Four Studies in Loyalty (Century Lives and Letters)

By Christopher Skyes and Christopher 1907- Sykes

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0712694587
• ISBN13: 9780712694582
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Century Hutchinson
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A token of friendship

Another orphan book that deserves a review and to be read again because of its content and form. I actually ordered "Four studies in Loyalty" after having fully appreciated "The Road to Oxiana", because my curiosity on Robert Byron and his revolutionary and anticipatory art theories needed to be satisfied by other testimonial experiences. Christopher Sykes is the Christopher of the Road, that years after R.B.'s untimely death writes four essays on people that played an important role in his life. The first deals with his homonymous uncle that was the Regent's friend and fool, the second with a Persian factotum that became a dear friend, the third with R.B. and the fourth with heroic people of a French village with whom he worked during WW2. The highlight of the book is the essay on R.B., that becomes a complementary read to the Road and makes light on some obscure passages of this book. For example we really begin to understand why R.B. went to Persia, what the political situation in that period was like and above all what he was really like. C.S. speaks of him with such affection and admiration but at the same time does not hide his even to obvious defects. A modern and intelligent editor would publish this essay together with R.B.'s book. The technique of essay writing is in itself an art, that today has been a little neglected or is not fashionable any more, however I find it very relaxing to read and it does have the ability to convey a great deal of information or even at times have a deep emotional impact. Christopher Sykes, like many Oxford educated Englishman of that period perfectly masters this ability and has abundantly recurred to it to describe many of his friends lives (Evelyn Waughn, Nancy Mitford, and others). Reading this book of his we realize that he poses himself in and incidental position towards the people he describes. Its as though he has had the privilege of knowing them and so has an obligation toward having others remember them. The English is beautiful and a joy to read and putting a tassel into knowledge is always a great satisfaction.