Rapid Reviews.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 29, 22 September 1911, Page 4

Rapid Reviews.

THE MESSIANIC MOTIF IN FICTION.

Eugene Suejs ""Proletarian Family." ' By &. Sv ROSS. The reading" of Hall Caine's "The White Prophet'\setS mc ruminating upon the 'Messianic Idea-and its usage in fitcion. There ;i^;; lib to disbelieve but" what tiio MeSsiaiiic vision, and anticipation' germinated; the very cradle of humanity.— The -.idea began with man frinlself. now quite ■evident that .Jesus because the atmosphere, _of.;his;,tti»e was Messianic. It ..-■■ is also olear -that--th«: expectaaicy : ;M : -.a Messiah" "has chi&racterjsejl phases, % iji t.lae-. t ;liistory of all peoples. This. longing, .indeed, colour- j ed many working-class : movements in the centuries before Christ. But as frequency «of the Mc»- ■ sianic . idea in apart from ' the .numerous *%tories panned about ! Jesus and His ;sprk.and L times —not .a j few novels, of t&e Jews have at their ; basis ~this strange, wild hope. The best books dealing with the , mystic East reveal ail almost-, universal absorption in. Messiahs and -' "magic and millenniums. It is' a'remarkable study., * ■ ■ --*■■ •_ ■' ''■ • " ] In the unfolding of this Messianic idea one has to say that "The White Prophet' is wretchedly commonplace by comparison with oth-or ,tales. I have in mind a story-fry ia contemporary of Caine —Israel %angwill, .to wit—which is relatively classical. This story also treats of the' land and scenes through which the J White > Prophet lives, moves, and has his .being. Zaaigwill's romance is, callod' Turkish Messiah," .-and-"-'his' hero is a striking and picturesque personality, and in a way a veritable creation..'" The book through cut suggests .that note of Reality entirely absent iii "The White Prophet." In "The Turkishf Messiah" one is v.afted to another .wOrld,_ and is for *a time majestic and mystical people marching to their martyrdom in traditional splendour and sincerity. Enough— -of this fascinating volume we may again sup. I \yish now 'to pay 'homage to a sparkiingly briiliant historical tale by Eugeaie Sue. Eugene Siie-wrote much more than "The Wandering Jew" and "The Mysteries of Paris." I have myself no doubt that Sue's genius and message lr.ost strongly exhibit themselves in books other than the aforesaid, great 'novels though, they be. To mc ib is quite 'clear % that Eugene Sue- has not yet come to his own on account of his ■ iconoclasm and teaching. Actually, Sue is-a •" giantesque reformer. Nowhere ..is .this .-.more apparent than in the little-known, series of remarkable stories entitled "The Mysteries of the People; ,or The History of a PrdLetarian Family Across the' Ages." Tbese stories cover events usually ignored by the orthodox historians ; and ignored because History has mistakenly been conceived as tihe doings of kings and rulers rather than .as .account of social ..conditions and the people as a whole. Sue studied the history of-"the common people;" and in his ''Proletarian Family" revealed their lot and suffering, their movements and their aspirations, as a consequence. Upon the blackboard of known events and personages he sketched the real and vital things —tlie things bearing xipon the livssj fears, hopes, and conduct of the masses. To.Daniel De Leon, of the American Socialist Labor Party, we owe these magnificent translations. * * * Included in the series I have specified is the clever and dramatic tale above alluded to. It is termed ''The Infant's Skull." "Its every page is steeped in Messiahship. It is more than a forceful picture. It is a story, and more. It is a_ delineation of the times of the tenth century.. By common belief Jesus was to reappear"at that century's end. Eugene Sue tells us what resulted.-from this belief, and incidentally presents as graphic a portrait of Feudalism as any work of fiction known to mc. The tale is on the one hand. a representation of Royalty and on the other hand a representation, of Serfdom. The contrast has no softening aspects. At one pole, luxury and. salacity; at the other pole, enslavement and horror. Through all and in all the- Church is powerful to the point of omnipotence. * - .. * * Now be it known that the Church iiad fixed the last day of the year 1000 A.D. as the final term of the world's existe.Ti'ce. At first daily expected by'the Apostles, the elxTof the world had subsequently been postponed, upon the authority of the Jewish Apocalyptic writings and Revelation of St. John the Divine, to the year 1000- -Not then eventuating, it had been postponed for another 32 years, upon tliq contention that the Particular prophecies dated from Christ's death and not from his birth. Eugene Siio'e/noteworthy tale, ''The Infant's Skull,! , covers a period of about 50 years, "the end of tho worlds-was the c'ommating It a woncjorffil piece of realistic -writing, and BUDDteiTK'iit&riljra- preserver oi valuable

