Tao Te Ching - Brilliant Minds

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Contents
Articles
Tao Te Ching
1
History of the Peloponnesian War
11
Le Morte d'Arthur
21
Tamburlaine (play)
33
Shakespeare's sonnets
38
Life Is a Dream
45
Frankenstein
53
Middlemarch
68
The Sound and the Fury
77
A Mercy
85
References
Article Sources and Contributors
87
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
90
Article Licenses
License
92
Tao Te Ching
1
Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Traditional Chinese
道德經
Simplified Chinese
道德经
Hanyu Pinyin
Dàodéjīng
Listen Wikipedia:Media helpFile:Chinese-TaoTeChing.ogg
Transcriptions
Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Dàodéjīng
Listen Wikipedia:Media
helpFile:Chinese-TaoTeChing.ogg
Wade–Giles
Tao Te Ching
IPA
[tɑ̂ʊ tɤ̌ tɕíŋ]
Min
Hokkien POJ
Tō-tek-keng
Wu
Romanization
dau teh cin
Cantonese
Jyutping
dou6 dak1 ging1
Principal religious texts
Tao Te Ching
2
Text Belief Vedas
Hinduism
Akilam
Ayyavazhi
Aqdas
Baha'i
Tripiṭaka
Buddhism
Science and
Health
Christian Science
Bible
Christianity
Analects
Confucianism
Mabinogion
Druidry
Quran
Islam
Kalpa Sūtra
Jainism
Torah
Judaism
Book of
Mormon
Latter Day Saints
Arzhang
Manichaeism
Satanic Bible
Satanism
Intelligent
Design
Raëlism
Dianetics
Scientology
Kojiki
Shinto
Guru Granth
Sahib
Sikhism
Tao Te Ching
Taoism
Ofudesaki
Tenrikyo
The Book of the Thelema
Law
•
•
•
Book of
Shadows
Wicca
Avesta
Zoroastrianism
v
t
e [1]
The Tao Te Ching, Daodejing, or Dao De Jing (simplified Chinese: 道德经; traditional Chinese: 道德經; pinyin:
Dàodéjīng), also simply referred to as the Laozi (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozi), is a Chinese classic text. According
to tradition, it was written around 6th century BC by the sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozi,
literally meaning "Old Master"), a record-keeper at the Zhou dynasty court, by whose name the text is known in
China. The text's true authorship and date of composition or compilation are still debated,[2] although the oldest
excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BC.
The text, along with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism, and strongly
influenced other schools, such as Legalism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism, which when first introduced into
Tao Te Ching
3
China was largely interpreted through the use of Daoist words and concepts. Many Chinese artists, including poets,
painters, calligraphers, and even gardeners have used the Daodejing as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also
spread widely outside East Asia, and is amongst the most translated works in world literature.
The Wade–Giles romanization "Tao Te Ching" dates back to early English transliterations in the late 19th century;
its influence can be seen in words and phrases that have become well established in English. "Daodejing" is the
pinyin romanization.
Text
The Tao Te Ching has a long and complex textual history. On one hand, there are transmitted versions and
commentaries that date back two millennia; on the other, there are ancient bamboo, silk, and paper manuscripts that
archeologists discovered in the last century.
Title
Part of a series on
Taoism
Portal Taoism
•
•
•
v
t
e [3]
There are many possible translations of the book's title:
Dào/Tao literally means "way", or one of its synonyms, but was extended to mean "the Way." This term, which was
variously used by other Chinese philosophers (including Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, and Hanfeizi), has special
meaning within the context of Daoism, where it implies the essential, unnamable process of the universe.
Dé/Te means "virtue", "personal character," "inner strength" (virtuosity), or "integrity". The semantics of this
Chinese word resemble English virtue, which developed from virtù, a now-archaic sense of "inner potency" or
"divine power" (as in "healing virtue of a drug") to the modern meaning of "moral excellence" or "goodness."
Compare the compound word taote (Chinese: 道德; pinyin: Dàodé; literally: "ethics", "ethical principles,"
"morals," or "morality").
Jīng/Ching as it is used here means "canon," "great book," or "classic."
Thus, Tao Te Ching can be translated as "The Classic/Canon of the Way/Path and the Power/Virtue," etc.
The title Daodejing is an honorific given by posterity, other titles include the amalgam Lǎozǐ Dàodéjīng (老子道
德經), the honorific Daode Zhen Jing (道德真經 "True Classic of the Way and the Power"), and the Wuqian
wen (五千文 "Five thousand character [classic]").
Tao Te Ching
4
Internal structure
The received Tao Te Ching is a short text of around 5,000 Chinese characters in 81 brief chapters or sections (章).
There is some evidence that the chapter divisions were later additions – for commentary, or as aids to rote
memorization – and that the original text was more fluidly organized. It has two parts, the Tao Ching (道經; chaps.
1–37) and the Te Ching (德經; chaps. 38–81), which may have been edited together into the received text, possibly
reversed from an original "Te Tao Ching". The written style is laconic, has few grammatical particles, and
encourages varied, even contradictory interpretations. The ideas are singular; the style poetic. The rhetorical style
combines two major strategies: short, declarative statements and intentional contradictions. The first of these
strategies creates memorable phrases, while the second forces us to create our own reconciliations of the supposed
contradictions.[4]
The Chinese characters in the original versions were probably written in zhuànshū (篆書 seal script), while later
versions were written in lìshū (隸書 clerical script) and kǎishū (楷書 regular script) styles. Daoist Chinese
Characters [5] contains a good summary of these different calligraphies.
Historical authenticity of the author
The Tao Te Ching is ascribed to Laozi, whose historical existence has been a matter of scholastic debate. His name,
which means "Old Master", has only fueled controversy on this issue. (Kaltenmark 1969:10).
The first reliable reference to Laozi is his "biography" in Shiji (63,
tr. Chan 1963:35–37), by Chinese historian Sima Qian (ca.
145–86 BC), which combines three stories. First, Laozi was a
contemporary of Confucius (551–479 BC). His surname was Li
(李 "plum"), and his personal name was Er (耳 "ear") or Dan (聃
"long ear"). He was an official in the imperial archives, and wrote
a book in two parts before departing to the West. Second, Laozi
was Lao Laizi (老來子 "Old Come Master"), also a
contemporary of Confucius, who wrote a book in 15 parts. Third,
Laozi was the Grand Historian and astrologer Lao Dan (老聃
"Old Long-ears"), who lived during the reign (384–362 BC) of
Duke Xian (獻公) of Qin).
Generations of scholars have debated the historicity of Laozi and
the dating of the Tao Te Ching. Linguistic studies of the text's
vocabulary and rhyme scheme point to a date of composition after
the Shi Jing yet before the Zhuangzi. Legends claim variously that
Laozi
Laozi was "born old"; that he lived for 996 years, with twelve
previous incarnations starting around the time of the Three
Sovereigns before the thirteenth as Laozi. Some Western scholars have expressed doubts over Laozi's historical
existence, claiming that the Tao Te Ching is actually a collection of the work of various authors.
Many Taoists venerate Laozi as Daotsu the founder of the school of Dao, the Daode Tianjun in the Three Pure Ones,
one of the eight elders transformed from Taiji in the Chinese creation myth.
Tao Te Ching
Principal versions
Among the many transmitted editions of the Tao Te Ching text, the three primary ones are named after early
commentaries. The "Yan Zun Version," which is only extant for the Te Ching, derives from a commentary attributed
to Han Dynasty scholar Yan Zun (巖尊, fl. 80 BC-10 AD). The "Heshang Gong Version" is named after the
legendary Heshang Gong (河上公 "Riverside Sage") who supposedly lived during the reign (202–157 BC) of
Emperor Wen of Han. This commentary (tr. Erkes 1950) has a preface written by Ge Xuan (葛玄, 164–244 AD),
granduncle of Ge Hong, and scholarship dates this version to around the 3rd century AD. The "Wang Bi Version"
has more verifiable origins than either of the above. Wang Bi (王弼, 226–249 AD) was a famous Three Kingdoms
period philosopher and commentator on the Tao Te Ching (tr. Lin 1977, Rump and Chan 1979) and the I Ching.
Tao Te Ching scholarship has lately advanced from archeological discoveries of manuscripts, some of which are
older than any of the received texts. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Marc Aurel Stein and others found thousands
of scrolls in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. They included more than 50 partial and complete "Tao Te Ching"
manuscripts. One written by the scribe So/Su Dan (素統) is dated 270 AD and corresponds closely with the
Heshang Gong version. Another partial manuscript has the Xiang'er (想爾) commentary, which had previously
been lost.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Mawangdui and Guodian texts
In 1973, archeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books, known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb
dating from 168 BC. They included two nearly complete copies of the text, referred to as Text A (甲) and Text B
(乙), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and put the Te Ching section before the Tao Ching, which is why
the Henricks translation of them is named "Te-Tao Ching". Based on calligraphic styles and imperial naming taboo
avoidances, scholars believe that Text A can be dated to about the first decade and Text B to about the third decade
of the 2nd century BC.[6]
In 1993, the oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo tablets, was found in a tomb near the town of
Guodian (郭店) in Jingmen, Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BC. The Guodian Chu Slips comprise about 800 slips of
bamboo with a total of over 13,000 characters, about 2,000 of which correspond with the Tao Te Ching, including 14
previously unknown verses.
Both the Mawangdui and Guodian versions are generally consistent with the received texts, excepting differences in
chapter sequence and graphic variants. Several recent Tao Te Ching translations (e.g., Lau 1989, Henricks 1989,
Mair 1990, Henricks 2000, Allan and Williams 2000, and Roberts 2004) utilize these two versions, sometimes with
the verses reordered to synthesize the new finds.
Written style
The Tao Te Ching was originally written in zhuànshū calligraphy style. It is difficult to obtain modern replicas of
these styles except through specialty stores. Most modern versions use the newspaper print style kǎishū.
Interpretation and themes
The passages are ambiguous, and topics range from political advice for rulers to practical wisdom for people.
Because the variety of interpretation is virtually limitless, not only for different people but for the same person over
time, readers do well to avoid making claims of objectivity or superiority. Also, since the book is 81 short poems,
there is little need for an abridgement.
5
Tao Te Ching
Ineffability or Genesis
The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way;
The names that can be named are not unvarying names.
It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang;
The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. (chap. 1, tr. Waley)
These famous first lines of the Tao Te Ching state that the Tao is ineffable, i.e., the Tao is nameless, goes beyond
distinctions, and transcends language. However this first verse does not occur in the earliest known version from the
Guodian Chu Slips and there is speculation that it may have been added by later commentators.[7] In Laozi's
Qingjing Jing (verse 1-8) he clarified the term Tao was nominated as he was trying to describe a state of existence
before it happened and before time or space. Way or path happened to be the side meaning of Tao, ineffability would
be just poetic. This is the Chinese creation myth from the primordial Tao.
Mysterious Female
The Valley Spirit never dies
It is named the Mysterious Female.
And the doorway of the Mysterious Female
Is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang.
It is there within us all the while;
Draw upon it as you will; it never runs dry. (chap. 6, tr. Waley)
Like the above description of the ineffable Tao as "the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures", the Tao Te
Ching advocates "female" (or Yin) values, emphasizing the passive, solid, and quiescent qualities of nature (which is
opposed to the active and energetic), and "having without possessing". Waley's translation can also be understood as
the Esoteric Feminine in that it can be known intuitively, that must be complemented by the masculine, "male" (or
Yang), again amplified in Qingjing Jing (verse 9-13). Yin and Yang should be balanced, "Know masculinity,
Maintain femininity, and be a ravine for all under heaven." (chap. 28, tr. Mair)
Returning (Union with the Primordial)
In Tao the only motion is returning.
The only useful quality, weakness.
For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,
Being itself is the product of Not-being. " (chap. 40, tr. Waley)
Another theme is the eternal return, or what Mair (1990:139) calls "the continual return of the myriad creatures to the
cosmic principle from which they arose."
There is a contrast between the rigidity of death and the weakness of life: "When he is born, man is soft and weak; in
death he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees while they are alive are supple
and soft, but when dead they become brittle and dry." (chap. 76, tr. Waley). This is returning to the beginning of
things, or to one's own childhood.
The Tao Te Ching focuses upon the beginnings of society, and describes a golden age in the past, comparable with
the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Human problems arose from the "invention" of culture and civilization. In this
idealized past, “the people should have no use for any form of writing save knotted ropes, should be contented with
their food, pleased with their clothing, satisfied with their homes, should take pleasure in their rustic tasks." (chap.
80, tr. Waley)
6
Tao Te Ching
Emptiness
We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vessel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.
Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not. (chap. 11, tr.
Waley)
Philosophical vacuity is a common theme among Asian wisdom traditions including Taoism (especially Wu wei
"effortless action"), Buddhism, and some aspects of Confucianism. One could interpret the Tao Te Ching as a suite
of variations on the "Powers of Nothingness". This predates the Buddhist Shunyata philosophy of "form is
emptiness, emptiness is form" by half a millennium.
Looking at a traditional Chinese Landscape, one can understand how emptiness (the unpainted) has the power of
animating the trees, mountains, and rivers it surrounds. Emptiness can mean having no fixed preconceptions,
preferences, intentions, or agenda. Since "The Sage has no heart of his own; He uses the heart of the people as his
heart." (chap. 49, tr. Waley). From a ruler's point of view, it is a laissez-faire approach:
So a wise leader may say:
"I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves."
But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a single word
That when his task is accomplished, his work done,
Throughout the country every one says: “It happened of its own accord”. (chap. 17, tr. Waley)
Knowledge and humility
Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self requires strength;
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of will power.
He who stays where he is endures.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present. (chap. 33, tr. Feng and English)
The Tao Te Ching praises self-gained knowledge with emphasis on that knowledge being gained with humility.
When what one person has experienced is put into words and transmitted to others, so doing risks giving
unwarranted status to what inevitably must have had a subjective tinge. Moreover, it will be subjected to another
layer of interpretation and subjectivity when read and learned by others. This kind of knowledge (or "book
learning"), like desire, should be diminished. "It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared that the Great
Artifice began." (chap. 18, tr. Waley) And so, "The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of
Tao is to decrease the doing of the self day after day." (chap. 48, tr. W.T. Chan)
7
Tao Te Ching
8
Interpretations in relation to religious traditions
The relation between Taoism and Buddhism and Chan Buddhism is complex and fertile. Similarly, the relationship
between Taoism and Confucianism is richly interwoven, historically.
Translations
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and
French.[8] According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved."[9]
Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese language and philosophy who are trying to
render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more popular translations
are written from a less scholarly perspective, giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these versions,
such as Taoism scholar Eugene Eoyang, claim that translators like Stephen Mitchell produce readings of the Tao Te
Ching that deviate from the text and are incompatible with the history of Chinese thought.[10] Russell Kirkland goes
further to argue that these versions are based on Western Orientalist fantasies, and represent the colonial
appropriation of Chinese culture. In contrast, Huston Smith, scholar of world religions, said of the Mitchell version,
"This translation comes as close to being definitive for our time as any I can imagine. It embodies the virtues its
translator credits to the Chinese original: a gemlike lucidity that is radiant with humor, grace, largeheartedness, and
deep wisdom." – Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue and Jonathan Herman,[11] argue that while they
are poor scholarship they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized versions aim to make the
wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more
familiar cultural and temporal references. There are a handful of sites on the web that compare chapters translated by
various authors such as TaoTeChingMe.com[12] and Wayist.org.[13]
Translational difficulties
The Tao Te Ching is written in Classical Chinese, which can be difficult to understand completely. Classical Chinese
relies heavily on allusion to a corpus of standard literary works to convey semantic meaning, nuance, and subtext.
