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Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England Paperback – March 14, 1995

by Paul Watkins (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 65 ratings
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In this enthralling and sometimes harrowing memoir, the acclaimed author of The Promise of Light gives us a masterly companion to such classics as Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace. 

At the age of seven, Paul Watkins was roughly transplanted from his home in Rhode Island to England's Dragon School. He was greeted by a delegation of bullies who, in time, would become his friends and whose rules would become his own. For at Dragon, and later at Eton, "there was no middle ground. You could not go here and come out not caring one way or the other. You had to stand before your God and commit."

Here are the masters who paddle boys for small infractions and then offer them sweets; the seniors who pamper pretty favorites and subject all others to humiliating servitude; the deep friendships and sudden, devastating betrayals. Above all, here is the exhilaration of a boy discovering own capacities for learning and creativity, in a book that conveys with astonishing insight the pangs of growing up.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    March 14, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    5.16 x 0.62 x 8.07 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679759417
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679759416
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The literature of school includes such classics as Tom Brown's School Days and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. No one has ever told it so well from the student's point of view as Paul Watkins." -- Denver Post

"Strong and evocative. . . smoothly written. . . romantic."--The New York Times Book Review.

From the Inside Flap

At the age of seven, Paul Watkins was roughly transplanted from his home in Rhode Island to England's Dragon School. He was greeted by a delegation of bullies who, in time, would become his friends and whose rules would become his own. For at Dragon, and later at Eton, "there was no middle ground. You could not go here and come out not caring one way or the other. You had to stand before your God and commit."

In this enthralling and sometimes harrowing memoir, the acclaimed author of The Promise of Light gives us a masterly companion to such classics as Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace. Here are the masters who paddle boys for small infractions and then offer them sweets; the seniors who pamper pretty favorites and subject all others to humiliating servitude; the deep friendships and sudden, devastating betrayals. Above all, here is the exhilaration of a boy discovering own capacities for learning and creativity, in a book that conveys with astonishing insight the pangs of growing up.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 14, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679759417
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679759416
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.16 x 0.62 x 8.07 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 65 ratings

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Paul Watkins

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
65 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

N.P.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2023
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This is a great book. I couldn't put it down. It really gives an inside look on what it is like to attend boarding school in England. Highly recommend this book.
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Peter R. Koehler
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the best book I have read in years
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2015
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This is the best book I have read in years, As I to was an American boy that one day
Found that I was in an English public school and had to adapt.
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Scott Jensen
4.0 out of 5 stars Going along for the ride
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2005
It was a very moving and yet calm memoir. Thankfully, it didn't use a calendar and go month by month but had a smooth flow of relative time. There were parts that made you laugh outloud and others made you pause to take them in. He doesn't present himself as a saint or demon. This book isn't a rip on English public schools (we'd call them private schools here in the US) nor does it unashamedly praise them. I think it would do the students a lot of good at English public schools and American private schools to read this. I'd even go so far as recommend that it be mandatory reading for first-years at those schools.

I would have given it five stars if it had a better ending telling what was the current status of the boys and teachers he told about in the book. It being written ten years after he graduated from Eton. If there is ever a new edition, I hope such an epilogue is added. Or...

I would enjoy it if the author were to make a sequel where he goes around and interviews his old school chums after these many years. To gain their reflection. To exchange school tales. To get a perspective on each other. To find out what happened to them ... both the living and the dead. Even going so far as doing a bit of private investigation work to verify facts and claims. I think that would be a very interesting and engaging read.
2 people found this helpful
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Paul
5.0 out of 5 stars Page-Turner!
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2015
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One of the best books I've read. Paul Watkins leaves Rhode Island to attend school in England. He is seven years old. This memoir reminds me of A Separate Peace.
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Working Mom
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, honest story!
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2014
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This book was recommended by a friend who attended both schools as a child. I found it wonderfully honest and telling. A great read and very quick.
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Chandler
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2015
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Just what I needed for class.
One person found this helpful
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Estremera
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2014
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Beautifully written.
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Mary Pagones
5.0 out of 5 stars An insider's perspective of Eton, beautifully told
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2018
When this book was first published, I bought it as soon as I heard of its existence. Like many American Anglophiles, the cloistered world of the British public (what we Yanks would call private or prep school) system fascinated me. Watkins' perspective was unique--although he was born in America and was a dual citizen, his American-dwelling parents elected to send their seven-year-old son to England, to the Dragon School, in preparation for entering Eton.

