The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by

Ann Shaffer

Clovis Fossey Character Analysis

Clovis Fossey is a farmer on Guernsey and one of the original members of the Literary Society. He was at first uninterested in poetry or literature, but decided to give poetry a try when he was trying to court the Widow Hubert: he noticed that she accepted the advances of another man who quoted poetry to her. Eben lent Clovis a book of Wilfred Owen's poems. Owen's poetry did allow Clovis to successfully court and marry the Widow Hubert, and it also introduces him to poetry about World War One as a whole. Clovis fought in the war and finds most poems written about it to be truthful and moving. He's incensed when Amelia lends him The Oxford Book of Modern Verse, 1892-1935, and he reads that the editor deliberately chose to exclude poems about World War One on the grounds that they were about "passive suffering." He acts with Booker in several local theater productions.

Clovis Fossey Quotes in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society quotes below are all either spoken by Clovis Fossey or refer to Clovis Fossey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Literature and Connection Theme Icon
).
Part 1: 4 Mar, 1946 Quotes

Passive Suffering? Passive Suffering! I nearly seized up. What ailed the man? Lieutenant Owen, he wrote a line, "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns." What's passive about that, I'd like to know. That's exactly how they do die. I saw it with my own eyes, and I say to hell with Mr. Yeats.

Related Characters: Clovis Fossey (speaker), Juliet Ashton, Mrs. Amelia Maugery
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis:
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Clovis Fossey Quotes in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society quotes below are all either spoken by Clovis Fossey or refer to Clovis Fossey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Literature and Connection Theme Icon
).
Part 1: 4 Mar, 1946 Quotes

Passive Suffering? Passive Suffering! I nearly seized up. What ailed the man? Lieutenant Owen, he wrote a line, "What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns." What's passive about that, I'd like to know. That's exactly how they do die. I saw it with my own eyes, and I say to hell with Mr. Yeats.

Related Characters: Clovis Fossey (speaker), Juliet Ashton, Mrs. Amelia Maugery
Page Number: 73
Explanation and Analysis: