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    Goodbye, Mr. Chips
    Goodbye, Mr. Chips
    Goodbye, Mr. Chips
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips

    By James Hilton

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    Full of enthusiasm, young English schoolmaster Mr. Chipping came to teach at Brookfield in 1870. It was a time when dignity and a generosity of spirit still existed, and the dedicated new schoolmaster expressed these beliefs to his rowdy students. Nicknamed Mr. Chips, this gentle and caring man helped shape the lives of generation after generation of boys. He became a legend at Brookfield, as enduring as the institution itself. And sad but grateful faces told the story when the time came for the students at Brookfield to bid their final goodbye to Mr. Chips.

    There is not another book, with the possible exception of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, that has quite the same hold on readers’ affections. James Hilton wrote Goodbye, Mr. Chips in loving memory of his schoolmaster father and in tribute to his profession. Over the years it has won an enduring place in world literature and made untold millions of people smile—with a catch in the throat.

    “Warming to the heart and nourishing to the spirit...The most profoundly moving story that has passed this way.”—So said usually cynical critic Alexander Woollcott when GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS was first published in 1934, and his openhearted welcome to this delightful, memorable, moving novel has been echoed through the years by millions of readers as well as two generations of film-goers.

    The gentle, lovable, tough English schoolmaster is one of America’s favorite people. Who can forget the image of “Chips” on the day when he took a young and radical bride; the sad April Fools’ Day when he lost her; the little jokes his classes came to expect; the boy whose father sailed on the Titanic; the intrusion of World War I into the peace and seclusion of Brookfield...all the pleasures and pains of a lifetime rich in teaching with love.

    GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS is one of the most beloved books of our time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTannenberg Publishing
    Release dateNov 11, 2016
    ISBN9781787202962
    Goodbye, Mr. Chips
    Author

    James Hilton

    James Hilton (1900–1954) was a bestselling English novelist and Academy Award–winning screenwriter. After attending Cambridge University, Hilton worked as a journalist until the success of his novels Lost Horizon (1933) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934) launched his career as a celebrated author. Hilton’s writing is known for its depiction of English life between the two world wars, its celebration of English character, and its honest portrayal of life in the early twentieth century.

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    Reviews for Goodbye, Mr. Chips

