ENGLISH [FL] NARRATION [4M]

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The peddler respectfully said that it was not his fault. He had never pretended to be anything but a poor trader, and he had pleaded and begged to b allowed to stay in the forge. But no harm had been done. At worst he could put on his rags again and go away.

The peddler told the ironmaster that he was then going to tell him how things were. He said that that whole world was nothing but a big rattrap. All the good thing that were offered him were nothing but cheese rinds and bits of pork, set out to drag a poor fellow into trouble. And if the sheriff came then and locked him up for that, then he Mr lronmaster, must remember that a day might come when he himself might want to get a big piece of pork, and then he would get caught in the trap.

I thought to myself, without stopping as to what could be the matter then. Then as I hurried by as fast as I could go, the blacksmith, Wachter who had been there, with his apprentice reading the bulletin called after me to not go so fast. He exclaimed that I would get to my school in plenty of time.

The young girl said that her name was Edla Willmansson and her father had come home and had said that he had wanted to sleep there in the forge that night and then she had asked permission to come and bring him home to them. She told the captain that she was so sorry that he was having such a hard time.

She thought that either he had stolen something or else he had escaped from jail. She quickly told the Captain that he might be sure that he would be allowed to leave them just as freely as he had come. She requested that he should stay with them only over Christmas Eve.

The ironmaster told his daughter that first of all they must see to it that he got a little flesh on his bones and then they must see that he got something else to do than to run around the country selling rattraps.

The daughter said that it was queer that things had gone downhill with him as badly as that. The previous night she hadn't thought that there was anything about him to show that he had once been an educated man.

M. Hamel mounted his chair and lovingly called the class his children and said that that was the last lesson he would give us. The order had come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools at Alsace and Lorraine. The new master came the next day. That was our last French lesson. He wanted us to be very attentive.

I heard M. Hamel kindly say to me that he wouldn't scold me. He told me that I must feel bad enough. He told me to see how it was. Every day we had şaid to ourselves that I had plenty of time and I would learn it the next day. But he kindly told me that I was not the worst. We had all a great deal to reproach ourselves with.

M. Hamel told me to see where we had come out. That was the great trouble with Alsace; she put off learning till the next day. Then those fellows out there would have the right to say to us how was it that we pretended to be Frenchmen and yet we could neither speak nor write our own language.

M. Hamel told me that my parents had not been anxious enough to have me learn. They had preferred to put me to work on a farm or at the mills so as to have a little more money. And he asked about himself and said that he had been to blame also. He asked if he hadn't often sent me to water his flowers instead of learning my lessons and when he had wanted to go fishing M. Hamel saw me and he took my name and said very kindly to go to my place hadn't he just given me a holiday.

The ironmaster said that that had been the mistake. If only he had still been in the service at the time it never would have happened. Then he casually told him that he would come home with him.

The peddler looking quite alarmed disagreed and said that he couldn't think of coming to his house. The ironmaster requested him to not think that he had such a fine home that he couldn’t show himself there.

He said that Elizabeth was dead as he might already have heard. His boys were abroad and there was no one at home except his oldest daughter and himself. They had been just saying that it had been too bad they hadn’t any company for Christmas. He told him to then come along with him and help them make the Christmas food disappear a little faster.

Rajendra Prasad said that they had thought amongst themselves, that Gandhi had been totally a stranger, and yet he had been prepared to go to prison for the sake of the peasants; if they, on the other hand, being not only residents of the adjoining districts but also those who had claimed to have served those peasants, should go home, it would be shameful desertion.

Reverend J.Z. Hodge wrote that there he had seemed adamant, thinking probably that he would not give way, the representative of the planters had offered to refund to the extent of 25 per cent, and to his amazement Mr. Gandhi had taken him at his word, thus breaking the deadlock.

Gandhi said that they thought that in that unequal fight it would be helpful if they had an Englishman on their side. That showed the weakness of their heart. The cause was just and they must rely upon themselves to win the battle. They should not seek a prop in Mr. Andrews because he happened to be an Englishman.

The young girl said that wherever he turned he was chased away. Always he was afraid of being arrested and cross-examined. She would like to have him enjoy a day of peace with them there- just one in the whole year.

Denis Brian has written that those days more than at any other time their most vivid impressions of their contemporaries were through interviews. Almost everything of moment reached them through one man asking questions of another. Because of that, the interviewer held a position of unprecedented power and influence.

Mukund said that the English novelist and academic David Lodge had once remarked, that he couldn’t understand how one man could do all the things he (Eco) did. Umberto Eco replied that he might have given the impression of doing many things but in the end, he was convinced that he was always doing the same thing.

Umberto Eco exclaimed that then that was more difficult to explain. He had some philosophic interests and he pursued them through his academic work and his novels.
Even his books for children were about non-violence and peace they re the same bunch of ethical and philosophical interests.

The peddler wrote that the rattrap was Christmas present from a rat who would have been caught in that world’s rattrap if he had not been raised to captain, because in that way he had got power to clear himself. He ended with the words written with friendship and high regard from Captain von Stahle.

Gandhi said that he had come to the conclusion that they should stop going to law courts. Taking such cases to the courts did little good. Where the peasants were so crushed and fear-stricken, law courts were useless. The real relief for them was to be free from fear.

The father told his little girl that she must have patience. As soon as he got clean an dressed up she would see something different. The previous night he had been naturally embarrassed. The tramp manners would fall away from him with the tramp clothes.

The young girl agreed and continued that it had all been a mistake but anyway she didn't think they ought to chase away a human being whom they had asked to come there and whom they had promised Christmas cheer.

Umberto Eco said that similarly they had a lot of empty spaces in their lives. He called them interstices. He further explained to the interviewer to assume that if he was coming over to his place and he was in an elevator and while he was coming up and he was waiting for him. That was an interstice, an empty space. He worked in empty spaces.

