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The Invisible Man

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The Invisible Man was first published as an abridged serial version in Pearson’s Weekly in 1897. It then appeared in single volume book format later the same year in England and America. It is worth noting that the ‘Epilogue’ that follows the end of the main story was added after the first edition. This does not significantly alter the ‘facts’ of the main narrative, but it does introduce a shift in tone after the dramatic finale to the tale.

The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man – critical commentary

The structure

The story is split into three parts, which are presented out of their chronological sequence. If the actual order of events as they happened is represented by 1- 2 – 3, they are revealed to the reader in the order 2 – 1 – 3. In other words the novel begins part way through the story.

The Invisible Man is on the run when he arrives in the village of Iping at the start of the novel, causing havoc amongst the Sussex locals. This is the start of Part 2 in the events of the narrative. After a lot of high jinx amongst the villagers, he locates his friend Dr Kemp, to whom he then reveals the origins and the scientific basis of his experiment, and the reasons he has had to escape from London. His account to Kemp is Part 1 of events, or the ‘back story’.

When Kemp alerts the police to the possible danger posed by the Invisible Man, this leads to the attack on Kemp’s house then to the pursuit of the Invisible Man. These events constitute Part 3 of the novel, which culminates in his being killed by a man with a shovel.

As a structure it has a lot of potential – because as readers we are as puzzled as the hapless residents of Iping by the strange events at the start of the novel. In Part 1 we do not know why the man is invisible or how he has got into such a state. Then in Part 2 we are given a quasi-scientific ‘explanation’ of how this experiment has been brought about. Finally, in Part 3 we are invited to witness some of its social and personal consequences.

But the problem is that there are huge differences of tone and content in the three different parts – and very little in the way of a common thread holding them all together.

The first part of the novel reads like a third rate farce, or the story line in a children’s comic. There are stock yokel figures baffled by events they do not understand – which include disappearing clothes, moving furniture, interfering vicar and local doctor, doors mysteriously opening and closing, and a melee at the Whit Monday festival, with people actually crying out “Stop thief!”. There is nothing remotely serious in these events.

Yet when the Invisible Man explains the origins and development of his experimental investigations to Kemp, we are expected to take the narrative seriously. And maybe we do – up to a point. But there are major shifts in tone and substance which disrupt the coherence of the text.

Suddenly in the second part of the novel the Invisible Man runs out of money and robs his own father, who in turn commits suicide, because his money belonged to somebody else. Then the Invisible Man sets fire to the house where he lodges (which just happens to be owned by a Jew). These are events of a different kind that belong to a different literary genre from the events in the first part of the novel.

In the final part of the story we are expected to believe that the Invisible Man becomes a homicidal maniac and suddenly develops a desire to establish a ‘Reign of Terror’. There is no credible psychological explanation offered for this sudden megalomania. None of this presaged by what we know of him from the earlier parts of the story, and the switch from farce to what purports to be a sort of existential terror is just not credible.

Is it a novel?

H.G. Wells classified the books of the 1890s that catapulted him to fame as ‘scientific romances’. The term ‘romance’ had originally been a literary genre for works that were set in non-real or imaginary worlds. Wells was following the trend set in France by Jules Verne with works such as Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in 80 Days (1873). All of these (including Wells’ own stories) are what we now call ‘science fiction’.

But The Invisible Man is set in the very real worlds of London and the Sussex downs and seacoast, so it does not fall into the ‘romance’ category. The events of the narrative centre almost exclusively on one character – the Invisible Man. Only the character of his friend Dr Kemp is in any way psychologically developed, and the narrative makes no attempt to develop secondary themes or the social texture of a realistic fiction.

It is less than 50,000 words long – yet it does not have any of the thematic density and intellectual coherence of a novella – so perhaps the safest classification would be to call it a ‘short novel’.

One good idea

The Invisible Man is one of H.G. Wells’ earliest works, and it can hardly be called a literary success. The writing is clumsy and full of cliches; his characterisation is amateurish; he makes lots of mistakes in the chronology of events (even describing scenes twice); and the novel seems to change its purpose as the story progresses. Yet just as in his novel of the previous year (The Island of Doctor Moreau) he created a work with lasting appeal because it based on one good idea.

We know that even the cleverest research scientist cannot really make himself invisible. (Just as we know that Doctor Moreau cannot really make half-human creatures out of animals and teach them to speak.) But we are prepared to suspend our disbelief in exchange for literary entertainment and maybe some thought-provoking ideas.

The idea of somebody making himself invisible is one of those good single ideas that have struck home, endured, and spread – especially in the realms of popular media. There have been several screen adaptations of the novel, and lots of spin offs. This is the 1933 version directed by James Whale, with screenplay by R.C. Sherriff. Starring – Claude Rains (Dr Jack Griffin, The Invisible Man), Gloria Stuart (Flora Cranley), William Harrigan (Dr Arthur Kemp), and Henry Travers (Dr Cranley). Filmed in Universal Studios, California.

The Invisible Man – study resources

The Invisible Man The Invisible Man – Penguin Classics- Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The Invisible Man – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Invisible Man H.G. Wells Classic Collection – five novels – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man H.G. Wells Biography – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The Invisible Man – DVD film adaptation – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man – chapter summaries

1   A man arrives at the Sussex village of Iping during winter. Mrs Hall the landlady of the Coach and Horses is puzzled by his bandaged face and secretive manner. She assumes he has been in an accident.

2   The man claims to be making ‘experimental investigations’, and impatiently demands isolation and quietness.

3   Next day the man’s luggage arrives, consisting largely of bottles and books. When he is bitten by a dog, no flesh shows through the rent in his trousers.

4   The villagers are baffled, curious, and hostile. The local doctor challenges the man and cannot understand his ’empty sleeve’ which seems to contain something solid.

5   There is a burglary at the vicarage, but nobody can be seen in the house when the vicar goes to inspect.

6   Mr and Mrs Hall are snooping in the man’s room when he surprises them by entering – first invisibly, then reappearing fully dressed.

7   When challenged by Mrs Hall over an unpaid bill, the man takes the bandages off his head to prove that he is invisible. This creates a skirmish in the pub, from which he escapes.

8   Out on the Sussex downs, a local naturalist hears somebody sneezing nearby, but can see nothing.

9   The Invisible Man comes across a tramp, Thomas Marvel, whose help he seeks to acquire clothes and shelter.

10   The tramp goes into Iping during the Whitsuntide festival to obtain clothes.

11   At the Coach and Horses, the doctor and vicar are looking through the Invisible Man’s diaries when he enters and threatens them.

12   The Invisible Man and the Tramp steal clothes and cause mayhem amongst their pursuers.

13   The tramp Marvel complains about the way he is being treated, but the Invisible Man dominates and threatens him.

14   At Port Stowe Marvel is in conversation with a sailor who tells him about a newspaper report of events at Iping.

15   Dr Kemp in Burdock sees Marvel running across the fields, raising an alarm about the possible appearance of the Invisible Man.

16   Marvel seeks refuge in the Jolly Cricketers. When the Invisible Man arrives, the pub clientele attack him.

17   An injured Invisible Man breaks into the house of Dr Kemp, who gives him food and drink. They are former university contemporaries.

18   Whilst the Invisible Man sleeps, Kemp reads newspaper reports of the incidents at Iping and wonders what he should do. He sends a note to the police.

19   Next day the Invisible Man explains his invisibility to Kemp. It is based on the reflective power of human tissue. He has worked in secret for more than three years on the experiment, but having run short of funds he has robbed his own father. The money belonged to somebody else, and his father has committed suicide.

20   The Invisible Man recounts the early stages of experimenting to Kemp, including making a cat (almost) invisible. Threatened by his landlord in London with eviction, he makes himself the subject of experimentation. He sets fire to the house, and leaves invisibly.

21   The man mixes amongst crowds in Oxford Street but realises he is leaving a trail of wet footprints.

22   The man goes to hide in a department store, where he steals food and clothing. But he is discovered next morning and gives up the idea of staying there.

23   The man goes to hide in the house of a theatrical costumier in Drury Lane He knocks out the owner and robs the shop.

24   The man explains to Kemp his vague plans to escape to North Africa, but first he wants Kemp to be an accomplice in establishing a Reign of Terror. When the police arrive he escapes again.

25   Kemp and the police make plans for recapturing the Invisible Man.

26   A widespread manhunt is organised, and the murder of an estate steward with an iron bar is attributed to the Invisible Man.

27   Next day Kemp receives a death threat. He sends his housekeeper with a note to the police, but she is attacked b the Invisible Man. The police chief is also attacked and killed. The invisible Man breaks into Kemp’s house but is attacked by two policemen.

28   Kemp escapes from the house and runs downhill into town, pursued by the Invisible Man. Eventually, a crowd forms in pursuit, and the Invisible Man is caught and killed.

Epilogue   The tramp Marvel has become a pub landlord and has the Invisible Man’s three notebooks in his possession, the contents of which he does not understand.

The Invisible Man – principal characters
The Invisible Man Griffin, a former scientist
Dr Kemp his contemporary at university
Mrs Hall landlady of the Coach and Horses
Adye local police chief
Thomas Marvel a tramp, later a publican
More science fiction by H.G. Wells

The Invisible Man The Time Machine (1895) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The Wheels of Chance (1896) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The War of the Worlds (1898) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The First Men in the Moon (1901) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Invisible Man The Shape of Things to Come (1933) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

More on H.G. Wells
More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

The Island of Doctor Moreau

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The Island of Doctor Moreau was first published in 1896 in London by William Heinemann. The novel was successful in England and America, and a French edition was produced in 1900. There were later, slightly revised editions in 1913 and 1924. It is worth observing that the note explaining the origins of the narrative (written by the narrator’s nephew) appears in some editions as an introduction, and in other editions as an appendix to the main text.

The Island of Doctor Moreau

The Island of Doctor Moreau – commentary

The background

The late nineteenth century was a period of considerable social anxiety. Many intellectuals had lost the consolation of religious belief, and following Darwin’s theories of ‘natural selection’ many people imagined that the human race was destined for nothing other than a brutal survival of only the fittest.

There were popular theories of eugenics (selective breeding) based on the presumption that the world was overcrowded and would only become more so unless checked. Scientific discoveries and industrialisation were also seen in a threatening light. H.G.Wells was aware of these developments. He had studied science and would participate actively in the public debates on all these issues.

He launched his literary career with a series of novels that he called ‘scientific romances’ and we now classify as science fiction. The term ‘romance’ had originally been a literary genre for classifying works that were set in non-real or imaginary worlds. Wells was following the trend set in France by Jules Verne with works such as Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in 80 Days (1873).

The horror

The Island of Doctor Moreau certainly fits comfortably within the category of ‘Gothic horror’ that was popular towards the end of the nineteenth century – alongside works such as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), and Dracula (1897).

The element of horror in Wells’ novel is all the more effective for being understated. It begins with the repeated sounds of animals or beings in torment – all of which are recounted from Prendick’s point of view. He is disturbed and mystified, but he sees nothing .

As readers, we too see nothing, but are bound to suspect that Moreau, by his very absence, must be engaged in some activity he wishes to conceal. We are also told that he is a notorious vivisectionist who has been hounded out of England. Even when Prendick is pursued by some of the Beast People, they are not at first described, but exist as menacing presences.

Prendick eventually seizes a brief glimpse of Moreau’s laboratory – but the horror is still impressionistic, not specific:

There was blood, I saw, in the sink, brown and some scarlet, and I smelled the peculiar smell of carbolic acid. Then through an open doorway beyond in the dim light of the shadow, I saw something bound painfully upon a framework, scarred, red, and bandaged.

Even later, when Prendick is mixing with the Beast People, they are given names such as Dog Man and Swine Woman, not described in any detail. The reader is provided with general outlines, and left to imagine the worst.

They were naked … and their skins were of a dull pinkish drab colour, such as I had seen in no savages before. They had fat heavy chinless faces, retreating foreheads, and a scant bristly hair upon their heads Never before had I seen such bestial-looking creatures.

Intertextuality

The Island of Doctor Moreau makes reference to several other texts, without labouring the connections or drawing particular attention to them.

The term ‘intertextuality’ is used when discussing one text that makes reference to another. The reference may be slight and trivial, such as a brief quotation or the name of a character, or it might be something on a larger scale such as a setting or an entire plot.

There is a fine line between intertextual references and stealing another writer’s ideas – but the history of Western literature is full of texts that echo or refer directly to texts which preceded them. Most people are aware that Shakespeare took the basic stories of many of his plays from Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. The practice is usually acceptable so long as the second author is doing something new with the material and is not relying too heavily on the original.

The first is Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610). This drama takes place on an island where a single man (Prospero) has pronounced himself lord of the island. He has also enslaved two non-human creatures (Ariel and Caliban) to do his bidding. Ariel has very little substance, but Caliban is actually described as half-beast and half-man. The parallels between Prospero and Doctor Moreau should be quite clear.

The tensions in Prospero’s situation are not resolved until a boat appears at the island and gives them the opportunity to leave it – just as Prendick is only able to leave when the two dead men turn up in a dinghy. Prospero ‘frees’ Ariel and Caliban and leaves them behind – just as the remaining Beast People are left on the island when Prendick finally departs.

The second major ‘influence’ on Wells’ novel is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). This is the story of an ambitious and unscrupulous scientist who pursues experiments using animal body parts to create a new quasi-human creature – all of which he does in secret. Doctor Frankenstein, like Doctor Moreau, also rationalises this step beyond what is acceptable behaviour with a dubious theory of moral superiority.

Victor Frankenstein’s monster eventually feels degraded by his lowly status and rebels against his creator. He takes revenge by murdering Victor’s bride-to-be Elizabeth, and Victor dies in pursuit of his own creation. Similarly, Doctor Moreau’s creations the Beast People strain against the simplistic Rule of Law he has imposed upon them, and they begin to defy its strictures. Eventually, Moreau is killed by one of his own creations – the. puma or Leopard-woman.