    4/5

    357 ratings29 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The more we age, the more of our experience is behind us rather than ahead. And as we look back, the soothing temptation is to let ourselves be lulled into a comfortable, maybe mushy, sense of worthiness. Veteran school-master Mr Chips is an un-layered, rather flat, recognisably English character, rather like the butler in “Remains of the Day” but without the creeping self-doubt. For over time, his steadiness is seen to prevail. Strivers and innovators are distrusted or at least gently teased. The great upheavals of the age, undermining the Victorian-Edwardian order, are endured without major divergence from the settled methods. Chips’ ponderous manner is matched by Hilton’s sparing prose. And Chips wins us over, as the author dignifies those little foibles and familiar tics we adopt or succumb to as we age. Perhaps too, our own sense of receded ambitions and modest attainment is soothed. The overall effect is uplifting, memorable, even moving.
    • 3/5
      I chose to read this book because of its recommendation in James Mustich's "1000 Books to Read Before You Die". It was short and gentle and very moving in places. Chips is a likeable character, although not without his failings. The sections about his brief marriage and his remembrance of the death of the former German master in WWI were especially touching.
    • 5/5
      When one thinks of Goodbye, Mr. Chips I am sure they are transported back to movies like Dead Poet's Society and Mr. Holland's Opus, two movies very similar in nature to Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Mr. Chips, the much loved teacher and sometime acting Head of Brookfield was devoted to his students and loved teaching them with a passion. Even when the boarding school tried to get him to retire they were unsuccessful. How do you rid yourself of pillar of the institution?
    • 5/5
      An enchanting look at an English schoolmaster, and the memories of his life and times over more than 60 years. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of an old British schoolteacher reflecting on his life and career. I love boarding school stories, so I was interested in reading one from a teacher's point of view, and I wasn't disappointed. This is a short but powerful book, though I found it almost painfully sad at times. Mr. Chips is an average, even mediocre, teacher, and it was difficult to be faced with the combination of his mediocrity and personal tragedy. Of course, this also makes it very real. I'm just glad that he could reflect with satisfaction on his achievements in the end, and remember happy times without focusing on what was lost. Anyway, this is not always an easy book to read, but it's certainly worth the time.
    • 5/5
      I was amazed how this short story told such an in depth story. I connected with the story right away. It was difficult to put it down. I felt as if I had known Mr. Chips all my life. It was a remarkable story told in a remarkable way. I am thrilled that I finally read this classic.
    • 3/5
      This book tells the story of Mr. Chipping, a retired schoolteacher from the English boarding school of Brookfield. The story is told as a series of flashbacks and remembrances from Mr. Chipping's (affectionately referred to as "Chips") point of view, and covers 6 decades, including his early years as a teacher, his brief but life-changing marriage, more than 3 headmasters, many political movements, wars, and much more.This was a light and charming story, but too short. The time span is so great, and the length of the book so short, that it was hard to get any sense of depth. Additionally, the memoir style of storytelling--dipping into memories and then pulling back--prevented me from truly losing myself in the book. Still, it is a delightful story, and Mr. Chips is a fun and memorable character. I recommend this book if you're in the mood for some light weekend reading.
    • 2/5
      A simple story about a young English schoolmaster who becomes an established figure at Brookfield school in the late 1800s. Though the character is certainly appealing, little happens in this novel and no themes are particularly explored. How the book became a "classic" remains a mystery.
    • 4/5
      Lovely! Poignant, beautiful. Great novels to read in autumn.
    • 5/5
      All time favorite
    • 5/5
      A short but very beloved book. You fall in-love with the Chips character and the wonderful world an English boys prep school. No doubt the inspiration many other stories centered on this kind of idea. A book highly influential to my becoming a teacher.
    • 4/5
      It's the gentle story of a man who taught in a British private boys' school for many decades. I love the way Chips starts out as a very average sort of person and teacher. It's the experiences of life---the death of his wonderful wife, the tragedies of the war, the days, years spent teaching children---that transform Chips into a thoughtful, clever, and exemplary human being.
    • 3/5
      A joy to read. A real feel good story
    • 4/5
      I've yet to see the movie, but I read the campy 1969 paperback edition with color stills of Peter OToole and Petula Clark. This tiny book is a wonderful character study of the long career of a British schoolmaster. It spans from the Victorian era into the 1930s and was first published in the Atlantic Monthly. The novella merely mentions incidents, anecdotes and events, leaving the reader very, very curious. I'm sure these were further fleshed-out by the screenplay folks. I'll look for the movie.
    • 4/5
      nice simple little tale of a well-loved gentleman whose entire adult life was devoted to a private school where he held a teaching position....an inspirational look at the value of character and how it can trump all else in our lives.....a theme that seems to not get nearly enough attention these days.....i enjoyed.....
    • 3/5
      An old hardcover book given to me by a friend. No slipcover on it so I just picked the cover at random.
      A sweet sad story. A good reference for the old school tie.
    • 3/5
      The 2002 ITV dramatisation with Martin Clunes is one of my favourite DVDs - it's one of my regular 'ironing' films and I don't think I'll ever tire of it!

      I came across a free Kindle download for it so though it was about time I gave the book a go to see how it compares.

      Well, compare isn't the right word! The ITV version has the same elements, of course - most of the same characters appear but the ITV version is very embellished - the time frame, for example is very different - some of the events which take place are pretty insignificant in the book but have been made major points of the dramatisation.

