Our February story comes from a writer that is usually forgotten in our times, but who was extremely popular in the 1930's. This is an interesting story which can give us all a lot of food for thought. And it is lovely written!
    
     Thanks a lot to Porlock for pointing me in its direction.
    
     Click here to read The Verger
    
     I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to reading your comments.
    
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi Chris,
    
     Once again, thank you for this month text. I hope to love it. Nightigale was really lovely.
    
     Soon,
    
     Pasi

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It's a lovely story, if written in a no-longer-contemporary idiom. But I wonder if there's an ambivalence in the author's attitude. On the one hand, he appears to be on the side of the underdog, who does very well as a result of being an illiterate outcast. But on the other, one can't help feeling that the author sells out to the high and mightly who, when they know their own interest, accommodate an illiterate verger, who may even grow to resemble them as far as outside appearances are concerned. It seems to me that Somerset Maugham stands alongside the old vicar, who accommodates an illiterate inferior, and portrays the new vicar unsympathetically, although it's the new vicar whose action enables the verger, however reluctantly, to join the bourgeoisie.
    
     And why does the author feel the need to indicate the verger's class by the use of non-standard spelling rather than simply use the standard language for all the conversations? A naive reader might expect 'head' to be spelt 'ead' anyway since most people who live in London don't pronounce word-initial 'h'. But, as this story shows, the way we write English ('head' rather than 'ead') is partial in that it represents the speech of an upper middle class minority, thereby marginalizing the majority. I don't think that Somerset Maugham reminds us of this because he's a radical. But then, I may be wrong.
    
     Love to all - Porlock

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Dear Chris
    
     Thank you for choosing 'The Verger' for a discussion. This story was included in the English textbook that I used for my higher secondary (+2 stage) students studying English as a compulsory language in India. In spite of the unfamiliar background and the 'non-standard' language used by the verger in his speech my students enjoyed the story and admired the indomitable spirit of the man who was ill treated by the vicar.
     After going through the story my students remarked that the new vicar used Albert's illiteracy as a ploy to get rid of him. The vicar was not only a snob,he bore a deep rooted malice towards Albert. Maugham has very clearly pointed out the implication of the vicar's East end background and how he was not at home with the 'discreet ways of his fashionable congregation'. Wasn't the vicar threatened by Albert's imposing personality? The antagonism between the two protagonists has been portrayed with a photographic fidelity. 'The red faced energetic man in the early forties' had his finger in every pie and 'fussed'. But while Albert tolerated his opponent, his opponent was not ready to tolerate the good-natured verger.
     The fusion of the authorial voice and the voice of Albert is a superb example of Maugham's artistic skill as a story teller. It is so absorbing that the non-native students of English find little problem in appreciating the animosity between the two protagonists. Was it a class-conflict or a generation conflict, some students asked me.
     The story is a fascinating study linguistically, psychologically and culturally. It open to numerous interpretations and I thank you, Chris, for prompting me to read it once again in my old age.

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Hi, Dear Readers
    
     In our view, Somerset Maugham wants to highlight "character" above a "high social status". We can see an emphasis on positive attitudes, politeness, fine manners, simplicity, dedication.
     Albert's character is above class status, we think. "He had tact, firmness and self assurance." His character made him overcome a sad period and succeed. Moreover, he didn't achieve success through greed, power or dishonesty. "He was making money hand over fist."
     Albert/The verger just likes to accomplish his duties with dedication and responsibility!
     Of course, we are not advocating illiteracy.But thoughtful, honest, sincere, firm, calm people will be more likely to interact with others and succeed. This is also "emotional intelligence" indeed.
     Absolutely lovely this life story! I entirely agree with Perth when it comes to being a "fascinating study" to be analysed from a linguistic, psychological and cultural point of view.
     Maria

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Dear Readers,
    
     I enjoyed this story and one aspect I most enjoyed is that the Verger ended up a winner in all situations. I don't like it when he thinks readers are spending time in unuseful activities when reading, and I think the author wanted to bring this debate of (des)advantages of spending our time reading and writing.
    
     The writer satarizes the (good and powerful) verger's character who after leaving St. Peter's looked for a cigarrete and beer, I mean considering it's believed to be immoral for religious leaders to drink alchool and smoking. The are so many satires in this story. for exmaple, the verger even with his more than sixteen years of service he doesn't use words like "thanks God" or praying for a better luck. The writer also satarizes the fact that for the Vicar the Foreman illiteracy is like a "sin" while for the banker is something to wonder for the man made fortune even without knowing to write and read. You can see the satire at the end of the story when the banker asked what would be if the verger knew how to read and write and as a reply the verger says "I'd be a verger of St. Peter's..."
    