This corpus was memorized by highly educated people in Laozi's time, and the allusions were reinforced through
common use in writing, but few people today have this type of deep acquaintance with ancient Chinese literature.
Thus, many levels of subtext are potentially lost on modern translators. Furthermore, many of the words that the Tao
Te Ching uses are deliberately vague and ambiguous.
Since there are no punctuation marks in Classical Chinese, it can be difficult to conclusively determine where one
sentence ends and the next begins. Moving a full-stop a few words forward or back or inserting a comma can
profoundly alter the meaning of many passages, and such divisions and meanings must be determined by the
translator. Some editors and translators argue that the received text is so corrupted (from originally being written on
one-line bamboo strips linked with silk threads) that it is impossible to understand some chapters without moving
sequences of characters from one place to another.
Tao Te Ching
9
References
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Principal_religious_texts& action=edit
[2] Eliade (1984), p.26
[3] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Taoism& action=edit
[4] Austin, Michael (2010). "Reading the World: Ideas that Matter", p. 158. W. W. Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 978-0-393-93349-9.
[5] http:/ / www. edepot. com/ taocalig. html
[6] Boltz (1993): 284
[7] Henricks (2000) Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching – A translation of the startling new documents found at Guodian, page 3
[8] LaFargue, Michael and Pas, Julian. On Translating the Tao-te-ching in Kohn and LaFargue (1998), p. 277
[9] Welch (1965), p. 7
[10] The Journal of Religion (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0022-4189(199007)70:3<492:TTCANE>2. 0. CO;2-7)
[11] Journal of the American Academy of Religion (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0002-7189(199823)66:3<686:TTCABA>2. 0. CO;2-4)
[12] Tao Te Ching | Multiple Translations by various authors (http:/ / taotechingme. com)
[13] Tao Teh Ching – Line-by-Line Comparisons (http:/ / www. wayist. org/ ttc compared/ all_translations. htm).
Bibliography
• Ariel, Yoav, and Gil Raz. “Anaphors or Cataphors? A Discussion of the Two qi 其 Graphs in the First Chapter of
the Daodejing.” PEW 60.3 (2010): 391–421
• Boltz, William G. Lao tzu Tao te ching. In Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael
Loewe. Berkeley: University of California, Institute of East Asian Studies. 1993. pp. 269–92.
• Cole, Alan, "Simplicity for the Sophisticated: ReReading the Daode Jing for the Polemics of Ease and
Innocence," in History of Religions, August 2006, pp. 1–49
• Damascene, Hieromonk, Lou Shibai, and You-Shan Tang. Christ the Eternal Tao. Platina, CA: Saint Herman
Press, 1999.
• Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2. Translated by Willard R. Trask. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1984.
• Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2012). The Illustrated Tao Te Ching (Jamese Legge translation). Chiang Mai:
Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B008NNLKXC
• Kaltenmark, Max. Lao Tzu and Taoism. Translated by Roger Greaves. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1969.
• Kohn, Livia and Michael LaFargue, eds. Lao-Tzu and the Tao-Te-Ching, Albany: State University of New York
Press. 1998.
• Komjathy, Louis. Handbooks for Daoist Practice. 10 vols. Hong Kong: Yuen Yuen Institute, 2008.
• Welch, Holmes. Taoism: The Parting of the Way (1957). Boston: Beacon Press. 1965.
• Klaus, Hilmar Das Tao der Weisheit. Laozi-Daodejing. English + German introduction, 140 p. bibliogr., 3
German transl. Aachen: Mainz 2008, 548 p.
• Klaus, Hilmar The Tao of Wisdom. Laozi-Daodejing. Chinese-English-German. 2 verbatim + 2 analogous transl.,
140 p. bibl., Aachen: Mainz 2009 600p.
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching
Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Dàodéjīng
Tao Te Ching
• First Line of Tao Te Ching (http://www.edepot.com/taoism_tao.html)
• Daode jing entry from the Center for Daoist Studies (http://www.daoistcenter.org/daodejing.html)
• Daodejing Wang Bi edition with English translation (http://ctext.org/dao-de-jing), Guodian text (http://ctext.
org/guodian), and Mawangdui text (http://ctext.org/mawangdui) – Chinese Text Project
• Lǎozǐ Dàodéjīng verbatim + analogous + poetic; Chinese + English + German (http://www.tao-te-king.org)
• Tao Te Ching | Multiple Translations by various authors (http://TaoTeChingMe.com)
• The Authorship of the Tao Te Ching (http://www.idiocentrism.com/china.author.htm), John J. Emerson
• Tao Te Ching (http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Taoism/Texts/Tao_Te_Ching/) at
DMOZ
• Daode jing (http://www.goldenelixir.com/publications/eot_daode_jing.html) (Isabelle Robinet), entry in The
Encyclopedia of Taoism
• The Call of Silence (http://www.gnosticpress.co.nz/?page_id=931) – Reflections on the Tao-Teh-King by
Abdullah Dougan, a recent interpretation.
• 魏晉哲學原典選錄 (http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~duhbauruei/5rso/texts/3wei/cc.htm)
Online English translations
• Tao Te Ching Daily (http://www.taotechingdaily.com)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tao Te Ching Multiple English and German Translations (http://www.edepot.com/taoblank.html)
Tao Te Ching | Multiple English Translations (http://www.duhtao.com)
Tao Te Ching (http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm), James Legge
The Tao Te Ching (http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/ttx/ttx02.htm), Frederic H. Balfour
The Tao Teh King (http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib157.htm), Aleister Crowley
Daode Jing (http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/daodejing.html), Charles Muller
The Living Dao: The Art and Way of Living A Rich & Truthful Life (http://www.ln.edu.hk/econ/staff/
daodejing(22 August 2002).pdf), Lok Sang Ho, Lingnan University
• “The Tao Teh King, or The Tao and its characteristics” (http://www.w66.eu/elib/html/ttk.html), English
translation by James Legge. Scalable text on white, grey or black background. Downloadable as a .txt file.
10
11
The History of the Peloponnesian War (Greek:
Ἱστορίαι) is a historical account of the Peloponnesian
War, which was fought between the Peloponnesian
League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by
Athens). It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian
historian who also happened to serve as an Athenian
general during the war. His account of the conflict is
widely considered to be a classic and regarded as one
of the earliest scholarly works of history. The Histories
are divided into eight books by editors of later
antiquity.
Analyses of the History generally occur in one of two
camps.[1] On the one hand, some scholars view the
work as an objective and scientific piece of history. The
judgment of J. B. Bury reflects his traditional
interpretation of the work: "[The History is] severe in
its detachment, written from a purely intellectual point
of view, unencumbered with platitudes and moral
judgments, cold and critical."[2]
10th-century minuscule manuscript of Thucydides's History.
On the other hand, in keeping with more recent interpretation that are associated with reader-response criticism, the
History is better understood as a piece of literature rather than an objective record of the historical events. This view
is embodied in the words of W. R. Connor, who describes Thucydides as "an artist who responds to, selects and
skillfully arranges his material, and develops its symbolic and emotional potential."[3]
Historical method
Thucydides is considered to be one of the great "fathers" of
Western history, thus making his methodology the subject of
much analysis in area of historiographyWikipedia:Citation
needed.
Chronology
Thucydides is one of the first western historians to employ a
strict standard of chronology, recording events by year, with
each year consisting of the summer campaign season and a
less active winter season. This method contrasts sharply with
Herodotus' earlier work The Histories, which jumps around
chronologically and makes frequent and roundabout
excursions into seemingly unrelated areas and time periods
and has set the standard for historiographical rigor to this
day.
Speeches
Thucydides also makes extensive use of speeches in order to
elaborate on the event in question. While the inclusion of
long first-person speeches is somewhat alien to modern
historical method, in the context of ancient Greek oral
culture speeches are expected. These include addresses given
P. Oxy. 16, fragment of a 1st-century manuscript
to troops by their generals before battles and numerous
political speeches, both by Athenian and Spartan leaders, as well as debates between various parties. Of the
speeches, the most famous is the funeral oration of Pericles, which is found in Book Two. Thucydides undoubtedly
heard some of these speeches himself while for others he relied on eyewitness accounts.
These speeches are suspect in the eyes of Classicists, however, inasmuch as it is not sure to what degree Thucydides
altered these speeches in order to most clearly elucidate the crux of the argument presented. Some of the speeches
are probably fabricated according to his expectations of, as he puts it, "what was called for in each situation"
(1.22.2).[4]
Neutral point of view?
Despite being an Athenian and a participant in the conflict, Thucydides is often regarded as having written a
generally unbiased account of the conflict with respect to the sides involved in it. In the introduction to the piece he
states, "my work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for
ever" (1.22.4).
There are scholars, however, who doubt this. Ernst Badian, for example has argued that Thucydides has a strong
pro-Athenian bias.[5] In keeping with this sort of doubt, other scholars claim that Thucydides had an ulterior motive
in his Histories, specifically to create an epic comparable to those of the past such as the works of Homer, and that
this led him to create a nonobjective dualism favoring the Athenians.[6] The work does display a clear bias against
certain people involved in the conflict, such as Cleon.
12
Role of religion
The gods play no active role in Thucydides' work. This is very different from Herodotus, who frequently mentions
the role of the gods, as well as a nearly ubiquitous divine presence in the centuries-earlier poems of Homer. Instead,
Thucydides regards history as being caused by the choices and actions of human beings.
Despite the absence of actions of the gods, religion and piety play critical roles in the actions of the Spartans, and to
a lesser degree, the Athenians.[7] Thus natural occurrences such as earthquake and eclipses were viewed as
religiously significant (1.23.3; 7.50.4)[8]
It has been further argued that Thucydides attributes the existence of the gods entirely to the needs of political life.
The gods are portrayed as existing only in the minds of men. Religion as such reveals itself in the History to be not
simply one type of social behavior among others, but what permeates the whole of social existence, permitting the
emergence of justice.[9]
Rationalization of myth
Despite the absence of the gods from Thucydides' work, he still draws heavily from the Greek mythos, especially
from Homer, whose works are prominent in Greek mythology. Thucydides references Homer frequently as a source
of information, but always adds a distancing clause, such as “Homer shows this, if that is sufficient evidence,” and
“assuming we should trust Homer's poetry in this case too.” [10]
However, despite Thucydides' lack of trust in information that was not experienced firsthand, such as Homer's, he
does use the poet's epics to infer facts about the Trojan War. For instance, while Thucydides considered the number
of over 1,000 Greek ships sent to Troy to be a poetic exaggeration, he uses Homer's catalog of ships to determine the
approximate number of Greek soldiers who were present. Later, Thucydides claims that since Homer never makes
reference to a united Greek state, the pre-Hellenic nations must have been so disjointed that they could not organize
properly to launch an effective campaign. In fact, Thucydides claims that Troy could have been conquered in half the
time had the Greek leaders allocated resources properly and not sent a large portion of the army on raids for supplies.
Thucydides makes sure to inform his reader that he, unlike Homer, is not a poet prone to exaggeration, but instead a
historian, whose stories may not give "momentary pleasure," but "whose intended meaning will be challenged by the
truth of the facts." [11] By distancing himself from the storytelling practices of Homer, Thucydides makes it clear that
while he does consider mythology and epics to be evidence, these works cannot be given much credibility, and that it
takes an impartial and empirically minded historian, such as himself, to accurately portray the events of the past.
13
14
Subject matter of the History
The first book of the History, after a brief review of early Greek history and some programmatic historiographical
commentary, seeks to explain why the Peloponnesian War broke out when it did and what its causes were. Except
for a few short excursuses (notably 6.54-58 on the Tyrant Slayers), the remainder of the History (books 2 through 8)
rigidly maintains its focus on the Peloponnesian War to the exclusion of other topics.
While the History concentrates on the military aspects
of the Peloponnesian War, it uses these events as a
medium to suggest several other themes closely related
to the war. It specifically discusses in several passages
the socially and culturally degenerative effects of war
on humanity itself. The History is especially concerned
with the lawlessness and atrocities committed by Greek
citizens to each other in the name of one side or another
in the war. Some events depicted in the History, such as
the Melian dialogue, describe early instances of
realpolitik or power politics.
Greek Hoplite.
The History is preoccupied with the interplay of justice
and power in political and military decision-making. Thucydides' presentation is decidedly ambivalent on this theme.
While the History seems to suggest that considerations of justice are artificial and necessarily capitulate to power, it
sometimes also shows a significant degree of empathy with those who suffer from the exigencies of the war.
For the most part, the History does not discuss topics such as the art and architecture of Greece.
Military technology
The History emphasizes the development of military
technologies. In several passages (1.14.3, 2.75-76,
7.36.2-3), Thucydides describes in detail various
innovations in the conduct of siegeworks or naval
warfare. The History places great importance upon
naval supremacy, arguing that a modern empire is
impossible without a strong navy. He states that this is
the result of the development of piracy and coastal
settlements in earlier Greece.
Illustration of a Greek Trireme.
Important in this regard was the development, at the
beginning of the classical period (c. 500 BC), of the trireme, the supreme naval ship for the next several hundred
years. In his emphasis on sea power, Thucydides resembles the modern naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, whose
influential work The Influence of Sea Power upon History helped set in motion the naval arms race prior to World
War I.
Empire
The History explains that the primary cause of the Peloponnesian War was the "growth in power of Athens, and the
alarm which this inspired in Sparta" (1.23.6). Thucydides traces the development of Athenian power through the
growth of the Athenian empire in the years 479 BC to 432 BC in book one of the History (1.89-118). The legitimacy
of the empire is explored in several passages, notably in the speech at 1.73-78, where an anonymous Athenian
legation defends the empire on the grounds that it was freely given to the Athenians and not taken by force. The
subsequent expansion of the empire is defended by these Athenians, "...the nature of the case first compelled us to
advance our empire to its present height; fear being our principal motive, though honor and interest came afterward."
(1.75.3)
The Athenians also argue that, "We have done nothing extraordinary, nothing contrary to human nature in accepting
an empire when it was offered to us and then in refusing to give it up." (1.76) They claim that anyone in their
position would act in the same fashion. The Spartans represent a more traditional, circumspect, and less expansive
power. Indeed, the Athenians are nearly destroyed by their greatest act of imperial overreach, the Sicilian expedition,
described in books six and seven of the History.
Earth science
Thucydides correlates, in his description of the 426 BC Malian Gulf tsunami, for the first time in the history of
natural science, quakes and waves in terms of cause and effect. [12]
Some difficulties of interpretation
Thucydides' History is extraordinarily dense and complex. His particular ancient Greek prose is also very
challenging, grammatically, syntactically, and semantically. This has resulted in much scholarly disagreement on a
cluster of issues of interpretation; as is common among much ancient Greek language.