      Did it stop me enjoying the book? No - it's a charming tale and I enjoyed it - I liked Hilton's style of writing. In this case, I did prefer the TV version - had I read the book first I might have felt differently! I will continue to watch, and love, the DVD - they just need to be treated as slightly different things!
    • 3/5
      Easy to speculate Hilton distills his own outlook on education into Chips, fitting insofar as it is inherently conservative, in the sense of upholding established ideals under threat of changing norms. No mere propaganda vehicle, however: Chips undergoes a transformation of character, becoming a jester within stolid Brookfield, a second-tier public school, in his effort to preserve tradition even while honouring the ideals of excellence and personal compassion (made manifest with his love for Kathie). Chips himself refers to "a sense of proportion".So, a self-conscious nostalgia trip, impressive as English history in miniature panorama. Brings to mind Forrest Gump: does the film adaptation hew closer or further from that peculiar sense of History-with-an-H? Similarly, an elegy to the influence an individual can wield. Sentimental, but at sufficient remove to allow a genuine glimpse into its time & place. An open question as to whether I would have thought the same when reading it on publication. An authenticity accrued over time, incidental to authorial intent.//Chips almost despite himself a contrarian: talking with a striker in broad view of the boys, bringing political talk down to a human level; his friendship with Max Staefel even through the Great War, exchanging letters; reciting Latin during an air raid.Like 84, Charing Cross Road, Good-bye, Mr Chips lends itself to reading aloud, with brief chapters and vignettes easily parceled out over several evenings before bed.
    • 5/5
      Such a sweet, lovable character. His humor made everything better.
    • 4/5
      Really pleasant story of a schoolmaster and how he affected the lives of his students and eventually found a wife.
    • 5/5
      Good read. Heartwarming but it deals with war and old age very well.
    • 4/5
      This classic work relates the story of Mr. Chipping, a boarding school teacher, who becomes known as "Mr. Chips." He prefers the old ways to the new and exhibits great loyalty to the school and its pupils. In retirement, he lives across the street and still gets to know its students. I always think of this as something for middle grades to read, but after re-reading it, I think adults would appreciate it more.
    • 3/5
      I think this appeals to a certain class of person who yearns for the "good old days" (i.e., white, Anglo-Saxon, perhaps even Protestant). It is quaint but dated.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful booklet; gentle. Watch the movie of the same title (2002)
    • 4/5
      This book is tiny wee!

      So tiny wee in fact, that there's so much dispute over what to call it. I'd call it a novella, but there are some that say that it's too long for a novella, and too long for a short story, but too short for a novel. So is it a novelette? I don't know.

      Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a slow novel, like a lot of British of that period are.

      I wasn't really invested in the novel, I found it interesting but I was totally ready to shelve it and then it just threw me for a loop and shattered me forever.

      Get ready for some bone-crushing angst over tea and crumpets, guys.
    • 4/5
      This sweet story follows the life of a devoted school master from the beginning of his career until the end. It’s a very short book, so there’s not too much room for character development. I wish I’d gotten to know a couple of the characters better. I actually saw the 1939 film before reading the book and this is one of the rare cases where I actually liked the movie better. Still I enjoyed this one and I particularly loved Mrs. Chips' role in the story. BOTTOM LINE: A good little book about the impact one man can have on his students. A quick read and definitely worth the time.  
    • 4/5
      It’s a funny little book. It’s sort of slow, laid back in the pace. I don’t really know what to think of it. Nothing much happens, and yet an entire world unravels before your eyes. You don’t really get to know most of the characters, yet it feels like you were there yourself, both on the boarding school, Brookfield, and in the house of Mrs. Wickett’s, listening to Mr. Chips telling those charming stories about his life as a teacher.
    • 4/5
      Why can't I go to a proper English boarding school?
    • 5/5
      The Book Report: Old Mr. Chipping, nearing ninety and still telling his hoary old jokes from sixty years ago to the newbies at Brookfields school, spends his last few days on earth wandering among the many well-furnished rooms in his head. We see the events of his entire career as a schoolmaster, his brief, brilliant career as a husband, and his long, glorious sunset as a School Institution. As he passes through the portal made for one (bet Chips'd know the source on that one), he feels...as I hope and pray all who read this will feel on their own long night...it was good, it was good.My Review: I read this book tonight because, for far from the first time in my life to date, I learned that I lost an old, old friend: My mother's best friend, my heart-mother, finally let go of her life barely short of her 92nd birthday on January 4.I know it was only her body wearing down, because dementia had long since taken her essence from the living world. But tonight, forty-two years after I met her and began to love her, I feel she is here. And I promised her I wouldn't cry, she told me it hurt her to see me cry once a lifetime ago, but I can't not. It's for myself, for my heart growing old and curling inwards from surprisingly fresh hurt. I don't miss her, or miss her more than I did yesterday; death is a release when someone is already no longer themselves; but the days ahead number fewer than the days behind, and I can see my own end like a hill far away, instead of the comforting illusion of horizons hiding it. It's not scary. It's just...real.I am now the age she was when I met her. My memories are so real! The Pirate's Den, the junque shoppe on North Lamar, parking under the pecan tree and racing everyone to be the first to see what was new; cold, cold Bull Creek, flat hot rocks, the folds of the Balcones Escarpment and their fossil shells; laughing, crying, talking, always with a silver-bunned, trifocalled, green-eyed artist teaching the only things she knew to teach. I needed them then, I treasure them now, and there is no one else to whom these memories mean one single thing except an old guy reliving his past.She was Mr. Chips, and I listened the way those schoolboys did; now it's my turn...sic semper tyrranis, oh wait that was the assassin but that's good too, sic transit Irenaea mundi...hail and farewell, dear, now you go on home to Mother and Daddy, walk safe!