     I think I'll suggest this story for the Reder's Corner reading group.
    
     Thanks
    
     Tanguene

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ps: Actually who answers "I would be a verger of St. Peter's" in the end of the story is Mr Albert Foreman, the gentleman, the successful businessman, not the verger as it said in my earlier post. He was a verger at that time, in the past.
    
     Thanks
    
     Tanguene

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Dear All
    
     So many interesting ideas expressed here.
    
     Porlock calls our attention to the non-standard spelling of the verger's utterances and asks for the reasons the author has decided to use it.
    
     Perth brings up a very subtle point: the fact that the the vicar's congregation was actually of a social class superior to his. Was the vicar projecting on the verger the social gaps he felt between himself and his flock? Was the dismissing of an 'inferior' member of his church a way of alligning himself with his 'superiors'?
    
     Maria mentions emotinal intelligence and I wonder if you don't actually have a tendency to see cognitive and emotional intelligences as opposites instead of complementary traits.
    
     Then Tanguene mentions satire and it makes me consider the role of irony in this story and perhaps this takes us back to Porlock's comment and the issue of linguistic irony.
    
     Looking forward to reading more comments here :)
     Chris

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Hello
    
     This is my first post here and I'm happy to be part of this group. About the language matter, writers may decide to use non-standard spellings for a number of reasons but usualy it is used to mark class affiliation. The verger may have become a rich businessman but his speech will always betray his working class origins, which means that even apparently admiring the tenacity of the character to go up the social ranks, the author cannot free him - or maybe himself- from class categorisation. He will actually never belong to any of the worlds he has inhabited. I wonder if readers in general are aware of this.
    
     Luthien

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Hi Luthien & everyone
    
     Welcome to the Group!
    
     I think you raise some interesting points about language here and I totally agree with you that accent is a social marker and writers resort to it in order to show class affiliation. However, this is a trap because the breaking from standards presupposes a standard that is *neutral* and widely acceptable as the norm, when in real life you can hardly believe such a thing exists. Even within social classes there are variations and no form of talking is free from evaluation and criticism, even among peers.
    
     I wonder if authors and teachers realise that...
    
     Looking forward to your comments.
     Cheers - Chris

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Hi,READERs!
     It seems that the eseence is as following:
     An old VERGER vs.an young VICAR!
     I have my doubts about any verger being so close to Spiritual things! Bcs:
     VERGER-a man whose duty it is to take care of the interior of a church building,show people to their seats in church and sometimes attend on the officiating priest.
     But this VERGER is so nice! But why then ???
     Halima

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Hi Halima
    
     Welcome back! I missed you here :)
    
     You comments have just made me realise something. You point out that a verger is the person who shows 'people to their seats'. This is an intersting thing because it literally means putting people 'on their right' places. The placing of people in churches has always followed strict social rules, with the upper-class in front and the peasants at the back, standing up. Isn't ironic that the same thing is repeated in the plot? The new vicar is the one who is placing the verger according to his social status. Fascinating!!
    
     Chris

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Hello Chris and Readers
     I agree that there are differences in language even inside a social class, but these differences are bigger between classes. It even reflects in the language teachers use. Porlock called the Verger 'illiterate inferior'. Is this the opinion of the vicar or Porlock's? Is a person 'inferior' because he or she can't read??
     And Adolatkal doubts that a verger can be close to spiritual things!!! Why? Is this because he is from the working class?? Only the literate and the 'superior' can have access to spiritual and intellectual worlds?
    
     Luthien

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Hi, dear CHRIS! Dear READERS!
     Changing Job,Occupation!This sounds so actual!!!
     At first time I read this short story in the collection “Cosmopolitans, published in 1936.I wonder in what subjects has this illiterate verger be educated? Also , for being competitable to what? Or may be he in the post Victorian times does not belong to those who spoke Stantard English and responding only with his broken English and body language has spoiled the whole image of the St.Peter’s at Neville,the fictitious square in fashionable London?
     Halima

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hii Chris
    
     I wanna ask sth . I am from Turkey and although I could reach the files u sent one month ago now I cant reach them . for example I am trying to read ''The Verger' but I cant open the site . what can I do ? can u send this file in the form of microsoft word
    
    
     thank u very much

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Hi Daffodil
    
     Nice to have you back! Sure, I can help you but you will have to send me an email so that I can reply and send you the text in Word document.
    