Strata of composition
It is commonly thought that Thucydides died while still working on the History, since it ends in mid-sentence and
only goes up to 410 BC, leaving six years of war uncovered. Furthermore, there is a great deal of uncertainty
whether he intended to revise the sections he had already written. Since there appear to be some contradictions
between certain passages in the History, it has been proposed that the conflicting passages were written at different
times and that Thucydides' opinion on the conflicting matter had changed. Those who argue that the History can be
divided into various levels of composition are usually called "analysts" and those who argue that the passages must
be made to reconcile with one another are called "unitarians". This conflict is called the "strata of composition"
debate.
Sources
The History is notoriously reticent about its sources. Thucydides almost never names his informants and alludes to
competing versions of events only a handful of times. This is in marked contrast to Herodotus, who frequently
mentions multiple versions of his stories and allows the reader to decide which is true. Instead, Thucydides strives to
create the impression of a seamless and irrefutable narrative. Nevertheless, scholars have sought to detect the sources
behind the various sections of the History. For example, the narrative after Thucydides' exile (4.108ff.) seems to
focus on Peloponnesian events more than the first four books, leading to the conclusion that he had greater access to
Peloponnesian sources at that time.
Frequently, Thucydides appears to assert knowledge of the thoughts of individuals at key moments in the narrative.
Scholars have asserted that these moments are evidence that he interviewed these individuals after the fact. However,
the evidence of the Sicilian Expedition argues against this, since Thucydides discusses the thoughts of the generals
who died there and whom he would have had no chance to interview. Instead it seems likely that, as with the
speeches, Thucydides is looser than previously thought in inferring the thoughts, feelings, and motives of principal
characters in his History from their actions, as well as his own sense of what would be appropriate or likely in such a
situation.
15
Influence
Thucydides' History has been enormously influential in both ancient and modern historiography. It was embraced by
the author's contemporaries and immediate successors with enthusiasm; indeed, many authors sought to complete the
unfinished history. For example, Xenophon wrote his Hellenica as a continuation of Thucydides' work, beginning at
the exact moment that Thucydides' History leaves off. His work, however, is generally considered inferior in style
and accuracy compared with Thucydides'.Wikipedia:Citation needed In later antiquity, Thucydides' reputation
suffered somewhat, with critics such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus rejecting the History as turgid and excessively
austere. Lucian also parodies it (among others) in his satire The True Histories. Woodrow Wilson read the History
on his voyage across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference.[13]
Method of citation
Most critics writing about the History, including this article, use a standard format to direct readers to passages in the
text: book.chapter.section. For example, the notation that Pericles' last speech runs from 2.60.1 to 2.64.6, this means
that it can be found in the second book, from the sixtieth chapter through the sixty-fourth. Most modern editions and
translations of the History include the chapter numbers in the margins.
Manuscripts
To the most important manuscripts belong: Codex Parisinus suppl. Gr. 255, Codex Vaticanus 126, Codex
Laurentianus LXIX.2, Codex Palatinus 252, Codex Monacensis 430, Codex Monacensis 228, Codex Britannicus
II,727, and other.[14]
Grenfell and Hunt discovered in Oxyrhynchus about 20 manuscripts on papyrus from ancient time.
Outline of the work
• Book 1
• The state of Greece from the earliest times to the commencement of the Peloponnesian War, also known as the
Archaeology. 1.1-1.19.
• Methodological excursus. 1.20-1.23.
• Causes of the war (433-432 BC) 1.24-1.66.
• The Affair of Epidamnus. 1.24-1.55.
• The Affair of Potidaea. 1.56-1.66.
• Congress of the Peloponnesian League at Lacedaemon. 1.67-1.88
• The Speech of the Corinthians. 1.68-1.71.
• The Speech of the Athenian envoys. 1.73-1.78.
• The Speech of Archidamus. 1.80-1.85.
• The Speech of Sthenelaidas. 1.86.
• From the end of the Persian War to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, also known as the Pentecontaetia.
1.89-1.117.
• The progress from supremacy to empire.
• Second congress at Lacedaemon and the Corinthian Speech. 1.119-1.125.
• Diplomatic maneuvering. 1.126-1.139.
• Excursus on Cylon. 1.126-1.127.
• Excursus on Pausanias and Themistocles. 1.128-1.138
• Pericles' first speech. 1.140-1.145.
• Book 2 (431-428 BC)
16
• War begins with Thebes' attempt to subvert Plataea. 2.1-2.6.
• Account of the mobilization of and list of the allies of the two combatants. 2.7-2.9.
• First invasion of Attica. 2.10-2.23.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Archidamus leads the Peloponnesian army into Attica. 2.10-2.12.
• Athenian preparations and abandonment of the countryside. 2.13-2.14.
• Excursus on Athenian synoikism. 2.15-2.16.
• Difficult conditions in Athens for refugees from countryside. 2.17.
• Archidamus ravages Oenoe and Acharnai. 2.18-2.20.
• Athenian fury and anger at Pericles. 2.21-2.22.
Athenian naval counter-attacks along coast of Peloponese and islands. 2.23-2.32.
Pericles' Funeral Oration. 2.34-2.46.
The plague of Athens. 2.47-2.54.
Second invasion of Attica and Athenian naval counter-attacks. 2.55-2.58.
Pericles' third speech, defending his position and policy. 2.59-2.64.
Thucydides' estimate of Pericles' qualities and the causes for Athens' eventual defeat. 2.65.
Diplomacy and skirmishes in Thrace, the islands, and the Northeast. 2.66-2.69.
Fall of Potidaea. 2.70.
•
•
•
•
Investment of Plataea. 2.71-2.78.
Naval victories of Phormio in the Northeast. 2.80-2.92.
Threat of raid on the Piraeus. 2.93-2.94.
Thracian campaign in Macedonia under Sitalces. 2.95-2.101.
• Book 3 (428-425 BC)
• Annual invasion of Attica. 3.1.
• Revolt of Mytilene. 3.2-3.50.
• Speech of Mytilenian envoys to Sparta at Olympia, asking for help. 3.9-3.14.
• Sparta accepts Lesbos as an ally and prepares to counter the Athenians. 3.15.
• Mytilene surrenders to Athens despite Spartan support. 3.28.
• Mytilenian Debate. 3.37-3.50.
• Fall of Plataea. 3.20-3.24, 3.52-68.
• Some Plataeans escape. 3.20-3.24.
• Plataea surrenders. 3.52.
• Trial and execution of the Plataeans. 3.53-3.68.
• Speech of Plataeans, 3.53-3.59.
• Speech of the Thebans. 3.61-3.67.
• Revolution at Corcyra. 3.70-3.85.
•
•
•
•
•
• Thucydides' account of the evils of civil strife. 3.82-3.84.
Athenian campaigns in Sicily. 3.86, 3.90, 3.99, 3.103, 3.115-3.116.
Tsunami and inquiry into its causes 3.89.2-5
Campaigns of Demosthenes in western Greece. 3.94-3.98, 3.100-3.102, 3.105-3.114.
Spartans establish Heraclea in Trachis. 3.92-3.93.
Athenians purify Delos. 3.104.
• Book 4 (425-423 BC)
• Annual invasion of Attica. 4.2.
• Athenians en route to Sicily occupy Pylos in the Peloponnese. 4.2-4.6.
• King Agis of Sparta cuts short the invasion of Attica to return to the Peloponnese. 4.6.
17
• Concerted Spartan attack on the Athenian fort at Pylos. 4.8-4.15.
• The Athenian general Demosthenes coordinates the defense of Pylos and rouses the troops with a speech.
4.9-4.10.
• The Spartan commander Brasidas distinguishes himself for bravery. 4.11-4.12.
• The Athenians defeat the Spartan assault on Pylos and cut off a garrison of Spartiates on the adjacent island of
Sphacteria. 4.13-4.14.
• The Spartans, concerned for the men on the island, conclude an immediate armistice and send an embassy to
Athens to negotiate peace. 4.13-4.22.
• The speech of the Spartan ambassadors offers to peace and alliance to Athens in exchange for the return of
the men on Sphacteria. 4.17-4.20.
• The Athenian Cleon, speaking in the Assembly, encourages the Athenians to demand the return of the
territories surrendered by Athens at the conclusion of the First Peloponnesian War. 4.21-4.22.
• Events in Sicily. 4.24-4.25.
• Siege of the Spartiates on Sphacteria continues without result. 4.26-4.27.
• Cleon takes command at Pylos. 4.27-4.29.
• With the siege of Sphacteria yielding no results, the Athenians grow angry at Cleon for encouraging them to
reject the Spartan offer of peace. 4.27.1-.4.27.3.
•
•
•
•
•
• Cleon blames Nicias and the generals for ineptitude. 4.27.5.
• Nicias yields command to Cleon. 4.28.
Battle of Sphacteria results in the capture of all the Spartiates trapped there. 4.29-4.41.
Nicias leads an Athenian attack on Corinth. 4.42-4.45.
End of Corcyraean revolution. 4.46-4.48.
Athenians capture Cythera, an island off the Peloponnese, and Thyrea, a town in the Peloponnese. Sparta is
hemmed in on all sides and desperate. 4.53-4.57.
Sicilian cities make peace in conference at Gela, frustrating Athenian designs on the island. 4.58-65.
• Speech of Hermocrates at Gela. 4.59-4.64.
• Athenian attack on Megara. 4.66-4.74.
• Capture of Nisaea. 4.69.
• Inconclusive engagements at Megara. 4.73.
• Megara eludes Athenian capture. 4.74.
• Invasion of Boeotia. 4.76, 4.89-4.101.2.
• Athenians occupy temple at Delium. 4.90.
• Battle of Delium results in Athenian retreat. 4.91-4.96.
• Boeotians refuse to return Athenian dead until Athenians relinquish the shrine of Delium. 4.97-4.99.
• Boeotians assault the Athenian in the temple and burn it down. 4.100.
• Brasidas marches through Thessaly to Thrace and begins to cause Athenian subject cities to revolt. 4.78-4.88.
• Speech of Brasidas to the Acanthians. 4.85-4.87.
• Fall of Amphipolis to Brasidas. 4.102-4.108.
• Continued successes of Brasidas in Thrace. 4.111-4.135.
•
•
•
•
Brasidas secures the revolt of the garrison of Torone. 4.110-4.116.
One-year armistice between Athenians and Spartans. 4.117-4.118.
Scione revolts from Athens to Brasidas. 4.120-4.123.
Truce breaks down. 4.122-4.123.
• Athenians retake Mende and besiege Scione. 4.129-4.131.
• Book 5 (422-415 BC)
18
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Death of Cleon and Brasidas. 5.10.
Peace of Nicias. 5.13-5.24.
Feeling against Sparta in the Peloponnese
League of the Mantineans, Eleans, Argives, and Athenians. 5.27-5.48.
Battle of Mantinea and breaking up of the League. 5.63-5.81.
The Melian Dialogue. 5.84-5.113.
Fate of Melos. 5.116.
• Book 6 (415-414 BC)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Sicilian Expedition.6.8-6.52
Affair of the Hermae. 6.27-6.29. 6.53.
Departure of the expedition to Sicily. 6.30-6.32.
Pro-Syracusan Party at Catana. 6.50-6.51. 6.64.
Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton. 6.53-6.58.
Disgrace of Alcibiades.6.60-6.61.
Inaction of the Athenian army.6.63. 6.66.
Alcibiades at Sparta. 6.88-6.93.
• Book 7 (414-413 BC)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arrival of Gylippus at Syracuse. 7.1- 7.3.
Fortification of Decelea. 7.19- 7.30.
Successes of the Syracusans.
Arrival of Demosthenes
Defeat of the Athenians at Epipolae. 7.42- 7.59.
Folly and obstinacy of Nicias
Battles in the Great Harbour
Retreat and annihilation of the Athenian army. 7.72- 7.87
• Book 8 (413-411 BC)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Revolt of Ionia
Intervention of Persia
The war in Ionia
Intrigues of Alcibiades
Withdrawal of the Persian subsidies
Oligarchical coup d'état at Athens
Patriotism of the Athenian army at Samos
Recall of Alcibiades to Samos
Revolt of Euboea and downfall of the Council of the Four Hundred
Battle of Cynossema
19
Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
- K.J. Dover, "Thucydides 'as History' and 'as Literature,' History and Theory (1983) 22:54-63.
- J.B. Bury, History of Greece, 4th ed., (New York 1975), p. 252.
- W.R. Connor, Thucydides, (Princeton 1984), pp. 231-2.
- Donald Kagan, "The Speeches in Thucydides and the Mytilene Debate", Yale Classical Studies (1975) 24:71-94.
- Ernst Badian, "Thucydides and the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. A Historian's Brief" in Conflict, Antithesis and the Ancient
Historian, ed. June Allison, (Columbus 1990), pp. 46-91
[6] Graziosi, Barbara. Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=vCHsh9QWzLYC&
printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false), 2002, p. 118, ISBN 0-521-80966-5.
[7] Borimir Jordan "Religion in Thucydides" http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 283914
[8] Leo Strauss "Preliminary Observations on the gods in Thucydides Work" "Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy" 1974 4:1 1-16
[9] Benjamin Patrick Newton, "Thucydidean Answers to Nietzschean Questions: What is Religious?", Polis: The Journal of the Society for Greek
Political Thought (2010) 27/1: 111-133.
[10] - Barbara Graziosi, Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic, p 121.
[11] Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War.
[12] Smid, T. C.: "'Tsunamis' in Greek Literature", Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 17, No. 1 (April , 1970), pp. 100-104 (103f.)
[13] H.W. Brands, Arthur Schlesinger Woodrow Wilson (The American President Series), Times Books, 2003 ISBN 978-0-8050-6955-6
[14] Histories: book 3. Edited with notes, for the use of schools (http:/ / www. archive. org/ stream/ historiesbook3ed00thucuoft#page/ n15/
mode/ 2up) (Oxford Clarendon Press; 1901)
Secondary sources
• Connor, W. Robert, Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press (1984). ISBN 0-691-03569-5.
• Crane, Gregory, Thucydides and the Ancient Simplicity: the Limits of Political Realism (http://ark.cdlib.org/
ark:/13030/ft767nb497/). Berkeley: University of California Press (1998).
• Hornblower, Simon, A Commentary on Thucydides. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon (1991–1996). ISBN
0-19-815099-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-19-927625-0 (vol. 2).
• Hornblower, Simon, Thucydides. London: Duckworth (1987). ISBN 0-7156-2156-4.
• Orwin, Clifford, The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press (1994). ISBN
0-691-03449-4.
• Romilly, Jacqueline de, Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1963). ISBN
0-88143-072-2.
• Rood, Tim, Thucydides: Narrative and Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1998). ISBN
0-19-927585-8.
• Strassler, Robert B, ed. The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. New
York: Free Press (1996). ISBN 0-684-82815-4.