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips - James Hilton

    This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

    To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books—picklepublishing@gmail.com

    Or on Facebook

    Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.

    © Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

    Publisher’s Note

    Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

    We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

    GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS

    BY

    JAMES HILTON

    WITH A FOREWORD BY EDWARD WEEKS

    ILLUSTRATED BY SANFORD KOSSIN

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

    FOREWORD 4

    PREFACE 6

    I 8

    II 12

    III 14

    IV 17

    V 20

    IV 22

    VII 28

    VIII 33

    IX 34

    X 38

    XI 41

    XII 45

    XIII 48

    XIV 50

    XV 53

    XVI 57

    XVII 61

    XVIII 65

    REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 67

    FOREWORD

    James Hilton was not only a very good novelist, he was a very good talker. Though he was English-born, he lived for the latter part of his life in California, and on my visits to the Coast I always looked forward to having a leisurely dinner with him, in the course of which we would compare notes about everything under the sun. I remember well our last meeting, for it occurred shortly after we had learned for sure that the Russians had perfected, far ahead of schedule, their atomic bomb. Jimmie was depressed by the news, for in his farsighted way he saw at once that this would involve us in the most dangerous armament race in human history.

    I knew that he was at work on a new novel and at a favorable opening I asked how it was going. I have made four beginnings, he said. I think I have got a good idea and for about a week I’ll start off each morning at the typewriter with a feeling of confidence. And then just after I have passed page fifty, it is as if the words ‘So what!’ suddenly stood out in capitals on the page. We haven’t got the confidence we once had, now that we know about those bombs. It is a hard time in which to try to write fiction.

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Hilton’s most successful novel, and surely the most endearing portrait of a schoolteacher in our time, was written in another kind of desperation. In November, 1933, James Hilton was struggling to meet his deadline for a story for the Christmas issue of the British Weekly. He needed the fifty pounds (then two hundred and fifty dollars) he would be paid for the story; and he hadn’t an idea. After a sleepless night, he rose and went for a bicycle ride in the foggy dawn. When he returned, ravenous, for breakfast he had his lead, and Mr. Chips was written in longhand and almost without alteration in the four days that followed. It was published with little notice in London, but when it appeared in the Atlantic the following April, the American acclaim woke up the English. Everywhere you went you heard people talking about Mr. Chips as if he were someone they had known. Bishop William A. Lawrence spoke of Mr. Chips in a sermon at Trinity Church in Boston; William Lyon Phelps, the most quoted professor in New Haven, said it was a masterpiece and ought to be so regarded a hundred years from now; and Alexander Woollcott, who as the Town Crier had a more stimulating effect on readers at that period than any other single person, devoted a whole broadcast to Mr. Chips, which he called the most profoundly moving story that has passed this way in several years.

    To Jimmie Hilton the theme was as natural as breathing. His father was a headmaster, and at the boarding school where Jimmie was sent, he was happy. Had he cared more for athletics he might have been less observant of his teachers. But he was a roly-poly, good tempered, and no good at games. His mind was inquiring and responsive: he wrote poems about the Russian Revolution and the sinking of the Lusitania, and broke all speed records for reciting the long Latin grace.

    Mr. Chips, as Hilton drew him, is a composite; he has the wise and sweetening influence of Jimmie’s father, the discipline and idiosyncrasy of his Latin teacher, and the unsparing devotion which the profession demands of all. And this was why people wrote him from all parts of the globe to say that they had been taught by the original Mr. Chips. He was thirty-three when he wrote this story, but it established him for life.

    EDWARD WEEKS

    PREFACE

    Goodbye, Mr. Chips

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