1. Submitted to:
Mrs Sunita Malhotra
Submitted By:
Kanika Bhagchandani
XI-B

3. Novel – THE BROWNING
VERSION

4. Index
 Introduction
 Plot Synopsis
 Author Biography
 His picture
 Life and Career
 Stage plays
 Television Plays
 Our Textbook includes
 Summary of the part of the drama that our textbook includes:
 Word - Notes
 Movies made on this Novel
 British Motion Picture(1944)
 Picture of the DVD
 Cast and introduction
 British Motion Picture(1951)
 Picture of the DVD
 Cast and introduction

5. INTRODUCTION
The Browning Version is the play that cemented Terence Rattigan's reputation as a
serious, mature playwright. It is viewed as one of his best works, and one of the best
one-acts ever written. First performed at the Phoenix Theatre, London, England, on
September 8, 1948, The Browning Version was coupled with another one-act by
Rattigan entitled Harlequinade under the umbrella name, Playbil l. This show ran for
245 performances, and Rattigan received the Ellen Terry Award for The Browning
Version, his second. (The first was won two years earlier for The Winslow Boy.)
The Browning Version made its New York debut with Harlequinade on October 12,
1949, but only ran for sixty-two performances. While praise from British audiences
and critics was nearly universal when the play was performed in England, American
critics were generally not as kind to the Broadway version, perhaps due to the
subject matter.

6. The Browning Version concerns the life of Andrew Crocker-Harris, a classics
schoolmaster at a British public school. Andrew is disliked by his unfaithful wife Millie,
his colleagues, and his students. Rattigan based the character and the story of The
Browning Version on a classics master he had at school as a student.
The Browning Version is sometimes derided for being too sentimental, but many
critics draw a distinction between its sympathetic sentiment and overt sentimentalism.
Most critics and scholars be lieve that Rattigan' s skills as a playwright transcend such
problems. Though only a one-act play, The Browning Version is a well-crafted and
complete psychological study, indicative of his future direction as a playwright.
As John Russell Taylor writes in The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play, "The
Browning Version, as well as being at once Rattigan's tightest and most natural-
seeming construction job up then and his most deeply felt play, marks the beginning of
his most distinctive and personal drama."

7. Plot Synopsis
The story is about Andrew Crocker-Harris, he’s been teaching at a public school for eighteen years,
and is forced to retire prematurely owing to ill-health. Lack of success with his pupils has blighted
his youthful ambition and promise and, with his embittered wife Millie, he faces a future of poverty
and disappointment. Millie's desire for her own particular brand of love, emotional and physical, is
as great as Andrew's desire for the fulfilment of his own platonic ideal.
The tragedy is that neither can satisfy the other's needs. Millie has been seeking consolation in an
affair with Hunter, the science master, who is about to discard her. Andrew finds his protective
armour of indifference and lovelessness pierced by the action of a small boy, Taplow, who gives
him a second-hand copy of Browning's translation of The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, his maser's
favourite play. The violent outburst of emotion which greets this little gesture of goodwill, and
Millie's spiteful attempt to destroy its value in Andrew's eyes -pretending the gift was only a piece of
flattery calculated to evade a punishment -brings the marriage to a crisis. In the last few minutes
before he leaves, Andrew makes an unexpected gesture of defiance towards the Headmaster who
has constantly humiliated him, and finds in the applause that greets his frank apology for his failings
to the assembled school, courage to face a new life. He rejects Millie, who has by this time also
been cast off by her lover.

8. Author
Terence Rattigan

9. Author Biography
Terence Rattigan
Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (June 10, 1911 – November 30, 1977) was one of England's most
important 20th century dramatists. He was born in London of Irish extraction, educated at
Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford, and his plays are generally situated within an upper
middle class background.
Life and career
Success as a playwright came early, with the comedy French Without Tears in 1936, set in a
crammer. Rattigan's determination to write a more serious play produced After the Dance
(1939), a satirical social drama about the 'Bright Young Things' and their failure to politically
engage. The outbreak of the Second World War scuppered any chances of a long run. After
the war Rattigan alternated between comedies and dramas, and after the war, establishing
himself as a major playwright: the most famous of which were The Winslow Boy (1946),
The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952), and Separate Tables (1954).
Rattigan believed in understated emotions, and craftsmanship, which after the overnight
success of John Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' in 1956 was deemed old fashioned.
Rattigan responded to his critical disfavour with some bitterness. Some churlish interviews
served only to confirm the view that he had no sympathy or understanding of the modern
world. His plays Ross, Man and Boy, In Praise of Love, and Cause Célèbre, however show
no sign of any decline in his talent.

