Good-bye, Mr. Chips
James Hilton
Safely charming
I read James Hilton's Goodbye, Mr. Chips as a high school student in the 1970s. I read it after reading and loving his Lost Horizon. I enjoyed Goodbye, Mr. Chips, but not as much.
Mr Chips is Mr Chipping, a beloved teacher at the fictional Brookfield English Public school. (Note: what the English of that time called a "public school" is what we in the USA call a "private school" -- that is, a place where parents pay money to have their children educated.) There's also a love story in there. As a young teacher, Mr Chipping meets and falls in love with a young woman, whom he marries. She's one of these "modern" young women, for 1930s values of "modern", and Chipping's colleagues are not sure at first if she's a suitable partner for a public school master.
I like my books a little dangerous. For instance, a book in which spiders are heroes, or a book whose hero is a difficult, unpleasant little girl. Goodbye, Mr. Chips is the opposite of dangerous. Many people who read books for pleasure remember a favorite schoolteacher. And if the schoolteacher falls in love with a pretty young woman, that's sure to be a crowd-pleaser!
Now, many readers have loved Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and they're not wrong! You're right to love what you love. For me, though, Hilton is too obviously playing it safe in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.