Normally, I'm not a fan of memoirs because they always feel somewhat artificial and lack a really satisfying sense of story. Although it is true that the book inevitably lacks a certain amount of focus due to the fact that it is based on someone's life, and Watkins' insight and focus on himself sometimes leads him to ignore fleshing out some characters the reader might prefer to learn more about, its strengths and insights vastly outweigh any weaknesses inherent to the format.

The section on Watkins' time in Eton is particularly strong, given that as an adolescent he is capable of far more insight into his experiences than he is as a child. The book roughly contains three sections--his time at the Dragon, coming to grips with his father's untimely death from cancer (I realize, soberly, that although his father seemed old to me when I first read the book, I'm now the man's age), and finally trying to understand the Eton experience itself and how it made him the man he became.

One thing I would like to stress--what I loved about this book is that it wasn't a fish-out-of water story, or a critique of the British system from an American perspective. To go through Eton, Watkins had to lose his secure identity as an American, although of course he never could become thoroughly British. It is this quality of being betwixt and between worlds that makes his perspective so valuable, and he refuses to judge either world (his summers in New England back home and his British schooling) by one another's standards.

I will end, however, by noting the palpable sense of the sacrifice of the soldiers of the Great War that hangs over Eton and which drove Watkins to go backpacking to visit memorials to and graves of the dead soldiers during a school holiday. There are many negatives about the system Watkins details, clearly, but I don't recall the misery of the Bad War being driven home in my American schooling the same way as Watkins. I wish it did. I wish all school systems did.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Patricia
5.0 out of 5 stars Privileged upbringing?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2012
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If you have ever wondered what makes the Man, Paul Watkins book is a real eye opener and it has completely destroyed my long held misconception that children in boarding schools are a spoilt and privileged lot. It provides a facinating in-depth account of his education from the tender age of 8yrs old, from his baptism at the Dragon School, leading on to Eton.
You have to be strong to survive in these establishments, Harry Potter it isn't. Lots of seemingly trivial rules and regulations must be obeyed, all backed by strict and unrelenting punishments if you don't. It almost makes our average Secondary school seem like a holiday camp in comparison. No supportive Mums & Dads around to fight in your corner, you're on your own kid, sink or swim.
A truly lonely and frightening world to find yourself abandoned in at just 8yrs old and I now understand why its regarded as 'character building'.
He makes it through obviously and to his credit I found this book very enjoyable and informative. Couldn't help wondering though who among our present day 'leaders' were there at the same time as he. Paul is no 'tell-tale' so there aren't many clues in the 'nicknames'of his fellow pupils, just a few tantalising resemblances and facinating insights of the influences our 'ruling classes'are subjected too.
6 people found this helpful
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Billy The Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly worthy and beautiful tale of boyhood. Keep it and re-read it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2017
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This is the second time I have purchased this book as I loaned my last copy out and never got it back. This is truly a book well worth reading and re-reading; the author writes of his childhood in a way that not many writers have ever equalled and although my own childhood was very, very different to Paul Watkins' life, there are episodes which truly stand out and bring back memories from over sixty years ago.
I have just finished my second reading of it and there is so much to think about that I suspect I must even read it at least once again even though time is closing in and there are so many books to open.

So many books, so little time ...
One person found this helpful
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Surreybloke
4.0 out of 5 stars Fine non hyped account of boarding school life.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2019
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This is a very readable account of life at two boarding schools. The story is told in a matter of fact way that neither demonises boarding school life nor praises it to the rafters.
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B. S. Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars A marvellous book!!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2016
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I greatly enjoyed this book. Watkins writes with insight and great honesty about his experience of growing up as an 'outsider' in two cultures --(UK and United States)He chronicles his struggles to find himself in these two very different environments. The laid back easy East coast of America, and the class bound and segregated life of England's premier public school. He describes how it is his friendships at Eton that help him initially 'keep afloat' in this strange world as he negotiates his path through adolescence. He writes honestly about his own doubts and shortcomings
as well as forensically exposing the character traits of others. His story is laced with wit and humour which lightens the darker passages.
A terrific book which will remain my stand out read of the last year.
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ConservativeMom
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2017
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A terrific read for understanding Dragon and Eton, then and now.
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