The third influence is Defoe’s Robnson Crusoe (1719) who establishes dominance over his desert island because he has the advantage of tools and material supplies rescued from his shipwreck. When the island becomes ‘populated’ by others, he turns Man Friday into his slave, and holds him in submission because he is in possession of a gun – just as Moreau, Montgomery, and Prendick keep the Beast People in submission with their firearms. Ironically, the Beast people are the more ‘natural’ inhabitants of the island, because they have been created there.

The parallels between the two texts become more obvious when Prendick is eventually stranded ‘alone’ on his island following the deaths of Moreau and Montgomery. He constructs an escape device (a raft) just as Crusoe constructs a boat, only to find that he has built it inland, and cannot get it to the sea.

Prendick and Moreau

Prendick is the innocent and lone survivor of a maritime accident in the south Pacific Ocean and is at first relieved to be rescued and taken to the island. He is mystified by what he finds there, and then horrified when he discovers the truth about Moreau’s experiments.

He feels antagonistic towards Moreau, and attacks him – even though technically Moreau is his protector and host. But then Prendick gradually begins to assume the role Moreau has established on the island. As soon as he is in possession of a gun, Prendick starts shooting the Beast People.

When Moreau is killed by the puma, Prendick demands that the Beast People obey the Law that Moreau created – ‘Is the Law not alive?’ He also tells them that Moreau is not really dead, so that they regard him as ‘The Master’ instead. ‘Salute’ he tells them. ‘Bow down!’

As soon as the Beast People are under his command, Prendick immediately downgrades them: ‘I dismissed my three serfs with a wave of my hand’. And he hands out summary ‘justice’: ‘The wretched thing was injured so dreadfully that in mercy I blew its brains out at once’.

Once this wave of slaughter gets under way, Prendick accelerates it, even though the Beast People have let him live amongst them: ‘Presently … I will slay them all’. But more than that, he also commands his slave the Dog Man to kill his fellow creatures.

Moreau is presented as the archetypal ‘mad scientist’ who has pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable practice. He has used non-anaesthetised surgery on live creatures to create hybrids – creatures who are half human, half animal. But at least he has been creative in a perverse sort of way. Prendick on the other hand eventually does nothing but destroy life – and he destroys the very creatures that allow him to live amongst them when he has nothing else left.

His motivation is summed up in an admission that clearly echoes The Tempest even down to the image of Prospero’s symbol of power: Prendick reflects, ‘I might have grasped the vacant sceptre of Moreau, and ruled over the Beast People’. Instead he goes home and lives as a recluse.

The Island of Doctor Moreau – study resources

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Island of Doctor Moreau – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Island of Doctor Moreau – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Island of Doctor Moreau H.G. Wells Classic Collection – five novels hardback- Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau H.G. Wells Biography – paperback- Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Island of Dr Moreau – DVD film adaptation – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau – chapter summaries

Introduction   Charles Prendick explains the origin of his uncle’s written narrative.

I   The narrator Edward Prendick survives a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean and is picked up alone by a passing schooner.

II   The former medical student Montgomery helps to revive Prendick, who is worried by strange animal noises on board.

III   On deck, amongst filth and animals, Prendick sees an ugly man with a black head whom he thinks he has seen somewhere before. A drunken captain abuses the black-headed man.

IV   Late at night on deck, Montgomery reveals to Prendick that he was driven out of his medical studies in London because of a brief indiscretion.

V   Next morning the animals are being offloaded for transit to the island. The drunken captain throws Prendick off the ship and sets him adrift in his own old dingy.

VI   Prendick is rescued by Montgomery and the evil-looking islanders who speak a language Prendick thinks he has heard before but cannot understand. Rabbits are released onto the island to breed.

VII   Prendick is given a room but forbidden to enter the enclosure. He recalls the case of Moreau, a notorious vivisectionist who was hounded out of England.

VIII   Prendick and Montgomery have lunch served by the assistant with a black face and pointed ears. Montgomery refuses to acknowledge the man’s strangeness. Next door the puma screams during a vivisection.

IX   Prendick escapes the horrible sounds by exploring the island, where he spots a half-savage creature then a trio of bestial like people whose language he cannot understand. At sunset he retreats, pursued by a creature whom he fights off.

X   On Prendick’s return to the enclosure, Montgomery gives him a sleeping draught. Next day he hears the sounds of a human being in torment, but when he goes to inspect, Moreau expels him from the compound..

XI   Fearing that he is in great danger, he attacks Montgomery then runs away and hides on the island. He meets another Beast Man and follows him to a ravine.

XII   He is taken into the squalid camp of the Beast People, where they chant their ritual of beliefs. Moreau and Montgomery arrive to capture Prendick, but he escapes again.

XIII   He thinks to drown himself in the sea, but is ‘too desperate to die’. Moreau and Montgomery corner him and offer to parley.

XIV   Moreau claims that the creatures he creates are all animals that have been surgically turned into semi-human forms. He rationalises the pain and torment involved. But the results are not entirely successful: some creatures ‘revert’ to their bestiality.

XV   The Beast People are programmed to be obedient, but their animal instincts sometimes emerge at night. Montgomery’s assistant M’ling is more humanised than the others. Prendick becomes accustomed to their ugliness.

XVI   Montgomery and Prendick discover that some Beast has killed a rabbit and tasted blood. Moreau calls an assembly at which he is attacked by the Leopard-Man, who is then chased down by the Beast People and shot by Prendick.

XVII   Some weeks later Prendick is attacked by the escaped puma which breaks his arm. Moreau pursues the animal and disappears. Montgomery shoots some rebellious Beast People.

XVIII   Montgomery and Prendick go in search of Moreau, and find him killed by the puma. Prendick threatens some rebellious Beast People, and tells them that Moreau is not really dead. He destroys Moreau’s current experiments.

XIX   Prendick argues with Montgomery, who gets drunk and goes off with the Beast People. Prendick plans to escape, but Montgomery burns the boats then is killed in a fight. Prendick accidentally burns down the enclosure.

XX   Prendick commands the Beast People on the beach, where they take all the dead people into the sea. Prendick is unsure of his power, and has run out of food and shelter.

XXI   Prendick lives amongst the Beast People and assumes command over them. The Dog Man becomes his assistant. But the the Beast People begin to revert to their animal state. Prendick builds a raft, but it falls to pieces. A dinghy approaches, but it contains two dead men.

XXII   Prendick sets himself adrift in the dinghy and is picked up by a passing ship three days later. On return to England he looks on his fellow men as animals and he lives in isolation.

The Island of Doctor Moreau – adaptations

The novel has given rise to a number of film adaptations. The first was in 1913, a French silent film called Ile d’Epouvante which was later re-named The Island of Terror. Most of the film versions take minor liberties with the original text – but there are two interesting features they all have in common. First, the introduction of a glamorous female character – of whom there is no trace in the novel. And second, they all change the character of Prendick to someone with a different and less awkward name.

This is 1932 version called Island of Lost Souls. Directed by Erle C. Kenton. Screenplay by Waldemar Young and Philip Wylie. Starring – Charles Laughton (Dr Moreau), Richard Arlen (Edward Parker) Julia Hyams (Ruth Thomas), and Bela Lugosi (Sayer of the Law). Filmed in the Channel Islands, California, and Paramount Studios, Hollywood.

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1977). Directed by Don Taylor, Screenplay by Al Ramus, John Shaner, and Richard Simmons. Starring – Burt Lancaster (Dr Paul Moreau), Michael York (Andrew Braddock), Nigel Davenport (Montgomery), Richard Baseheart (Sayer of the Law), Nick Cravat (M’Ling), Barbara Carerra (Marie). Filmed in St Crois, the US Virgin Islands.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Directed by John Frankenheimer. Screenplay by Richard Stanley and Ron Hutchinson. Starring – Marlon Brando (Dr. Moreau), Val Kilmer (Montgomery) David Thewle (Edward Douglas), Fairuza Balk (Alssa), Ron Perlman (Sayer of the Law). Marco Hofschneider (M’Ling). Filmed in Queensland, Australia.

The Island of Doctor Moreau – principal characters
Edward Prendick the author of the narrative
Charles Edward Prendick his nephew, who presents the narrative
Montgomery a former medical student
Doctor Moreau a disgraced vivisectionist
M’Ling black-faced assistant to Montgomery
More science fiction by H.G. Wells

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Time Machine (1895) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Wheels of Chance (1896) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Invisible Man (1897) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The War of the Worlds (1898) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The First Men in the Moon (1901) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Island of Doctor Moreau The Shape of Things to Come (1933) – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

© Roy Johnson 2016

More on H.G. Wells
More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

The Kingdom of This World

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tutorial, study guide, critical commentary, further reading

The Kingdom of this World (1949) is Alejo Carpentier’s historical novel documenting the first successful slave revolution in the Americas. It took place on the island of Hispanola in what is now Haiti between 1791 and 1804. The story is told largely from the point of view of a poor slave, and it unfolds in a series of amazingly vivid tableaux that capture both the confusion of political upheavals and the complexities of European colonialism in the New World. It is generally considered Carpentier’s first great novel.

The Kingdom of This World

The Kingdom of This World – commentary

Historical background

The islands that make up the Antilles were first visited (‘discovered’) by Christopher Columbus in 1492. He was making his journey westward in search of spices and gold, and he thought he had landed in China or India. That’s why the area is known as the West Indies.

His journey was quickly replicated by the British and the French. All of these European nations claimed ownership wherever they landed. And they were meanwhile at war with each other. At this time even America was a colony ‘belonging’ to England.

Having established political and military control over the islands, the next phase of European colonial expansion was to import slaves from Africa to do the work of exploiting the natural resources of the islands – the sugar cane, tobacco, and minerals. Much to the chagrin of Columbus, there was no gold. Carpentier gives a vivid account of this episode in his other novel The Harp and the Shadow (1979).

The events of The Kingdom of This World take place on Hispanola in the Caribbean, an island which is split into two separate countries – Haiti and San Domingo. The political history of the region is quite complex. Haiti was then a French colony, whilst San Domingo was under Spanish domination.

The French regarded the island as a colony, but during the French Revolution there was a humanitarian decision made in Paris that slavery should be abolished. Hispaniolan slave leaders such as Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines took advantage of this, seized power, and declared the first ever black republic. Napoleon Bonaparte sent troops (such as Leclerc) to crush the rebellion, but they lost two thirds of their forces – largely due to cholera.

Voodoo

The slaves imported from West Africa brought with them a form of witchcraft that in Haiti became known as Voodoo. Like other religions this is founded on a belief in a supreme and unknowable creator. It has ritualistic ceremonies, a hierarchical system of priests, a belief in evil spirits, talismanic icons, reincarnation, trance-like states, and the sacrifice of animals.

When the colonial authorities tried to impose Christianity on the slaves, they merely incorporated European saints, altars, holy water and votive candles into their rituals. They also used religious celebrations as covert political meetings to strengthen their bonds of allegiance. The fictional character Boukman was a real historical person and religious leader who helped to prepare the 1791 revolt against the French.

Magical realism

Carpentier incorporates these elements of mystical beliefs into his narrative quite naturally, using the device he called ‘magical realism’. That is, elements of rational, material, and realistic depiction of the world are mixed with fanciful, non-realistic elements such as the slaves’ belief that Macandal can change himself into a bird or an animal to evade capture.

Their belief is a metaphoric reflection for the hope of salvation being kept alive in a community. Despite their beliefs, Macandal is eventually captured and executed horribly by being burned alive in an auto-da-fe. Carpentier thus combines his modernist technique of el real maravilloso with a realistic and historically accurate account of events. It is the past re-imagined and expressed in a literary style that combines some of the traditional elements of the realist novel with modernist techniques of a particularly Latin-American flavour.

Literary style

It should be obvious from even a cursory reading of Carpentier that he delivers his narrative in a manner that is radically different from conventional European novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

For instance there is less emphasis on the psychology and the emotional experience of individual characters. He is more interested in providing an overview of events – of showing historical forces at work.

In addition he does not create a continuous narrative, with events following in detailed chronological sequence. Instead, he arranges his scenes as a series of tableaux which represent, either symbolically or metaphorically, the important stages of historical development.

For example, the sudden emergence and even more rapid death of General Leclerc at first appears somewhat arbitrary. He had not been mentioned before this brief appearance. But he represents the counter-revolutionary forces sent by Napoleon to quell the revolution. Leclerc is on a ship with a cargo of savage dogs that will be used to track down and terrorise slaves.

But Leclerc does not complete his commission – because he dies of cholera. This might appear to be another accidental episode to an inconsequential character. It is not – because Leclerc represents the French government’s counter-revolutionary forces – two thirds of whom died of cholera in their attempt to repress the slave revolt.

The Kingdom of This World

The Palace of Sans Souci

The narrative

A great deal of the novel is related from the point of view of Ti Noel, who is an uneducated slave with no material possessions. He starts out enslaved on the de Mezy plantation; he takes part in the uprising; and he even thinks of raping de Mezy’s French mistress – though it is not made clear if he does or not.

He is eventually sold on to another slave owner in Santiago de Cuba. Technically, he then becomes a free man, but on return to Haiti he is enslaved anew during the construction of the fortress by the new ‘King’ Henri Christophe I.

When the ‘King’ is in his turn overthrown, Ti Noel returns to the former, now devastated de Mezy plantation and and lives in makeshift accommodation amongst the ruins. Many critical commentators have seen this sequence of events as Carpentier offering a cyclic view of history. That is, when one system of oppression is overthrown by a revolution, it will be replaced by another system imposing a similar tyranny under a different name.

This is a short-sighted view in my opinion that does not take into account Carpentier’s generally positive view of social development. It certainly does not take into account the heroic epiphany which is accorded to Ti Noel in the finale of the novel – in which he replaces his former religious views with one which takes a realistic and material view of the world.

In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy. For this reason, bowed down by suffering and duties, beautiful in the midst of his misery, capable of loving in the face of afflictions and trials, man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, only in the Kingdom of This World.

The Kingdom of This World – study resources

The Kingdom of This World – at Amazon UK – (text in English)

El reinido de este Mundo – at Amazon UK – (text in Spanish)

The Harp and the Shadow – at Amazon UK – (text in English)

El arpa y la sombra – at Amazon UK – (text in Spanish)

The Kingdom of This World

The Fortress of Laferriere

The Kingdom of This World – plot summary

Part One

I   Poor black slave Ti Noel compares feeble European rulers with the warrior kings of his African ancestors.