• Thucydides, Thucydidis, olori fil, De bello peloponnesiacoa libri VIII (http://books.google.com/books?hl=pl&
id=TDMZAAAAYAAJ&q=VERSIONE_LATINA#v), Versione Latina, (London 1819)
Translations
•
•
•
•
•
Full text – [[Thomas Hobbes (http://oll.libertyfund.org/Intros/Thucydides.php)], 1628]
William Smith, 1753
Johann David Heilmann, 1760
Full text – [[Richard Crawley (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7142)], 1874]
Full text – [[Benjamin Jowett (http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/thucydides-jowetttoc-b.htm)],
1881]
• Edgar C. Marchant, 1900
• Charles Forster Smith, 1919
• Rex Warner, 1954
• John H. Finley, Jr., 1963
20
21
• Walter Blanco, 1998
• Steven Lattimore, 2002
• Bryn Mawr review of Lattimore's translation (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1999/1999-06-18.html), which
discusses the other major translations as well.
External links
•
•
Quotations related to The Peloponnesian War at Wikiquote
Works related to History of the Peloponnesian War at Wikisource
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur (originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle
French for “the death of Arthur”[1]) is a compilation by Sir Thomas
Malory of romance-era tales about the legendary King Arthur,
Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory
interprets existing French and English stories about these figures and
adds original material (the Gareth story).
First published in 1485 by William Caxton, Le Morte d'Arthur is today
perhaps the best-known work of Arthurian literature in English. Many
modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source,
including T. H. White in his popular The Once and Future King and
Tennyson in The Idylls of the King.
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (begun 1881),
detail, by Edward Burne-Jones (d. 1898), greatly
influenced by Le Morte d'Arthur throughout his
career.
Publication history
Malory probably started work on Le Morte d'Arthur while he was in
prison in the early 1450s and completed it by 1470. “Malory did not
invent the stories in this collection; he translated and compiled
them...Malory in fact translated Arthurian stories that already existed
in thirteenth-century French prose (the so-called Old French Vulgate
romances) and compiled them together with at least one tale from
Middle English sources (the Alliterative Morte Arthure and the
Stanzaic Morte Arthur) to create this text.”[2] He called the full work
The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde
table, but Caxton instead titled it with Malory's name for the final
section of the cycle. Modernized editions update the late Middle
English spelling, update some pronouns, and repunctuate and
reparagraph the text. Others furthermore update the phrasing and
vocabulary to contemporary Modern English. Here is an example
(from Caxton's preface) in Middle English and then in Modern
English:
Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to
good fame and renomme.
Title page (N.C. Wyeth) for The Boy's King
Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King
Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table,
Edited for Boys by Sidney Lanier (1922).
Le Morte d'Arthur
Do after the good and leave the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame and renown.[3]
The Middle English of Le Morte D'Arthur is much closer to Early Modern English than the Middle English of
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. If the spelling is modernized, it reads almost like Elizabethan English.
The first printing of Malory's work was made by Caxton in 1485. Only two copies of this original printing are known
to exist, in the collections of the Morgan Library & Museum and the John Rylands Library. It proved popular, and
was reprinted, with some additions and changes, in 1498 and 1529 by Wynkyn de Worde who succeeded Caxton's
press. Three more editions were published before the English Civil War: William Copland's (1557), Thomas East's
(1585), and William Stansby's (1634), each of which contained additional changes and errors (including the omission
of an entire leaf). Thereafter the book went out of fashion until the Romantic revival of interest in all things
medieval; the year 1816 saw a new edition by Walker and Edwards, and another one by Wilks, both based on the
1634 Stansby edition. Davison's 1817 edition, which was promoted by Robert Southey, was based on Caxton's 1485
edition or on a mixture of Caxton and Stansby. Davison was the basis for subsequent editions until the discovery of
the Winchester Manuscript.
Caxton separated Malory's eight books into 21 books; subdivided each book into a total of 507 chapters; added a
summary of each chapter and added a colophon to the entire book.[4] Malory's eight tales are:
1. The birth and rise of Arthur: “From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and
Did Many Battles”
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
King Arthur's war against the Romans: “The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome”
The book of Lancelot: “The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lac”
The book of Gareth (brother of Gawain): “The Tale of Sir Gareth”
Tristan and Isolde: “The Book of Sir Tristrams de Lyons”
The Quest for the Holy Grail: “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal”
The affair between Lancelot and Guinevere: “Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere”
The breaking of the Knights of the Round Table and the death of Arthur: “Le Morte D'Arthur”
Most of the events in the book take place in Britain and France in the latter half of the 5th century. In some parts, the
story ventures farther afield, to Rome and Sarras (near Babylon), and recalls Biblical tales from the ancient Near
East.
Summary
Book I: “From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that Reigned After Him and
Did Many Battles” (Caxton I–IV)
Arthur is born to Uther Pendragon and Igraine and then taken by Sir Ector to be fostered in the country. He later
becomes the king of a leaderless England when he removes the fated sword from the stone. Arthur goes on to win
many battles due to his military prowess and Merlin’s counsel. He then consolidates his kingdom.
This first book also tells “The Tale of Balyn and Balan”, which ends in accidental fratricide, and the begetting of
Mordred, Arthur’s incestuous son by his half-sister, Morgause (though Arthur did not know her as his half-sister). On
Merlin's advice, and reminiscent of Herod's killing of the innocents in scripture, Arthur takes every newborn boy in
his kingdom and sends them to sea in a boat. The boat crashes and all but Mordred, who later kills his father, perish.
This is mentioned matter-of-factly, with no apparent moral overtone. Arthur marries Guinevere, and inherits the
Round Table from her father Leodegrance. At Pentecost, Arthur gathers his knights at Camelot and establishes the
Round Table company. All swear to the Pentecostal Oath as a guide for knightly conduct.
In this first book, Malory addresses 15th century preoccupations with legitimacy and societal unrest, which will
appear throughout the rest of the work. As Malorian scholar Helen Cooper states in Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte
D'arthur - The Winchester Manuscript, the prose style (as opposed to verse), which mimics historical documents of
the time, lends an air of authority to the whole work. She goes on to state that this allowed contemporaries to read
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Le Morte d'Arthur
the book as a history rather than as a work of fiction, therefore making it a model of order for Malory's violent and
chaotic times during the War of the Roses. Malory's concern with legitimacy reflects the concerns of 15th century
England, where many were claiming their rights to power through violence and bloodshed. Genealogy was a way to
legitimize power in a less arbitrary manner, and Malory calls this into question.
The Pentecostal Oath (the Oath of the Round Table) counterbalances a lack of moral centre exemplified in the
fratricide in “The Tale of Balyn and Balan”. Also, once in power, Arthur becomes a king of dubious morals even
while he is held up as a beacon of hope. Arthur's most immoral acts are the begetting of Mordred since Arthur had
lain with a woman whom he did not know was his half-sister and to whom he was not married and the following
mass infanticide, which only add to Arthur's shaky morality and cast Merlin in a negative light from which he never
emerges. There is even the notion of being overly moral, in that Arthur on two occasions is prepared to burn
Guinevere at the stake (reminiscent of King Saul's willingness to sacrifice even his son, Jonathan, if he had done
wrong). Arthur's unique notion of morality plagues him for the whole of his reign. The attempt to kill off the infants
harks to the tale of Herod seeking to kill the infant Jesus. Thus there is a mixture of splendid, David-like, kingship,
and low, Herod-like royalty, that both find their place in Arthur.
In the end, the book still holds out for hope even while the questions of legitimacy and morality continue in the
books to follow. Arthur and his knights continually try and fail to live up to their chivalric codes, yet remain figures
invested with Malory’s desperate optimism.
Book II: “The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome”
(Caxton V)
This book, detailing Arthur's march on Rome, is heavily based on the Middle English Alliterative Morte Arthure,
which in turn is heavily based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. The opening of Book V finds
Arthur and his kingdom without an enemy. His throne is secure, his knights have proven themselves through a series
of quests, Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristan have arrived and the court is feasting. When envoys from Emperor Lucius of
Rome arrive and accuse Arthur of refusing tribute, “contrary to the statutes and decrees made by the noble and
worthy Julius Caesar”, Arthur and his knights are stirring for a fight. They are “many days rested” and excited, “for
now shall we have warre and worshype.” Arthur invokes the lineage of Ser Belyne and Sir Bryne, legendary British
conquerors of Rome, and through their blood lineage demands tribute from Lucius under the argument that Britain
conquered Rome first. Lucius, apprised of the situation by his envoys, raises a heathen army of the East, composed
of Spaniards and Saracens, as well as other enemies of the Christian world. Rome is supposed to be the seat of
Christianity, but it is more foreign and corrupt than the courts of Arthur and his allies. Departing from Geoffrey of
Monmouth's history in which Mordred is left in charge, Malory's Arthur leaves his court in the hands of Sir
Constantine of Cornwall and an advisor. Arthur sails to Normandy to meet his cousin Hoel, but he finds a giant
terrorizing the people from the holy island of Mont St. Michel. This giant is the embodiment of senseless violence
and chaos, a monster who eats men and rapes women to death. He uses sex as a violent act of control and appetite,
divorced from sensuality or reason. Arthur battles him alone, an act of public relations intended to inspire his
knights. The fight is closely documented by Malory, a blow-by-blow description of blood and gore. The giant dies
after Arthur “swappis his genytrottys in sondir” and “kut his baly in sundir, that oute wente the gore”. When Arthur
does fight Lucius and his armies it is almost anticlimactic, when compared to his struggles with the giant. Arthur and
his armies defeat the Romans, Arthur is crowned Emperor, a proxy government is arranged for the Roman Empire
and Arthur returns to London where his queen welcomes him royally.
This book is Malory's attempt to validate violence as a right to rule. In the Geoffrey of Monmouth history Arthur
refutes the basis of Rome's demands because “nothing acquired by force and violence is justly possessed by anyone”.
His demand of tribute is a parallel request that emphasizes the absurdity of Rome's request. In the end, Malory seems
to find violence lacking. Despite the neat resolution with Arthur as Emperor he never again tries this “might makes
right” tactic. Similarly, Malory's treatment of the Giant of Mont St. Michel seems to be an exploration of violence in
23
Le Morte d'Arthur
his own society where powerful men committed seemingly senseless acts of violence.
Book III: “The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lac” (Caxton VI)
In this tale, Malory establishes Lancelot as King Arthur's most revered knight. Among Lancelot's numerous episodic
adventures include being enchanted into a deep sleep by Morgan le Fay and having to escape her castle, proving
victorious in a tournament fighting on behalf of King Bagdemagus, slaying the mighty Sir Turquine who had been
holding several of Arthur's knights prisoner, and also overcoming the betrayal of a damsel to defend himself
unarmed against Sir Phelot.
These adventures address several major issues developed throughout Le Morte Darthur. Among the most important
is the fact Lancelot always adheres to the Pentecostal Oath. Throughout this tale he assists dancing ladies in distress
and provides mercy for knights he has defeated in battle. However, the world Lancelot lives in is too complicated for
simple mandates. This can be seen when a damsel betrays Lancelot, and he must fight Sir Phelot unarmed. Although
Lancelot aspires to live by an ethical code, the actions of others make it difficult for the Pentecostal Oath to fully
establish a social order.
Another major issue this text addresses is demonstrated when Morgan le Fay enchants Lancelot. This action reflects
a feminization of magic along with a clear indication that Merlin’s role within the text has been diminished. The
tournament fighting in this tale indicates a shift away from war towards a more mediated and virtuous form of
violence.
On courtly love, Malory attempts to shift the focus of courtly love from adultery to service by having Lancelot admit
to doing everything he does for Guinevere, but never admit to having an adulterous relationship with her. However, a
close parsing of his words can perhaps allow Lancelot to retain his honorable word, for he never says that he has not
lain with the queen, but rather that if anyone makes such a claim, he will fight them (the assumption being that God
will cause the liar to lose). Further, since Lancelot – who in all of the book never breaks his word or lies – claims
that the queen was never untrue to her lord, then it seems to be the case that he must consider his love of the queen to
be somehow pure or special, not an act of unfaithfulness to the king he loves and serves. Although this forbidden
love is the catalyst of the fall of Camelot (i.e., the Round Table, for it was at Camelot/Winchester that the Round
Table met, though Arthur lived and governed from another location), the book's moral handling of the adultery
between Lancelot and Guinevere (and the love between Tristan and Isoud) implies that it is understood that if a love
is somehow true and pure – especially if the knights be especially noble and honorable – that it is seen more as a
foible than the depraved act of adultery. Only in the end of the book, when Arthur is dead and Guinevere has become
a nun, does she reproach herself and Lancelot for their love, now understanding that it brought about the fall of
Camelot, the death of 100,000 knights, and her great sorrow. Thus, she wills to spend the rest of her life offering
penitence for what, in earlier chapters, seemed of no particular moral concern (outside of the care to not be caught in
the act). In fact, it is understood that Lancelot is of such honor that he would never have committed adultery without
the express willingness or invitation of Guinevere.
In this way, Malory focused on the ennobling aspects of courtly love. The attempt is undercut by the other characters
who constantly insinuate that Lancelot is sleeping with Guinevere. Lancelot's obsessive denial that the queen had
been untrue implies that he only defines himself through his actions towards women. Furthermore, Lancelot and
Guinevere function within the French romantic tradition wherein Guinevere provides Lancelot with order. On
numerous occasions he refuses the love of other women and sends Guinevere knights he has defeated in battle who
must appeal to her for forgiveness. This proves somewhat problematic because it provides some evidence of
Lancelot's love for the queen, which is ultimately used to force division between Lancelot and Arthur.
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Le Morte d'Arthur
Book IV: “The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney” (Caxton VII)
The tale of Sir Gareth begins with his arrival at court as le bel inconnu, or the fair unknown. He comes without a
name and therefore without a past. Sir Kay mockingly calls the unknown young man “Beaumains” and treats him
with contempt and condescension. An unknown woman, later revealed to be the Dame Lynette, eventually comes to
court asking for assistance against the Red Knight of the Red Lands, and Gareth takes up the quest. On his quest, he
encounters the Black, Green, Red, and Blue knights and the Red knight of the Red Lands. He kills the Black Knight,
incorporates the others into Arthur’s court, and rescues Lynette's sister Lyonesse. Lustily in love with Lyonesse,
Gareth conspires to consummate their relationship before marrying. Only by the magical intervention of Lynette is
their tryst unsuccessful, thus preserving Gareth's virginity and, presumably, his standing with God. Gareth later
counsels Lyonesse to report to King Arthur and pretend she doesn’t know where he is; instead, he tells her to
announce a tournament of his knights against the Round Table. This allows Gareth to disguise himself and win honor
by defeating his brother knights. The heralds eventually acknowledge that he is Sir Gareth right as he strikes down
Sir Gawain, his brother. The book ends with Gareth rejoining his fellow knights and marrying Lyonesse.
In Book IV, there are only two knights that have ever held against Sir Lancelot in tournament: Tristram and Gareth.
This was always under conditions where one or both parties were unknown by the other, for these knights loved each
other “passingly well.” Gareth was knighted by Lancelot himself when he took upon him the adventure on behalf of
Dame Lynette. Much later, Gareth is accidentally slain by his beloved Lancelot when Guinevere is rescued from
being burnt at the stake by King Arthur.
