Jerome
Well-Known Member
Probably his most famous creation is Jorrocks, whose obese features adorn too many repulsive pictures. Jorrocks was a kind of pre-Thatcherite creation: a self-made grocer who takes over a hunt, and the stories about him contain the subsequent "hilarious" mishaps on the hunting field.
So far so bad, but what makes the stories so weak (and this must account for their lack of admirers today) is that Jorrocks is presented as an outsider, a supposedly humorous outlandish city-dweller in an otherwise rural setting. There is a basic lack of "truth" in this which undermines the stories. If anything, Jorrocks is entirely typical of huntsmen. Hunting was and is about townies "playing" at being countrymen. It is about artifice and make-believe, people pretending to be rural types. In Jorrocks Surtees was trying to generate comedy from the clash of town and country when, in the case of hunting, there is no real divide. Hunting essentially IS townies on horseback. If you don't believe me just consider the figure of Charles Moore or Roger Scruton.
If you want a much more successful Surtees character, look at Mr Sponge, who cons his way across England, duping the inhabitants of prosperous country houses, and in the process riding with the local hunts in his bogus role as a country gentleman.
So far so bad, but what makes the stories so weak (and this must account for their lack of admirers today) is that Jorrocks is presented as an outsider, a supposedly humorous outlandish city-dweller in an otherwise rural setting. There is a basic lack of "truth" in this which undermines the stories. If anything, Jorrocks is entirely typical of huntsmen. Hunting was and is about townies "playing" at being countrymen. It is about artifice and make-believe, people pretending to be rural types. In Jorrocks Surtees was trying to generate comedy from the clash of town and country when, in the case of hunting, there is no real divide. Hunting essentially IS townies on horseback. If you don't believe me just consider the figure of Charles Moore or Roger Scruton.
If you want a much more successful Surtees character, look at Mr Sponge, who cons his way across England, duping the inhabitants of prosperous country houses, and in the process riding with the local hunts in his bogus role as a country gentleman.