historic facts and an arrestive flashlight upon the past. .J --■;■'. •* * * * * -.-. ■ The story opens at "The Fountain of the Hinds," at which : scenic spot beautiful Queen Blanche, wife of Louis the Do-nothing, is in clandestine converse with Count Hugh of Paris, also Duke of France and Abbott of the Church. The one had,'leftf: behind her ; husband, the other his wife. They proceed from amorousness to austerity, the Count of a sudden becoming' op- , pressed at the thought of the sin df their continued adulterous intercourse. The Count is the villain of the piece, for he was but playing a deep game. , Coldly h>e repels Blanche-as he talks of repentance and atonement, especially as "but fourteen years separate us from the end of the world.." Then follows tin insight- in-te-the" subtie, process of >suggestion, for at,;the end of the interview Blanche has. resolved upon poisoning her husband ; poisoning, by the. bye, was rather a , popular means of murder in thosie days. Cunningly prompted by the Count, Blanche gets to the point of asking; "Hugh, if perchance my husband, although young, should ; ..die—! . That might happen." "The will of.the Lord is all-power-ful," answered the Count. And as they separate, the Queen-, overpowered with passion and the struggle within herself, cries: "Hugh, my lover, I shall be a widow, and you King!" . * ■ * ■■'•■■'■*•■ In quick succession we are introduced to other characters, each a type. Eugene Sue is capable in construction, for in his seven chapters in his Part I. we are alternately made familiar with happenings in the palaces of Royalty and in the tents' of Subjection. Let it be here recorded that the tale is of the land once called Gaul. The most important character in the novel is Yvon the Serf, or Yvon. the Calf, believed in the Forest of Compiegne to be an idiot. - "He was taught to mimic dogs by barking and walking on all fours; he was made to eat lizards; spiders, and grasshoppers for general amusement. Yvon always obeyed with an idiotic leer. ,, Yvon wa.s not so daft as he appeared. Amusement-provider for the "tired" King, his idiocy was but a pose. He was the descendant of a line of workers whose records went back to an ancestor agitator persecuted and enslaved for leading a revolt against oppression. The family is the proletarian one —ever hunted, ever fighting for freedom and ever hating with a bitter hatred their rulers. * * * Yvon, it seems, had been a hidden witness to the interview between Queen and Count; and later on as the Queen seeks the presence of . the Kinghe manages to again hide himself in the room. The recital of a Queen's seductiveness is powerfully done. In the finish a poisoned King is expiring with Yvon erect before him. . "What is the matter with mc?" be gasps. "My voice is sob feeble that 1 can hardly hear myself. My throat seems to close '. .then this icy feeling . . . this cold that freezes my feet and is rising to my legs Help! Help! .. . OK, God, have pity upon mc! . . . . Help!" * *.:■*. Of course, there is no help. Yvon tells him the truth, and. with a moan . the last crowned scion of. fehe Carlo-vingia-n stock passes away.. On .the morrow the Count of Paris .wfll be King. ■•■■■' "Thus end the royal races! Thus, sooner or later, do they expiate their original crime!" thought Yvon. "My ancestor Amael, the descendant of : ■ Joel and of Genevieve, declined to ! be the jailer of little Childeric, in whom' the stock of Clovis was exI tinguished, and now I witness the I crime by which is extinguished, _ in the person of Louis the: Do-nothing the stock of Charles, the Great— ■ the second dynasty of the conquerors of Gaul. Perchance some descendant of my own will in the ages to come witness the punishment of this third dynasty of kings, now raised by Hugh the Capet through an act of cowardly perfidy." * * * They found the dead King later. An uproar was raised, and following the attendants in rushed Queen Blanche., with hair dishevelled and in keen distress. Told the terrible news of the King's death, she utters fierce lamentations, and faints in the arms of Count Hugh—conveniently returned to .the King'is Castle —and as she faints she whispers •• "Beloved, I am a widow; you arc king." * * . * Meanwhile' Yvon seeks out the Queen's maid —his sweetheart, Marcefine, who knew him for the real Yvon. He asks her to ma.rry him, and she ,consents; but the difficulty is to gain 'her mistress' consent to the marrying an idiot. Yvon unfolds a'plan whereby he is to be miraculously restored to reason by visiting the hermitage of St. Eusebius, for, ho says,. "Everything is explainable with the intervention of a saint." He points but "that the miracle will be acceptable to the Church,, saying "The whole .fraternity speculate upon human credulity. , ,' Anyhow, there IS a .miracle, and Yvon is restored to'his senses'. Whereupon the Queen,- being m •.-.'high gloe, , promotes

Yvon, at his marriage, to the dignity of Forester. Hereafter he figures in Sue's pregnant story as Yvon the' For-" estor, still hater of the whole feudal race and recorder of the family's tragic history. •a:- * * It will link up things to chronicle that King' Hugh the Capo.r> reigned until the year 996, and was succeeded by his son Robert, an imbecile, who died in 1031, and was succeeded in turn by his son., Henry I. -** * , The second part of "The Infant's Skull" is so intimate in its exposition of Serfdom and so acute in its panorama of the world's "end" that; I reserve for a week a further consideration of the work.