This story seems unengaged with the problems that Malory addresses elsewhere in the text: there is no known source
for this book, and in other tales, knights are always interacting with other knights from the Round Table, but not
here. There are no consequences for Gareth’s battles with them as there are during battles with other knights from the
Round Table.
The second half of the book brings into question Gareth’s true commitment to the chivalric code. He displays
decidedly underhanded behavior in his quest for worship and personal fulfillment. Gareth uses deceit to achieve his
aims ; however, pays a price for his deception as he strikes his brother Gawaine from his horse – he breaks one of
the strongest bonds of loyalty by winning honor through the defeat of a kinsman.
Although Book IV concludes happily, it raises a number of questions of whether Gareth is a successful knight . The
book presents matrimony as one possible way of validating the knightly order, but Gareth's example is fraught with
complications that serve to undermine it as a viable option. In one sense, his marriage has been presented as a
stabilizing force in chivalric society - Gareth’s tale stands in contrast to the Tristram or the Lancelot. However,
Gareth’s readiness to sleep with Lyonesse before marriage questions how dedicated Gareth is to the ideal.
Book V: “The First and the Second Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione” (Caxton VIII–XII)
In “The Fyrste and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones,” Malory tells the tales of Sir Tristan (Trystram),
Sir Dinadan, Sir Palamedes, Sir La Cote De Male Tayle, Sir Alexander, and a variety of other knights. Based on the
French Prose Tristan, or a lost English adaptation of it, Malory's Tristan section is the literal centerpiece of Le Morte
D’Arthur as well as the longest of the eight books.
The book displays a very realistic and jaded view of the world of chivalry. It is rife with adultery, characterized most
visibly in Sir Tristan and the Belle Isolde. However, it should be noted that Sir Tristan had met and fallen in love
with Isolde earlier, and that his uncle, King Mark, jealous of Tristan and seeking to undermine him, appears to seek
marriage to Isolde for just such a hateful purpose, going so far as to ask Tristan to go and seek her hand on his behalf
(which Tristan, understanding that to be his knightly duty, does). Sir Tristan is the namesake of the book and his
adulterous relationship with Isolde, his uncle Mark’s wife, is one of the focuses of the section. The knights, Tristan
included, operate on very personal or political concerns rather than just the standard provided by the world of
Pentecostal Oath as we have seen it so far. One knight, Sir Dinidan, takes this so far as to run away or refuse to fight
if he sees any risk. However, it should be understood that Sir Dinidan is a playful, humorous knight who, in later
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Le Morte d'Arthur
chapters, shows himself to be brave and noble. It is unclear whether his refusals to fight are part of his comic
character or otherwise. Other knights, even knights of the Round Table, make requests that show the dark side of the
world of chivalry. In one episode, Sir Bleoberys, one of Lancelot’s cousins, claims another knight’s wife for his own
and rides away with her until stopped by Sir Tristan. In another, when Tristan defeats Sir Blamore, another knight of
the Round Table, Blamore asks Tristan to kill him because he would rather die than have his reputation tarnished by
the defeat.
The variety of episodes and the alleged lack of coherence in the Tristan narrative raise questions about its role in
Malory’s text. However, the book foreshadows the rest of the text as well as including and interacting with characters
and tales discussed in other parts of the work. It can be seen as an exploration of secular chivalry and a discussion of
honor or “worship” when it is founded in a sense of shame and pride. If Le Morte is viewed as a text in which Malory
is attempting to define knighthood, then Tristan becomes an important critique of chivalry and knighthood as he
interacts with the real world, rather than Malory attempting to create an ideal knight as he does in some of the other
books.
Of all the knights, Tristan most resembles Lancelot. He loves a queen, the wife of another. Tristan is even considered
to be as strong and able a knight as Lancelot, although they become beloved friends. Because of King Mark's
treacherous behavior, Tristran takes Isolde from him and lives with her for some time, but he then returns Isolde to
him. Nonetheless, Mark kills Tristran while he is “harping” (Tristran is noted in the book as one of the greatest of
musicians and falconers).
Book VI: “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal” (Caxton XIII–XVII)
Malory’s primary source for “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal” is the French Vulgate Cycle’s La Queste Del Saint
Graal. Malory's version chronicles the adventures of numerous knights in their quest to achieve the Holy Grail. The
Grail first appears in the hall of King Arthur “coverde with whyght samyte”, and it miraculously produces meat and
drink for the knights. Gawain is the first to declare that he “shall laboure in the Queste of the Sankgreall”. He
embarks on the quest in order to see the Grail “more opynly than hit hath bene shewed” before, and to gain more
“metys and drynkes”. Likewise, Lancelot, Percival, Bors, and Galahad undergo the quest. Their exploits are
intermingled with encounters with maidens and hermits who offer advice and interpret dreams along the way.
Despite the presence of the hermits, the text overall lacks an officiating Catholic presence. It mightWikipedia:No
original research be argued, however, that this is not the case, for not only does the pope send a papal bull to end the
war between Arthur and Lancelot, but there are bishops, the “receiving the Savior” (Holy Communion), the making
the sign of the cross, and references to the Virgin Mary. There are also instances of penance when hermits advise
Gawain, Lancelot, and others to atone for their sins. Whereas Gawain simply refuses to do so, Lancelot recognizes
his offense of placing Queen Guinevere before God. And although he does at that point renounce this transgression,
later, after seeing all of the Grail that he will be permitted to see, he yields and falls again for Guinevere. The only
knights to achieve the Grail are Percival, Bors, and Galahad. The story culminates with Galahad vanishing before the
eyes of his fellow knights as his soul departs “to Jesu Cryste” by means of a “grete multitude of angels [who] bare hit
up to hevyn”.
After the confusion of the secular moral code as manifested in the Pentecostal Oath within "The Fyrst and the
Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones", Malory attempts to construct a new mode of chivalry by placing an
emphasis on religion and Christianity in "The Sankgreal". However, the role of the Catholic Church is drastically
subverted within the text, illustrating 15th-century England’s movement away from the Church establishment and
toward mysticism. Within the text the Church offers a venue through which the Pentecostal Oath can be upheld,
whereas the strict moral code imposed by religion foreshadows almost certain failure on the part of the knights. For
example, Gawain is often dubbed a secular knight, as he refuses to do penance for his sins, claiming the tribulations
that coexist with knighthood as a sort of secular penance. Likewise, Lancelot, for all his sincerity, is unable to
completely escape his adulterous love of Guinevere, and is thus destined to fail where Galahad will succeed. This
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Le Morte d'Arthur
coincides with the personification of perfection in the form of Galahad. Because Galahad is the only knight who
lives entirely without sin, this leaves both the audience and the other knights with a model of perfection that
seemingly cannot be emulated either through chivalry or religion.
Book VII: “Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere” (Caxton XVIII–XIX)
At the beginning of the book “Sir Launcelot and Queene Gwenyvere”, Malory tells his readers that the pair started
behaving carelessly in public, stating that “Launcelot began to resort unto the Queene Guinevere again and forget the
promise and the perfection that he made in the Quest… and so they loved together more hotter than they did
beforehand”(Cooper, 402). They indulged in “privy draughts together” and behaved in such a way that “many in the
court spoke of it” (Cooper, 402).
This book also includes the "knight of the cart" episode, where Mellyagaunce kidnapped Guinevere and her unarmed
knights and held them prisoner in his castle. After Mellyagaunce's archers killed his horse, Launcelot had to ride to
the castle in a cart in order to save the queen. Knowing Lancelot was on his way, Mellyagaunce pleaded to
Guinevere for mercy, which she granted and then forced Lancelot to stifle his rage against Mellyagaunce.
In this same book Malory mentions Lancelot and Guinevere's adultery. Malory says, "So, to passe upon this tale, Sir
Launcelot wente to bedde with the Quene and toke no force of his hurte honed, but toke his plesaunce and hys
lyknge untyll hit was the dawning of the day" (633). Sir Mellyagaunce, upon finding blood in Guinevere's bed, was
so convinced of her unfaithfulness to Arthur that he was willing to fight in an attempt to prove it to others. After
Guinevere made it known that she wanted Mellyagaunce dead, Launcelot killed him even though Mellyagaunce
begged for mercy (but only after Mellyagaunce agreed to continue fighting with Lancelot's helmet removed, his left
side body armor removed, and his left hand tied behind his back—Lancelot felt it necessary to finish the bout, but
would not slay Mellyagaunce unless Mellyagaunce agreed to continue fighting). The book ends with Lancelot's
healing of Sir Urry of Hungary, where Malory notes that Lancelot is the only knight out of hundreds to succeed in
this endeavor. He has committed treason to King Arthur (because of his adultery with Guinevere) and yet is the only
knight virtuous enough to heal Sir Urry. After healing Sir Urry, Lancelot wept as a "chylde that had bene beatyn"
(644).
Book VIII: “The Death of Arthur” (Caxton XX–XXI)
Mordred and Agravaine have been scheming to uncover Lancelot and
Guinevere's adultery for quite some time. When they find an opportune
moment to finally and concretely reveal the adulterous relationship,
Lancelot kills Agravaine and several others and escapes. Arthur is
forced to sentence Guinevere to burn at the stake, and orders his
surviving nephews, Gawain, Mordred, Gareth, and Gaheris, to guard
the scene, knowing Lancelot will attempt a rescue. Gawain flatly
refuses to be part of any act that will treat the queen shamefully. His
younger brothers, Gaheris and Gareth, unable to deny the king's
request that they escort Guinevere to the stake to be burnt, advise that
The Death of King Arthur by James Archer
they will do so at his command, but they will not arm themselves.
(1823–1904), who began painting Arthurian
When Lancelot's party raids the execution, many knights are killed,
subjects in about 1859.
including, by accident, Gareth and Gaheris. Gawain, bent on revenge
for their deaths, prompts Arthur into a war with Lancelot, first at his castle in northern England. At this point the
Pope steps in and issues a bull to end the violence between Arthur's and Lancelot's factions. Shortly thereafter,
Arthur pursues Lancelot to his home in France to continue the fight. Gawain challenges Lancelot to a duel, but loses
and asks Lancelot to kill him; Lancelot refuses and grants him mercy before leaving. This event plays out twice, each
time Lancelot playing a medieval version of rope-a-dope due to Gawain's enchantment/blessing to grow stronger
27
Le Morte d'Arthur
28
between 9 a.m. and noon, then striking down Gawain, but sparing his life.
Arthur receives a message that Mordred, whom he had left in charge back in Britain, has usurped his throne, and he
leads his forces back home. In the invasion Gawain is mortally injured, and writes to Lancelot, asking for his help
against Mordred, and for forgiveness for separating the Round Table. In a dream, the departed Gawain tells Arthur to
wait thirty days for Lancelot to return to England before fighting Mordred, and Arthur sends Lucan and Bedivere to
make a temporary peace treaty. At the exchange, an unnamed knight draws his sword to kill an adder. The other
knights construe this as treachery and a declaration of war. Seeing no other recourse, at the Battle of Camlann,
Arthur charges Mordred and impales him with a spear. But with the last of his strength, Mordred impales himself
even further, so as to come within striking distance of King Arthur, then gives a mortal blow to Arthur’s head.
As he is dying, Arthur commands Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the lake, where it is retrieved by the hand of the
Lady of the Lake. A barge appears, carrying ladies in black hoods (one being Morgan le Fay), who take Arthur to his
grave.
After the passing of King Arthur, Malory provides a denouement, mostly following the lives (and deaths) of
Guinevere, Lancelot, and Lancelot's kinsmen.
When Lancelot returns to Dover, he mourns the deaths of his comrades. Lancelot travels to Almesbury to see
Guinevere. During the civil war, Guinevere is portrayed as a scapegoat for violence without developing her
perspective or motivation. However, after Arthur's death, Guinevere retires to a convent in penitence for her
infidelity. Her contrition is sincere and permanent; Lancelot is unable to sway her to come away with him. Instead,
Lancelot becomes a monk, and is joined in monastic life by his kinsmen. Arthur's successor is appointed
(Constantine, son of King Carados of Scotland), and the realm that Arthur created is significantly changed. After the
deaths of Guinevere and Lancelot, Sirs Bors, Hector, Blamore, and Bleoberis head to the Holy Land to crusade
against the Turks, where they die on Good Friday.
Later publications
The Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson retold the legends in the
poetry volume Idylls of the King. His work focuses primarily on Sir
Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the Mabinogion, but with
many expansions, additions, and several adaptations, like the fate of
Guinevere. In Malory she is sentenced to be burnt at the stake but is
rescued by Lancelot; in the Idylls Guinevere flees to a convent, is
forgiven by Arthur, repents, and serves in the convent until she dies.
In 1892, London publisher J. M. Dent & Co. decided to produce an
illustrated edition of Le Morte Darthur in modern spelling. They chose
a 20-year-old insurance-office clerk and art student, Aubrey Beardsley,
to illustrate the work. It was issued in 12 parts between June 1893 and
mid-1894, and met with only modest success at the time. However, it
has since been described as Beardsley's first masterpiece, launching
what has come to be known as the "Beardsley look".[5] It was his first
"How Sir Bedivere Cast the Sword Excalibur into
major commission, and included nearly 585 chapter openings, borders,
the Water", illustration for Le Morte Darthur, J.
initials, ornaments and full- or double-page illustrations. Most of the
M. Dent & Co., London (1893-1894), by Aubrey
Dent
edition illustrations were reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc.,
Beardsley.
New York, in 1972 under the title Beardsley's Illustrations for Le
Morte Darthur. A facsimile of the Beardsley edition, complete with Malory's unabridged text, was published in the
1990s.
Le Morte d'Arthur
In 1880, American poet Sidney Lanier published a much watered-down and expurgated version of Malory's book
entitled The Boy's King Arthur.[6] This version was later incorporated into Grosset and Dunlap's series of books
called the Illustrated Junior Library, and reprinted under the title King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.[7]
John Steinbeck used the Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and other sources as the original text for The
Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights in 1976. The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round
Table was published mainly for young people. Besides Steinbeck's work, there are at least three modern English
language versions. The first was published anonymously in 1950; the second by Roger Lancelyn Green, Richard
Lancelyn Green and Lotte Reiniger (illustrator), first published in 1953, and the third by Emma Gelders Sterne,
Barbara Lindsay, Gustaf Tenggren and Mary Pope Osborne, published in 2002. Scholar Keith Baines published a
modernized English version of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur in 1962. More recently, scholar Dorsey Armstrong
published a Modern English translation that focused on the Winchester manuscript rather than the Caxton edition in
2009.
Castle Freeman, Jr.'s 2008 novel Go With Me is a modern retelling of the Tale of Sir Gareth.[8][9]
Reception
Until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript in 1934 at Winchester College, the 1485 edition printed by
William Caxton was considered the earliest known text of Le Morte d'Arthur and that closest to Malory's translation
and compilation.[10] Modern editions are inevitably variable, changing a variety of spelling, grammar, and/or
pronouns for the convenience of readers of modern English.
The Arthurian characters and tales act like litmus, responding to the issues, aspirations, and anxieties of
readerships in every different time and place that they touch. But Arthurian narratives can also act on the
cultures that reproduce them, whether expressing an idealizing national wish about the "Camelot" Kennedy
administration in the early 1960s, or articulating English King Edward I's symbolic kinship with the Welsh in
hopes of military advantage in the late 1200s...