II   Macandal’s arm is crushed in the de Mezy plantation sugar mill – then amputated.

III   Macandal collects herbs and poisonous plants, then takes them to a Voodoo witch. He poisons a dog, then runs away.

IV   Ti Noel misses Macandal’s African influence. He finds him hiding in the mountains, having made contact with other resistance fighters. Macandal begins to spread poison in the plantations

V   The poisons spread, killing animals and humans alike. Slaves are tortured until one reveals that Macandal is the culprit.

VI   There is a search for Macandal but he is not found. People believe he can change his form into that of birds and animals.

VII   Four years later M. de Mezy remarries at Christmas. Ti Noel attends a Voodoo ritual celebration where Macandal reappears in human form.

VIII   Slaves are herded into the town square to witness Macandal being burned alive. They believe his spirit escapes in a different form.

Part Two

I   In twenty years the island prospers. M. de Mezy imports a French actress as a mistress but continues raping slave girls. Ti Noel keeps the memory of Macandal alive.

II   Ti Noel attends a meeting at which Bouckman brings news of freedom won in the French revolution. They seek help from the Spanish in adjacent San Domingo.

III   A general revolt against the whites takes place. The slaves pillage de Mezy’s house and estate.

IV   de Mezy finds Mlle Floridor murdered in the house. The revolt is supressed, with severe reprisals. Ti Noel is spared for his re-sale value.

V   de Mezy escapes to Santiago de Cuba along with other landowners. He sells off his slaves and gambles away the proceeds.

VI   Self-indulgent Pauline Bonaparte arrives from France with her husband General Leclerc who is to put down the revolt.

VII   General Leclerc contracts cholera and dies. His wife Pauline returns to France.

Part Three

I   Ti Noel returns from Cuba to Haiti as a free man.

II   Ti Noel arrives at the magnificent palace of Sans Souci built for the new ‘King’ Henri Christophe.

III   Ti Noel is forced into a new form of slavery – building the Citadel La Ferriere which Henri Christophe constructs as a bulwark against the French.

IV   When the Citadel is finished Ti Noel returns to live in the remains of the de Mezy estate. He travels to Cap Haitien but the city is in the grip of fear. Henri Christophe has buried his personal confessor alive.

V   The confessor reappears at a mass, and the King falls into a terrified spasm, afraid that the people will rise against him.

VI   A week later there is a revolt of the King’s officers, and Henri Christophe is stranded alone in Sans Souci. He watches from the palace as the fires and the insurgents close in on him. He dresses in ceremonial uniform then shoots himself.

VII   The queen and her retinue escape to the fortress whilst the palace is being looted. The king’s body is submerged in a vat of mortar then intered as part of the Fortress

Part Four

I   The queen and princesses escape to Rome with Solimon. He is an object of curiosity in the city. In the Villa Borghese he comes across a statue of Venus modelled by Pauline Bonaparte. The experience unnerves him, and he wants to go home again. He dies dreaming of his African roots.

II   Ti Noel equips his makeshift lodgings with furniture looted from Sans Souci. He dresses in Henri Christophe’s old uniform and imagines himself the ruler of a kingdom.

III   Mulatto surveyors arrive to take over the land. Ti Noel tries to hide from them by assuming various animal forms.

IV   Ti Noel contemplates the geese that have escaped from Sans Souci. He then has an epiphany that man finds his greatness by suffering and enduring in the real world, not in some imaginary afterlife.

The Kingdom of This World – characters
Ti Noel a black slave on the de Mezy plantation
Lenormand de Mezy the French plantation owner
Macandal a black slave and freedom fighter
Bouckman a Jamaican slave
Mlle Floridor de Mezy’s French mistress, a failed actress
Henri Christophe a cook who becomes the first ‘King’ of Haiti
General Leclerc a French soldier sent to quash the slave revolt
Pauline Bonaparte his self-indulgent and adulterous wife
Soliman Pauline’s black slave and masseur

© Roy Johnson 2018

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The Longest Journey

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tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Longest Journey (1907) was Forster’s second novel, and one of which he said “I am most glad to have written”. But its reputation has not fared so well as his other novels. It is probably the least known of his major works, and unlike the other novels it has not be made into a film. In one sense, it is a Bildungsroman in ironic reverse, because the protagonist is wiser at the outset than he is at the end of the book.

E.M.Forster - portrait

E.M.Forster

The Longest Journey – critical commentary

The Second Novel

It is often observed that novelists who produce a successful first novel sometimes find it difficult to produce a follow-up work of similar quality. It is certainly true that the consensus of critical opinion on The Longest Journey is that it is regarded as something of a failure following Forester’s success with Where Angels Fear to Tread. It is certainly a more structurally ambitious work – but the problem is that its parts do not hang together successfully.

We are being offered Rickie’s story as a sort of positive lesson despite the fact that he is killed at its conclusion. He sees himself as a failure, but he has re-united meaningfully with his own brother; he has rejected the moral values of Sawston school and his brother-in-law; he has seen his own wife for the shallow creature that she is; and he has also restored the relationship with his bosom Cambridge friend Ansell. Moreover, the stories he has composed during his short life as an adult turn out to be successful after all – a posthumous tribute to the aesthetic values he worked out in his Cambridge days.

Death

The passage of events in novel depends upon an extraordinary number of deaths. Rickie’s uncle Mr Failing dies intestate, which leaves inheritance a large issue, and is certainly a source of conflict between Rickie and his wife. Agnes wants Rickie to befriend his eccentric aunt so that she will favour him in her will. Rickie is outraged at this greediness, and feels that Stephen should inherit the money.

Both Rickie’s parents die in rapid succession, leaving a convenient void to cover up the issue of Stephen’s parentage. And Stephen’s father (Robert) dies only seventeen days after eloping with Rickie’s mother.

Rickie and Agnes’s daughter dies shortly after being born, and Rickie himself is killed on the railway, which earlier in the novel has also claimed the life of a young child.

Spirit of place

Forster was quite interested in what we now call ‘spirit of place’ – the idea that certain geographic locations have a quasi-mystical aura which is detectable for people sensitive enough to make themselves receptive to it. His short stories feature this phenomenon, and his novel A Passage to India has at its centre the episode in the Marabar caves on which the plot turns.

In The Longest Journey it features largely in the scenes that take place in Wiltshire, particularly in Rickie’s exploration of the Salisbury Plain and the Fisbury (Cadbury) Rings where he feels he can sense the spirits of long dead ancestors.

He saw Old Sarum, and hints of the Avon Valley, and the land above Stonehenge. And behind him he saw the great wood beginning unobtrusively, as if the down tooneeded shaving; and into it the road to London slipped, covering the bushes with white dust. Chalk made the dust white, chalk made the water clear, chalk made the clear rolling outlines of the land, and favoured the grass and the distant coronals of trees. Here is the heart of our island: the Chilterns, the North Downs, the South Downs radiate hence. The fibres of England unite in Wiltshire, and did we condescend to worship her, here we should erect our national shrine.

The Longest Journey – study resources

The Longest Journey The Longest Journey – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Longest Journey The Longest Journey – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Longest Journey The Longest Journey – Amazon Kindle edition

The Longest Journey The Longest Journey – eBook versions at Project Gutenberg

The Longest Journey The Longest Journey – audioBook versions at LibriVox

Red button The Cambridge Companion to E.M.Forster – Amazon UK

Red button E.M.Forster at Wikipedia – biographical notes, links

Red button E.M.Forster at Mantex – tutorials, web links, study resources

The Longest Journey – plot summary

Cambridge

Rickie Elliot is an orphan and an ex public schoolboy who is in his second year at Cambridge. He is visited by family friends Agnes Pembroke and her elder brother Herbert, who is a housemaster at a school. Agnes is engaged to Gerald Dawes, who does not yet have enough money to marry her. After seeing the engaged couple embracing, Rickie offers Gerald some of his own money so that he can enjoy happiness with Agnes. He does not think he will need the money himself, since he does not wish to marry, having a hereditary disability which he does not wish to pass on to any children. But his offer is spurned as insulting.

E.M.Forster The Longest JourneyRickie falls in love with Agnes, but idolises her, feels himself an inadequate lover, and keeps alive the notion that she shared an ideal love with Gerald. He announces his engagement to her at a breakfast party at college. Ansell predicts that Rickie has been duped by a scheming Agnes and advises him against her. But Rickie merely takes this as a sign of their deep friendship, because they can be so frank with each other.

Rickie is not quite so well off as he thought, and there is therefore to be another long engagement. He takes Agnes to meet his rather eccentric aunt Emily at her estate at Cadover in Wiltshire. There he meets her protege, Stephen Wonham, a semi-educated young man. Although they have very little interest in each other, his aunt wishes to promote their friendship.

The two young men go for an excursion on horseback to Salisbury, but Rickie becomes bored and turns back, leaving Stephen to go on, get drunk and fight with a soldier he encounters. Later Rickie walks amongst ancient earthworks and feels a kinship with what he sees as dead spirits there. His aunt reveals that Stephen is Rickie’s half brother, which sends Rickie into a faint. Even though he feels it is a symbolic and important revelation, Agnes persuades him not to tell Stephen and to keep the relationship secret.

Rickie passes a year trying to place his short stories with publishers, but doesn’t get anywhere. Instead he marries Agnes and becomes a teacher at Sawston School, where her brother Herbert is trying to impose public school traditions on what was originally a grammar school.

Sawston

The marriage gives him a limited degree of satisfaction, and he becomes embroiled in petty disputes over the way the school is run. His old Cambridge friend Ansell is disappointed in Rickie’s relationship with Agnes, and refuses to visit him.

Rickie’s daughter is born with an inherited deformity and dies in infancy. The marriage goes sour. Agnes tries to heal the rift between Rickie and his aunt Emily – but he realises that she is fortune-hunting, and it fuels his resentment towards Stephen, even though he thinks Stephen should inherit his aunt’s money.

When it emerges that Stephen has been behaving badly and is being sent to Canada, Rickie realises that Agnes has been stoking prejudice against him. In an argument, he reveals to Herbert the ‘truth’ (as he sees it) about Stephen’s relationship to the Elliot family.

Meanwhile, Ansell is visiting Sawston, where he meets Stephen, who has learnt that Rickie is his half brother during an argument with Mrs Failing. Ansell is very impressed with Stephen as a ‘child of nature’. Agnes tries to buy off Stephen, who takes offence and leaves. Ansell then reveals in the school dining hall that Stephen is in fact Rickie’s mother’s illegitimate child.

Wiltshire

At this dramatic crux, the narrative loops back in time to relate the circumstances of Stephen’s origins. A cultivated countryman falls in love with Mrs Elliot, and at a point where she realises that her husband no longer loves her, she runs away with him to Sweden, where he drowns in the sea. Stephen is born as a result of this brief liaison, his origins are hushed up, and he is raised by Emily Failing.

Back in the narrative present, Stephen leaves Sawston and wanders aimlessly for a while, then returns to see Rickie, who has in the meantime realised that he loves his brother and wants to help him – particularly to stop drinking. Rickie leaves Sawston with Stephen and they travel together to Salisbury then Cadover.

Rickie’s aunt Emily advises him to go back to his wife, even though they do not love each other. Rickie feels that to do so would be a sort of spiritual death, But when trying to recover Stephen from another night’s drinking, Rickie is killed by an oncoming train when pulling his brother off the tracks.

Stephen survives, gets married, and has a child. The last scene of the novel sees him haggling with Pembroke over money due to him for the publication of Rickie’s stories, which have become successful after his death.

Cambridge - King's College

Cambridge – King’s College

Principal characters
Frederick (Rickie) Elliot parentless ex public schoolboy, with deformed foot, Cambridge undergraduate
Stewart Ansell clever fellow student, Jewish
Tilliard fellow student
Agnes Pembroke young woman
Herbert Pembroke her elder brother – housemaster at Sawston school
Gerald Dawes her fiancé, a soldier
Mrs Aberdeen Rickie’s bed-maker (domestic help)
Mr Elliot Rickie’s cruel father
Mrs Elliot Rickie’s remote mother
Mrs Lewin chaperone to Agnes
Mr Failing the original owner of Cadover – a socialist
Emily Failing Rickie’s artistic and eccentric aunt
Stephen (Podge) Wonham Mrs Failing’s protege and Rickie’s half-brother (19)
Mr Jackson teacher of classics at Sawston School
Varnan the bullied schoolboy at Sawston

E.M.Forster - manuscript page

manuscript page of Forster’s The Longest Journey

Further reading

Red button David Bradshaw, The Cambridge Companion to E.M. Forster, Cambridge University Press, 2007

Red button Richard Canning, Brief Lives: E.M. Forster, London: Hesperus Press, 2009

Red button G.K. Das and John Beer, E. M. Forster: A Human Exploration, Centenary Essays, New York: New York University Press, 1979.

Red button Mike Edwards, E.M. Forster: The Novels, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001

Red button E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel, London: Penguin Classics, 2005

Red button P.N. Furbank, E.M. Forster: A Life, Manner Books, 1994

Red button Frank Kermode, Concerning E.M. Forsterl, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2009

Red button Rose Macaulay, The Writings of E. M. Forster, New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970.

