland's sense of humour to bring a furious stockbroker over to Paris on a fool's errand to an ill-famed house in a mean street (Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham).

9)But it is a terrible … for a man to stand upright on his two legs unswaying, and decide that in all the universe he finds for himself but one freedom--namely, the anticipating of the day of his death (John Barleycorn by J. London).

10)She had absolutely no … of what was going on.

11)He quickly … this news to the other members of staff.

12)Claire looked as if she were about to … … tears.

13)We … to the garden for a private talk.

14)Instead of answering, he … … a fit of laughter – loud, coarse, hard laughter, so utterly unlike any sound I had ever yet heard issue from his lips, so strangely and shockingly foreign to his character as s I understood it, that I stood still on the sands and openly remonstrated with him (Law and the Lady by W.Collins).

15)His health had …. while he was in prison.

16)Smokers often feel as though they are being treated as social … .

17)A knee injury forced her to … from the competition.

18)It had been accordingly arranged that he should remove Miserrimus Dexter to the … of which he was the proprietor as soon as the preparations for receiving the patient could be completed (Law and the Lady by W. Collins).

19)The older boys would … him whenever they had the chance.

20)Jo … … the room.

21)Teresa had a transplant in 1989 and was just recovering from that … when she suffered a brain hemorrhage.

22)Two prisoners created a … to give the men time to escape.

23)The boy was … after the death of his dog.

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7Translate the sentences into English using words and expressions from Vocabulary Practice Section. Pay

attention to the underlined words and expressions.

1. Экономический цикл – периодически повторяющиеся на про- тяжении ряда лет подъемы и спады в экономике. 2. По нашим наблюдениям, для преступников из России характерна особая беспощадность. К такому мнению пришли мои коллеги, которые совместно с полицией Нью-Йорка вели расследования некото- рых преступлений, совершенных русскими. 3. Популярное во всем мире детское кукольное шоу «Улица Сезам» (Sesame Street) может стать жертвой кризиса так же, как и любой бизнес-проект.

4.Остановитесь, пожалуйста, более подробно на этом вопросе.

5.У него не было ни малейшего представления о том, что должно произойти. 6. Стереотип безутешного горя и годовалого траура по умершему супругу или супруге уже не отвечает действительно- сти, по крайней мере, в США. Куда же подевались безутешные вдовы и вдовцы? 7. Ее вопрос прозвучал как отклонение от те- мы. 8. Даже сейчас она могла запросто ворваться в комнату ро- дителей в три часа ночи, заявив, что слышала "странные звуки" на крыше. 9. Ты мучишь меня своей ревностью. 10. Очень часто, ситуация "изгоя в классе" складывается не случайно, а является преувеличенным, как в кривом зеркале, отражением отношений царящих в семье. 11. Здоровье пациента ухудшалось на протя- жении многих лет. 12. Несмотря на перенесённое потрясение, она смогла дать полиции подробное описание преступников, напавших на неё. 13. У меня нет склонности к этой скучной ра- боте. 14. Пациент с признаками нервного срыва был доставлен в психиатрическую больницу. 15. Поведение новичка было ужа- сающим. 16. Глава российского правительства Владимир Путин передал своему шведскому коллеге Фредерику Рейнфельдту ин- формацию о том, что у Украины есть определенные проблемы с оплатой российского газа и его транзита в европейские страны.

8Make up your own sentences or a story using the vocabulary from the exercises above.

Comprehension and Discussion

9Give a full account of what happened on these dates.

• 1942

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•September 16, 1961

•September 17, 1961

10Answer the questions below.

1)The Prologue begins with the words: “Tragedy had struck the Winshaws twice before, but never on such a terrible scale” (p.3). How many tragedies should a reader expect? What are they? Which is the most terrible? How does the narrator of the story create suspense? Give examples from the text.

2)Reread the article from the local newspaper (p.25). What do you learn from it about the events that followed Mortimer’s celebration? Why is the account of what happened at the Winshaw Towers given in a form of an article?

3)Could you describe the process of choosing the film at the Odeon? What was on? Why was What a Carve Up! chosen?

4)What was the film about? What emotions did it arouse in Michael? Why didn’t Michael watch the film till the end?

5)What role does the film “What a Carve Up!” play in the narration? Why is it presented is such details?

6)What is the connection between the Winshaw family and the family in the movie “What a Carve Up!”?

7)Who is the narrator of Part 3 in Prologue?

11Present the events of Part 3 of Prologue from a) Michael’s mother’s b) Michael’s father’s point of view.

12Characterise the Winshaw family, using the chart below. What are your first impressions of them?

CHARACTER ACTIONS, BEHAVIOUR DESCRIPTION

Tabitha

Lawrence

Godfrey

Mortimer

Thomas

Dorothy

Henry

Mark

Roddy

Hilary

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What techniques and language does the author use to characterise them? Are they different? Support your ideas from the text.

Match the following illustrations (1–8) with the names of the characters (A-H). Give the reasons for your choice using the chart above.

1. 2. 3.