     I cannot attach documents here and I don't have your email address. Please, do write to me at
    
     chrislima90@yahoo.co.uk
    
     Cheers - Chris

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I studied 'the Verger' with a group of sudents , some of them found it quite hard to understand although i gave them a lot of unknown words. I think they didn't really understand the irony, I had to explain very precisely the twist .
    
     There is often a huge gap between what we as adults can enjoy and what teenagers expect of us.
     This is what happened with that Short story but maybe I was expecting too much of them!!
    
     I would be glad to know how you dealt with it.
     cheers
     Marie Cecile

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Dear Marie!
     Despite you living/teaching in the I guess the very Christian world your Reading failed! Then what to say about us, English readers, living in the Moslem world! I consider "The Verger" as my favorite one! What are the causes of your not successful reading! I can only point the followings:
     There are no loosening words without any beneath also without an additional meaning here in this story.
     So many Collocations are here1
     So many Connotations are here!
     We even did not discuss the meaning of the word VICAR!!! The new vicar from where!!! Fired our lovely Verger! Was that good or Bad?
     This vicar as an intermediate person between God and simple people!! But here as a Middleman! This word has not always a positive meaning! I live in the country where English is one of main foreign languages. I’ve studied this" Verger’s incident in Russian! It was so wonderful! Now at the time of crisis and avoiding Smoking in the very public places may be we must read this story in other manner?
     May be to highlight/use on the new methods??
     Today's teenagers are clever enough for Understanding! I wish our Readers share their opinions! I think we must continue the interaction on the "VERGER"!
     Halima

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Dear Readers!
     i think that ''The Verger' by Somerset Maugham’s is very worth for reading in every classroom in the globe!
     We must think only about teaching approaches! I suppose that the JIGSO reading technique can be useful here! Also the questions are:
     How to divide the story?
     In how many parts?
     What can be titles of those divided parts?
     How to narrate those parts?
     An other teaching technique can be the Retrospective reading of this story. I think now about Vocabulary activities for the English language classroom while reading this story. Here I would define 5 types of words. Also about that later.
     Halima

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Hello Sir,
     This lesson is a very significant one as far as I am concerned. I had to teach this lesson for three years in my college in Bangalore. The proverbial statement "Literature is Life" acquires a new meaning altogether. We have a building in a commercial part of the city. This area is very valuable. Recently, my family built a shopping complex there. But, against my suggestions they sold off the shops. Looking at The Verger`s prosperity, got from shops, I couldn`t help narrating the whole story to my mother. What she thought of it I don`t know. But, just today I read that "Hindsight is always 20-20"- Billy Wilder. We can draw from the experiences in stories to help with real life. Any guesses on how to deal with the present crises[ warming... etc] Please reply soon.

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Dear Sundaresho7,
    
     Thanks for the statment "Literature is life", in my opinion there are writers who are excellent in bringing literature to that light and level of understanding.
    
     "The Verger" is not strange in my society, we've a lot of them: Women and men becoming rich (they build good houses, buy expensive cars, give their children better education and living conditions) but you see them selling food, sweets, chewgums in the streets and even flowers at the graveyard. We know stories are stories but sometimes you look around and learn life itself is a story.
    
     I love Sommerset was able to bring a story with a sense for life, as he has done with "The Narrow Corner" novel I've just read. On the preface you find a note: "Short, therefore, is man's life, and norrow is the corner of earth wherein he dwells"
    
     Tanguene

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Dear Luthien,
    
     Sorry for taking so long to reply to your very subtle point. It seems to be a matter of fact and not opinion that the verger is illiterate. I think the question you raise is a bit chicken-and-egg-ish: it might be neat to think that illiteracy is a consequence of inferiority rather than the other way round, or, to put it more carefully, of being born into an under- rather than an over-class. And had the verger been literate, he would still (= anyway, = even 'under' the new vicar) have been verger and, I suspect, looked down on / patronized.
    
     You're right - I should have been more careful to make it clear that the verger's inferiority is the perception of the new vicar (and, perhaps, as I was sort of suggesting in my first message, of the author). But 'inferior' makes me think of Halima's brilliant point about showing people their place and doing the bidding of the superior. And of the relationship between earth as under and heaven as over - and of Jesus advising us that the meek shall inherit the earth.
    
     I'm wondering again about the level at which the author reads his story.