Red button Nigel Messenger, How to Study an E.M. Forster Novel, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991

Red button Wendy Moffatt, E.M. Forster: A New Life, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010

Red button Nicolas Royle, E.M. Forster (Writers and Their Work), Northcote House Publishers, 1999

Red button Jeremy Tambling (ed), E.M. Forster: Contemporary Critical Essays, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995

Other work by E.M. Forster

A Passage to IndiaA Passage to India, (1923) was started in 1913 then finished partly in response to the Amritsar massacre of 1919. Snobbish and racist colonial administrators and their wives are contrasted with sympathetically drawn Indian characters. Dr Aziz is groundlessly accused of assaulting a naive English girl on a visit to the mystic Marabar Caves. There is a set piece trial scene, where she dramatically withdraws any charges. The results strengthen the forces of Indian nationalism, which are accurately predicted to be successful ‘after the next European war’ at the end of the novel. Issues of politics, race, and gender, set against vivid descriptions of Chandrapore and memorable evocations of the surrounding landscape. This is generally regarded as Forster’s masterpiece.
E.M. Forster A Passage to India Buy the book at Amazon UK
E.M. Forster A Passage to India Buy the book at Amazon US

Howards End (DVD)Howards End – DVD This is arguably Forster’s greatest work, and the film lives up to it. It is well acted, with very good performances from Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter as the Schlegel sisters, and Anthony Hopkins as the bully Willcox. The locations and details are accurate, and it lives up to the critical, poignant scenes of the original – particularly the conflict between the upper middle-class Wilcoxes and the working-class aspirant Leonard Baskt. This is another adaptation which I have watched several times over, and always been impressed.
E.M. Forster Buy the DVD at Amazon UK
E.M. Forster Buy the DVD at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2013

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The Lost Steps

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tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Lost Steps was first published as Los pasos perdidos in Mexico in 1953. It was written whilst Alejo Carpentier was living in Caracas, Venezuela, an exile from his native Cuba which at that time was under the dictator Batista. The novel appeared in English translation (by Harriet de Onis) in 1956, published by Victor Gollancz in London.

The Lost Steps

The Lost Steps – critical commentary

Geography

The novel; begins in what seems to be New York City. It is never named as such, but in the early chapters Carpentier satirises a cultural Bohemia which is reminiscent of Greenwich Village. The protagonist works as a musical composer in conjunction with film studios, and characters later circulate in ‘Central Park’.

He then moves to Latin-America – at first to what appears to be Caracas in Venezuela. His journey then takes him through what is a geographic composite of South America, initially across the Andes mountains, then into the great plains, and finally into the most impenetrable parts of the jungle.

This journey also includes a historical element – and one which involves travelling backwards in time (a favourite trope of Carpentier’s). The protagonist progresses from the contemporary metropolital city to what are essentially farmlands, then to a primitive village, and finally to encampments where people live in an almost stone-age elementalism.

Geography is centrally important to the novel, because its principal theme is the tension between European-based and Latin-American culture. Carpentier was born in Switzerland, his parents were French and Russian, and he was educated in Europe. He later became a citizen of Cuba, but following the political disruptions of the 1920s he moved to Paris and became an active participant in the Surrealist movement.

The essential tension in Carpentier’s world view is therefore one between European language, literature, and culture in general – and the desire to give voice to less well-known cultural ‘experience’ of Latin America. His novels – including The Lost Steps – are packed with the concrete nouns of indigenous cultural phenomena – the geography, the architecture, the plant life, music, food, and social customs of Southern America (and the Caribbean). This is now a well-observed feature of modern Latin-American writing – as if its authors were trying to give authenticity to their culture by naming its parts.

The main character

We are not told the protagonist and narrator’s name, nor are his origins made clear. But on arriving in Latin America he feels re-united with his native language, which is Spanish. So we take it that he is a Latin-American who has been living in a commercialised and somewhat ‘decadent’ western culture, and who feels rejuvenated by his exposure to the older culture of the jungle and the native tribes.

It is very difficult to ignore the fact that there are unmistakable similarities between Carpentier’s own biography and that of his protagonist. Carpentier worked for a while in an advertising agency; he had studied music; and whilst living in Latin-America he had made a number of excursions into jungle regions as part of musicological research. He eventually produced a study of La musica en Cuba which was published in 1946. So – at a thematic if not a biographical level, it seems safe to assume that the protagonist is exploring issues in which Carpentier himself had a profound interest.

The narrator makes a very convincing case for the lives of the natives he encounters being no less sophisticated, because their skills exactly meet their needs, and they live in harmony with their environment. He gives a reasonably persuasive account of being enthusiastic about this travelling backwards into native primitivism. He has shed a legitimate wife in New York, taken with him on the journey his Bohemian mistress, then ditched her in favour of a native replacement because she could not adapt to conditions on the expedition.

But it is hard to escape the feeling that there is also a sort of cultural wish-fulfilment on Carpentier’s part here. His protagonist feels the experience of his journey into the ‘heart of darkness’ as a form of spiritual re-birth. He is connecting with native life forces and experiencing ‘real’ Latin-American culture in a manner which is almost unthinkable to someone from a Western European culture. He swaps his ‘western’ lover Mouche (and his wife, who is on tour) for an un-named native woman who he takes as a more satisfying physical and spiritual soul-mate. This part of the novel makes uncomfortable reading in the light of ‘machismo’ Latin culture.

But Carpentier finally rescues himself from crude caricature. The narrator thinks he can go back to complete the task of academic research he has undertaken (as a matter of honour) then return to the native experience he has discovered. But he discovers that he can’t – because his route is obscured by the very forces he has celebrated (the rains, the jungle) and the fact that native life has continued to meet its own needs, leaving him exposed as an outsider. He cannot integrate ‘here’ (amongst native life) because he belongs ‘back there’ (in the metropolitan city).

Cultural complexities

Carpentier obviously felt a great deal of tension between his European education and cultural heritage, and his Latin-American sympathies – but he turned this tension to creative account by fusing the two.

His major works deal with the impact of European ideas in the Latin-American region – The Kingdom of This World (1949) covers the first successful slave revolution in San Domingo (Haiti) and El siglo de las luces (Explosion in a Cathedral) (1962) deals with the consequences of the French Revolution in the Caribbean and South America.

He also drenches his works in references to the two academic disciplines in which he was formally educated – architecture and music – as well as the general embedding of events into their historical and political context.

He was the first to use the techniques of ‘magical realism’ (and he coined the term, lo real maravilloso) in which the concrete, real world becomes suffused with fantasy elements, myths, dreams, and a fractured sense of time and logic .

The Lost Steps – study resources

The Lost Steps The Lost Steps – at Amazon UK – (text in English)

The Lost Steps Los pasos perdidos – at Amazon UK – (text in Spanish)

The Lost Steps The Lost Steps – at Amazon US – (text in English)

The Lost Steps Los pasos perdidos – at Amazon US – (text in Spanish)

The Lost Steps

The Lost Steps – chapter summaries

Chapter One   A jaded and un-named musicologist is living in what seems like New York City, partly estranged from his actress wife, who is on tour. His friend, a museum curator offer to send him on an expedition to recover primitive musical instruments in South America. Together with his mistress Mouche and friends he watches a showing of a commercially sponsored film for which he has composed the soundtrack.. Mouche wants to go with him on the expedition and proposes buying fraudulent antiques.

Chapter Two   He arrives in a coastal Latin-American city whose fabric is vulnerable to the vigorous natural elements of the region. He feels reunited with his native language and his sympathetic responses to the unsophisticated local culture leads to friction with Mouche. Whilst he is searching for antique shops, a revolution breaks out. He is besieged in the hotel, which is invaded by insects. The revolution ends, but snipers hold him down in a grocer’s shop.

He and Mouche escape to the villa of a Canadian painter friend in a nearby town. He becomes irrationally jealous of the friendship between the two women. He is also critical of the Paris-centred enthusiasms of three lkocal artists and vows to continue his expedition and assignment.

Chapter Three   They make a bus journey across the Andes, collecting en route an Indian woman who he sees as the embodiment of native culture. A radio broadcast of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony leads him to recall his family’s musical heritage and his own connections with Europe, from which he has been forced to flee by the horrors of the Second World War. They befriend Rosario the native woman and arrive at an oilfield town, where prostitutes ‘entertain’ the local miners. He begins to criticise Mouche for her lack of sensitivity and admire Rosario for her composure. They reach horse-rearing lands, and then visit the City of Ruins.

They reach Puerto Anunciacion on the edge of the jungle where he argues violently with Mouche, then meets Adelantado, who recounts tales of semi-secret life in the jungle. Rosario’s father dies, followed by ritualistic funeral rites and a swarm of butterflies. There os an excursion to an abandoned mission on an island, where they meet a crazy herbalist and there are tales of El Dorado and ancient mythologies.

Mouche makes a sexual approach to Rosario, who responds by beating her. Mouche develops malaria, during which period Rosario and the narrator become lovers. Mouche is sent. Back to Puerto Anunciacion, and he congratulates himself on his relationship with Rosario. A small party continues up river in canoes.

Chapter Four   They locate the hidden entrance to a tributary that leads into the heart of the jungle. The narrator is intimidated by the tropical atmosphere, and feels as if he is undergoing some sort of trial. The plant and animal life of the jungle. Imitate each other. There is a thunderstorm that threatens to capsize the canoes. The party finally reach a native village where the narrator gets the musical instruments he has been commissioned to find. Surrounded by primitive life and customs, he feels as if he has travelled back in time to the medieval age. They move on and encounter even more primitive tribes where he witnesses ‘the birth of music’ in a ritual funereal celebration.

Chapter Five   The party arrive at Santta Monica de las Venados, a ‘city’ village established almost from nothing by Adelantado. The narrator decides to stay in the village and live the simple life, but he also feels an obligation to deliver the collection of primitive musical instruments. He visits the ‘devil’s cauldron’ of voracious prehistoric plants.

Inundated with days of ceaseless rain, he conceives a new type of musical composition, and uses a copy of The Odyssey for his text, but he quickly runs out of paper and ink. Pressure is put on him to marry Rosario, but when he asks her she refuses. Then one day an aeroplane arrives, in search of the lost explorer. He is divided in his allegiances, but decides to go back, stock up on essential supplies (paper and ink) then return to live in the village.

Chapter Six   The narrator flies back home and is received as a celebrity and a hero. His wife Ruth is pregnant. He sells his story (which he describes as ‘a pack of lies’) to a newspaper. But Mouche sells her version of events to a scandal sheet, which arouses Ruth’s anger. The narrator then tells Ruth about Rosario, and that he wants a divorce, which she refuses to accept.

He finds the culture of New York frivolous and decadent. The divorce drags on; he runs out of money and is reduced to living in student accommodation.. He meets Mouche, spends the night with her, and feels full of self-disgust afterwards.

Finally he sells a film score and returns to Puerto Anunciacion. But he fails to find the entrance to the hidden tributary because it is submerged in the flooded river. He meets Yannes who tells him that Rosario has married Marcos and is pregnant. The narrator realises that he is unable to retrace his steps and his previous experience.

The Lost Steps – principal characters
— the un-named protagonist and narrator, a musical composer
Ruth his wife, an actress, who doesn’t feature in the novel
Mouche an astrologist, his Bohemian mistress from New York
Rosario his native mistress in the jungle
Alejo Carpentier – other works

The Lost StepsThe Kingdom of This World is a marvelously compressed account of the slave uprising and first revolution of the early nineteenth century in San Domingo – now Haiti. Carpentier uses ‘magical realism’, long before it became fashionable, to depict the contradictions between political reality and religious or mythical beliefs. The story passes rapidly in a series of vivid scenes from the early unsuccessful uprising led by Macandal, then Bouckman who led Haiti in its fight for independence from France, and finally to Henri Christophe the revolutionary leader who later became Emperor of Haiti, and who built Sans Souci and La Ferrière Citadel.

The Lost Steps Buy the book at Amazon UK

The Lost Steps Buy the book at Amazon US

The Lost StepsThe Chase is set in Havana of 1956 where Batista’s tyrannical rule serves as the backdrop for the story of two young men whose lives become intertwined with the prostitute, Estrella. An anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a public auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This novella is particularly interesting because of the multiple, disjointed narrations and its polyphonic structure.

The Lost Steps Buy the book at Amazon UK

The Lost Steps Buy the book at Amazon US

Alejo Carpentier web links

The Lost Steps Carpentier at Wikipedia
Background, biography, magical realism, major works, literary style, further reading

The Lost Steps Carpentier at Amazon UK
Novels, criticism, and interviews – in Spanish and English

The Lost Steps The Kingdom of this World
Lecture by Rod Marsh – University of Cambridge

The Lost Steps Carpentier at Internet Movie Database
Films and TV movies made from his novels

The Lost Steps Carpentier in Depth
Spanish video documentary and interview with Carpentier (1977)

© Roy Johnson 2016

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The Man who Disappeared (Amerika)

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tutorial, characters, commentary, study notes, reading

The Man who Disappeared (1913) (also known as Amerika) was Kafka’s first attempt at a novel, and like most of his others, with the exception of The Trial, it was left unfinished. He began writing it (for the second time) in 1912, then broke off to compose Metamorphosis and apart from producing a couple of subsequent fragments he never returned to it. Only the much anthologised first chapter, The Stoker was published in Kafka’s lifetime, in a collection of modernist texts edited by Kurt Wolf in 1913.

Readers expecting the usual Kafkaesque elements of existential terror and bureaucratic nightmares will be surprised and maybe delighted to discover that the story is a light-hearted and at times quite amusing fantasy of a young German boy at large in the USA.

Needless to say, Kafka had never been anywhere near America, and his account of it is entirely constructed from clichés of the New World – skyscrapers, non-stop traffic, and at times some Keystone Cops chase scenes.

The Man who Disappeared – commentary

The Man who DisappearedThe novel is an ironic reversal of the rags to riches story that is normally attached to immigration from the Old World to the New. Karl Rossman manages to go from riches to rags. He starts off with a wealthy and powerful uncle who showers him with luxury, but by the end of the narrative he has nothing, he is searching for work, and he is mixing with criminals and a prostitute. It is worth noting that Karl is not exactly an innocent abroad. He has been expelled from his family home following a sexual dalliance with an older servant woman that resulted in her bearing a child. So although he is only seventeen (or even fifteen) years old, Karl is in fact himself a father.

Authority figures

The authority figures in each chapter appear in pairs. When Karl becomes involved in the defence of the stoker and his claims of ill-treatment, it is to the ship’s Captain and the ship’s Purser that he is answerable and who challenge his actions and question his motivation.

His uncle Edward’s business associates are Mr Pollunder and Mr Green, both of whom have power over Karl. It is the invitation from Pollunder which displeases Karl’s uncle, and Mr Green who carries the letter which contains the orders of dismissal that expel Karl from his newfound paradise in New York.