10. He was homosexual, with numerous lovers but no long-term partners. It has been claimed that his
work is essentially autobiographical, containing coded references to his sexuality, which he kept
secret from all but the closest friends. There is some truth in this, but it risks being crudely
reductive, for example the repeated claim that Rattigan originally wrote The Deep Blue Sea as a
play about male lovers, turning into a heterosexual play at the last minute, is unfounded. His
female characters are written as females and are in no sense 'men in drag'.
He was diagnosed as having leukaemia in 1962 and recovered two years later, but fell ill again in
1968. He disliked the Swinging Britain of the 1960s and moved abroad, living in Bermuda, and
living off lucrative screenplays (for a time he was the highest-paid screenwriter in the world). He
was knighted in the early seventies and moved back to Britain, where he experienced a minor
revival in his reputation before his death from bone cancer in 1977 at the age of 66.
Fifteen years after his death, largely through a revival of The Deep Blue Sea, at the
Almeida Theatre, London, directed by Karel Reisz, Rattigan has increasingly been seen as one of
the century's finest playwrights, an expert choreographer of emotion, and an anatomist of human
emotional pain. A string of successful revivals followed, including Man and Boy at the Duchess
Theatre, London, in 2005, with David Suchet as Gregor Antonescu, and In Praise of Love at the
Chichester Festival Theatre and Separate Tables at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in 2006.
His play on the last days of Nelson, A Bequest to the Nation was revived on Radio 4 for
Trafalgar 200, starring Janet McTeer as Lady Hamilton, Kenneth Branagh as Nelson, and
Amanda Root as Lady Nelson.

11. His Stage Plays
 1934 First Episode (written with Philip Heimann)
 1936 French Without Tears
 1939 After the Dance
 1942 Flare Path
 1943 While the Sun Shines
 1944 Love in Idleness
 1946 The Winslow Boy
 1948 Playbill (comprising Harlequinade and The Browning Version)
 1949 Adventure Story
 1950 Who is Sylvia?
 1952 The Deep Blue Sea
 1953 The Sleeping Prince
 1954 Separate Tables (comprising Table By the Window and Table No. 7)
 1958 Variation on a Theme
 1960 Ross
 1960 Joie de Vivre (written with Robert Stolz and Paul Dehn)
 1963 Man and Boy
 1970 A Bequest to the Nation
 1973 In Praise of Love (comprising After Lydia and Before Dawn)
 1976 Duologue (stage adaptation of All On Her Own, see below)
 1977 Cause Célèbre

12. Television Plays
1951 Final Test
1962 Heart to Heart
1964 Ninety Years On
1966 Nelson - A Portrait in Miniature
1968 All On Her Own
1972 High Summer
Stage Plays
Several of his later plays were adapted for film and/or television. The
best-known are:
The Winslow Boy (1948 and 1999)
The Browning Version (film: 1951 and 1994;
TV: 1955 and 1985)
The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
Separate Tables (1958)

13. Summary of the part of the drama that
our textbook includes:
Frank is Open ; Crocker Harris is Reserved
Young Frank is quite open to his students. He doesn’t keep any distance while
dealing with his students. Taplow is not a student of his class but still he takes a lot
of interest in him. His long conversation with Taplow reveals his open nature. On
the other hand, Mr. Crocker Harris is quite reserved. He doesn’t mix up with his
students. He maintains some distance with them.
Frank Cares Little ; Crocker Harris a strict Follower of Rules
Frank doesn’t believe in observing formalities. He cares little regarding rules and
regulations. Mr. Crocker Harris follows them very strictly. In this regard he is different
from other teachers. He never leaks out results till they are formally announced.
Two School Masters
This one-act-play is a story of two school teachers and a student named Taplow.
Mr Crocker Harris is a middle aged teacher while Mr Frank is a young colleague of
Mr Harris. Taplow is a student of lower fifth class. He is a boy of 16. Both the
teachers provide a striking contrast. They have only one thing in common. They
belong to the same school.

