# XXXVI explained — Lavengro

> Chapter companion for Lavengro by George Borrow.

## What happens

The narrator describes his work compiling the Newgate Lives and Trials, reviewing books for an Oxford Review, and translating the publisher's philosophy into German. He struggles with the publisher's obscure language and his own philosophical doubts about reality, crime, and virtue, while reflecting on the art of plain storytelling.

## Themes in this chapter

### Philology and Learning

The narrator's struggles with translating the publisher's philosophy into German highlight the challenges of linguistic and scholarly work.

### Honor and Morality

The narrator grapples with questions of virtue, crime, and necessity while reading the lives of criminals, and debates the ethics of altering a text in translation.

### Adventure and Roving

The narrator finds the wild and racy adventures in the Newgate Lives more appealing than his scholarly tasks.

## Character check-ins

### Lavengro

The narrator reflects on his work as a translator, reviewer, and compiler, and his philosophical struggles.

### Ab Gwilym

Mentioned as a poet whose 'Ode to the Mist' the narrator translated without altering its mistiness.

### George Borrow

Referenced as the author of the Kiaempe Viser translations, which the narrator treated faithfully.

## Key lines

> I compiled the Chronicles of Newgate; I reviewed books for the Review established on an entirely new principle; and I occasionally tried my best to translate into German portions of the publisher's philosophy.

I worked on the Newgate Chronicles, reviewed for a new kind of Review, and attempted to translate the publisher's philosophy into German.

_Summarizes the narrator's three main occupations during this period._

> I could not for the life of me imagine how, taking all circumstances into consideration, these highwaymen, these pickpockets, should have been anything else than highwaymen and pickpockets; any more than how, taking all circumstances into consideration, Bishop Latimer should have been anything else than Bishop Latimer.

I couldn't see how, given their circumstances, these criminals could have been anything else, just as Bishop Latimer couldn't have been anything else.

_Reflects the narrator's deterministic thoughts on crime and virtue._

> So I went with them to a music booth, where they made me almost drunk with gin, and began to talk their flash language, which I did not understand.

I accompanied them to a music booth, where they got me drunk on gin and spoke in slang I couldn't follow.

_The narrator cites this as a masterpiece of plain narrative style from the Newgate Lives._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se/chapters/xxxvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lavengro_se/chapters