He immediately falls into the hands of Robinson and Delamarche, who take advantage of his naivete and bully him into becoming virtually their servant. Interesting to note also that these authority figures are usually slightly different – of what we might now call the ‘good cop, bad cop’ kind. One of them will pretend to befriend Karl, the other will resort to naked threats. Karl tries to resist them both, but fails.

When he is disciplined for a minor infraction of discipline at the Hotel Occidental, it is the Head Waiter and Head Porter who perform this same dual function

Women

The women in the story are either all-embracing mother figures, sexual predators, or vulnerable waifs.

Grete Mitzelbach offers Karl somewhere to sleep when he is in need; she secures him a job; and she offers her support when he is being threatened with dismissal at the hotel. In fact she also recommends him to another employer.

On the other hand Johanna Brummer, the thirty-five year old servant woman who seduces the fifteen (or seventeen) year old Karl does so in a comically grotesque manner – but one which Karl finds ‘disgusting’. Klara, Mr Pullender’s daughter, appears to be a a more sympathetic figure, but she ends up attacking Karl physically, then invites him to her room – but only to reveal her sexual connection with Mr Mack, the millionaire’s son.

Delamarche’s mistress Brunelda is almost a grotesque parody of a sluttish courtesan:

Her red dress was rucked up at the front and a long stretch of it hung down to the floor, her legs were visible almost to the knees, she was wearing thick white woollen stockings, and had no shoes on.’How hot it is, Delamarche,’ she said, turning her face from the wall and holding her hand negligently in front of Delamarche, who seized and kissed it.

Terese and Fanny are waif figures, with Terese offering a particularly poignant version of the emigrant’s story, searching for work with her mother, who is eventually killed in an accident on a building site.

Visions of America

Following the Second World War, images of America were widely manifest in Europe and the rest of the world via radio, newspapers, and cinema – but at the time that Kafka was writing in 1912 it would be literally Another Country to him, an unknown and exotic place (even though it was a place to which many Europeans were emigrating). Given this, and the fact that he had obviously never been there, it is surprising that he captures so much of its essence in images of very tall buildings (skyscrapers), the grid system of straight roads, of people living in tenement blocks, and the non-stop traffic.

There is also a passage describing a mechanical desk in Uncle Edward’s office which is strangely prophetic:

On its top part, for example, it had a hundred drawers of various sizes, and even the President of the Union could have found a suitable place for every one of his files, but in addition it had a regulator at the side, and by turning the handle one could rearrange and reorganize the drawers in a great variety of ways according to one’s wishes and needs. Thin side partitions slowly descended and formed the base or the top of new drawers that rose up, a single turn of the handle gave the top a quite different appearance, and everything happened slowly or with wild rapidity, depending on how you turned the handle. It was a brand new invention …

This is amazingly prescient of the Memex machine that Vanevar Bush described in imagining computers and hypertext in his 1945 article As We May Think:

A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications … Most of the contents are purchased on microfilm, ready for insertion. Books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers, are thus obtained and dropped into place.

If the user wishes to consult a certain book, he taps its code on the keyboard, and the title page of the book promptly appears before him, projected onto one of his viewing positions … Any given book from his library can thus be called up and consulted with far greater facility than if it were taken from a shelf.

Study resources

The Man who Disappeared The Man who Disappeared – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

The Man who Disappeared The Man who Disappeared – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

The Man who Disappeared Amerika: The Man who Disappeared – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Man who Disappeared Amerika: The Man who Disappeared – Schocken Books – Amazon UK

Red button Kafka: A Very Short Introduction – OUP’s mini series

Red button The Stoker – eBook formats at Project Gutenberg (in German)

Red button The Complete Novels of Kafka – Vintage Classics edition – Amazon UK

Principal characters
Karl Rossmann a seventeen or fifteen year-old German boy from Prague
Johanna Brummer thirty-five year-old servant who seduces Karl
Jakob Karl and Johanna’s son
Butterbaum Karl’s fellow traveller on the ship
— The ship’s stoker
— The ship’s captain
Schumbal the Romanian chief engineer
— The ship’s chief purser
Senator Edward Jakob Karl’s uncle, a rich businessman
Mr Pollunder a banker and business associate of Karl’s uncle
Klara Pollunder his daughter
Mr Mack Jnr son of a millionaire, fiancé to Klara
Mr Mack Snr millionaire head of a large building firm
Mr Green gross, bachelor business associate of Karl’s uncle
Robinson an Irish hypochondriac
Delamarche a French bully
Grete Mitzelbach Head Cook at the Hotel Occidental (50)
Terese Berchtold secretary to the Head Cook (18)
Giacomo lift boy at the Hotel Occidental
Rennel lift boy at the Hotel Occidental
Bess chief lift boy at the Hotel Occidental
Isbary head waiter at the Hotel Occidental
Feodor head porter at the Hotel Occidental
Brunelda Delamarche’s mistress, a fat ex-singer
Joseph Mendel a student in Delamarche’s apartment block
Fanny Karl’s trumpet-playing friend
Photomontage

Kafka, family photos, and old Prague

The Man who Disappeared – plot summary

Karl Rossman arrives in New York, having been sent abroad by his parents following an incident with an older servant that resulted in the birth of a son. Karl goes back into the ship to retrieve his umbrella and meets the ship’s stoker, who complains about his treatment on board. Karl accompanies him to plead his case with the ship’s captain. There he meets his uncle Edward Jakob, who is now a rich businessman and a Senator.

Karl lives with his uncle for two months, takes English and riding lessons, and is provided with a piano. He meets a millionaire’s son, Mr Mack, and is invited to the home of banker Mr Pollunder, although his uncle disapproves of the visit.

At Mr Pollunder’s country house Karl is oppressed by the behaviour of his business associate Mr Green, and then is subject to a physical attack by Klara, Mr Pollunder’s daughter.. When he decides to return to his uncle’s house, many obstacles are put in his way to delay his return. It is revealed that Mr Mack is Klara’s fiancé. Finally, Mr Green presents Karl with a letter from his uncle disowning him for going against his wishes. Mr Green gives Karl a train ticket to San Francisco (which he never uses).

Karl meets two unsavoury characters Robinson and Delamarche who take advantage of him. They set off in search of work, eat at his expense, and steal his belongings. Karl escapes from them, and arrives at the Hotel Occidental, where he is befriended by Grete Mitzelbach the head cook and invited to stay for the night.

The cook arranges for Karl to be a lift boy at the hotel. He works twelve hour shifts and sleep in a dormitory filled with smoke, noise, and lift boys boxing and wrestling. Karl befriends Terese, the cook’s secretary, who recounts her difficult life and her mother’s death as poor emigrants.

Robinson reappears at the hotel drunk, and vomits into the stair well. Karl offers him money to leave and puts him into his own bed to sober up. But this briefly takes Karl away from his post on the lifts, for which misdemeanour he is interviewed by the head waiter and head porter, then sacked, despite pleas from his friend the head cook. Karl is physically bullied by the head porter, but finally manages to escape from the hotel – only to find Robinson waiting for him again.

Karl and Robinson are driven to a tenement building where Delamarche is living. There is an altercation involving the police, from which Karl escapes again, only to be rescued by Delamarche and taken back to a squalid and cramped apartment where he lives with Brunelda, a fat ex-singer. Robinson complains about the skivvy work he does for Delamarche and Brunelda, and reveals that they plan to make Karl their servant. They all watch a political rally and procession from the balcony of the apartment. Karl then makes another attempt to escape, which ends up in a fight. He then has a conversation with a student on an adjacent balcony, who advises him to stay with Delamarche.

Novel fragments

Robinson and Karl prepare breakfast for Delamarche and Brunelda in the late afternoon, amidst the squalor of the apartment.

Karl departs with Brunelda, who is hidden under a blanket on a cart.

Karl enrolls in the Theatre of Oklahoma where he meets an old friend Fanny who is playing a trumpet to welcome newcomers. He goes through a complex and bureaucratic recruitment process and is taken on as a technician. At a feast for new recruits he meets his fellow lift boy Giacomo from the Hotel Occidental. They travel by train for two days towards Oklahoma.

Kafka’s writing

Franz Kafka - manuscript page

a page of Kafka’s manuscript

Franz Kafka: An Illustrated LifeFranz Kafka: Illustrated Life This is a photographic biography that offers an intimate portrait in an attractive format. A lively text is accompanied by over 100 evocative images, many in colour and some previously unpublished. They depict the author’s world – family, friends, and artistic circle in old Prague – together with original book jackets, letters, and other ephemera. This is an excellent starting point for beginners which captures fin de siecle Europe beautifully.

Franz Kafka greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Franz Kafka greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

Further reading

Red button Jeremy Adler, Franz Kafka (Overlook Illustrated Lives), Gerald Duckworth, 2004.

Red button Mark Anderson. Kafka’s Clothes: Ornament and Aestheticism in the Habsburg Fin de Siecle, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992

Red button Louis Begley, The Tremendous Words I have Inside my Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay, Atlas Illustrated editions, 2008.

Red button Harold Bloom, Franz Kafka: Modern Critical Essays, New York: Chelsea House, 1986.

Red button Harold Bloom, Franz Kafka (Bloom’s Major Novelists), Chelsea House Publishers, 2003.

Red button Elizabeth Boa, Kafka: Gender, Class, and Race in the Letters and Fictions, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Red button Max Brod, Franz Kafka: A Biography, Da Capo Press, 1995.

Red button Max Brod (ed), The Diaries of Franz Kafka, Schocken Books, 1988.

Red button Elias Canetti, Kafka’s Other Trial: The Letters to Felice, Schocken Books, 1989.

Red button Stanley Corngold, Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka, Princeton University Press, 2006.

Red button W.J. Dodd (ed), Kafka: The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle, London: Longman, 1995.

Red button Carolin Duttlinger, Kafka and Photography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Red button Angel Flores (ed), The Kafka Debate, New York: Gordian Press, 1977.

Red button Sander Gilman, Franz Kafka (Critical Lives), Reaktion Books, 2007.

Red button Sander Gilman, Franz Kafka: The Jewish Patient, London: Routledge, 1995.

Red button Ronald Gray, Kafka: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice Hall, 1962.

Red button Ronald Hayman, A Biography of Kafka, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.

Red button Franz Kafka, The Blue Octavo Notebooks, Exact Change, 1998.

Red button Franz Kafka, The Trial (Complete Audiobooks), Naxos Audiobooks, 2007.

Red button David Zane Mairowitz, Introducing Kafka, Icon Books, 2007.

Red button Julian Preece (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Kafka, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Red button Ronald Spiers, and Beatrice Sandberg, Franz Kafka, London: Macmillan, 1997.

Red button Walter H. Sokel, The Myth of Power and the Self: Essays on Franz Kafka, Wayne State University Press, 2001.

Red button Ritchie Robertson, Kafka: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Red button Ritchie Robertson, Kafka: Judaism, Politics, and Literature, Clarendon Press, 1987.

Red button James Rolleston (ed), A Companion to the Works of Franz Kafka, Camden House, 2006.

Red button Michael Wood, Franz Kafka (Writers and Their Work), Northcote House, 1998.

 

Mont Blanc pen - Kafka edition

Mont Blanc – special Franz Kafka edition

Other works by Franz Kafka

MetamorphosisMetamorphosis (1915) is truly one of Kafka’s masterpieces – a stunning parable which lends itself to psychological, sociological, or existential interpretations. It’s the tale of a man who wakes up one morning and finds himself transformed into a giant insect. His family are horrified, gradually disown him, and he dies of neglect, with a rotting apple lodged in his side. Franz Kafka is one of the most important and influential fiction writers of the early twentieth century. He was a novelist and writer of short stories whose works came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of twentieth century literature.

Franz Kafka Metamorphosis Buy the book at Amazon UK
Franz Kafka Metamorphosis Buy the book at Amazon US

The TrialThe Trial is Kafka’s one indisputably successful novel – a haunting and original study in existential anxiety, paranoia, and persecution. Joseph K is accused one day of being guilty – but not told what crime he has committed. He wrestles hopelessly with legal officials and a nightmare-like court which acts on arbitrary rules, striving to find justice. In the end he fails, only to be killed ‘like a dog’. Kafka gave expression to modern anxiety three decades before most people even started feeling it. This is a novel which stands outside literary norms – a superb achievement of literary modernism. Be prepared for black humour as well as mind-bending contradictions and deeply etched literary expressionism. Read the stories and The Trial as a start and a minimum.
Franz Kafka The Trial Buy the book at Amazon UK
Franz Kafka The Trial Buy the book at Amazon US

Franz Kafka – web links

Kafka Franz Kafka at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews and study guides on the major works, video presentations and documentaries, adaptations for cinema and television, and links to Kafka archives.

Franz Kafka web links Franz Kafka at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats – in both English and German.

Franz Kafka web links Franz Kafka at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, survey of the stories and novels, publishing history, translations, critical interpretation, and extensive bibliographies.

Franz Kafka web links Franz Kafka at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production features, box office, film reviews, and even quizzes.

Franz Kafka video Kafka in Love
Video photomontage featuring portraits of Kafka, his friends and family, and locations in Prague – with a rather schmaltzy soundtrack in Yiddish and English.

Franz Kafka web links Kafka-Metamorphosis
A public Wiki dedicated to Kafka and his work, featuring the short stories, interpretations, and further web links.

Franz Kafka web links Kafka Society of America
Academic group with annual meetings and publications. Also features links to other Kafka-related sites

Franz Kafka web links Oxford Kafka Research Centre
Academic group based at Oxford University that tracks current research and meetings. [Doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2012.]

Franz Kafka web links The Kafka Project
Critical editions and translations of Kafka’s work in several languages, plus articles, literary criticism, bibliographies.

Franz Kafka Tribute to Franz Kafka
Individual fan site (created by ‘Herzogbr’) featuring a collection of texts, reviews, and enthusiast essays. Badly in need of updating, but contains some interesting gems.

Kafka photos Finding Kafka in Prague
Quirky compilation of photos locating Kafka in his home town – with surrealist additions and weird sound track.

Red button Who Owns Kafka?
Essay by Judith Butler from the London Review of Books on the contentious issues of ownership of Kafka’s manuscripts where they are currently held in Israel – complete with podcast.

