Chapter 5 Summary

During Paul's summer fellowship at Cambridge, he is supposed to read through Tennyson's letters in the school library and as he does so, he feels that Tennyson was even more depressed than he. Paul relates the subject of unrequited love to his own life. Eventually he grows tired of reading in the library and leaves, to explore this new country. Paul hitchhikes all over it, determined to find a man and make love to him. Despite his determination, Paul is unwilling to make the first move and waits for someone else to do so.

One evening, Paul meets an older gay man who has been in the Navy and Paul plays to the preppie Yale student typecast the man seems attracted to, eventually going home with him. The two sit up together talking, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and soon find themselves in...