—Bryan (1994), p.x[11]
These and other controversies [providential historiography vs. Christian penance, courtly love vs. adultery]
operating within the accumulation of tales and genres lend some force, ironically, to Caxton's claim that
readers should look to this text for moral example. Caxton instructed readers of this narrative of knights'
adventures to "Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to good fame and renommee." It is
ultimately the enormous complexity of conflicting demands that will engage moral sensibilities of readers of
this text.
—Bryan, p.xii.[]
I think my sense of right and wrong, my feeling of noblesse oblige, and any thought I may have against the
oppressor and for the oppressed came from [Le Morte d'Arthur]....It did not seem strange to me that Uther
Pendragon wanted the wife of his vassal and took her by trickery. I was not frightened to find that there were
evil knights, as well as noble ones. In my own town there were men who wore the clothes of virtue whom I
knew to be bad....If I could not choose my way at the crossroads of love and loyalty, neither could Lancelot. I
could understand the darkness of Mordred because he was in me too; and there was some Galahad in me, but
perhaps not enough. The Grail feeling was there, however, deep-planted, and perhaps always will be.
—John Steinbeck[12]
29
Le Morte d'Arthur
Bibliography
The work itself
• Editions based on the Winchester manuscript:
• Facsimile:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. The Winchester Malory: A Facsimile. Introduced by Ker, N. R. (1976). London: Early
English Text Society. ISBN 0-19-722404-0.
• Original spelling:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur. (A Norton Critical Edition). Ed. Shepherd, Stephen H. A. (2004).
New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-97464-2. (Official website with textual corrections and further
commentary: Stephen H. A. Shepherd: Le Morte Darthur: On-line companion [13].)
• _________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène. 3rd ed. Field, Rev. P. J. C. (1990). 3
vol. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812344-2, ISBN 0-19-812345-0, ISBN 0-19-812346-9.
• _________. Malory: Complete Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1977). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-281217-3. (Revision and retitling of Malory: Works of 1971).
• _________. Malory: Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1971). 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-254163-3.
• _________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1967). 2nd ed. 3 vol. Oxford:
Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811838-4.
• _________. Malory: Works. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1954). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-254163-3. (Malory's text from Vinaver's The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (1947), in a single volume
dropping most of Vinaver's notes and commentary.)
• _________. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Vinaver, Eugène (1947). 3 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Modernised spelling:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript. Ed. Cooper, Helen (1998). Oxford:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-282420-1. (Abridged text.)
• Translation/paraphrase into contemporary English:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table. Trans.
and abridged by Baines, Keith (1983). New York: Bramhall House. ISBN 0-517-02060-2. Reissued by
Signet (2001). ISBN 0-451-52816-6.
• _________. Le Morte D'Arthur. (London Medieval & Renaissance Ser.) Trans. Lumiansky, Robert M.
(1982). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-17673-4.
• Steinbeck, John, and Thomas Malory. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: From the
Winchester Manuscripts of Thomas Malory and Other Sources. (1976) New York: Noonday Press.
Reissued 1993. ISBN 0-374-52378-9.
• Brewer, D.S. Malory: The Morte Darthur. York Medieval Texts, Elizabeth Salter and Derek Pearsall, Gen.
Eds. (1968) London: Edward Arnold. Reissued 1993. ISBN 0-7131-5326-1. (Modernized spelling version
of Books 7 and 8 as a complete story in its own right. Based on Winchester MS, but with changes taken
from Caxton, and some emendations by Brewer.)
• Armstrong, Dorsey. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the
Winchester Manuscript (Renaissance and Medieval Studies) Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2009. ISBN
1-60235-103-1.
• Editions based on Caxton's edition:
• Facsimile:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur, printed by William Caxton, 1485. Ed. Needham, Paul (1976).
London.
30
Le Morte d'Arthur
• Original spelling:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Caxton's Malory. Ed. Spisak, James. W. (1983). 2 vol. boxed. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03825-8.
• _________. Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Sommer, H. Oskar (1889–91). 3 vol. London:
David Nutt. The text of Malory from this edition without Sommer's annotation and commentary and
selected texts of Malory's sources is available on the web at:
• University of Michigan: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse: Le Morte Darthur [14].
• Modernised spelling:
• Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Matthews, John (2000). Illustrated by Ferguson, Anna-Marie.
London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35367-1. (The introduction by John Matthews praises the Winchester text but
then states this edition is based on the Pollard version of the Caxton text, with eight additions from the
Winchester manuscript.)
• _________. Le Morte Darthur. Introduction by Moore, Helen (1996). Herefordshire: Wordsworth Editions
Ltd. ISBN 1-85326-463-6. (Seemingly based on the Pollard text.)
• _________. Le morte d'Arthur. Introduction by Bryan, Elizabeth J. (1994). New York: Modern Library.
ISBN 0-679-60099-X. (Pollard text.)
• _________. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Cowen, Janet (1970). Introduction by Lawlor, John. 2 vols. London:
Penguin. ISBN 0-14-043043-1, ISBN 0-14-043044-X.
• _________. Le Morte d'Arthur. Ed. Rhys, John (1906). (Everyman's Library 45 & 46.) London: Dent;
London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton. Released in paperback format in 1976: ISBN 0-460-01045-X,
ISBN 0-460-01046-8. (Text based on an earlier modernised Dent edition of 1897.)
• _________. Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the
Round Table,. Ed. Pollard, A. W. (1903). 2 vol. New York: Macmillan. (Text corrected from the
bowdlerised 1868 Macmillan edition edited by Sir Edward Strachey.) Available on the web at:
• Project Gutenberg: Le Morte Darthur: Volume 1 (books 1-9) [15] and Le Morte Darthur: Volume 2
(books 10-21) [16]. (Plain text.)
• Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library: Le Morte Darthur: Volume 1 (books 1-9) [17] and
Le Morte Darthur: Volume 2 (books 10-21) [18] (HTML.)
• Celtic Twilight: Legends of Camelot: Le Morte d'Arthur [19] (HTML with illustrations by Aubrey
Beardsley from the Dent edition of 1893–94.)
• _________. Le Morte Darthur. Ed. Simmon, F. J. (1893–94). Illustrated by Beardsley, Aubrey. 2 vol.
London: Dent.
• Limerick translation: Le Morte d'Arthur, an Epic Limerick, 2006, by Jacob Wenzel, ISBN 978-1-4116-8987-9
Commentary
• Glossary to Le Morte d'Arthur at Glossary to Book 1 [20] and Glossary to Book 2 [21] (PDF)
• Lugodoc's Guide to Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur [22]
• Malory's Morte d'Arthur [23] and Style of the Morte d'Arthur [24], selections by Alice D. Greenwood with
bibliography from the Cambridge History of English Literature.
• About the Winchester manuscript:
• University of Georgia: English Dept: Jonathan Evans: Walter F. Oakeshott and the Winchester Manuscript. [25]
(Contains links to the first public announcements concerning the Winchester manuscript from The Daily
Telegraph, The Times, and The Times Literary Supplement.)
• UBC Dept. of English: Siân Echard: Caxton and Winchester [26] (link offline on Oct. 25, 2011; according to
message on Ms. Echard's Medieval Pages [27], "September 2011: Most of the pages below are being renovated,
so the links are (temporarily) inactive.")
31
Le Morte d'Arthur
32
• Department of English, Goucher College: Arnie Sanders: The Malory Manuscript [28]
References
[1] Since morte (or mort) is a feminine noun, French would require the article la (i.e., “la mort d'Arthur”). According to Stephen H. A. Shepherd,
“Malory frequently misapplies le in titular compounds, perhaps on a simple sonic and gender-neutral analogy with 'the'”. Stephen H. A.
Shepherd, ed., Le Morte Darthur, by Sir Thomas Malory (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 1n.
[2] Bryan (1994), p.viii-ix.
[3] Bryan, ed. (1999), p.xviii.
[4] Bryan (2004), p.ix
[5] Dover Publications (1972). Beardsley's Illustrations for Le Morte Darthur, Publisher's note & back cover.
[6] http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 653360
[7] http:/ / www. amazon. com/ Arthur-Knights-Illustrated-Junior-Library/ dp/ 0448060167
[8] bookgroup.info: interview: Castle Freeman (http:/ / bookgroup. info/ 041205/ interview. php?id=56) Retrieved 2012-12-17.
[9] A Chat With Castle Freeman, Jr. (http:/ / literatehousewife. com/ 2009/ 03/ a-chat-with-castle-freeman-jr/ ) Retrieved 2012-12-17
[10] Bryan, Elizabeth J. (1994/1999). "Sir Thomas Malory", Le Morte D'Arthur, p.vii. Modern Library. New York. ISBN 0-679-60099-X.
[11] Bryan (1994), p.x.
[12] Bryan (1999). Le Morte D'Arthur, back cover.
[13] http:/ / myweb. lmu. edu/ sshepherd/ MorteDarthur. htm
[14] http:/ / www. hti. umich. edu/ cgi/ c/ cme/ cme-idx?type=header& idno=MaloryWks2
[15] http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ ebooks/ 1251
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ ebooks/ 1252
http:/ / etext. lib. virginia. edu/ toc/ modeng/ public/ Mal1Mor. html
http:/ / etext. lib. virginia. edu/ toc/ modeng/ public/ Mal2Mor. html
http:/ / www. celtic-twilight. com/ camelot/ malory/ index. htm
http:/ / www. hn. psu. edu/ faculty/ jmanis/ malory/ darthurglossary1. pdf
http:/ / www. hn. psu. edu/ faculty/ jmanis/ malory/ darthurglossary2. pdf
http:/ / www. lugodoc. demon. co. uk/ MYTH/ Arthur/ Mal0. htm
http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 212/ 1403. html
http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 212/ 1404. html
http:/ / www. english. uga. edu/ ~jdmevans/ Winchester/ malory. html
http:/ / www. english. ubc. ca/ ~sechard/ 344win. htm
http:/ / faculty. arts. ubc. ca/ sechard/ mypages. htm
http:/ / faculty. goucher. edu/ eng240/ Malory--Navigating%20W%20and%20Caxton. htm
External links
Le Morte d'Arthur
• LibriVox fulltext audiobook recording of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.
php?title=mort&author=malory&status=all&action=Search)
• Full Text of Volume One (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1251) - at Project Gutenberg
• Full Text of Volume Two (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1252) - at Project Gutenberg
• Le Morte Darthur. volume 1 (Ebook version) (http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/malory/morte_darthur1.
pdf)
• Le Morte Darthur. volume 2 (Ebook version) (http://www.samizdat.qc.ca/arts/lit/malory/morte_darthur2.
pdf)
• Diferent copies of La Mort d'Arthur (http://archive.org/search.php?query=title:"La Mort D'Arthure") on
Internet Archive.
Tamburlaine (play)
33
Tamburlaine (play)
"Tamburlaine" redirects here. For the 14th-century military leader, see Timur.
Tamburlaine the Great is a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe.
It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur "the
lame". Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan
public drama; it marks a turning away from the clumsy language and
loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in
fresh and vivid language, memorable action, and intellectual
complexity. Along with Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, it may be
considered the first popular success of London's public stage.
Marlowe, generally considered the greatest of the University Wits,
influenced playwrights well into the Jacobean period, and echoes of
Tamburlaine's bombast and ambition can be found in English plays all
the way to the Puritan closing of the theatres in 1642. While
Tamburlaine is considered inferior to the great tragedies of the
late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean period, its significance in creating
a stock of themes and, especially, in demonstrating the potential of
blank verse in drama, is still acknowledged.
An anonymous portrait, often believed to show
Christopher Marlowe.
Publication
The play (in both parts) was entered into the Stationers' Register on 14 August 1590. Both parts were published
together in a single black letter octavo that same year by the printer Richard Jones; its text is usually referred to as
O1. A second edition was issued by Jones in 1592, and a third reprint appeared in 1597, essentially reprinting the
text of the first edition. The plays were next published separately in quarto by the bookseller Edward White, Part 1
in 1605 and Part 2 in 1606, which reprinted the text of the 1597 printing.[1]
Christopher Marlowe is not actually cited as the author in the first printings of the play - no author is named. The
first clear attributions to Marlowe are much later than 1590, too much later to be conclusive. However, scholars
attribute the play to Marlowe because it is so similar to his other works. Many passages in Tamburlaine foreshadow
and echo passages from others of his works, and there is a clear parallel between the character development in
Tamburlaine and that of the majority of Marlowe's other characters. This evidence alone leads scholars to believe
with virtual unanimity that Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine.
Plot
Part 1 opens in Persepolis. The Persian emperor, Mycetes, dispatches troops to dispose of Tamburlaine, a Scythian
shepherd and at that point a nomadic bandit. In the same scene, Mycetes' brother Cosroe plots to overthrow Mycetes
and assume the throne.
The scene shifts to Scythia, where Tamburlaine is shown wooing, capturing, and winning Zenocrate, the daughter of
the Egyptian king. Confronted by Mycetes' soldiers, he persuades first the soldiers and then Cosroe to join him in a
fight against Mycetes. Although he promises Cosroe the Persian throne, Tamburlaine reneges on this promise and,
after defeating Mycetes, takes personal control of the Persian Empire.
Now a powerful figure, Tamburlaine turns his attention to Bajazeth, Emperor of the Turks. He defeats Bajazeth and
his tributary kings, capturing the Emperor and his wife Zabina. The victorious Tamburlaine keeps the defeated ruler
Tamburlaine (play)
in a cage and feeds him scraps from his table, releasing Bajazeth only to use him as a footstool. Bajazeth later kills
himself onstage by bashing his head against the bars upon hearing of Tamburlaine's next victory, and upon finding
his body Zabina does likewise.
After conquering Africa and naming himself emperor of that continent, Tamburlaine sets his eyes on Damascus; this
target places the Egyptian Sultan, his father-in-law, directly in his path. Zenocrate pleads with her husband to spare
her father. He complies, instead making the Sultan a tributary king. The play ends with the wedding of Tamburlaine
and Zenocrate, who is crowned Empress of Persia.
In Part 2, Tamburlaine grooms his sons to be conquerors in his wake as he continues to conquer his neighbouring
kingdoms. His oldest son, Calyphas, preferring to stay by his mother's side and not risk death, incurs Tamburlaine's
wrath. Meanwhile, the son of Bajazeth, Callapine, escapes from Tamburlaine's jail and gathers a group of tributary
kings to his side, planning to avenge his father. Callapine and Tamburlaine meet in battle, where Tamburlaine is
victorious. But finding Calyphas remained in his tent during the battle, Tamburlaine kills him in anger. Tamburlaine
then forces the defeated kings to pull his chariot to his next battlefield, declaring,
Holla ye pampered jades of Asia!
What, can ye draw but twenty miles a day?
Upon reaching Babylon, which holds out against him, Tamburlaine displays further acts of extravagant savagery.