Red button The Kafka Archive – latest news
Guardian newspaper report on the suitcase full of Kafka and Max Brod’s papers released by Israeli library.

Red button Franz Kafka: an illustrated life
Book review of a charming short biography with some unusual period photos of Kafka and Prague.

© Roy Johnson 2012

More on Franz Kafka
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

The Mayor of Casterbridge

by

tutorial, characters, criticism, video, study resources

The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) is probably Hardy’s greatest work – a novel whose aspirations are matched by artistic shaping and control. It is the tragic history of Michael Henchard – a man who rises to civic prominence, but whose past comes back to haunt him. This is not surprising, because he sells his wife in the opening chapter. When she comes back unexpectedly, he is trapped between present and past.

Thomas Hardy

He is also locked into a psychological contest with an alter-ego figure with whom he battles both metaphorically and realistically. Henchard falls in the course of the novel from civic honour and commercial greatness into a tragic figure, a man defeated by his own strengths as much as his weaknesses. There are strong echoes of King Lear here, and some of the most powerfully dramatic and psychologically revealing scenes in all of Hardy’s work.

Hardy is one of the few writers (Lawrence was another) who made a significant contribution to English literature in the form of the novel, poetry, and the short story. His writing is full of delightful effects, beautiful images and striking language.

He creates unforgettable characters and orchestrates stories which pull at your heart strings. It has to be said that he also relies on coincidences and improbabilities of plot which (though common in the nineteenth century) some people see as weaknesses. However, his sense of drama, his powerful language, and his wonderful depiction of the English countryside make him an enduring favourite.

The Mayor of Casterbridge – plot summary

At a country fair near Casterbridge, a young hay-trusser named Michael Henchard gets drunk and quarrels with his wife, Susan. He then auctions off his wife and baby daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, to a sailor, Mr. Newson, for five guineas. Remorseful at his stupidity and loss, he next day swears not to touch liquor again for as many years as he has lived so far (twenty-one). Nineteen years later, Henchard, now a successful grain merchant, has become Mayor of Casterbridge, known for his staunch sobriety. He is well respected for his financial acumen and his work ethic, but he is not well liked. Impulsive, selfish behaviour and a violent temper are still part of his character.

The Mayor of CasterbridgeThe people in Casterbridge believe he is a widower. He himself finds it convenient to believe Susan probably is dead. While travelling to the island of Jersey on business, he falls in love with a young woman named Lucette de Sueur. They have a sexual relationship, and Lucetta’s reputation is ruined by her association with Henchard.

When Henchard returns to Casterbridge he leaves Lucetta to face the social consequences of their fling. Yet just as Henchard is about to send for Lucetta, Susan unexpectedly appears in Casterbridge with her daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, who is now fully grown. Susan and Elizabeth-Jane are both very poor. Newson appears to have been lost at sea.

Just as Susan and Elizabeth-Jane arrive, so does an amiable Scotsman, Donald Farfrae, who has experience as a grain and corn merchant, and is on the cutting edge of agricultural science. He befriends Henchard and helps him out of a bad financial situation by giving him some timely advice. Henchard persuades him to stay and offers him a job as his corn factor. He also makes Farfrae a close friend and confides in him about his past history and personal life.

Henchard is also reunited with Susan and the fully grown Elizabeth-Jane, setting them up in a nearby house. He pretends to court Susan, and marries her. Both Henchard and Susan keep their past history from their daughter. Henchard also keeps Lucetta a secret. He writes to her, informing her that their marriage is off. Lucetta is devastated and asks for the return of her letters. Henchard attempts to return them, but Lucetta misses the appointment.

The new state of affairs sets in motion a decline in Henchard’s fortunes. His relationship with Farfrae deteriorates gradually as Farfrae becomes more popular than Henchard. In addition to being more friendly and amiable, Farfrae is better informed, better educated, and everything Henchard himself wants to be. Henchard feels threatened by Farfrae, particularly when Elizabeth-Jane starts to fall in love with him.

The competition between Donald Farfrae and Henchard grows. Eventually they part company and Farfrae sets himself up as an independent hay and corn merchant. Henchard meanwhile makes increasingly aggressive, risky business decisions that put him in financial danger. The business rivalry leads to Henchard standing in the way of a marriage between Farfrae and Elizabeth-Jane.

At this point Susan dies and Henchard learns he is not Elizabeth-Jane’s father: she is Newson’s daughter. Feeling ashamed and hard done by, Henchard conceals the secret from Elizabeth-Jane, but grows cold and cruel towards her.

In the meantime, Henchard’s former mistress, Lucetta, arrives from Jersey and purchases a house in Casterbridge. She has inherited money from a wealthy relative. Initially she wants to pick up her relationship with him where it left off. She takes Elizabeth-Jane into her household as a companion thinking it will give Henchard an excuse to come visit, but the plan backfires.

The details of how Henchard sold his first wife become public knowledge when a man who witnessed the sale makes the story public. Henchard does not deny the story, but when Lucetta hears a little bit more about what kind of man Henchard really is she no longer particularly likes what she sees.

Donald Farfrae, who visits Lucetta’s house to see Elizabeth-Jane, now becomes completely distracted by Lucetta, having no idea that Lucetta is the mysterious woman who was informally engaged to Henchard.

Henchard, although he was initially reluctant, now gradually realizes that he wants to marry Lucetta, particularly since he’s having financial trouble due to some speculations having gone bad.

He bullies Lucetta into agreeing to marry him – but by this point she is in love with Farfrae. The two run away one weekend and get married. Henchard’s credit collapses, he becomes bankrupt, and he sells all his personal possessions to pay creditors.

As Henchard’s fortunes decline, Farfrae’s rise. He buys Henchard’s old business and employs Henchard as a journeyman day-laborer. Farfrae is always trying to help the man who helped him get started, whom he still regards as a friend and a former mentor. He does not realize Henchard is his enemy even though the town council and Elizabeth-Jane both warn him.

Lucetta, feeling safe and comfortable in her marriage with Farfrae, keeps her former relationship with Henchard a secret. But this secret is revealed and the townspeople publicly shame Henchard and Lucetta. Lucetta, who by this point is pregnant, dies of an epileptic seizure.

Suddenly Newson, Elizabeth-Jane’s biological father, returns. Henchard is afraid of losing her companionship and tells Newson she is dead. Henchard is once again impoverished, and as soon as the twenty-first year of his oath is up, he starts drinking again. By the time Elizabeth-Jane, who months later is married to Donald Farfrae and reunited with Newson, goes looking for Henchard to forgive him, he has died and left a will requesting no funeral and that no man should remember him.

Study resources

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Everyman Library Classics – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Everyman Library Classics – Amazon US

The Mayor of Casterbridge – York Notes – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – Cliffs Notes – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – 1978 BBC TV version on DVD – Amaz UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – 2003 BBC TV version on DVD – Amaz UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – CD-ROM and audio pack – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge – audioBook version at LibriVox

The Mayor of Casterbridge – eBook versions at Gutenberg

Thomas Hardy: A Biography – definitive study – Amazon UK

Red button The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy – Amazon UK

Red button The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy – Amazon UK

Red button Authors in Context – Thomas Hardy – Amazon UK

Thomas Hardy’s Complete Fiction – Kindle eBook

Red button Oxford Reader’s Companion to Hardy – Amazon UK

The Mayor of Casterbridge

Principal characters
Michael Henchard the Mayor of Casterbridge, a corn-dealer
Susan his wife, who he sells at auction
Elizabeth-Jane their daughter, who dies in infancy
Richard Newson a sailor who ‘buys’ Henchard’s wife
Elizabeth-Jane Susan’s second daughter, with Richard Newsom
Donald Farfrae a scientific corn merchant, who also becomes the Mayor of Casterbridge
Lucette Le Sueur French-speaking woman from Jersey
Film version

opening of 2003 BBC TV version

music by Adrian Johnston

Further reading

J.O. Bailey, The Poetry of Thomas Hardy: A Handbook and Commentary, Chapel Hill:N.C., 1970.

John Bayley, An Essay on Hardy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Penny Boumelha, Thomas Hardy and Women: Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form, Brighton: Harvester, 1982.

Kristin Brady, The Short Stories of Thomas Hardy, London: Macmillan, 1982.

L. St.J. Butler, Alternative Hardy, London: Macmillan, 1989.

Raymond Chapman, The Language of Thomas Hardy, London: Macmillan, 1990.

R.G.Cox, Thomas Hardy: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1970.

Ralph W.V. Elliot, Thomas Hardy’s English, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.

Simon Gattrel, Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.

James Gibson (ed), The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy, London, 1976.

I. Gregor, The Great Web: The Form of Hardy’s Major Fiction, London: Faber, 1974.

Florence Emily Hardy, The Life of Thomas Hardy, London: Macmillan, 1962. (This is more or less Hardy’ s autobiography, since he told his wife what to write.)

P. Ingham, Thomas Hardy: A Feminist Reading, Brighton: Harvester, 1989.

P.Ingham, The Language of Class and Gender: Transformation in the English Novel, London: Routledge, 1995,

D. Kramer, Thomas Hardy: The Forms of Tragedy, London: Macmillan, 1975.

J. Hillis Miller, Thomas Hardy: Distance and Desire, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970.

Michael Millgate, Thomas Hardy: His Career as a Novelist, London: Bodley Head, 1971.

Michael Millgate, Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. (This is the definitive biography.)

Michael Millgate and Richard L. Purdy (eds), The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978-

R. Morgan, Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, London: Routledge, 1988.

Harold Orel (ed), Thomas Hardy’s Personal Writings, London, 1967.

Norman Page, Thomas Hardy: The Novels, London: Macmillan, 2001.

F.B. Pinion, A Thomas Hardy Companion, London: Macmillan, 1968.

F.B. Pinion, A Thomas Hardy Dictionary, New York: New York University Press, 1989.

Richard L. Purdy, Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.

Marlene Springer, Hardy’s Use of Allusion, London: Macmillan, 1983.

Rosemary Sumner, Thomas Hardy: Psychological Novelist, London: Macmillan, 1981.

Richard H. Taylor, The Neglected Hardy: Thomas Hardy’s Lesser Novels, London: Macmillan, 1982.

Richard H. Taylor, The Personal Notebooks of Thomas Hardy, London, 1978.

Merryn Williams, A Preface to Hardy, London: Longman, 1976.

Manuscript of The Mayor of Casterbridge

Other works by Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy Tess of the d'UrbervillesTess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) is probably the most popular of Hardy’s late, great novels. The sub-title is ‘A Pure Woman’, and it is a story which explores the tragic consequences of a young milkmaid who becomes the victim of the men she encounters. First she falls for the spiritual but flawed Angel Clare, and then the physical but limited Alec Durberville takes advantage of her. This novel has some of the most beautiful and the most harrowing depictions of rural working conditions which reveal Hardy as a passionate advocate for those who work the land. It also has a wonderfully symbolic climax at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. There is poetry in almost every page.
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

Jude the ObscureJude the Obscure is Hardy’s last major statement before he gave up writing novels for good. Hero Jude is intellectually ambitious but held back by his work as stonemason and his dalliance with earthy Arabella. When he meets his spiritual soulmate Sue Brideshead, everything seems set fair for success – except that she is capricious and sexually repressed. Jude struggles to do the right thing – but the Fates are against him. The outcome is heart-rendingly bleak and tragic. This novel reveals the deep-seated social and sexual tensions in Hardy – himself a self-made man from a humble background.
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

Wessex TalesWessex Tales Don’t miss the skills of Hardy as a writer of shorter fictions. None of his short stories are really short, but they are beautifully crafted. This is the first volume of his tales in which he was seeking to record the customs, superstitions, and beliefs of old Wessex before they were lost to living memory. Yet whilst dealing with traditional beliefs, they also explore very modern concerns of difficult and often thwarted human passions which he developed more extensively in his longer works.
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Thomas Hardy greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

Thomas Hardy – web links

Hardy at Mantex Thomas Hardy at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides to the major novels, book reviews. bibliographies, critiques of the shorter fiction, and web links.

Thomas Hardy complete works The Thomas Hardy Collection
The complete novels, stories, and poetry – Kindle eBook single file download for £1.29 at Amazon.

Hardy eTexts Thomas Hardy at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of digital formats.

Hardy at Wikipedia Thomas Hardy at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, the novels and literary themes, poetry, religious beliefs and influence, biographies and criticism.

Thomas Hardy web links The Thomas Hardy Society
Dorset-based site featuring educational activities, a biennial conference, a journal (three times a year) with links to the texts of all the major works.

Thomas Hardy web links The Thomas Hardy Association
American-based site with photos and academic resources. Be prepared to search and drill down to reach the more useful materials.

Hardy at IMDB Thomas Hardy on the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production features, box office, film reviews, and even quizzes.

Thomas Hardy web links Thomas Hardy – online literary criticism
Small collection of academic papers and articles ‘favoring signed articles by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources’.

Red button Thomas Hardy’s Wessex
Evolution of Wessex, contemporary reviews, maps, bibliography, links to other web sites, and history.

© Roy Johnson 2010

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The Moonstone

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tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Moonstone (1868) is often regarded as the first great detective novel. It is certainly a great novel of mystery that sustains both its central puzzle and the solution to it over a very long narrative. The book is also a ‘sensation novel’ – one that sets out to deliberately shock the reader. This was a genre of fiction in which Wilkie Collins excelled. He was a friend and a collaborator of Charles Dickens, and one of the most commercially successful novelists of the mid nineteenth century.

The Moonstone

The Moonstone – a note on the text

The Moonstone first appeared as weekly instalments in All the Year Round, the literary magazine owned and edited by Charles Dickens, the friend and sometimes collaborator of Wilkie Collins. Before the serialization had reached its conclusion, it was published in what was then the conventional three volume format by William Tinsley, and in single volume format later the same year.

Although the book did not at first sell well in novel format, it eventually became Collins’ second most successful work, after The Woman in White.

For a full account of the composition, publication and reception of the novel, see the bibliographic essay by John Sutherland in the Oxford World’s Classics edition of The Moonstone.

