Campion | The Monocled Mutineer

Doctor Who The Movie | Classic Who

Yghhhhh the messy hair and the glasses,,,,,

OMGOMGOMG IM HAVING CAMPION ASKSSSSSS I LOVE THISSSSS

Really enjoyed this one. Strangely, I think it actually really benefited from my having not read the adventures immediately preceding it, because it left me just as much in the dark as the hero. Poor Campion spends the majority of the adventure with a severe concussion and unable to recall who he is, and what he's supposed to be preventing, only that it's extremely urgent. I genuinely didn't know (though I had some informed suspicions) who the people he was describing were immediately.

The book also offers a rather interesting look at Campion's character - his personality when he's suffering from amnesia is different, and when his memory returns it's obvious he's matured somewhat from his earlier adventures. Amnesiac!Campion is frustrated and confused, and much more volatile than normal; he doesn't hide his feelings or attention as easily, is free with demonstrating his affection for Amanda, quick to resort to violence (he sends policemen to the hospital on two separate occasions!), and is single-minded in pursuit of his unknown goal to the point of collapsing twice from lack of food / his damn concussion. He's also a damned fool for having too much pride to confess his memory problems to Amanda.

When regular Campion returns, he's logical and sarcastic and has no recollection of what he's been up to since the first blow to the head. He becomes extremely worried once he pieces it all together again and reintegrates the whole. The transition from old Campion to the new, somewhat humbler from his experiences perhaps, Campion is really well done. Of note, there's a brief passage in the middle of the book that goes into some detail about the impact that the war (this was written and takes place in 1940) has had on him already -- his sense of responsibility has developed further into a full-blown case of passion for his native England and an overwhelming duty to protect it and Amanda and their potential future children. It definitely casts a sombre note over everything in this story.

Speaking of Amanda -- there is, of course, the thread of the status and future of their relationship hanging in the balance throughout the novel. It begins with poor Campion assuming she must be his wife (and delighting in that knowledge) and promptly learning that they are engaged, but she'd like to call it off, actually, because they never really had a love affair, she just sort of decided they'd get married when she met him eight years ago, and she's found someone else who she thinks will actually love her back. Campion is distraught because he can't remember much of anything, but he does know he loves her dearly and has clearly been an idiot in not demonstrating that fact to her sooner.

Some Albert/Amanda quotes; Campion is a man in love and very much in danger of serious heartbreak:

"She looked very young and very intelligent, but not, he thought with sudden satisfaction, clever. A dear girl. The girl, in fact. His sense of possession was tremendous."

...

"She was pretty marvellous. A great surge of desire for comfort from her broke over him"

...

“'He's like you, isn't he?'

'Is he?'

'I think so, very. Except for one important thing.'

'What's that?'

She looked up at him and there was a sort of rueful shyness in her young face.

'He loves me so. He's doing his best about it but it's bubbling out all over him and making him shy and silly, like an undergraduate or a peasant or something. And since he's a great man – because he is brilliant, you know – well, that makes it pretty irresistible.'”

...

“'You've got all the cards, Albert, and fundamentally you're so...'

'So what?'

'So sort of sufficient at heart. So cold. You'll get by.'”

...

“He saw the faint flicker of astonishment in her expression and was puzzled by it until he realised that it was the heartfelt, grateful endearment which had surprised her. That was a revelation which brought him up with a jerk and his sudden sense of desolation was not lightened by the conviction that he deserved it.”

...

"Campion, watching him with his new child's eyes, saw what Amanda liked in him and sized it up like a General inspecting enemy fortifications before the commencement of hostilities."

...

"That was the miraculous part of Amanda; she always seemed to materialize at the right moment. It was as though they were partners in some long practiced game, with years of experience and cooperation behind them."

...

"Campion writhed. The discussion was distasteful and also, he discovered, quite unbearable. (Ah, Amanda! Oh, my blessed smiling sweet! Oh, sensible, clear-eyed, unembarrassed beloved! Oh, dear God Almighty, what is to happen to me without you?)"

...

"She was lovely, she was kind, she was friendly, a right thing in a ghastly unrealistic world. That was it; she was an oasis. No, of course, a mirage! One of those things you see before you die of thirst in a desert and the vultures come and pick your bones into decency before you decay."

...

“They seemed to get on schoolroom terms the moment they spoke together. He must have known her very well for a long time.”

...

“She was part of himself and she was lost. Her going would mean partial disintegration. He felt himself cracking hopelessly, shamefully, before her eyes.”

The conclusion of this mess:

“Let's get married early tomorrow,” he said. “I've only got thirty-six hours' leave.”

...

“Get it right this time, then,” she commanded. “'Begone!' she stormed. 'Across the raging tide!'”

Campion grinned as the delightful cockney rhyme returned to him. He pulled her towards him.

“'Dear Jove! Why did I go?'” he quoted accurately, and kissed her as he finished with triumphant satisfaction the ecstatic Victorian anti-climax, so apt and so absurd, “'I should have stiyed!'”