Your favorite part of Sagittarius Rising

[Willi Von Klugerman]

What is your favorite bit of Cecil Lewis' incredible Sagittarius Rising?

[Chock]

Generally speaking, I think that would be his descriptions of the landscape he was flying over, there's more detail in them than most WW1 biogs, such as him mentioning huge mines going off and gas drifting across the battlefield, things like that. You get a good sense of what it must have been like to be over such a hellish scene.

Al

[Ginger.]

Cecil Lewis was a close friend of Rhys Davids. The account in 'Sagittarius Rising' of them both cavorting through cloud canyons in their SEs, and Lewis's words on hearing of the death of his friend, still bring a lump to the throat of this Englishman.

"So Arthur had gone too. We had been great friends, not obvious inseparables, but joined securely by a deeper tie of understanding and being understood. Sometimes returning from a patrol we would break off and chase each other round about the clouds, zooming their summits, plunging down their white precipitous flanks, darting like fishes through their shadowy crevasses and their secret caves: such pleasure lay in this that never did we seem more intimate that when we traced five-mile hyperbolas across the evening sky. And then to land, grin at each other, stroll into the mess arm-in-arm, still mentally aloft, away up there, remembering the clouds: find me more true perfection."

[Willi Von Klugerman]

My favorite bit is when he started up a 2c on his own and it taxied but he couldn't catch up to it (flight gear slowed him down).At one point he got run over by its wheels with the prop a foot over his head.According to Cecil,the chase lasted a half an hour and three people watched on.His 2c ended up in a hedge.

[stephen]

My favorite part was the secret, forbidden officer's club, where he danced with a girl who captured his heart late into the night. Her identity wasn't disclosed in the book, so I asked him who she was and he said her name was "Zoe." I really enjoyed that part. It really made you feel like you were there, and instead of reading pages on a book, you felt as if you had a special insight into the private lives of two people for those few hours.

[LeicesterTiger]

The end - didn't enjoy it, by far the least enjoyable of all the other personal accounts of WW1 i've read.

The scene with the French lady seemed to have been reproduced, in parts even word for word, in 'Aces High'

[TomVrille]

I don't really have a favorite part of Sagittarius Rising, preferring instead to enjoy the story in it's entirety. The thing I most enjoyed about the book was the graphic writing which is consistent throughout. It has been said that the goal of every author should be to paint a picture, with words, on the blank canvas of his reader's mind. If that is true, Lewis was the literary Rembrandt of Great War writers. (IMHO)

[Willi Von Klugerman]

I also liked the bit where him and "Pip",after they crashed landed,walk on a road across a semi-battered country side,exchanging a few words,a quiet mood.It showed how close he was to "Pip".BTW,does anyone have any pics of Cecil's friends or pics of him in China.Plus what are his other books like?

[TomVrille]

Originally Posted by Willi Von Klugerman

...Plus what are his other books like?

The only other book I have by Lewis is a small volume titled Farewell to Wings. This book contains Lewis' reminiscenses of what it was like to fly 25 different aircraft of the Great War period. I think the best way I can describe this book is to quote from the Foreward in Lewis' own words, that are much more eloquent than my own:

"Since, although 'sound in wind and limb', I have become, at 66, almost a museum piece myself, it seemed permissable -- soon it will be too late -- to fill in a corner of history by reminding myself and anyone who thumbs through these pages of the sparkling dawn of life in the air and the way those antiques, the aircraft of the First World War, behaved."

I enjoyed each account!

[bristol scout]

Whilst heartily agreeing with all of the above---my favourite bit--in a book that is flawless beyond words is----
"The squadron sets out eleven strong on the evening patrol. Eleven chocolate-coloured, lean, noisy bullets, lifting, swaying, turning, rising into formation--two fours and a three---circling and climbing away steadily towards the lines. They are off to deal with Richtofen and his circus of red Albatrosses."

Very evocotive--I know i've quoted them before in support of me being in the 'BROWN' camp for PC10--but I really do 'visualise' that scene--ever since first reading it so many years ago.

Dave.