The Moonstone – critical commentary

The narrative

Wilkie Collins adopted the same narrative strategy as he had for his previous big success The Woman in White – a multiplicity of voices. They are multiple both in their literary style and their various points of view. This makes the reader’s task more difficult in assembling a ‘truth’ of what happens in the story, but it offers more entertainment as a compensation.

The narrators include Gabriel Betteredge a longwinded house steward,;Franklin Blake the apparent hero of the novel; Drusilla Clack an interfering spinster; Sergeant Cuff a Scotland Yard detective who guesses the identity of the villain; and Ezra Jennings, a curious medical assistant who actually solves the mystery.

Gabriel Betteredge’s narrative is styled as a combination of his favourite reading – Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe – and another eighteenth century monologuist, Laurence Sterne. Betteredge goes into enormous detail over inconsequential trivialities, and he offers long irrelevant digressions, meanwhile passing flattering comments on his own approach as a raconteur of events.

His explanations of what has taken place mean that the story often goes backwards to fill inn the provenance of characters and what has already happened. He is driven to address the reader, pleading for patience, and offering promises that before long the story will be going forwards to get to the point he has been tasked with addressing.

Betteredge also changes his written style to suit the events he is describing. For instance, he gives an account of his daughter Penelope’s police interview in the form of a constable’s abbreviated notes – lapsing comically into longwinded irrelevancies and self-reference. (Betteredge frequently compliments himself as a gifted sleuth: he describes himself as being overcome with ‘the detective fever’.)

Penelope examined. Took a lively interest in the painting on the door, having helped to mix the colours. Noticed the bit of work under the lock, because it was the last bit done. Had seen it some hours afterwards, without a smear … dress recognised by her father as the dress she wore that night, skirts examined, a long job from the size of them, not the ghost of a paint-stain discovered anywhere. End of Penelope’s evidence – and very pretty and convincing too. Signed, Gabriel Betteredge.

Multiple narrators

Collins’ strategy of using multiple narrators produces some other amusing characters – such as the appalling shrew Drusilla Clack, who tyrannises the other characters with her ‘improving’ religious tracts on Satan in the Hair Brush. But this approach does have its weaknesses. There is sometimes unnecessary repetition when one character gives an account of events which are already known to reader, without adding anything new.

A larger weakness is that there is sometimes no explanation given for the source of the information. When Godfrey Ablewhite is exposed as the Diamond thief, Sergeant Cuff gives an account of his villainous embezzlement, his lavish villa in the suburbs, and his secret mistress – but there is no explanation of how he has obtained this information or why it could not have been known before.

Added to that, there are minor problems of scrappiness generated by the number of different narrators towards the end of the story, and unexplained issues such as the identity of the author of the prologue, and no really convincing justification for Murthwaite’s final missive describing the restitution of the Diamond in India.

The sexual interpretation

It is not difficult to see that the central incident of the Diamond theft has distinctly sexual overtones. The moonstone has been given to Rachel on her eighteenth birthday – acting as both a symbol of her virginity and an emblem of her ‘coming-of-age’ at the same time. As the literary critic John Sutherland observes, in eastern religions, gemstones were often placed in the ‘Yoni’ (the vagina) of female statues.

Franklin and Rachel are amorously attracted to each other, and (controversially for that period) are both in her bedroom late at night when the Diamond disappears. Franklin takes the stone from a drawer in her cabinet, with the result that he has a stain (semen? hymenal blood?) on his nightgown. Both parties are awake at the time – though he has been drugged.

The stained nightgown is then confiscated by the maid Susanna Spearman, who is passionately in love with Franklin and quite rightly sees Rachel as rival for his affections. Not only that, but she inspects his bedroom and finds further stains on the inside of his dressing gown: As she writes to him later:

My head whirled round, and my thoughts were in a dreadful confusion. In the midst of it all, something in my mind whispered to me that the smear on your nightgown might have a meaning entirely different to the meaning which I had given to it up to that time.

She is conflicted over her possession of the soiled nightgown, unsure if it will be useful for her love or her revenge. In the end she buries the nightgown in an effort to protect Franklin from detection. But this symbolically blots from her consciousness the evidence of his sexual connection with another woman. She replaces it with a new, unsullied nightgown of her own making, thus preserving an unstained image of him in her own mind. Shortly afterwards she commits suicide.

The detective novel

The poet T.S.Eliot once described The Moonstone as ‘the first and the greatest of English detective novels’ – an endorsement which has been blazoned across the covers of many paperback editions ever since. Yet it is not the first detective novel: Dickens published Bleak House sixteen years previously in 1852, which included his famous sleuth figure, the sardonic Inspector Bucket. Whether it is the ‘greatest’ detective novel is open to debate – a debate for which Eliot does not offer any evidence or make a case.

Moreover, it is not really a detective story, so much as a mystery story – and this despite featuring not one but two detectives amongst its characters. The first of these, local officer Superintendent Seegrave, misinterprets the situation, makes a hash of gathering evidence, and fails to solve the problem. The second detective, Sergeant Cuff from Scotland Yard, is more perceptive and he does eventually predict the identity of the villain correctly – but he fails to recover the Diamond.

The mystery is actually solved by an outsider – the tragic and piebald medical assistant Ezra Jennings, who is an opium addict. It is he who correctly ‘interprets’ the delirious ramblings of his employer Thomas Candy. He then proposes the experiment of unlocking Franklin’s memory of exactly what happened the night the Diamond was stolen by repeating the dose of laudanum he had secretly been given. Jenning’s surmise and his experiment are both successful – and the remainder of the novel is a frantic pursuit to re-capture the Diamond, which fails completely.

The double

In her biography of the author, Catherine Peters observes that ‘All his life, Wilkie Collins was haunted by a second self”:

When he worked late into the night, another Wilkie Collins appeared: ‘… the second Wilkie Collins sat at the same table with him and tried to monopolise the writing pad. Then there was a struggle … when the true Wilkie awoke, the inkstand had been upset and the ink was running over the writing table. After that Wilkie Collins gave up writing at nights.

There is certainly a very striking example of what we now call ‘the double’ at work in The Moonstone. When the assistant doctor Ezra Jennings is introduced, the description of him (given by Franklin) emphasises his peculiar appearance. He has a ‘gypsy complexion’, ‘fleshless cheeks’, and appears simultaneously old and young. Most peculiar of all, he is piebald – with hair that is distinctly black and white.

Yet he and the handsome Franklin are immediately and inexplicably drawn to each other. Franklin finds that ‘Ezra Jennings made some inscrutable appeal to my sympathies, which I found it impossible to resist’. Jennings for his part confesses ‘There is no disguising, Mr Blake, that you interest me’.

Franklin is rich and handsome: Jennings is an outcast with a guilty secret in his past. Both of them are burdened by a misdemeanour, and neither of them are capable of proving their innocence. Jennings has a stain on his reputation as a human being, and Franklin a stain on his clothes that brands him as a thief. Moreover, both of them are drug addicts.

Franklin is addicted to tobacco. When he stops smoking cigars he cannot sleep and is reduced to a nervous wreck, grappling with the temptation of his cigar cabinet. Jennings is an opium addict – a habit originally taken up to ease the pain of some unspecified ailment, but now a simple dependence on the narcotic.

The two characters, as with many examples of the double, are like two parts of the same being, twins yet opposites. Franklin is rich, handsome, and rising in society. Jennings is broken, haunted by his past sin (which is not specified) and sinking fast under the effects of his addiction.

Yet Jennings is sinking in a noble manner. Knowing that he will soon die, he is working hard to leave money to someone he loves. He feels grateful for the mere fact that Franklin shows him toleration and friendship:

You, and such as you, show me the sunny side of human life, and reconcile me with the world that I am leaving, before I go … I shall not forget that you have done me a kindness in doing that.

Jennings saves Franklin’s social reputation by proving his innocence. In doing so he restores the relationship between Franklin and Rachel. His interpretation of events is superior to that of the professional sleuths, Seegrave and Cuff. And in the end he dies a tragic hero, wishing to be forgotten in an unmarked grave.

The sensation novel and its credibility

The sensation novel was ‘a novel with a secret’ and for the first three quarters of The Moonstone the secret of the whole drama is that the person who stole the Diamond from Rachel Verinder’s bedroom is none other than the apparent hero of the novel – Franklin Blake.

This incident sets in train a whole host of sub-mysteries and red herrings about who the guilty person might be, and how the mysteries can be unravelled, the crime solved, and the Diamond recovered.

But it has to be said that Wilkie Collins, for all his inventiveness, puts a great strain on the reader’s credulity in forging the links in his plot. The fact that Franklin was acting under the influence of a secretly administered dose of opium when he stole the Diamond is difficult enough to accept as an explanation of three hundred pages of mystery and drama.

But then we are asked to believe that whilst in the act of taking the Diamond (all the time observed by his lover Rachel) he then unconsciously gives the Diamond to the villain of the piece (Godfrey) who has been watching him secretly from a room next door. This pushes the plotting of the novel into the realms of over-contrived melodrama.

These events concern what the novel’s contents page describe as ‘The Loss of the Diamond’ but in the latter part of the novel (‘The Discovery of the Truth’) there are similar demands made of the reader’s credulity. First the opium experiment proposed by Ezra Jennings manages to miraculously repeat the exact sequence of events that took place on the night of the theft – thus proving Franklin’s innocence.

Well – that might be explained as an essay in ‘released memory’ or ‘the workings of the unconscious’ – a quasi-scientific approach to interpretation reflecting the mid-nineteenth century understanding of psychology. But when the location of the Diamond is discovered (which rounds off the story quite nicely) Collins pushes the levels of contrivance to unacceptable lengths. We are expected to believe the following sequence of events.

First, that the Indian vigilantes are able to gain access to the roof of “The Wheel of Fortune” tavern where Godfrey is hiding, disguised as a sailor. Fortunately for dramatic purposes, a builder’s ladder has been left conveniently available nearby. Next, once on the roof, they are able to cut through a trapdoor (using an ‘exceedingly sharp instrument’) then drop into the room – without once disturbing the occupant. They then kill the thief (Godfrey) without making any sound, and are able to climb back out through the trapdoor, which is seven feet above them. How do they manage this? By using yet another ladder which is kept under the bed – for regular use by customers.

It’s fortunate that The Moonstone has many other successful features of characterisation, narration, and design; because without these literary qualities, the improbabilities and unconvincing elements of ‘sensation’ plotting would sink the novel completely.

The Moonstone – study resources

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Oxford Classics – Amazon UK

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Oxford Classics – Amazon US

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

The Moonstone The Moonstone – Study Notes – Amazon UK

The Moonstone The Complete Works of Wilkie Collins – Kindle eBook

The Moonstone The Moonstone – 2009 BBC film

The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone – plot summary

Prologue

1799 – The Moonstone is looted by Colonel John Herncastle during the storming of Serangapatan in India.

First Period – The Loss of the Diamond

1848 The aged house steward Gabriel Betteredge is asked to begin the narrative concerning the loss of the diamond. There is a visit to the house by three Indian ‘conjurers’. Betteredge talks to the morbid maid Rosanna on the Shivering Sand. Spendthrift Franklin Blake returns home from his education in Europe – in possession of the diamond, which has been left to Rachel Verinder in the Colonel’s will.

The Colonel has visited Lady Verinder on Rachel’s birthday, but has been turned away from the house. Franklin Blake reports the Colonel’s arrangements for his will and goes to put the Diamond in a local bank until Rachel’s next birthday.

Franklin and Rachel go in for decorative door painting. The maid Rosanna is in love with Franklin. Philanthropist and ladies’ man Godfrey Ablewhite is invited to Rachel’s party. The Diamond is presented to Rachel, who then refuses an offer of marriage from Godfrey. During dinner there is a visit from the Indians. By next morning the Diamond has disappeared.

Superintendent Seegrave arrives to interview staff and guests, with no result. Rosanna has the vapours over Franklin and behaves strangely. Franklin sends to London for more experienced help.

Sergeant Cuff arrives from Scotland Yard, establishes the paint smear on a door as an important clue, and then claims the Diamond has not been stolen. Cuff wishes to inspect everyone’s clothes in pursuit of the paint smear – but Rachel refuses to comply.

Cuff pays special attention to Susanna because of her erratic behaviour. Betteredge and Cuff visit the Shivering Sand, then Susanna’s friends in a fisherman’s cottage. Cuff believes Susanna has sunk something in the sands.

When they get back to the house, Rachel wants to leave. Cuff has a theory that she has the Diamond. Susanna seems on the edge of making a confession, but doesn’t. Cuff thinks that Susanna has made a new nightdress and hidden the one with a paint smear. Rachel leaves the house and Susanna seems to be plotting to retrieve her hidden nightdress.

When Susanna disappears a fruitless search is made of the Shivering Sand, followed by the discovery of her suicide note. Lady Verinder thinks to dismiss Cuff, who argues that Rachel probably has secret debts and has engaged Susanna as an accomplice in selling the Diamond. Lady Julia challenges Rachel with these claims, but she denies all the charges – so Cuff is paid off.

Lady Verinder takes Rachel to London. Franklin leaves for Europe, and Limping Lucy Yolland accuses him of ruining Susanna’s life. Cuff’s three predictions regarding the Yollands, the Indians, and the money-lender all come true.

Second Period – The Discovery of the Truth

Miss Clack gives an account of Godfrey Ablewhite being decoyed in London and searched by three Indians. The same thing happens to Mr Luker. Rachel is upset by the news. She interrogates Godfrey and insists on his innocence against rumours that he is in league with Luker.

Lady Verinder reveals that she has heart problems. Clack and lawyer Bruff discuss Rachel, Godfrey, and Franklin as possible suspects. Clack leaves improving books with Julia, all of which are returned unread – so she posts letters containing quotations. She overhears Godfrey proposing to Rachel, who is conflicted but accepts. Lady Verinder suddenly dies.

The Ablewhites and Rachel move to Brighton accompanied by Clack who vows to ‘interfere’. Rachel retracts her engagement to Godfrey, who accepts the rejection, but his father reproaches Rachel and refuses to be her guardian. Clack wants to read sermons and is rejected by everyone. Rachel leaves under the protection of family lawyer Bruff.

