An Interesting Comparison.

Anybody who has read The French Lieutenant’s Woman will be familiar with the leading character, Charles. Last night I was at the point where Charles’s early life as a young man was being described, and I was surprised to find that we had a lot in common. There was the same inclination to rakishness tempered by short-lived Christian fervour and a veritable nanny of a conscience, the same love of books and nature, the same vociferous objection to fox hunting, and the same tendency to be out of step with the received attitudes of our native cultures.

What seemed odd to me was the fact that Charles was the son of a baronet and grew up in a mansion, whereas I was the son of a bus driver and grew up in social housing. Maybe it just goes to show that style owes no debt to breeding after all.