Synthesized answer
The deliberate omission of the gentleman's name serves to universalize his character by presenting him as a type rather than an individual [1]. He is defined by his wealth, his ambition, and his concept of his "right to rest" [1]. By not naming him, the passages suggest that his experience and motivations are representative of a broader class of wealthy individuals who have worked incessantly and now seek leisure and reward [1]. His focus is on his accomplishments and his plans for enjoyment, rather than on personal identity [1, 2].
This lack of a specific name also comments on the nature of his "right to rest" and "enjoy long and comfortable travels" by emphasizing his transactional approach to life and leisure [1]. He views his travels as a reward for his toil, a way to finally "start living" after merely "existing" [1]. His wealth dictates his experiences and his perceived entitlements, making his identity secondary to his economic status and his carefully planned itinerary [1, 2]. The passages do not explicitly state the author's intent in omitting the name but imply it is to focus on the universal themes of wealth, entitlement, and the pursuit of pleasure as a reward for…
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From the book
The gentleman from San Francisco--nobody either in Capri or Naples ever remembered his name--was setting out with his wife and daughter for the Old World, to spend there two years of pleasure. He was fully convinced of his right to rest, to enjoy long and comfortable travels, and so forth. Because, in the first place he was rich, and in the second place, notwithstanding his fifty-eight years, he was just starting to live. Up to the present he had not lived, but only existed; quite well, it is true, yet with all his hopes on the future. He had worked incessantly--and the Chinamen whom he…
place for all his years of toil, but he was quite glad that his wife and daughter should also share in his pleasures. True, his wife was not distinguished by any marked susceptibilities, but then elderly American women are all passionate travellers. As for his daughter, a girl no longer young and somewhat delicate, travel was really necessary for her: apart from the question of health, do not happy meetings often take place in the course of travel? One may find one's self sitting next to a multimillionaire at table, or examining frescoes side by side with him. The itinerary planned by…
even Japan ... certainly on his way home... . And everything at the outset went splendidly. It was the end of November. Practically all the way to Gibraltar the voyage passed in icy darkness, varied by storms of wet snow. Yet the ship travelled well, even without much rolling. The passengers on board were many, and all people of some importance. The boat, the famous _Atlantis_, resembled a most expensive European hotel with all modern equipments: a night refreshment bar, Turkish baths, a newspaper printed on board; so that the days aboard the liner passed in the most select manner.…
ntleman from San Francisco, rubbing his hands in a rising flush of vital forces, hastened to his state cabin to dress. In the evening, the tiers of the _Atlantis_ yawned in the darkness as with innumerable fiery eyes, and a multitude of servants in the kitchens, sculleries, wine-cellars, worked with a special frenzy. The ocean heaving beyond was terrible, but no one thought of it, firmly believing in the captain's power over it. The captain was a ginger-haired man of monstrous size and weight, apparently always torpid, who looked in his uniform with broad gold stripes very like…
ic "Kasimir Stanislavovitch."[1] There followed something still more complicated and still more difficult to pronounce. The porter turned the card this way and that way in his hand, looked at the passport, which the visitor had given him with it, shrugged his shoulders--none of those who stayed at the "Versailles" gave their cards--then he threw both on to the table and began again to examine himself in the silvery, milky mirror which hung above the table, whipping up his thick hair with a comb. He wore an overcoat and shiny top-boots; the gold braid on his cap was greasy with…
More questions about this book
- How does the explicit correction regarding D. H. Lawrence's omitted name on the title page illuminate the perceived value or role of a translator in 1922, especially when considering the Hogarth Press's literary influence?
- Before reading further, how does the epigraph "Woe to thee, Babylon, that mighty city!" juxtapose with the initial description of the gentleman's luxurious intentions, and what conflicting expectations does this create for the narrative's trajectory?
- In your own words, how does the gentleman's conviction of his "right to rest" derive from his wealth and age, and what underlying societal assumptions about deserving leisure does this conviction reflect or challenge?
- Considering The Hogarth Press was run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, what aspects of this book's subject matter—like the critique implied by the epigraph or the unnamed, wealthy protagonist—might have resonated with their literary or social interests in 1922?