Bruff reveals that Godfrey has asked to see Sir John Verinder’s will, which limits Rachel’s inheritance. Godfrey has accepted Rachel’s rejection because he needs a ‘large sum of money’. Bruff is visited by the suave Indian who has also been to see Luker, asking how soon a loan must be repaid. Murthwaite advances a theory that explains the Indians’ plot to retrieve the Diamond, which has been handed to Luker.

Franklin returns to England on the death of his father (having inherited a substantial fortune). Rachel refuses to see him. He thinks it’s because of the Diamond, so he goes to Yorkshire to take up the search where it was left off. Betteredge helps him to recover the letter left for him by Susanna. The letter gives him instructions for recovering the nightgown hidden in the Shivering Sand.

Rosanna has also left a long letter, explaining her love for Franklin and how she found the paint stain on his nightgown. She kept it, believing that he had stolen the Diamond to pay off heavy debts.

Franklin takes the evidence to Bruff in London, who agrees to arrange a meeting with Rachel. She reveals to Franklin that she saw him stealing the Diamond, and has concealed the fact ever since out of love for him. They part in great bitterness. Franklin goes to Yorkshire in search of the birthday dinner guests. Mr Candy wants to tell him something, but cannot remember what it is.

Ezra Jennings relates how he has nursed Mr Candy, and how his life has been ruined by a stain on his reputation. He is saving his small inheritance for a loved one and surviving the threat of death by taking opium. When Franklin reveals his own problem Jennings claims that his transcriptions of Candy’s delirious statements will prove Franklin was unconscious at the time the Diamond was stolen..

The notes reveal that Candy gave Franklin a dose of opium on the night of the party. Jennings also suggests that the Diamond might have been stolen from Franklin, so he proposes a repeat opium experiment to prove Franklin’s innocence.

Jennings writes to Rachel explaining the party trick on Franklin and asking for permission to use the Hall for a re-enactment. Rachel agrees and forgives Franklin. Bruff disapproves but agrees to attend. Betteredge gives reluctant consent.

The principals assemble at the Hall and the experiment is successful. Franklin takes the opium and removes a fake diamond from Rachel’s cabinet, but falls into a stupor before placing it in his own room.

Bruff and Franklin return to London where they see Luker at the bank. People who might have the Diamond are followed. A sailor is traced to a pub, but is dead next morning and turns out to be Godfrey Alblewhite.

Epilogue

Sergeant Cuff reports on the secret life of Ablewhite. He has stolen another man’s inheritance and spent it on a lavish villa where he keeps his mistress. Cuff reveals that Ablewhite was in the room adjacent to Franklin on the night of the party. Franklin, who had been drugged, asked Ablewhite to take the Diamond to his father’s bank for safe keeping.

Mr Candy reports on the death of Ezra Jennings. Franklin and Rachel are married. Cuff’s man traces the three Hindoos to a ship bound for Bombay. The captain reports that the Hindoos jumped ship whilst it was becalmed off the coast of northern India. Murthwaite’s letter records the return of the Diamond to its place in a shrine dedicated to Vishnu.

The Moonstone – principal characters
Colonel John Herncastle the original Diamond thief
Lady Julia Verinder his sister
Rachel Verinder Julia’s daughter
Franklin Blake Jukia’s nephew
Matthew Bruff the Verinder family lawyer
Gabriel Betteredge elderly house steward to Lady Julia Verinder
Penelope Betteredge’s daughter
Rosanna Spearman housemaid, ex-reformatory, with deformed shoulder
Godfrey Ablewhite a philanthropist and ladies’ man
Thomas Candy the local doctor
Ezra Jennings Candy’s piebald assistant
Mr Murthwaite an explorer
Superintendant Seegrave the local detective
Seargeant Cuff a Scotland Yard detective
Drusilla Clack a pious evangelical Christian
Septimus Luker a money lender
Octavius Guy Cuff’s boy detective assistant, ‘Gooseberry’
The Moonstone – further reading

William M. Clarke, The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins, London: Ivan R. Dee, 1988.

Tamar Heller, Dead Secrets: Wilkie Collins and the Female Gothic, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Winifred Hughes, The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860s, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Sue Lonoff, Wilkie Collins and his Victorian Readers: A Study in the Rhetoric of Authorship, New York: AMS Press, 1982.

Catherine Peters, The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.

Walter C. Phillips, Dickens, Reade, and Collins: Sensation Novelists, New York: Library of Congress, 1919.

Lynn Pykett, Wilkie Collins: New Casebooks, London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1998.

Nicholas Rance, Wilkie Collins and Other Sensation Novelists: Walking the Moral Hospital, London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1991.

© Roy Johnson 2016

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The novels of Edith Wharton

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Edith Wharton (1862—1937) was a prolific and very successful American novelist of the early twentieth century whose critical reputation faded somewhat under the impact of literary modernism which took hold in the 1920s. However, it has recovered since her work was ‘rediscovered’ by feminists in the 1960s and the years that followed.

She writes in an elegant and measured style, not unlike that of her close friend Henry James. Like him she also wrote lots of short stories, and she is particularly well regarded for her ghost stories. Her subjects are men and women trapped between the conventions of an old nineteenth century order trying to break through to various forms of self-discovery and personal freedom made possible in the twentieth.

Like her younger contemporary Vita Sackville-West she was also an authority on gardens and interior decor. She designed her own forty-two roomed house in Lennox, Masachusetts. All of her major works have been turned into films, and she is now fairly well established as a major figure in the American literary tradition.

 

The novels of Edith Wharton - Ethan FromeEthan Frome (1911) tells the story of a poor farmer, lonely and downtrodden, his wife Zeena, and her cousin, the enchanting Mattie Silver. In the playing out of this novella’s powerful and engrossing drama, Edith Wharton constructed her least characteristic and most celebrated book. In its unyielding and shocking pessimism, its bleak demonstration of tragic waste, it is a masterpiece of psychological and emotional realism. Every detail of the story contributes to a shocking and powerful conclusion you will never forget. This book is now regarded as a classic of the novella genre.
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The novels of Edith Wharton - The Age of InnocenceThe Age of Innocence (1920) is Edith Wharton’s most famous novel, written immediately after the end of the First World War. It’s a brilliantly realized anatomy of New York society in the 1870s. Newland Archer is charming, tactful, and enlightened. He accepts society’s standards and abides by its rules, but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future – until the arrival of May’s cousin Ellen Olenska puts all his plans in jeopardy. Independent, free-thinking, and scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies.
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The novels of Edith Wharton - The Custom of the CountryThe Custom of the Country (1913) is Edith Wharton’s satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father’s money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. This is a study of modern ambition and materialism written a hundred years before its time.
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The novels of Edith Wharton - The House of MirthThe House of Mirth (1905) is the story of Lily Bart, who is beautiful, poor, and still unmarried at twenty-nine. In her search for a husband with money and position she betrays her own heart and sows the seeds of the tragedy that finally overwhelms her. The book is a disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women of Wharton’s generation. In telling the story of Lily Bart, who must marry to survive, Wharton recasts the age-old themes of family, marriage, and money in ways that transform the traditional novel of manners into an arresting modern document of cultural anthropology.
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The novels of Edith Wharton -The ReefThe Reef (1912) deals with three topics with which Edith Wharton herself was intimately acquainted at the period of its composition – unhappy marriage, divorce, and the discovery of sensual pleasures. The setting is a country chateau in France where diplomat George Darrow has arrived from America, hoping to marry the beautiful widow Anna Leith. But a young woman employed as governess to Anna’s daughter proves to be someone he met briefly in the past and has fallen in love with him. She also becomes engaged to Anna’s stepson. The result is a quadrangle of tensions and suspicions about who knows what about whom. And the outcome is not what you might imagine.
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Edith Wharton's house - The Mount

Edith Wharton’s house – The Mount

© Roy Johnson 2013

Edith Wharton – web links

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides to the major novels, tutorials on the shorter fiction, bibliographies, critiques of the shorter fiction, and web links.

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton at Gutenberg
Free eTexts of the major novels and collections of stories in a variety of digital formats – also includes travel writing and interior design.

Edith WhartonEdith Wharton at Wikipedia
Full details of novels, stories, and travel writing, adaptations for television and the cinema, plus web links to related sites.

Edith WhartonThe Edith Wharton Society
Old but comprehensive collection of free eTexts of the major novels, stories, and travel writing, linking archives at University of Virginia and Washington State University.

Edith WhartonThe Mount: Edith Wharton’s Home
Aggressively commercial site devoted to exploiting The Mount – the house and estate designed by Edith Wharton. Plan your wedding reception here.

Edith WhartonEdith Wharton at Fantastic Fiction
A compilation which purports to be a complete bibliography, arranged as novels, collections, non-fiction, anthologies, short stories, letters, and commentaries – but is largely links to book-selling sites, which however contain some hidden gems.

Edith WhartonEdith Wharton’s manuscripts
Archive of Wharton holdings at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

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The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

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tutorial, commentary, plot summary, web links

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957) is something of a curiosity in the work of Evelyn Waugh. It is usually classed as a novel, but has more of the characteristics of a novella. Quite clearly it is autobiographical in origin, and in essence it has only one character – Gilbert Pinfold himself. In this sense it can also be regarded as a psychiatric case study – except that the condition it dramatises was eventually diagnosed as a pharmacological, not a psychological problem. It continues Waugh’s fictional strategy of combining serious problems with dramatic irony and comic misunderstandings.

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – commentary

Story – novel – novella

The publication could easily be classed as a long story. It deals essentially with one person’s experiences. It starts with the onset of his problems in a domestic English setting. It follows his escapist travels and the intensification of his psychic dramas. Then the narrative returns to its starting point and the solution to his problems. Pinfold is cured, and he decides to write the book we have just been reading.

None of the secondary characters have any real substance, and some of them do not even exist. In this sense it is simply a yarn or a tale whose principal interest is the depiction of a mental disorder from the sufferer’s point of view – and the comic consequences to which this breakdown leads.

To regard it as a novel raises problems. As an account of Pinfold’s psychological difficulties it lacks substance, since the majority of the drama is composed of imaginary events. After a perfectly credible opening, the story drifts into a dreamlike state which lacks the concrete reality that is normally part of a realistic novel.

More importantly, there is no acceptable explanation given for the resolution of the psycho-somatic tensions Pinfold is suffering. His physical pains suddenly and inexplicably disappear half way through the story, and the hallucinations evaporate just as suddenly when he reaches home. No reason is given for their origins or dissolution.

This might be the result of using personal experience as the material of what purports to be fiction. The events of the story are very closely based on Evelyn Waugh’s own ‘mid life crisis’ during which he undertook a sea voyage in an attempt to cure writer’s block. He also suffered from a form of persecution mania and delusions.

The cause of these problems was eventually identified as poisoning brought on by his heavy use of drugs and alcohol. As soon as his medication was changed, the hallucinations disappeared completely. There is no comparable resolution provided within the text. The story simply ends with the sort of ‘It had all been a dream’ conclusion to a schoolchild’s creative writing exercise.

But a stronger case can be made for considering it as a novella. It has unity of theme, unity of tone, and unity of character. It also has a neat triangular structure. The story begins with the origins of the drama in an English country house. Its central section deals with the development of Pinfold’s ailments during a sea voyage. And the problems are resolved on finally returning home.

This is simply an alternative view of the same literary material. It suggests a formal coherence in the events of the story, but it doesn’t provide the logical inevitability normally expected from narratives in the form of a novella. This essential element of formal resolution, unfortunately, is missing.

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – study resources

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – Penguin – Amazon UK

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – Penguin – Amazon US

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited – Amazon UK

Four novels by Evelyn Waugh – Amazon UK

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – extensive Wikipedia entry

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

Evelyn Waugh – by Henry Lamb

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – plot summary

Gilbert Pinfold is a successful middle-aged author with conservative views and habits. He lives privately on an estate in what seems to be the West Country. He has problems sleeping, drinks heavily, and takes barbiturates. Following an unpleasant interview by the BBC, he finds his memory playing tricks.

He decides to go somewhere hot to finish his latest book. Despite being in ill health and unable to complete everyday tasks, he continues to drink heavily. On board ship he begins to lose track of time and starts having hallucinations. He loses social control at dinner, then overhears a riot on deck – which is severely quelled by the captain.

After lunch the next day he hears the trial and torture of a crew member coming from the captain’s cabin. The crewman dies. Following this, the pains in Pinfold’s legs suddenly disappear.

He hears a radio broadcast criticising his work as a novelist, then at the dinner table thinks to challenge the captain by raising the subject of murder. He stays awake to check that the captain does not dispose of the crewman’s body at night. Then he overhears two drunken youths who are threatening to beat him. The youths wake up other passengers, all of whom have criticisms of Pinfold.

Next morning Pinfold hears two girls planning to give him presents. The two loutish youths begin to taunt him again. They accuse him of being homosexual, a German (Peinfeld), a Jew, and a communist. Pinfold plans to bring them to trial in the ship’s lounge.

As the ship nears the Mediterranean, Pinfold learns that an international conflict has arisen over possession of Gibraltar. The captain reveals that the Spanish authorities want to capture a secret agent who is on board. He proposes giving them Pinfold as a substitute. When nothing happens Pinfold wonders if he is going mad, but decides it was all a hoax.

He becomes convinced that all the passengers on board are talking about him. A young girl called Margaret whom he has never met makes amorous overtures to him. Her parents intervene – but only to encourage her to visit Pinfold’s cabin at night. She is urged on by her father in military terms, but nothing happens.

When Pinfold overhears passengers laughing over telegrams he has sent he complains to Captain Steerforth and changes his cabin. He also thinks the practical jokes played on him have been orchestrated by Mr Angel, the man from the BBC who interviewed him.

He decides to thwart Angel’s plans by leaving the ship at Port Said and flying on to Colombo. He writes to his wife explaining the plot against him and signalling his intentions.

In Colombo he continues his conversations with Margaret. His wife sends a cable, urging him to come home. When he does return, the voices pursue him all the way back to London. He meets his wife and the voices stop. When they get home he decides to write The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold.

© Roy Johnson 2018

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