Morris Zapp

• 40 years old
• smoker
• he never left america so far
• never been to England
• on his flight, he was the only man on board
• long gorilla-like arms
• professor of English Literature
• cannot swim
• light-headed
• veteran of long distance flying
• he exaggerates
• he's got his second wife, Desirée; she wants the divorce
• two children: Elizabeth and Darcy
• distinguished
• published articles in PMLA (journal of the Modern Language Association of America)
• published 5 books
• achieved rank of full prof at the age of 30
• wife wants him to move away for half a year → Morris takes the exchange job
• is prone to indigestion after rich restaurant meals
• usually needs a sleeping-pill before retiring
• develops a pot-belly
• has neither affection nor respect for the British (thinks they act like fags = gays)

('bottomless morass of English manners' p.47)

• apartment on the top floor of a huge old house owned by an Irish doctor called O'Shea

Philipp Swallow

• afraid of flying
• 40 years old
• unaccustomed to traveling
• unconfident
• infinitely suggestible
• observes other people
• conservative/traditional
• married
• good imagination
• professor of English Literature
• excited about flying/travelling
• he met Charles Boon, an old student of him, on his flight and he is going to Euphoria State School, too
• not distinguished
• he liked examinations and did well in them
• Finals had been the supreme moment of his life
• truely loved literature
• applied for a Fellowship to America
• applied for an Assistant Lectureship at the University of Rummidge
• went to Harvard but he didn't really like it
• got to know Hilary Broome (postgraduate student)
• asked her to marry him
• they were married by an Episcopalian minister in Boston
• unsuspected, long repressed appetite for sensual pleasure
• relaxed, confident, happy
• learned to drive Hilary's Chevrolet Impala
• sailed back to England (Hilary pregnant)
• three years later: second child came and third was on the way
• large, damp and draughty Victorian villa
• sexual life is neglected
• is glad that he can escape from his normal life (no responsibility for family every day)
• rents an apartment high up on Pythagoras Drive (which slides down the hill after every earthquake)
• Melany Byrd lives with two other girls in the apartment under Phil

Euphoric State University

• a long existing scheme for the exchange of visiting teachers
• in California
• lavish provision of laboratories, libraries
• not too diffucult to obtain a bachelor's degree
• students are left very much to their own devices
• necessary credits are accumulated at free time
• cheating at school is easy
• pressure at schhol begins at postgraduate level
• students have time for sports, alcohol, entertainment, opposite sex
• campus with itsw hite buildings, bosky paths, its campanile and plaza, its lecture rooms, stadia and laboratories

Rummidge

• a long existing scheme for the exchange of visiting teachers
• in the English Midlands
• pressure is much bigger than in the US
• student is lonely, forlorn, uncertain

USA

• sunny weather
• cold beer
• heated open-air swimming pools
• multi-flavoured ice-cream
• violent and melodramatic land
• divisions of race and ideology
• traumatized by political assassinations
• campuses in revolt
• cities seizing up
• countryside poisoned and devastated
• Phil has a nice ambience around his flat and a nice view (nature, sea; p.56)

Britain

• rain
• Morris' view is not as beautiful (dank back gardens, ill-looking trees, grimy roofs, factory chimneys; p.57)