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Re language and dialects:
     May I remind teachers that in 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens, little Oliver born in a workhouse [and called 'workus' by others when teasing him], speaks the Queen's English perfectly even though he had no schooling.The Artful Dodger and others speak the rough language of the streets.
     Dickens seems to have equated good English with moral righteousness...or is he saying that since his mother was the good gentleman's Brownlow's niece, Good English is in our genes!
     Wasn't "Drivng Miss Daisy" about an illiterate driver too? Will someone please respond?Thanks
     Iris Devadason, Bangalore, India

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Iris,
     In the U.K., people have always been judged on their ability to speak good English. There are clear social classes there, who can be identified by their accent and vocabulary. In the U.S., there's a little less of this class system reflected in the language, but it still exists.
    
     Native speakers get no grace when speaking bad English.
    
     Indeed, the chauffeur in "Driving Miss Daisy" was illiterate, but was much more naturally intelligent than Miss Daisy.

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Thanks friends for your responses.
     Yes, we know "My Fair Lady" based on Shaw's Pygmalion. The professor asks for "this verbal calls distinction should now be antique!"
     I thought "Driving Miss Daisy" too was based on a book.The boundaries of genres do get blurred don't they?
     Iris

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Hi everyone!
     The whole story shows who the author sides with, it unfolds in a way that convinces the reader that Foreman’s views are sacred.
     One example is where after discovering that he's illiterate, he's offered the possibility to go back to school but he refuses. He then loses his job as Verger and while he's on a lonely walk in the streets of London he has the bright idea of opening a shop that leads to expansion and the unexpected offer to invest. Hence the conclusion of the story can only be ironic – it is not how much you learn that counts, but rather how well you make use of the little you know.
     However, it is clear that another lesson can be learnt from this story - better off being gentlemanly than being snob. Indeed, if a church as prestigious as St. Peter's cannot employ an illiterate verger, it is a mere question of snobbery. In contrast, the illiterate verger shows himself very polite and discreet when handing in his resignation constantly using terms such as “sir” or “my lord” with “a little smile on his aristocratic features”. He manages to hide his true feelings of sadness and turns out to be not only a successful manager but a very fine gentleman as well. His last words are just another statement of exquisite humility. Instead of making an exaggerate claim (such as “Oh, I would have been the richest man in Britain”), he provides a modest but truthful answer to the bank manager’s question (“I’d be verger of St. Peter’s…”).

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England and America are two countries separated by a common language .. GB Shaw ... seems relevant in connection with playwright GB Shaw - since the issue of accent seems more important in your readers comments that the context or content of the book! Nevertheless its worth mentioning that the form surely is different from say the short story or article compared with the Play by the playwright GB Shaw/Pygmalion!

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Dear Elizabethe & All Readers
    
     I entirely agree with your views, in particular with your recognition of Albert's humility, providing a "modest but truthful answer to the bank manager's question" - "I'd be a verger of St Peter's."
     I had already posted a comment here before when I said Albert's character is above class status (in my perception). It is fascinating to observe how that verger accomplished his duties with dedication, politeness and responsibility.
     Hope to read further from you here.
     Maria

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Dear Elisabethe & all
    
     thanks for your wise words, it really counts most what one does than what one knows. Knowledge if not translated into something we can see or feel remains invaluable.
    
     Tanguene

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A reply to Porlock
    
     ‘Illiterate’ can be a matter of fact, but ‘inferior’ is a matter of judgement and positioning. It is a fact that people are placed differently in society, but I would feel more comfortable saying that the verger occupies a lower position in the social strata in his community than calling him ‘inferior.’ For ‘inferior’ implies not only the social status which locates him below those who have power; but also a personal deficiency, a sort of handicap. It fails to recognise that his incapacity to learn how to read is the product of the social class where he was born and the opportunities that were denied to him by people like the vicar. Moreover, it fails to recognise that both situations are the products of this vertical social structure that permeates the whole text. Porlock mentioning the Christian concepts of heaven and hell just illustrates even further how this verticalisation of relationships, which we have inherited from medieval/scholastic traditions, still permeates our understanding of the world.
    
     Luthien

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Social class does play an important role in short stories ... but linking it with the Christian View of Heaven and Hell is a long shot I guess, would you agree that other faiths have a class system? Say, the class system of the Ottoman Empire cannot be ignored! I must admit I prefer to take the short story genre as it comes .... and I wrote my own short story which was published in 2000! Possibly I was greatly influenced by this great short story writer and I did teach Maugham in Turkey but thats a long time ago! Happy Memories of Creative Writing in class!

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