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“THE TERRIBLE MÄELSTROM OF DEBT”: CREDIT, CONSUMPTION, AND MASCULINITY IN OXBRIDGE FICTION, 1841–1911
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2016
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In 1907, writer and Oxford graduate Lionel Portman began his novel The Progress of Hugh Rendal: A 'Varsity Story with an impassioned attack on the university system of fees and credit. “An unrighteous anomaly it seems that on entering Oxford University the first thing you have to do is to pay money,” Portman protests,
Once entered, apparently, you may owe it to the limit of your taste. The shops smile “Credit;” the streets sing of it, the breezes whisper “Put it down”; the whole spirit of the place assumes it as a matter of course; and that so sweet a symphony should begin on so harsh a chord appears an outrage unpardonable. But so in the wisdom of most colleges it is ordained. Thirty pounds, “caution money,” must be paid to the Bursar before he will write your name in his book of the Elect. And till this is paid, be your other debts what they may, you cannot owe to College or University. (1)
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016