Umberto Eco laughingly said that while he was waiting for his elevator to come up from the first to the third floor, he had already written an article. Mukund remarked that not everyone could do that really. His non-fictional writing, his scholarly work had a certain playful and personal quality about it.

Mukund said that it was a marked departure from a regular academic style- which was invariably depersonalised and often dry and boring. Mukund asked Umberto if he had consciously adopted an informal approach or it was something that just came naturally to him.

One of Umberto's professor said that Scholars learnt a lot of a certain subject, then they made a lot of false hypotheses, then they corrected them and at the end, they would put the conclusions. He, on the contrary, had told the story of his research by even including his trials and errors.

Sophie said that if she ever came into money, she would buy a boutique. Jansie replied, that that would be possible if she ever came into money. Sophie's father commented that if she ever came into money she would buy them a blessed decent house to live in and then he thanked her.

Umberto Eco added that at that point, at the age of 22, he had understood scholarly books should be written the way he had done - by telling the story of the research. He further explained that that was why his essays always had a narrative aspect. And that was why probably he had started writing narratives [novels] so late - at the age of 50, more or less.

Umberto Eco said that he remembered his dear friend Roland Barthes had always been frustrated that he had been an essayist and not a novelist. He had wanted to do creative writing one day or another but he had died before he could do so. He also said that he had never felt that kind of frustration. He had started writing novels by accident. He had nothing to do one day and so he had started. Novels probably had satisfied his taste for narration.

Mukund said that talking about novels, from being a famous academic he had gone on to becoming spectacularly famous after the publication of 'The Name of the Rose'. He had written five novels against many more scholarly works of non-fiction, at least more than 20 of them. Umberto Eco corrected Mukund and said that he had written over 40.

Mukund exclaimed with surprise the number 40 and said that among them was a seminal piece of work on semiotics. He asked Umberto Eco if it bothered him that people recognised him as the novelist. Umberto Eco replied that it did bother him because he considered himself a university professor who wrote novels on Sundays. It was not a joke. He participated in academic conference and not meetings of Pen Clubs and writers. He identified himself with the academic community

Mukund continued that it brought him to his next question that 'The Name of the Rose' was a very serious novel. It was a detective yarn at one level but it also delved into metaphysics, theology, and medieval history. Yet it had enjoyed a huge mass audience. He asked Umberto if he was puzzled by that.

Umberto Eco said that the Journalists were puzzled and sometimes publishers were too. And that was because journalists and publishers believed that people liked trash and didn't like difficult reading experiences. He asked him to consider that there are six billion people on the planet. 'The Name of the Rose' had sold between 10 and 15 million copies. So in a way he had reached only a small percentage of readers.

Then Sophie added that she might be an actress. There was real money in that. She agreed that she could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses didn't work full time and she asked if they did so. She came to the conclusion that she would anyways be an actress or a fashion designer as she wanted it to be something a bit sophisticated.

Father said that Casey might be that good someday. Geoff replied that he was better than that even. He was the best. Father continued that if he kept his head on his shoulders and if they looked after him properly he would be the best. There were a lot of distractions for a youngster in the game those days. Geoff replied that he would be alright. He was with the best team in the country.

Umberto Eco said that it was exactly those kinds of readers who didn't want easy experiences. Or at least didn't always want that. He himself, at 9 pm after dinner, watched television and wanted to see either 'Miami Vice' or 'Emergency Room'. He enjoyed it and needed it but not all day.

Umber-to Eco said that his American publisher had said that while she had loved his book, she hadn't expected to sell more than 3000 copies in a country where nobody had seen a cathedral or studied Latin. He had been given an advance for 3000 copies, but in the end it had sold two or three million in the U.S.

Umberto Eco wondered that a lot of books had been written about the medieval past far before his. He thought that the success of the book was a mystery. Nobody could predict it. He thought that if he had written 'The Name of the Rose' ten years earlier or ten years later, it wouldn't have been the same. It was a mystery why it worked at that time.

Geoff said that she had met him in the arcade and told him how it had been. Her father said that one of those days she was going to talk herself into a load of trouble. Sophie said that Geoff knew that it was true and asked him if he didn't. Father told her that Geoff didn't believe her though he would like to.

She told Geoff that it had been nothing like that. It was she who had spoken first. When she had seen who it had been she had excused herself and asked if wasn't Danny Casey and he had looked sort of surprised and had confirmed that he was. She said that she had known it must be him because he had the accent like when they had interviewed him on the television.

Sophie said that so she had asked him for an autograph for little Derek, but neither of them had any paper or a pen. So then they just talked a bit about the clothes in Royce's window. He had seemed lonely. After all, it was a long way from the west of Ireland. And then, just as he had been going, agreed that I would. he had said, if she would care to meet him next week he would give her an autograph then. I agreed that I would.

Jansie asked what was that she had been telling. Sophie asked what she was speaking about. Jansie continued saying that her Geoff told their Frank that she startled and exclaimed that that was what she meant. Danny Casey. Sophie was startled and exclaimed that that was what she meant.

The Maharaja asked what if the hundredth tiger had also been killed. The astrologer replied that then he would tear up all his books on astrology, set fire to them, and haltingly he said that he would cut off his tuft, crop his hair short and become an insurance agent.

The Dewan began to babble even more and told his Majesty, that he had two wives already. If he married the king and then he halted. The Maharaja told him not to talk nonsense. He asked why he should marry him. What he wanted was a tiger.

The Maharaja laughed and said that he was not thinking of marrying either a tiger or a gun, but a girl from the ranks of human beings. First he must draw up statistics of tiger populations in the different native states. Next he might investigate if there was a girl he could marry in the royal family of a state with a large tiger population.