14. Frank-Envious of Crocker Harris
Mr Crocker Harris is feared and even respected. He has a wonderful hold over
his students. They are scared of him. Frank admits that he is envious of Mr
Crocker Harris. Perhaps he lacks that ‘effect’ which Harris has left over his
students. Frank encourages Taplow to criticize Crocker Harris. Actually, he
urges him to intimate Harris. This clearly reveals the working of his mind. He
even asks Taplow to ‘cut’ Crocker Harris. He lacks Harris’s devotion. He
teaches science but shows no interest in his subject. This shows his lack of
dedication and commitment towards his profession.
Crocker Harris-Shrivelled Inside Like a Nut
Taplow says that Crocker Harris is shriveled inside like a nut. It is quite true.
He is a not open. He doesn’t like flattery. Nor does he like anyone who likes
him. He is a hard task-master. He gives extra work to Taplow even on the
last day of school. This he does to punish Taplow for being absent for a day
last week. Sometimes he cracks jokes. His ‘classical’ jokes lack humour. No
one understands them except him. They are as dry and humourless as he
himself is.
Millie Crocker
Millie Crocker is the wife of Crocker Harris. She is a thin woman in her late
thirties. She is rather more smartly dressed than the ‘general run of
schoolmasters’ wives. Both Frank and Taplow feel her presence. Taplow
feels uneasy. He fears that perhaps she heard him talking ill of Mr. Harris.
She sends Taplow to a chemist. She agrees to take the blame on her in
case Mr Crocker Harris comes in Taplow’s absence

15. WORD - NOTES
Excerpt a part taken from a book or an article etc.
Lower fifth in lower fifth standard
Remove result of promotion
Form class of school
Term fixed or limited period of school year
Criterion a standard of judgement
Favourable suitable/that favours
Slackers idlers/lazy
Muck useless/dirt
Aeschylus a great Greek dramatist
Agamemnon a play written by Aeschylus
Strung bound/woven
Sound appear/look
Bitter displeased/unpleasant
Kept in detained after the class as punishment in school
Comfort consolation
Pretty well quite
Chap person

16. Outright straight
Imitating copying
Throaty that comes out of throat/heavy
Human human qualities
Evidently clearly
Severe hard/harsh
Sadist one who enjoys troubling others
Pause lull
Frightening that causes fear
Shrivelled reduced/squeezed
Funny Strange
Exaggerating over stretching
Classical old fashioned
Readily at once
General run common
Infinitely endlessly
Frantically like a mad man
Cape cloak
Bursar a person who manages the financial matters of a
School/college
Prescription medical recommendations by a doctor

17. THE BROWNING VERSION
British Motion Picture(1944)

18. THE BROWNING VERSION
British Motion Picture(1944)
United Kingdom, 1994
U.S. Release Date: 10/14/94 (wide)
Running Length: 1:37
MPAA Classification: R (Mature themes, language)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast:
Albert Finney
Greta Scacchi
Matthew Modine
Ben Silverstone
Michael Gambon
Julian Sands
Director: Mike Figgis
Producers: Ridley Scott and Mimi Polk
Screenplay: Ronald Harwood based on the film by Terence Rattigan
Cinematography: Jean Francois Robin
Music: Mark Isham
"The Browning Version is the story of a man and his wife and the school -- a
triangle set in a beautiful prison. It is a film about a man finding the courage
to transcend all the things in his life that conspire against him."
- Mike Figgis, director of The Browning Version

19. THE BROWNING VERSION
British Motion Picture(1951)

20. THE BROWNING VERSION
British Motion Picture(1951)
The Browning Version, British motion picture about a boarding school teacher trying to cope with his
wife’s infidelity, based on a play by Terence Rattigan. Released in 1951, the film won awards at the
Cannes Film Festival for Rattigan’s screenplay and for Michael Redgrave’s performance as Andrew
Cocker-Harris, the schoolteacher.
Director
Anthony Asquith
Cast
Michael Redgrave (Andrew Crocker-Harris)
Jean Kent (Millie Crocker-Harris)
Nigel Patrick (Frank Hunter)
Wilfrid Hyde-White (Frobisher)
Brian Smith (Taplow)
Bill Travers (Fletcher)
Ronald Howard (Gilbert)
Paul Medland (Wilson)
Ivan Samson (Lord Baxter)
Josephine Middleton (Mrs. Frobisher)
Peter Jones (Carstairs)
Sarah Lawson (Betty Carstairs)
Scott Harold (Reverend Williamson)
Judith Furse (Mrs. Williamson)
Awards
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Male Performance (1951): Michael Redgrave
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay (1951): Terence Rattigan