I need help with the novel "All Creatures Great and small"?

Question

i read the book, but i have trouble understanding it. can someone please help me. i have 3 questions and i was hoping if you can help me by at least answering one of them.

1. What makes Herriot's characters so appealing? Is it their "quaintness" or their "humanity?"

2. How important is Herriot's influence on veterinary medicine? Do you think he wrote the book to encourage people to pursue this career? If so, why would he discourage his daughter from becoming a vet?

3.Do you believe that Herriot's portray of rural life in England is realistic or does it strike you as more romantic?

Answer 1

3. I think Herriot loved the country-side he worked in, Yorkshire, right? and that would color his views of it toward romantic... however, in reading all his books on his career there, you would see that he gets extremely realistic about the cold, the hours, the physicality of his job.

2. Herriot also had a TV program in the UK, I've read. I would say his popularity as writer and TV presence would definitely make being a veterinarian more appealing... yet again, he was always honest about the difficulties he encountered, especially in the early years of his practice.

Though he writes, I believe in the book you're on, that being a vet has become a lot simpler than when he started his practice, he may still discourage his daughter (I didn't recall that he had) if he felt she was not really up to the demands put on a doctor of any kind of medicine.

1. Herriot shows his characters first as a bit 'quaint' in their idiosyncrasies, but ultimately the characters, since they are usually based on real people, are shown and are most appealing for their 'humanity.' Pet and animal owners around the world who care for their animals show 'humanity' over 'quaintness,' and that is what showed the most in Herriot's books.

Answer 2

1-They are quaint from the point of view of a person outside of and unfamiliar with Yorkshire, but I doubt people who live in Yorkshire would agree with that. I would say his characters are more appealing because of their (and his) humanity; they show faults and foibles that the reader can recognize - and a love of animals.

2-James Herriot certainly made veterinary medicine look more attractive, but I am not sure that he wrote the series of books for any other reason than that he had a story to tell. He did NOT discourage his daughter from becoming a veterinarian. In fact, he said in the books that he thought she would have made a wonderful vet, but she opted to become a doctor, instead.

3-I believe James Herriot's portrayal is absolutely realistic. Had he romanticized his experiences his books wouldn't be considered non-fiction. I have a reprint of the first edition, and it specifically calls the book a memoir ("an account of the author's personal experiences") and the Library of Congress has it listed as biography.

I hope this helps.

(***Note: I just noticed LJ K's answer, and he made an excellent point about James Herriot's unflinching description of the cold, the hours, the hard work of being a veterinarian; hardly a romanticized version of his life in that field!)