The Paper Chase by John Jay Osborn, Jr.: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

 

Today's Featured Book: 

The Paper Chase

by John Jay Osborn, Jr.

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1970

Page Count: 200 pages

Summary: 

The Paper Chase is the story of a young midwesterner, James Hart, who finds himself in the great classrooms of Langdell Hall at Harvard Law School, locked in a zero-sum game with a dominating, omniscient deity: Professor Kingsfield. Kingsfield is the sort of teacher who asks not just for the student's mind, but for his soul. You quail at his exams, exult when you know the answers, and love-hate him. THE PAPER CHASE is also a love story, as contemporary today as it was when the book was written, of a boy from the midwest and a mysterious and demanding professor's daughter who refuses to accept accepted wisdom or role models and demands from Hart a love that transcends law school and conventional norms.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

Professor Kingsfield, who should have been reviewing the cases he would offer his first class of the year, stared down from the window forming most of the far wall of his second story office in Langdell Hall and watched the students walking to class. 

He was panting. Professor Kingsfield had just done forty push-ups on his green carpet. His vest was pulled tight around his small stomach and it seemed, each time his heart heaved, the buttons would give way. 

A pyramid-shaped wooden box, built for keeping time during piano lessons, was ticking on his desk and he stopped its pendulum. Professor Kingsfield did his push-ups in four-four time. 

His secretary knocked on the door and reminded him that if he didn’t get moving he’d be late. She paused in the doorway, watching his heaving chest. Since Crane had broken his hip in a fall from the lecture platform, Professor Kingsfield was the oldest active member of the Harvard Law School faculty. 

He noticed her concern and smiled, picked up the casebook he had written thirty years before, threw his jacket over his shoulder and left the office.

Osborn, John. The Paper Chase. Kindle Edition. 

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

The discussion was close to resolution. Its lines were about to converge when Kingsfield stopped them. “All right,” he said, “that’s enough.” He looked down, unbuttoned his coat, pulled out his gold watch and checked the time. 

Hart looked at the others. It was as though all the people who had been talking were frozen: mouths still open, hands still raised, pens poised over notebooks. They were on the edge of bursting out, continuing the argument in spite of Kingsfield. 

“We always seem to hear from the same people,” Kingsfield said. “Would someone who has not contributed care to speak? Someone who usually does not raise his hand?” 

Hart sighed. No one would raise his hand. A hand up would be an admission that normally the hand was not raised. An admission that one was a coward. This was taking up time. They might not finish the discussion. 

“I suppose I’ll have to ferret you out then,” Kingsfield said, looking irritated because, as always, there were no new volunteers. “Mr. Brooks, will you give the facts of Tinn versus Hoffmann?”

Osborn, John. The Paper Chase . BookMobile. Kindle Edition. 

In 1975, I saw a movie that changed my life. I always felt like this movie was made just for me. I was tired of going to college---I started the day after I graduated from high school, and after only twelve months of college, I was burned out. The movie that changed my life was The Paper Chase. 

It's the story of a young man, James Hart, who is determined to be the best student in the class of a formidable professor, Professor Kingsfield, at Harvard Law School. James does become an accomplished student, but in the end he realizes Kingsfield will never give him the acknowledgment he desires. 

The movie ends with him folding his report card into a paper airplane and sailing it away. And that's what I longed to do. 

But of course I did not. 

And the author of the book from which the movie was made also, I learned, did not fold his report card into a paper airplane and sail it away. Ironically, author John Osborn finished at Harvard Law, and actually became a professor much like Kingsfield.

I've been wanting for many years to read the book from which this movie was made and to see this movie again. And now I have done both.

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

October 18-24. What novel would you recommend that blends characteristics of your favorite genre with horror concepts, and why?

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch won the 2024 Booker Prize. It's a book of literary fiction, but it is filled with suspense, drama, and, yes, even horror.