When the Governor of the city attempts to save his life in return for revealing the city treasury, Tamburlaine has him
hung from the city walls and shot. He orders the inhabitants — men, women, and children — bound and thrown into
a nearby lake. Lastly, Tamburlaine scornfully burns a copy of the Qur'an and claims to be greater than God. In the
final act, he is struck ill but manages to defeat one more foe before he dies. He bids his sons to conquer the
remainder of the earth as he departs life.
Critical history
The influence of Tamburlaine on the drama of the 1590s cannot be overstated. The play exemplified, and in some
cases created, many of the typical features of high Elizabethan drama: grandiloquent and often beautiful imagery,
hyperbolic expression, and strong characters consumed by overwhelming passions. The first recorded comments on
the play are negative; a letter written in 1587 relates the story of a child being killed by the accidental discharge of a
firearm during a performance, and the next year Robert Greene, in the course of an attack on Marlowe, sneers at
"atheistic Tamburlaine" in the epistle to Perimedes the Blacksmith. That most playgoers (and playwrights) responded
with enthusiasm is amply demonstrated by the proliferation of Asian tyrants and "aspiring minds" in the drama of the
1590s. Marlowe's influence on many characters in Shakespeare's history plays has been noted by, among others,
Algernon Swinburne. Stephen Greenblatt considers it likely thatTamburlaine was among the first London plays that
Shakespeare saw, an experience that directly inspired his early work like the three Henry VI plays.[2]
By the early years of the 17th century, this hyberbolic language had gone out of style. Shakespeare himself puts a
speech from Tamburlaine in the mouth of his play-addled soldier Pistol (2 Henry IV II.4.155).[3] In Timber, Ben
Jonson condemned "the Tamerlanes and Tamer-chams of the late age, which had nothing in them but the scenical
strutting and furious vociferation to warrant them to the ignorant gapers."
Subsequent ages of critics have not reversed the position advanced by Jonson that the language and events in plays
such as Tamburlaine are unnatural and ultimately unconvincing. Still, the play was regarded as the text above all
others "wherein the whole restless temper of the age finds expression" (Long). Robert Fletcher notes that Marlowe
"gained a high degree of flexibility and beauty by avoiding a regularly end-stopped arrangement, by taking pains to
secure variety of pause and accent, and by giving his language poetic condensation and suggestiveness" (Fletcher).
In his poem on Shakespeare, Jonson mentions "Marlowe's mighty line," a phrase critics have accepted as just, as they
have also Jonson's claim that Shakespeare surpassed it. But while Shakespeare is commonly seen to have captured a
far greater range of emotions than his contemporary, Marlowe retains a significant place as the first genius of blank
34
Tamburlaine (play)
verse in English drama.
Themes
The play is often linked to Renaissance humanism which idealises the potential of human beings. Tamburlaine's
aspiration to immense power raises profound religious questions as he arrogates for himself a role as the "scourge of
God" (an epithet originally applied to Attila the Hun). Some readers have linked this stance with the fact that
Marlowe was accused of atheism. Others have been more concerned with a supposed anti-Muslim thread of the play,
highlighted in a scene in which the main character burns the Qur'an.
Jeff Dailey notes in his article "Christian Underscoring in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II" that Marlowe's work is a
direct successor to the traditional medieval morality plays,[4] and that, whether or not he is an atheist, he has
inherited religious elements of content and allegorical methods of presentation.
Performance history
The first part of Tamburlaine was performed by the Admiral's Men late in 1587, around a year after Marlowe's
departure from Cambridge University. Edward Alleyn performed the role of Tamburlaine, and it apparently became
one of his signature roles. The play's popularity, significant enough to prompt Marlowe to produce the sequel, led to
numerous stagings over the next decade.
The stratification of London audiences in the early Jacobean period changed the fortunes of the play somewhat. For
the sophisticated audiences of private theatres such as Blackfriars and (by the early 1610s) the Globe Theatre,
Tamburlaine's "high astounding terms" were a relic of a simpler dramatic age. Satiric playwrights occasionally
mimicked Marlowe's style, as John Marston does in the induction to Antonio and Mellida.
While it is likely that Tamburlaine was still revived in the large playhouses, such as the Red Bull Theatre, that
catered to traditional audiences, there is no surviving record of a Renaissance performance after 1595. Tamburlaine
suffered more from the change in fashion than did Marlowe's other plays like Doctor Faustus or The Jew of Malta of
which there are allusions to performances. Edward Phillips, in his Theatrum Poetarum (1675), is so unfamiliar with
the play that he attributes its writing to Thomas Newton.[5] A further sign of the obscurity this one-time audience
favourite had fallen into is offered by playwright Charles Saunders. Having written his own play in 1681 on
Tamburlaine, he was accused by critics of having plagiarised Marlowe's work, to which he replied,
I never heard of any Play on the same Subject, untill my own was Acted, neither have I since seen it, though it
hath been told me, there is a Cock Pit Play going under the name of the Scythian Shepherd, or Tamberlain the
Great, being a thing, not a Bookseller in London, or scarce the Players themselves, who Acted it formerly
cou'd call to remembrance.[6]
In 1919, the Yale Dramatic Association staged a Tamburlaine which edited and combined both parts of Marlowe's
play. A revival of both parts in a condensed form was presented at The Old Vic in September 1951, with Donald
Wolfit in the title role.[7] For the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (now the Stratford Festival of Canada) in 1956,
Tyrone Guthrie directed another dual version, starring Donald Wolfit, William Shatner, Robert Christie and Louis
Negin;[8] it travelled to Broadway, where it failed to impress—Eric Bentley, among others, panned it— although
Anthony Quayle, who replaced Wolfit in the title role, received a Tony Award nomination for his performance, as
did Guthrie for his direction.
The Royal National Theatre production in 1976 featured Albert Finney in the title role; this production opened the
new Olivier Theatre on the South Bank. Peter Hall directed. This production is generally considered the most
successful of the rare modern productions.
In 1993 the Royal Shakespeare Company performed an award-winning production of the play, with Antony Sher as
Tamburlaine and Tracy-Ann Oberman as Olympia.
35
Tamburlaine (play)
Jeff Dailey directed both parts of the play, uncut, at the American Theatre of Actors in New York City. He presented
Part I in 1997 and Part II in 2003, both in the outdoor theatre located in the courtyard of 314 West 54th Street.
Avery Brooks played the lead role in a production of the play for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The play ran
from 28 October 2007 to 6 January 2008 and was directed by Michael Kahn. [9]
A radio adaptation – of Part I – directed by Peter Kavanagh was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 16
September 2012 and starred Con O'Neill as Tamburtlaine, with Kenneth Cranham as Cosroe, Edward de Souza as
the Sultan and Oliver Ford Davies as Mycetes.
While the play has been revived periodically over the past century, the obstacles it presents—a large cast and an
actor capable of performing in such a challenging role chief among them—have prevented more widespread
performance. In general, the modern playgoer may still echo F. P. Wilson's question, asked at mid-century, "How
many of us can boast that we are more than readers of Tamburlaine?"[10]
2005 controversy
In November 2005, a production of Tamburlaine at the Barbican Arts Centre in London was accused of deferring to
Muslim sensibilities by amending a section of the play in which the title character burns the Quran and excoriates the
prophet Muhammad. The sequence was changed so that Tamburlaine instead defiles books representing all religious
texts. The director denied censoring the play, stating that the change was a "purely artistic" decision "to focus the
play away from anti-Turkish pantomime to an existential epic".[11]
Notes
[1] Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 421.
[2] Greenblatt, Stephen Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, pp. 189–249
[3] Della Hilton, Who Was Kit Marloew?, " Tamburlaine in London (http:/ / themarlowestudies. org/ z-hilton/ ch4-tamburlaine. pdf)", Taplinger
Publishing Company, p. 42
[4] Dailey, J Christian Underscoring in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II (http:/ / www. athe. org/ associations/ 12588/ files/ dailey. pdf) Journal of
Religion and Theatre, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2005. (At Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Accessed 23 August 2012.)
[5] Quoted in Frederick S. Boas, Christopher Marlowe: A biographical and critical study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), p. 70
[6] Quoted in Boas, Christopher Marlowe, p. 300
[7] Boas, Christopher Marlowe, p. xiii
[8] Louis Negin (http:/ / www. canadiantheatre. com/ dict. pl?term=Negin, Louis) at the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.
[9] http:/ / www. broadwayworld. com/ viewcolumn. cfm?colid=16340
[10] Wilson, F. P. Marlowe and the Early Shakespeare (Clark Lecture) Clarendon Press, Oxford 1953
[11] Farr, David "Tamburlaine wasn't censored" (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ arts/ comment/ story/ 0,16472,1650659,00. html). The
Guardian, 25 November 2005. (The production's director is responding to criticism in the previous day's Times that the play "had been
censored to avoid upsetting Muslims.")
References
• Bevington, David. From Mankind to Marlowe: Growth of Structure in Elizabethan Drama. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1965.
• Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
• Geckle, George L. Tamburlaine and Edward II: Text and Performance. New Jersey: Humanities Press
International, 1988.
• Kuriyama, Constance Brown. Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press, 2002.
• Waith, Eugene. The Herculean Hero in Marlowe, Chapman, Shakespeare, and Dryden. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1967.
• Wilson, F.P. Marlowe and the Early Shakespeare. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953.
36
Tamburlaine (play)
External links
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•
•
Project Gutenberg etext of part I (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1094)
Project Gutenberg etext of part II (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1589)
* Tamburlaine (play) (http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?id=8517) at the Internet Broadway Database
Masoncode.com – Esoteric symbolism in Tamburlaine (http://www.masoncode.com/Tamburlaine.htm)
Times Online article about the censorship of the play (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1887902,00.
html)
• "Tamburlaine the Great" retrieved August 3, 2006. (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=1632)
• Long, William. English Literature: Its History and Significance. (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10609/
10609-h/10609-h.htm)
• Fletcher, Robert. A History of English Literature. 1918. (http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rfletcher/
bl-rfletcher-history-6-marlowe.htm)
37
38
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Author
William Shakespeare
Country
England
Language
Early Modern English
Genre
Renaissance poetry
Publisher
Thomas Thorpe
Publication date 1609
Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty
and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before imprinted.
(although sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim). The
quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal.
The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man urging him to marry
and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation.[1] Other sonnets express the
speaker's love for a young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticise the young
man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet's name.
The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the "little love-god" Cupid.
The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, entered the book in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609:
Tho. Thorpe. Entred for his copie under the handes of master Wilson and master Lownes Wardenes a booke
called Shakespeares sonnettes vjd.
Whether Thorpe used an authorised manuscript from Shakespeare or an unauthorised copy is unknown. George Eld
printed the quarto, and the run was divided between the booksellers William Aspley and John Wright.
39
Dedication
The sonnets include a dedication to one "Mr. W.H.". The identity of
this person remains a mystery and, since the 19th century, has
provoked a great deal of speculation.
The dedication reads:
Dedication page from The Sonnets
TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
THESE.INSUING.SONNETS.
Mr.W.H. ALL.HAPPINESSE.
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
PROMISED.
BY.
OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET.
WISHETH.
THE.WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTURER.IN.
SETTING.
FORTH.
“
T.T.
”
Its oblique nature has led Colin Burrow to describe it as a "dank pit in which speculation wallows and founders".[2]
Don Foster concludes that the result of all the speculation has yielded only two "facts," which themselves have been
the object of much debate: First, that the form of address (Mr.) suggests that W.H. was an untitled gentleman, and
second, that W.H., whoever he was, is identified as "the only begetter" of Shakespeare's Sonnets (whatever the word
"begetter" is taken to mean).[3]
The initials 'T.T.' are taken to refer to the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, though Thorpe usually signed prefatory matter
only if the author was out of the country or dead. Foster points out, however, that Thorpe's entire corpus of such
consists of only four dedications and three stationer's prefaces.[4] That Thorpe signed the dedication rather than the
author is often read as evidence that he published the work without obtaining Shakespeare's permission.
The capital letters and periods following each word were probably intended to resemble an ancient Roman lapidary
inscription or monumental brass, thereby accentuating Shakespeare's declaration in Sonnet 55 that the work will
confer immortality to the subjects of the work:[5]
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this pow'rful rhyme,
126 of Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to a young man, often called the "Fair Youth." Broadly speaking, there
are branches of theories concerning the identity of Mr. W.H.: those that take him to be identical to the youth, and
those that assert him to be a separate person.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of contenders:
• William Herbert (the Earl of Pembroke). Herbert is seen by many as the most likely candidate, since he was also
the dedicatee of the First Folio of Shakespeare's works. However the "obsequious" Thorpe would be unlikely to
have addressed a lord as "Mr".
• Henry Wriothesley (the Earl of Southampton). Many have argued that 'W.H.' is Southampton's initials reversed,
and that he is a likely candidate as he was the dedicatee of Shakespeare's poems Venus & Adonis and The Rape of
Lucrece. Southampton was also known for his good looks, and has often been argued to be the Fair Youth of the
sonnets; however, the same reservations about "Mr." also apply here.
• A simple printing error for Shakespeare's initials, 'W.S.' or 'W. Sh'. This was suggested by Bertrand Russell in his
memoirs, and also by Foster[6] and by Jonathan Bate.[7] Bate supports his point by reading 'onlie' as something
like 'peerless', 'singular' and 'begetter' as 'maker', ie. 'writer'. Foster takes "onlie" to mean only one, which he
argues eliminates any particular subject of the poems, since they are addressed to more than one person. The
phrase 'Our Ever-Living Poet', according to Foster, refers to God, not Shakespeare. 'Poet' comes from the Greek
'poetes' which means 'maker', a fact remarked upon in various contemporary texts; also, in Elizabethan English
the word 'maker' was used to mean 'poet'. These researchers believe the phrase 'our ever-living poet' might easily
have been taken to mean 'our immortal maker' (God). The 'eternity' promised us by our immortal maker would
then be the eternal life that is promised us by God, and the dedication would conform with the standard formula
of the time, according to which one person wished another "happiness [in this life] and eternal bliss [in heaven]".
Shakespeare himself, on this reading, is 'Mr. W. [S]H.' the 'onlie begetter', i.e., the sole author, of the sonnets, and
the dedication is advertising the authenticity of the poems.
• William Hall, a printer who had worked with Thorpe on other publications. According to this theory, the
dedication is simply Thorpe's tribute to his colleague and has nothing to do with Shakespeare. This theory,
originated by Sir Sidney Lee in his A Life of William Shakespeare (1898), was continued by Bernard Rowland
Ward in his The Mystery of Mr. W.H. (1923), and has been endorsed recently by Brian Vickers, who notes Thorpe
uses such 'visual puns' elsewhere.[8] Supporters of this theory point out that "ALL" following "MR. W. H." spells
"MR. W. HALL" with the deletion of a period. Using his initials W.H., Hall had edited a collection of the poems
of Robert Southwell that was printed by George Eld, the same printer for the 1609 Sonnets.[9] There is also
documentary evidence of one William Hall of Hackney who signed himself 'WH' three years earlier, but it is
uncertain if this was the printer.
• Sir William Harvey, Southampton's stepfather. This theory assumes that the Fair Youth and Mr. W.H. are
separate people, and that Southampton is the Fair Youth. Harvey would be the "begetter" of the sonnets in the
sense that it would be he who provided them to the publisher, after the death of Southampton's mother removed
an obstacle to publication. The reservations about the use of "Mr." do not apply in the case of a knight.
