The Red Door Read Online Free PDF

seemingly irreconcilable opposites in a single (and sometimes wholly enigmatic) dualism.
    Naturally, one of the most pressing themes in the stories is that of education: the nature of education and of the institutions and individuals who decide what and how to teach. ‘Murder
without pain’ introduces us to Mr Trill, a name Crichton Smith calls upon in a number of stories and poems. Indeed, Trill represents an archetypal Crichton Smith figure: the principled
bachelor, a man so dedicated to routine his life seems to have shrunk all about him.
    Trill is a devotee of the Roman intellect. He is such an admirer of the Classical contribution to culture that the reader feels he is almost out of place in the modern world. Disciplined, cool,
patient, respectful of that which he deems worthy of his respect, he feels threatened as his world-view is challenged by events at his school. The ending of this story – sometimes dismissed
as melodramatic – is confessedly and classically dramatic, as Trill decides to execute a form of justice that is ‘Greek to its very essence’.
    ‘The Ring’ is based upon an actual event that Iain witnessed during his own schooldays. It is told from the point of view of a pupil, but with the later revelation that the pupil
grew up to become a teacher. It is enticingly narrated and is, I think, one of Crichton Smith’s finest stories. The pupil’s attitude is clear: ‘After all, teachers were invincible
beings who appeared at the beginning of a period and left at the end of it . . . they were not human beings . . . like the rest of us.’ The adult’s subsequent attitude towards teaching
is clear, too, if more cynical:
    It seemed to me that the best thing about geometry was it never lied to you, which is why I myself am a mathematics teacher as well. It has nothing to do with pain or
     loss. Its refuge is always secure and without mythology.
    ‘The Play’ is an excellent and hugely engaging story that is also based upon a real event, this time when he was teaching at Oban High School. The girls in the class have ‘. .
. a fixed antipathy to the written word’. The teacher decides that if they will not read or write (‘Shakespeare is not necessary for hairdressing’ as he wryly concedes) then the
girls can involve themselves by acting out dramas. The story is an uplifting and a memorable one. Crichton Smith’s responsibility is to the human – not to the régime – to
individuality and not to conformity. The real-life drama of the original incident that inspired the story resulted in an astonished and pleased school inspector: meanwhile we empathise with the
teacher completely as he broods upon Miss Stewart’s snobbish dismissal of the pupils’ (and teacher’s) achievements:
    You stupid bitch, he muttered under his breath, you
Observer
-Magazine-reading bitch who never liked anything in your life till some critic made it
     respectable, who wouldn’t recognise a good line of poetry or prose till sanctified by the voice of London, who would never have arrived at Shakespeare on your own till you were
     given the crutches.
    This story of triumph
is
a triumph.
    The Black and the Red
collection modulates into a new key with the masterful final story, ‘The Professor and the Comics’, an excellent narrative that melds the serious and
the humorous to great effect. The aptly named Professor Black’s comment that ‘Everything is different in spring . . . except history’ is dry and thought-flipping, like a Wildean
phrase.
    The sinister shadows that lurk around many of Crichton Smith’s stories are often tempered by a humour that is clever, offbeat, punny or satirical. ‘By their Fruits’ runs in
parallel with Iain’s (posthumously published) narrative poem, ‘My Canadian Uncle’ and draws inspiration from a trip Iain and Donalda made to White Rock (Canada) to meet
Iain’s uncle, Torquil Campbell. It brings together a number of very Highland themes – exile, religion,