Prince Harry's favorite book at Eton was Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

2023-01-05

Prince Harry’s favorite book at Eton was Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men because characters George and Lennie ‘reminded him of his relationship with William’

Harry’s book Spare was released in Spain today five days ahead of schedule
He details how he struggled academically at Eton, the elite English boys’ boarding school he and Prince William attended
Harry says he struggled with Shakespeare but loved the American classic Of Mice and Men
The book launches a fresh attack on William and the Royal Family

Prince Harry’s favorite book at Eton was the American novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a story he says reminded him of his relationship with his brother William, he reveals in his new memoir Spare.

In the book – released accidentally today in Spain, five days ahead of schedule – Harry talks about his struggles with Shakespeare and French lessons at Eton, revealing how his father, King Charles, despaired over his lack of interest and would force him to attend plays on days off.

One book he did enjoy was Steinbeck’s classic, he said.

‘The piece of literature that I do remember liking and even enjoying is a short American novel. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.

Princes Harry and William as teenagers in 2003. Harry describes in his new memoir Spare how William ‘acted like he didn’t know him’ while the pair studied at the elite English boarding school Eton

Gary Sinise and John Malkovich in the 1992 film adaptation of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

‘We were assigned to read in English language units. Unlike Shakespeare, Steinbeck did not need a translator. He wrote in the vernacular, plain and simple. Better yet, it was brief. Of mice and men: one hundred and fifty little pages of nothing.

‘And best of all: the argument was entertaining. Two uncles, George and Lennie, roam California looking for a place to call home, trying to overcome their limitations.

‘Neither of them is a genius, but Lennie’s problems seem like more than just low IQ. He carries a dead mouse in his pocket and strokes it with his finger, to calm down. He also kills a puppy dog because he loves it very much.

‘A story of friendship, of camaraderie, of loyalty, full of topics that I felt I could talk about.

‘George and Lennie reminded me of Willy and me. Two companions, two nomads, who lived through the same circumstances and who cared for each other.

‘As Steinbeck puts it in the mouth of one of his characters: “A man needs someone, someone who is close. You go crazy if you don’t have anyone.”

‘What a true sentence. I wanted to share it with Willy. Too bad he kept pretending he didn’t know me,’ he wrote.

Harry’s memoir Spare was published in Spain today five days ahead of schedule

Harry claims in the book that his older brother froze him out at boarding school, determined to make his own friends and distance himself from his family.

Steinbeck’s book, widely taught in classrooms both in the UK and the US, ends with George shooting Lennie in a mercy killing.

The premise of the book hinges on Lennie being unaware of his own strength; he accidentally kills animals and then accidentally snaps the neck of his boss’ wife while stroking her hair.

Harry, describing his hatred of Shakespeare which enraged his father, writes: ‘I never doubted how annoyed my father was that I was one of those barbarians who ignored Shakespeare. And I tried to change. I opened Hamlet. Hmm… A lonely prince, obsessed with the death of a parent, watches the one who is still alive fall in love with the one who usurps the place of the one who has died…

‘I slammed it shut. No, thanks.’

He describes being dragged to plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, by his father to watch plays.

‘He took me with him from time to time. We would show up unannounced and see the play that was being performed at the time, my father didn’t care what it was. And me too, although for different reasons. Everything together was torture.

‘Many nights I understood almost nothing of what they said or did on stage. But when I understood it, it was worse. The words burned me inside. They worried me.

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Harry claims Wills and Kate ‘told him’ to wear Nazi uniform

‘Why should I want to know anything about a kingdom “where death forces hearts to be kept in sadness” and where “only the image of pain is observed”? All I did was remember that August of 1997. Why should he want to meditate on the unchangeable fact that “everyone who lives must die, passing from nature to eternity”? I had no time to think about eternity,’ he wrote.

Harry’s book Spare was not due to be published until Tuesday but Spanish publishers jumped the gun, releasing it today.

In other sections of the book, Harry reveals how he lost his virginity to an ‘older woman’ who ‘spanked his a**’ as they made love in a field.

‘I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and sent me away. One of my many mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a very busy pub,’ he said.

He also claims Wills and Kate ‘told’ him to wear the Nazi uniform that became his biggest shame in 2005, and that they’d ‘howled with laughter’ over it.

In one of the most damaging allegations to emerge from the book so far, he also claims his brother knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over how he and Meghan, and their strained relationship with the Royal Family.

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