Crome Yellow

“He was rather glad that they were all out; it was amusing to wander through the house as though one were exploring a dead, deserted Pompeii.”

Denis imagines Crome as an ancient city whose residents are long dead, further emphasizing both his anxiety about time and establishing the relationship between history and the present as a major theme.

“A match between the Spurs and the Villa entailed a conflict in the heavens so vast and so complicated that it was not to be wondered at if she sometimes made a mistake about the outcome.”

This passage satirizes Priscilla’s use of astrology to predict the outcome of sports matches and sarcastically demonstrates the way Priscilla justifies the fact that this system does not work.

“As for the artist, he is preoccupied with problems that are so unlike those of the ordinary adult man—problems of pure aesthetics which don’t so much as present themselves people like myself—that a description of his mental process is as boring to the ordinary reader as a piece of pure mathematics.”

Mr. Scogan opines on what kind of literature is interesting and what kind is dull, providing a window into the novel’s self-awareness and willingness to make fun of its own subject matter. He also draws a sharp distinction between artists and “ordinary” people, which will be a theme throughout the rest of the text.

“I should like to see myself believing that men are the highway to divinity.”

Anne mockingly restates Denis’s genuine claim that part of his artistic process involves believing that women are the highway to divinity. She thus articulates her progressive approach to gender norms, suggesting that she does not see romantic heterosexual love as a source of inspiration.

“Gombauld ceased talking, and Mary, flushed and outraged, opened her mouth to refute him. But she was too slow. Before she could utter a word Mr. Scogan’s fluty voice had pronounced the opening phrases of a discourse.”

This passage demonstrates the way male characters tend to dominate novels of ideas: Even though Mary wants to argue with Gombauld about the necessity of reproduction, Mr. Scogan already has a discourse prepared and has no compunction about silencing her.

“Four years, he reflected; what were four years, after all? It must inevitably take a long time for Armageddon to ripen, to yeast itself up.”

Reflecting on the sermon in which he predicted World War I was an indication that Armageddon was immanent, Mr. Bodiham justifies this by thinking about the war as the very first sign of the coming apocalypse; in doing so, he reveals how dramatically people who held this belief minimized the extreme violence of the war.

“There they were, Anne and Gombauld, moving together as though they were a single supple creature. The beast with two backs. And he sat in a corner, pretending to read, pretending he didn’t want to dance, pretending he rather despised dancing.”

This scene reveals Denis’s habit of performing certain identities and preferences rather than living as his authentic self. The phrase he uses to think about Anne and Gombauld also highlights his tendency to sexualize situations that make him uncomfortable or from which he feels alienated.

“Vague but agonizing miseries possessed his mind. It was not only Anne who made him miserable; he was wretched about himself, the future, life in general, the universe.”

Unable to sleep, Denis reflects on all the things making him anxious. He uses these things as fodder for his poetry and also as part of his self-definition; in other words, this scene demonstrates how Denis defines himself against the parts of his life that make him the most miserable.

“We now employ our wealth, our technical knowledge, our rich variety of materials for the purpose of building millions of imitation hovels in totally unsuitable surroundings. Could imbecility go further?”

Here, Mr. Scogan uses suburban “imitation hovels” to critique the trend in architecture of building middle-class houses that mimic those in which poor people live. This is part of his larger argument that residences should always look manmade, not naturally occurring.

“A man who would not talk seriously to a woman just because she was a woman—oh, impossible! Egeria or nothing.”

After realizing that Denis was mocking her when he answered “Blight, Mildew, and Smut,” Mary becomes angry on behalf of all women, further revealing her progressive political alignment. According to Roman legend, Egeria was a female nymph and counselor to the second king of Rome.

“He paused, and thoughtfully drummed his with fingers on the backs of the non-existent, unattainable books.”

Here, Mr. Scogan praises the Tales of Knockespotch series for undermining traditional literary realism, which he finds boring and predictable; at the same time, however, the passage suggests that the series does not actually exist, calling into question whether traditional literary realism can actually be undermined.

“My life, Knockespotch said, is not so long that I can afford to spend hours writing or reading descriptions of middle-class interiors.”

In a moment of narrative self-reflexivity, Mr. Scogan suggests that the same kind of bourgeois narrative that undergirds Crome Yellow is itself dull and unappealing.

“It has become customary for serious young women, like Mary, to discuss, with philosophic calm, matters of which the merest hint would have sufficed to throw the youth of the sixties into a delirium of amorous excitement.”

During his speech about how different centuries have reacted to sexual openness, Mr. Scogan directly addresses the differences between the 19th century (referring here to the 1860s) and the present day. In doing so, he meditates on the relationship between modernity and sexuality, a major theme throughout the novel.

“[If] one had an imagination vivid enough and a sympathy sufficiently sensitive really to comprehend and to feel the sufferings of other people, one would never have a moment’s peace.”

As Mr. Scogan discusses the ubiquity of human suffering, he suggests that being aware of this and feeling sympathy for others would lead to a constant feeling of uneasiness—its own kind of suffering.

“For a mind like [Ivor’s], education seemed supererogatory. Training it would only have destroyed his natural aptitude.”

This passage highlights the differences between Ivor and Denis: Ivor learns things easily outside of educational institutions, while Denis clings to his education as a badge of honor and a major part of his self-identification.

“When he had finished [singing], he kissed her. Anne or Mary: Mary or Anne. It didn’t seem to make much difference which it was.”

Ivor reveals his attitude toward women, an attitude that the novel consistently critiques from start to finish.

“He repeated the lines to himself, and was devastated to think about all the murdered past.”

Henry meditates on some lines from a 17th-century poem by John Donne while walking home from church and thinking about how much rural life has changed, and not for the better.

“It was a maternal government, highly centralized, and there were no representative institutions.”

Henry says this after reading the story of George Wimbush and the Lapith sisters, suggesting that in their family, gender roles were reversed, and women had more power than men.

“Crome had been a little incident, an evanescent bubble on the stream of his life; it belonged already to the past.”

Ivor quickly forgets Crome after leaving, which implies that the relationships he cultivated there have little meaning for him. This phrasing also reiterates that Crome has a fundamentally historical identity.

“‘A mental carminative,’ said Mr. Scogan reflexively, ‘That’s what you need.’”

After Denis’s lengthy reflection on the power of poetic language, Mr. Scogan cracks a joke, essentially telling Denis that he should relieve his mental flatulence. This moment underscores the difference between the artistic or literary personality (Denis) and so-called ordinary people (Mr. Scogan).

“If only you knew how gross and awful and boring men are when they try to make love and you don’t want them to make love! If you could only see yourselves through our eyes!”

A frustrated Anne exclaims this to Gombauld when he accuses her of being a malicious temptress. This passage epitomizes Anne’s perspective on gender politics and is particularly notable for the unvarnished, straightforward language she uses to make her point.

“Yes, give me the Tube and Cubismus every time; give me ideas, so snug and neat and simple and well made.”

Mr. Scogan says this to Gombauld when describing his preference for artificial, manmade constructs over natural ones. Notably, he puts technology and visual art into the same category, which suggests that either visual art should be useful, or technology should be aesthetically pleasing.

“He could stand at Piccadilly Circus, could watch the crowds shuffle past, and still imagine himself the one fully conscious, intelligent, individual being among all the thousands.”

Denis experiences an epiphany after finding Jenny’s notebook full of caricatures. By emphasizing his self-centeredness to such an extreme degree, the novel seems to be mocking solipsistic artists and writers and questioning their ability to become fully engaged with the world.