Chapter 31 Summary and Analysis

Sassoon visited Graves on the ship before his departure for Egypt in 1926. The ship stopped at Gibraltar and then passed close to an erupting volcano. Graves had relatives living in Cairo and they helped him locate suitable housing. The university was newly founded and few of the students were fluent in English or French, yet most of the professors spoke only one or both of those two languages. Graves' lectures turned into rather comic weekly affairs where he had to shout to be heard over the excited students. Lectures, handouts, and examinations were all translated in Arabic. Graves enjoyed learning the local customs and culture and discusses some interesting aspects of Egyptian life. Nevertheless, the politics of school life were complex and distasteful and Graves found the standard of academia execrable. However, Graves was highly paid, lightly worked, and found the...