Summary of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 My family was not a very attractive sight that afternoon, as the weather had brought with it the usual selection of ills. For me, it had brought catarrh, which had inflamed the convolutions of my ears and made them bleed delicately but persistently.
#2 We sold the house and flew to Greece. We were all travelling light, taking only what we considered to be the bare essentials of life. When we opened our luggage for Customs inspection, the contents of our bags were a fair indication of character and interests.
#3 We arrived in Corfu, the largest of the Greek islands. The sea was calm and the sky was blue, and the island was blanketed in mist. We could see the mountains, and the beaches were as white as tusks among the brilliant rocks.
#4 We arrived in Split, and had to wait for Mother to get Roger into a cab. He had never been in such a vehicle, and he treated it with suspicion. We had to lift him and hurl him inside.

Sujets

• Biography
• General officer
• General
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 25 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547650
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My family was not a very attractive sight that afternoon, as the weather had brought with it the usual selection of ills. For me, it had brought catarrh, which had inflamed the convolutions of my ears and made them bleed delicately but persistently.

#2

We sold the house and flew to Greece. We were all travelling light, taking only what we considered to be the bare essentials of life. When we opened our luggage for Customs inspection, the contents of our bags were a fair indication of character and interests.

#3

We arrived in Corfu, the largest of the Greek islands. The sea was calm and the sky was blue, and the island was blanketed in mist. We could see the mountains, and the beaches were as white as tusks among the brilliant rocks.

#4

We arrived in Split, and had to wait for Mother to get Roger into a cab. He had never been in such a vehicle, and he treated it with suspicion. We had to lift him and hurl him inside.

#5

We arrived at the pension, and the manager showed us to four rooms and a balcony. Mother smiled sweetly, as though our arrival were the most normal thing in the world.

#6

We went to lunch at the hotel. The food was decent, but the service was poor. We were served by the bewhiskered porter, who had become the head waiter simply by donning tails and a celluloid dicky that squeaked like a convention of crickets.

#7

The town was full of funerals, which made Mother very anxious. She wanted to move out of the town, and find a house in the country.

#8

We went house-hunting on our own the next morning. We were convinced that somewhere on the island, there lurked a villa with a bathroom. We did not share Mother's belief, and so it was a slightly irritable and argumentative group that went out house-hunting.

#9

We were taken to look at a villa with a bathroom. It was located on a hilltop, and its view was stunning. It was owned by a man named Spiro Hakiaopulos, who had spent eight years in Chicago and learned his English there.

#10

We arrived at the villa, which was nestled in a curve of hillside. The cypress-trees on the slope gently undulated in the wind, as if they were busily painting the sky a brighter blue for our arrival.

#11

Spiro took over our affairs, and he would take us shopping. He would get the price of an article reduced by two drachmas, which was approximately a penny. It was not the cash, but the principle of the thing.

#12

Spiro knew everyone on Rhodes, and they knew him. He would stop and talk to everyone he passed, and they would greet him affectionately. He was known for his honesty, his belligerence, and his typically Greek disdain for any sort of Governmental red tape.

#13

We were installed in the villa, and we each settled down and adapted ourselves to our surroundings in our respective ways. Margo, by donning a microscopic swim-suit and sun-bathing in the olive-groves, had collected an ardent band of handsome peasant youths who appeared like magic from an apparently deserted landscape whenever a bee flew too near her.

#14

The villa was full of noise and smells, and the family was constantly fighting. Mother was trying to settle in her own way, and was constantly getting distracted by her books.

#15

The garden had a lot of life in it. I learned that the little crab-spiders could change color just like any chameleon. I also found that in the leaves under the fuchsia hedge lived another type of spider, a fierce little huntsman with the cunning and ferocity of a tiger.

#16

I was able to discover many new insects during my time in the jungle. I was especially excited when I found an earwig's nest, as I had long wanted to find one. I guarded the nest jealously, and wrote a warning notice for the family in red ink.

#17

I came to know the plump peasant girls who passed the garden every morning and evening. They were shrill and colorful as parrots, and their chatter and laughter echoed among the olive-trees.

#18

I would wake up and smell the fresh air, the scent of charcoal from the kitchen fire, and the eager cock-crows. I would eat breakfast out in the garden with my family. I would suggest to Roger that we shouldn’t go out today, because it looked like it was going to rain.

#19

I would often go exploring with Roger, my dog, who was the perfect companion for an adventure. We would venture farther and farther afield, discovering quiet, remote olive-groves and villages. We would often come across mentally defective youth who would greet us with a round face and a childlike voice.

#20

I met the shepherd Yani, who was the person I liked the most. He was a tall, slouching man with a great hooked nose like an eagle. I first met him one hot afternoon when I had spent an exhausting hour trying to dig a large green lizard out of its hole in a stone wall.

#21

I met a man named Yani, who was a shepherd, and he warned me not to sleep in the black cypresses. He said that if I did, I would be changed when I woke up. Only the black cypresses are the thief of intelligence.

#22

He had a sharp, fox-like face with large, slanting eyes that appeared black. They had a weird, vacant look about them, and a sort of bloom such as one finds on a plum. His shirt was worn and frayed, and his cravat was blue satin.

#23

The Rose-beetle Man was a very exaggerated start, a low bow, and a tune on his pipe.