THE MERTON SOCIETY

America's Oldest "Tea Drinking and Whisky" Speaking Society

FORUM

The Merton Society Forum Page provides an opportunity for Members to share articles, correspondence and general commentary with the viewing public. The following items currently are available for perusal and/or participation:


  • Letters to Reginald (consisting of dispatches from Society correspondents regarding their various adventures in the field)

Letters to Reginald


Reginald on Topics of Interest to the Merton Society:

"There are certain fixed rules that one observes for one's own comfort. For instance, never be flippantly rude to any inoffensive, grey-bearded stranger that you may meet in pine forests or hotel smoking-rooms on the Continent. It always turns out to be the King of Sweden."

"And I think there should be a sort of bounty-fed export (is that the right expression?) of the people who impress on you that you ought to take life seriously. There are only two classes that really can't help taking life seriously--schoolgirls of thirteen and Hohenzollerns; they might be exempt. Albanians come under another heading; they take life whenever they get the opportunity."

"To be clever in the afternoon argues that one is dining nowhere in the evening....To die before being painted by Sargent is to go to heaven prematurely."

"People may say what they like about the decay of Christianity; the religious system that produced green Chartreuse can never really die."

--These and other scintillating quotes by Reginald can be found in The Complete Works of Saki, by H.H. Munro, a book that holds the record for remaining the longest period of time on the Merton Librarian's Recommended Reading List.


The following dispatches from loyal Society correspondents describe various adventures of certain Society members while on assignment in the field. In some cases, the names have been changed to protect the less innocent parties.



Articles and Other Items We Like

The Merton Librarian's

Recommended Reading List

  • The Complete Works of Saki, by H.H. Munro. First published in 1904, a collection of humourous short stories about English society prior to "The Great War," featuring Reginald, Clovis and other noteworthy characters.

  • This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald's classic novel about Princeton and egoism.

  • Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome. First published in 1889, an account of an eccentric journey up the Thames River by rowing boat, featuring three young men and Montmorency the dog.

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