His mother had "gone up the school"

Question

Hello:Wonder what"gone up the school"might mean here(the quotation marks belong to the original).His mother had drunk too much stout, "gone up the school" and had him transferred from metal work to Latin, from Civic Studies to French; she had paid a math coach with the earnings of a paper-round she had him sent him out on.A.S. Byatt, Possession, p. 14Is this going to her boy's school, talking to the principal, intervening on her son's behalf, etc?I found this at:go up(British, formal) to begin studying at a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge UniversityHe spent a year travelling in India before going up to Cambridge. but doesn't quite fit here.Thank you,Marius Hancu

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]His mother had drunk too much stout, "gone up the school" and had him transferred from metal work to Latin, ... math coach with the earnings of a paper-round she had him sent him out on. A.S. Byatt, Possession, p. 14[/nq]
The quoted words are regional dialect (as
Byatt indicates by putting them in quotation
marks) as distinct from standard English.
People in northern Britain say go up the XYZ
where southern Britons say go to the XYZ.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]His mother had drunk too much stout, "gone up the ... him sent him out on. A.S. Byatt, Possession, p. 14[/nq]
[nq:1]The quoted words are regional dialect (as Byatt indicates by putting them in quotation marks) as distinct from standard English. People in northern Britain say go up the XYZ where southern Britons say go to the XYZ.[/nq]
Not really. You can hear "Go down that school" in the North and the South. Eastenders go up west or "up the West End". We all go to the hospital to visit our friends though we go to hospital when we are sick. That quote looks a bit dicky, btw. Or is it an American edition where Antonia's "maths" has been changed to "math"? Even so "she had him sent him out on" looks plain wrong and could be put right in more than one way.

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello: Wonder what "gone up the school" might mean here (the quotation marks belong to the original). His mother ... p. 14 Is this going to her boy's school, talking to the principal, intervening on her son's behalf, etc?[/nq]
Yes, that's what she did. It's the same as 'gone up to the school'.

I think denial as a coping strategy is often underrated. (Akuvikate, mkp)

Usenet · Answer

(snip)
[nq:1]That quote looks a bit dicky, btw. Or is it an American edition where Antonia's "maths" has been changed to "math"?[/nq]
If it's not Harry Potter, it wasn't changed. Nobody is aware of any other British book that has been revised in such a way, are they? It is not the custom. Never has been. HP was an exception. (Sure helped sales, though...)
[nq:1]Even so "she had him sent him out on" looks plain wrong and could be put right in more than one way.[/nq]
The sentence turns up on the Web with multilingual translation exercises relating to "pay". There the "s" is back on "maths".

His mother had drunk too much stout, "gone up the school", and had him transferred from metal work to Latin, from Civic Studies to French; she had paid a maths coach with the earnings of a paper-round she had sent him out on.
"Paper-round" (paper route) is just as strange to the US ear as "maths". Then there's "stout" and the "gone up" quote. Nope, anything revised for a US audience would have been revised more than math/maths.

I don't recognize "A.S. Byatt" (I see you do). ABEbooks shows that "Possession" won the (British) Booker Prize, and was first published
1990.

Byatt's Booker-prize winning novel is a stunning and ambitious tale of two young modern academics
uncovering the hitherto unknown love affair of two famous Victorian poets. A fascinating work of
contemporary fiction, a love story and a literary
detective novel. It was recently made into a fine
movie with Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart and Jeremy Northam
Gwyneth Paltrow? That's all right then.

Best Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]The quoted words are regional dialect (as Byatt indicates by ... the XYZ where southern Britons say go to the XYZ.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not really. You can hear "Go down that school" in the North and the South. Eastenders go up west or ... "she had him sent him out on" looks plain wrong and could be put right in more than one way.[/nq]
I agree. "Maths coach" sounds unlikely, too. I've just spent some time looking for my copy of "Possession" to check, but it's gone awol.

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello: Wonder what "gone up the school" might mean here (the quotation marks belong to the original). His mother ... p. 14 Is this going to her boy's school, talking to the principal, intervening on her son's behalf, etc?[/nq]
That's what it sounds like, yes.

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](snip)[/nq]
"The past will connect them. The passion will possess them." Still, Gwyneth is becoming more British than the British, though I see where she is scheduled to play Peggy Lee and Marlene Dietrich in the next couple of years (not in the same film).
Dame Antonia is as well known here for her metaphorical ***-slapping of her sister Margaret Drabble as for he prize-winning prose.
John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]That quote looks a bit dicky, btw. Or is it an American edition where Antonia's "maths" has been changed to "math"?[/nq]
It's an American edition (Random House, New York), but as others have mentioned, I don't think the text was changed for the buying public, on the contrary, but who knows.
Thank you all.
Marius Hancu

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1](snip)[/nq]
[nq:2]That quote looks a bit dicky, btw. Or is it an American edition where Antonia's "maths" has been changed to "math"?[/nq]
[nq:1]If it's not Harry Potter, it wasn't changed. Nobody is aware of any other British book that has been revised in such a way, are they? It is not the custom. Never has been. HP was an exception. (Sure helped sales, though...)[/nq]
Various of Terry Pratchett's books have been changed for an American audience.

I think denial as a coping strategy is often underrated. (Akuvikate, mkp)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]If it's not Harry Potter, it wasn't changed. Nobody is ... has been. HP was an exception. (Sure helped sales, though...)[/nq]
[nq:1]Various of Terry Pratchett's books have been changed for an American audience.[/nq]
Changes can travel eastwards, too. /The Great Gatsby/ was altered for British readers. http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/LP/np-great.html details and analy(z)(s)es the different issues, among which the use of punctuation. The most bizarre points are what the author of the paper labels as "inexplicable", such as the change from "Biloxi, Mississippi" to "Biloxi, Tennessee".
The part about the vocabulary of the First World War is interesting too: the Third Division becomes the First Division.
The whole paper, in fact, is very good.

Isabelle Cecchini
'What sort of woman is she? Has she her wits about her?' 'She's French, sir,'replied Martin succinctly.
/Trent's Last Case/, E. C. Bentley

His mother had "gone up the school"

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