Source of Indian Anecdote

[Dave Wilton]

If memory serves, it's from the title page of "1066 And All That" by W.C.
Sellar and R.J. Yeatman, 1930, Methuen & Co., Ltd.

One of the authors was listed as "Failed M.A., Oxon." Unfortunately, I can't
find my old copy. I have a 1993 edition, but that doesn't include the
original title page so I can't verify any of this.

The book is hilarious, by the way. I highly recommend it. Great stuff like,
"Henry IV, A Split King [...] Finding, however, that he was not memorable,
he very pathetically abdicated in favor of Henry IV, Part II" and "Whenever
[Richard I] returned to England he always set out again immediately for the
Mediterranean and was therefore known as Richard Gare de Lyon."


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Fred Shapiro
> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 2:31 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Source of Indian Anecdote
>
>
> Someone I know recalls reading a novel or seeing a film in which a
> businessman carries a card saying something like "B.A. Oxon.
> (Failed)."
> The person thought the novel or movie was E. M. Forster, A Passage to
> India, but has been told it is not in there.  Any suggestions
> as to which
> novel or film contains this?
>
> Fred
>
>
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> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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