Good-bye, Mr. Chips [Goodbye]

viii, 132 pp. 8vo. The novel that inspired two film adaptations, by the British author who also wrote Hollywood screenplays. "Goodbye, Mr. Chips (originally Good-bye, Mr. Chips) is a novel by James Hilton, first published in book form in 1934. The story had originally been issued as a supplement to the British Weekly, an evangelical newspaper, in 1933 but came to prominence when it was reprinted as the lead piece of the April 1934 issue of The Atlantic. Afterwards, Hilton became a bestselling author, numerous adaptations were made including two films and various stage adaptations. The novel tells the story of a much-beloved schoolteacher and his long tenure at Brookfield, a fictional boys' public boarding school. Mr. Chipping conquers his inability to connect with his students, as well as his initial shyness, when he marries Katherine, a young woman he meets on holiday who quickly picks up on calling him by his nickname, "Chips". Despite his own mediocre academic record, he goes on to have an illustrious career as an inspiring educator at Brookfield. Although the book is unabashedly sentimental, it also depicts the sweeping social changes that Chips experiences throughout his life: he begins his tenure at Brookfield in 1870, as the Franco-Prussian War is breaking out, and lies on his deathbed shortly after Hitler's rise to power. Clearly discernible is a nostalgia for the Victorian social order that had faded rapidly after Queen Victoria's death in 1901 and whose remnants were destroyed by the First World War. Indeed, a recurring leitmotif throughout is the devastating impact of the war on British society. When the war breaks out, Chips, who had retired the year before at age sixty-five, agrees to come out of retirement to fill in for the various masters who have entered military service. Despite his being taken for a doddering fossil, it is Chips who keeps his wits about him during an air raid, averting mass panic and sustaining morale. Countless old boys and masters die on the battlefield, and much of the story involves Chips's response to the horrors unleashed by the war. At one point, he reads aloud a long roster of the school's fallen alumni, and, defying the modern world he sees as soulless and lacking transcendent values of honour and friendship, dares to include the name of an Austrian former master who has died fighting on the opposite side. The setting for Goodbye Mr. Chips is believed to have been based on The Leys School, Cambridge, where James Hilton was a pupil (1915-1918). Hilton is reported to have said that the inspiration for the protagonist, Chips, came from many sources, including his father, who was the headmaster of Chapel End School. However, Chips is also likely to have been based on W.H. Balgarnie, one of the masters at The Leys (1900-1930), who was in charge of the Leys Fortnightly (in which Hilton's first short stories and essays were published). Over the years, old boys have written to Geoffery Houghton, a master of the Leys for a number of years and a historian of the school, confirming the links between Chipping and Balgarnie, who eventually died at Portmadoc at the age of 82. He had been linked with the school for 51 years and spent his last years in modest lodgings opposite. Again, like Mr. Chips, Balgarnie was a strict disciplinarian, but would also invite boys to visit him for tea and biscuits. 1939 film: This is the best known screen version, starring Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills and Paul Henreid. Donat won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the lead role, beating Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Laurence Olivier and Mickey Rooney. While some of the incidents depicted in the various screen adaptations do not appear in the book, this film is generally faithful to the original story. 1969 film: In 1969, a relatively unsuccessful musical film version appeared, starring Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. This version moved the timeline forward, with Chips' car