• William Himself (i.e., Shakespeare). This theory was proposed by the German scholar D. Barnstorff, but has
found no support.
• William Haughton, a contemporary dramatist.
• William Hart, Shakespeare's nephew and male heir. Proposed by Richard Farmer, but Hart was nine years of age
at the time of publication, and this suggestion is regarded as unlikely.
• William Hatcliffe of Lincolnshire, proposed by Leslie Hotson in 1964.
• Who He. In his 2002 Oxford Shakespeare edition of the sonnets, Colin Burrow argues that the dedication is
deliberately mysterious and ambiguous, possibly standing for "Who He", a conceit also used in a contemporary
pamphlet. He suggests that it might have been created by Thorpe simply to encourage speculation and discussion
(and hence, sales of the text).[10]
• Willie Hughes. The 18th-century scholar Thomas Tyrwhitt first proposed the theory that Mr. W.H. and the Fair
Youth were one "William Hughes," based on presumed puns on the name in the sonnets. The argument was
repeated in Edmund Malone's 1790 edition of the sonnets. The most famous exposition of the theory is in Oscar
40
41
Wilde's short story "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," in which Wilde, or rather the story's narrator, describes the puns
on "will" and "hues" in the sonnets, (notably Sonnet 20 among others), and argues that they were written to a
seductive young actor named Willie Hughes who played female roles in Shakespeare's plays. There is no
evidence for the existence of any such person. However, several scholars in the early 20th century identified other
persons with that name as possible candidates.[11]
Structure
The sonnets are almost all constructed from three quatrains, which are four-line stanzas, and a final couplet
composed in iambic pentameter.[12] This is also the meter used extensively in Shakespeare's plays.
The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets. Often, the
beginning of the third quatrain marks the volta ("turn"), or the line in which the mood of the poem shifts, and the
poet expresses a revelation or epiphany.
There are a few exceptions: Sonnets 99, 126, and 145. Number 99 has fifteen lines. Number 126 consists of six
couplets, and two blank lines marked with italic brackets; 145 is in iambic tetrameters, not pentameters. There is one
other variation on the standard structure, found for example in sonnet 29. The normal rhyme scheme is changed by
repeating the b of quatrain one in quatrain three, where the f should be.
Characters
When analysed as characters, the subjects of the sonnets are usually referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and
the Dark Lady. The speaker expresses admiration for the Fair Youth's beauty, and later has an affair with the Dark
Lady. It is not known whether the poems and their characters are fiction or autobiographical; scholars who find the
sonnets to be autobiographical, notably A. L. Rowse, have attempted to identify the characters with historical
individuals.
Fair Youth
Main article: Shakespeare's sexuality
The "Fair Youth" is the unnamed young man to whom sonnets 1–126 are
addressed. Some commentators, noting the romantic and loving language used in
this sequence of sonnets, have suggested a sexual relationship between them;
others have read the relationship as platonic love.
The earliest poems in the sequence recommend the benefits of marriage and
children. With the famous sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day")
the tone changes dramatically towards romantic intimacy. Sonnet 20 explicitly
laments that the young man is not a woman. Most of the subsequent sonnets
describe the ups and downs of the relationship, culminating with an affair
between the poet and the Dark Lady. The relationship seems to end when the
Fair Youth succumbs to the Lady's charms.(Sonnet 144).
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of
Southampton at 21. Shakespeare's
patron, and one candidate for the Fair
Youth of the sonnets.
There have been many attempts to identify the young man. Shakespeare's
one-time patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is commonly
suggested, although Shakespeare's later patron, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of
Pembroke, has recently become popular. Both claims begin with the dedication of the sonnets to 'Mr. W.H.', "the
only begetter of these ensuing sonnets"; the initials could apply to either earl. However, while Shakespeare's
language often seems to imply that the subject is of higher social status than himself, the apparent references to the
poet's inferiority may simply be part of the rhetoric of romantic submission.Wikipedia:Citation needed An
alternative theory, most famously espoused by Oscar Wilde's short story 'The Portrait of Mr. W. H.' notes a series of
puns that may suggest the sonnets are written to a boy actor called William Hughes; however, Wilde's story
acknowledges that there is no evidence for such a person's existence. Samuel Butler believed that the friend was a
seaman. Joseph Pequigney argued in his book Such Is My Love that the Fair Youth was an unknown commoner.
The Dark Lady
"The Dark Lady" redirects here. For other uses, see Dark Lady.
The Dark Lady sequence (sonnets 127–152), distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly
sexual in its passion. Among these, Sonnet 151 has been characterised as "bawdy" and is used to illustrate the
difference between the spiritual love for the Fair Youth and the sexual love for the Dark Lady. The distinction is
commonly made in the introduction to modern editions of the sonnets. The Dark Lady is so called because the poems
make it clear that she has black hair and dun coloured skin. As with the Fair Youth, there have been many attempts
to identify her with a real historical individual. Lucy Negro, Mary Fitton, Emilia Lanier, and others have been
suggested.
The Rival Poet
Main article: Rival Poet
The Rival Poet's identity remains a mystery; among the varied candidates are Christopher Marlowe, George
Chapman, or, an amalgamation of several contemporaries. However, there is no hard evidence that the character had
a real-life counterpart. The speaker sees the Rival as competition for fame, coin and patronage. The sonnets most
commonly identified as the Rival Poet group exist within the Fair Youth sequence in sonnets 78–86.
Themes
One interpretation is that Shakespeare's sonnets are a pastiche or parody of the 300 year-old tradition of Petrarchan
love sonnets; Shakespeare consciously inverts conventional gender roles as delineated in Petrarchan sonnets to create
a more complex depiction of human love.[13] He plays with gender roles (20), comments on political events (124),
makes fun of love (128), speaks openly about sexual desire (129), parodies beauty (130) and even references
pornography (151).
Legacy
Shakespeare's sonnets can be seen as a prototype, or even the beginning, of a new kind of "modern" love poetry.
During the eighteenth century, the sonnets' reputation in England was relatively low; as late as 1805, The Critical
Review could still credit John Milton with the perfection of the English sonnet. As part of the renewed interest in
Shakespeare's original work that accompanied Romanticism, the sonnets rose steadily in reputation during the
nineteenth century.
The sonnets have great cross-cultural importance and influence. There is no major written language into which the
sonnets have not been translated, including German, French, Japanese,[14] Turkish,[15] Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic,
Hebrew, Welsh, Yiddish, Esperanto[16] and most other languages.
42
43
Modern editions
Like all Shakespeare's works, the sonnets have been reprinted in many editions.
• Martin Seymour-Smith (1963) Shakespeare's Sonnets (Oxford, Heinemann Educational)
• Oscar James Campbell (1964) The Sonnets, Songs and Poems of Shakespeare (Bantam Books)
• A.L. Rowse (1973) Shakespeare's Sonnets - the Problems Solved: A Modern Edition with Prose Versions,
Introduction and Notes (Macmillan)
• Stephen Booth (1977) Shakespeare's Sonnets (Yale)
• W G Ingram and Theodore Redpath (1978) Shakespeare's Sonnets, 2nd Edition
• John Kerrigan (1986) The Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint (Penguin)
• G. Blakemore Evans (1996) The Sonnets (Cambridge UP)
• Katherine Duncan-Jones (1997) Shakespeare's Sonnets (Arden Edition, Third Series)
• Helen Vendler (1997) The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Harvard University Press [17]
• Colin Burrow (2002) The Complete Sonnets and Poems (Oxford, Oxford University Press)
Notes
[1] Stanley Wells and Michael Dobson, eds., The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 439.
[2] Burrow, Colin, William Shakespeare: Complete Sonnets and Poems, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 98.
[3] Foster, Donald. "Master W.H., R.I.P." PMLA 102 (1987) 42–54, 42.
[4] Foster 1984, 43.
[5] Burrow 2002, 380.
[6] Foster, 1987.
[7] Bate, Jonathan. The Genius of Shakespeare (1998) 61–62.
[8] Vickers, 2007,8
[9] Collins, John Churton. Ephemera Critica. Westminster, Constable and Co., 1902; p. 216.
[10] Colin Burrow, ed. The Complete Sonnets and Poems (Oxford UP, 2002), p. 98; 102-3.
[11] Hyder Edward Rollins, The Sonnets, New Variorum Shakespeare, vol. 25 II, Lippincott, 1944, p. 181−4.
[12] A metre in poetry with five iambic metrical feet, which stems from the Italian word endecasillabo, for a line composed of five beats with an
anacrusis, an upbeat or unstressed syllable at the beginning of a line which is no part of the first foot.
[13] Stapleton, M. L. "Shakespeare's Man Right Fair as Sonnet Lady." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 46 (2004): 272
[14] Sonetto-shū, translated by Takamatsu Yūitsu, Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo 1986
[15] Tüm Soneler, translated by Talat Sait Halman, Istanbul 1989
[16] Shakespeare: La sonetoj (sonnets in Esperanto), Translated by William Auld, Edistudio,
[17] http:/ / www. hup. harvard. edu/ catalog. php?isbn=9780674637122
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shakespeare's Sonnets.
The Sonnets
• About.com Historical background to Shakespeare's Sonnets (http://shakespeare.about.com/od/thesonnets/a/
sonnet.htm)
• The Sonnets (http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/sonnets/sonnets.php) – Compare two sonnets
side-by-side, see all of them together on one page, or view a range of sonnets (from Open Source Shakespeare)
• The Sonnets (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1041) at Project Gutenberg
• Free audiobook, The Sonnets (https://librivox.org/sonnets-by-william-shakespeare/) from LibriVox
• Complete sonnets of William Shakespeare (http://www.web-l.com/shakespeare/poetry/sonnets/) – Listed by
number and first line.
• Discussion of the identification of Emily Lanier as the Dark Lady (http://peterbassano.com/shakespeare)
• Online, free, self-referential concordance to the Sonnets (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rac101/concord/texts/
sonnets/)
• William Shakespeare Sonnets facts (http://www.williamshakespearefacts.net/william-shakespeare-sonnets.
html) Quick reference facts about the sonnets
• Bowley, Roger. "14: Shakespeare's Sonnets" (http://www.numberphile.com/videos/14_shakespeare.html).
Numberphile. Brady Haran.
44
Life Is a Dream
45
Life Is a Dream
This article is about Pedro Calderon De La Barca's play. For Lewis Spratlan's opera, see Life Is a Dream (opera).
Life Is a Dream
Detail from bronze relief on a monument to Calderón in Madrid, J. Figueras, 1878.
Written by
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Date premiered
1635
Original language
Spanish
Subject
Free will, Fate
Genre
Spanish Golden Age Drama
Setting
Poland
Life Is a Dream (Spanish: La vida es sueño) is a Spanish-language play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. First
published in 1635 (or possibly early in 1636),[1] it is a philosophical allegory regarding the human situation and the
mystery of life.[2] The play has been described as "the supreme example of Spanish Golden Age drama". The story
focuses on the fictional Segismundo, Prince of Poland, who has been imprisoned in a tower by his father, King
Basilio, following a dire prophecy that the prince would bring disaster to the country and death to the King. Basilio
briefly frees Segismundo, but when the prince goes on a rampage, the king imprisons him again, persuading him that
it was all a dream.
The play's central theme is the conflict between free will and fate. It remains one of Calderón's best-known and most
studied works. Other themes include dreams vs. reality and the conflict between father and son. The play has been
adapted for other stage works, in film and as a novel.
Life Is a Dream
46
Historical context
Catholic Spain was the most powerful European nation by the 16th century.[3]
The Spanish Armada was defeated by England in 1588, however, while Spain
was trying to defend the northern coast of Africa from the expansion of the
Turkish Ottoman Empire, and the gold and silver that Spain took from its
possessions in the New World were not adequate to sustain its subsequent
decades of heavy military expenses. Spain's power was rapidly waning by the
time Calderón wrote Life Is a Dream.[4]
The age of Calderón was also marked by deep religious conviction in Spain. The
Catholic church had fostered Spanish pride and identity, to the extent that
"speaking Christian" became, and remains, synonymous with speaking Spanish.
Another current that permeated Spanish thinking was the radical departure from
the medieval ideal that royal power resided in God's will, as noted in
Title page of a comedy by Spanish
playwright Lope de Vega
Machiavelli's The Prince (1532). Francisco Suarez’s treatise On the Defense of
Faith (De defensio fidei, 1613) stated that political power resided in the people
and rejected the divine rights of kings, and Juan Mariana's On Kings and Kingship (1599) went even further by
stating that the people had the right to murder despotic kings.[5]Wikipedia:Citing sources
Amidst these developments, and despite the repression of the Spanish Inquisition, during the 16th and 17th centuries,
Spain experienced a cultural blossoming referred to as the Spanish Golden Age.[6][7] It saw the birth of notable
works of art: Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes (1605), played with the vague line between reality and
perception.[8] Lope de Vega, in his play Fuente Ovejuna (1619), talks about a village that rebels against authority. In
a time of proportion and perfection in the arts, the painter El Greco puzzled his contemporaries with exaggerated
proportions and unsettling brushstrokes that embodied the terror and struggle of humanity.[9]
Synopsis
Act I
Rosaura walks through the mountains of Poland, dressed as a man. She
finds Clarín, a jester, who tries to make her forget how miserably
Poland receives visitors. They arrive at a tower, where they find
Segismundo imprisoned, bound in chains. He tells them that his only
crime was being born. Clotaldo, Segismundo's old warden and tutor,
arrives and orders his guards to disarm and kill the intruders. But he
recognizes Rosaura's sword as his own that he had left behind in
Muskovy years ago for his child to bear. Suspecting that Rosaura is his
child (he thinks her male), he takes Rosaura and Clarin with him to
court.
La vida es sueño, 35th Festival Internacional del
Teatro Clásico (2012)
Life Is a Dream
At the palace, Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy, discusses with his cousin,
Princess Estrella, that as they are the nephew and niece of King Basilio
of Poland, they would be his successors if they married each other.
Estrella is troubled by the locket that Astolfo wears, with another
woman's picture. Basilio reveals to them that he imprisoned his infant
son, Segismundo, due to a prophecy by an oracle that the prince would
bring disgrace to Poland and would kill his father, but he wants to
grant his son a chance to prove the oracle wrong. If he finds him evil
and unworthy, he will send him back to his cell, making way for
The royal palace in medieval Poland
Astolfo and Estrella to become the new king and queen. Clotaldo
enters with Rosaura, telling Basilio that the intruders know about
Segismundo. He begs for the king's pardon, as he knows he should have killed them. The king says he should not
worry, for his secret has already been revealed. Rosaura tells Clotaldo that she wants revenge against Astolfo, but
she won't say why. Clotaldo is reluctant to reveal that he is Rosaura's father.
Act II
Clotaldo gives Segismundo a sedative that puts him to sleep. At the castle, Clotaldo has learned that Rosaura is a
woman; Clarin explains that Rosaura is Princess Estrella's maid but has been going by the name of Astrea. When
Segismundo is awakened and arrives at court, Clotaldo tells him that he is the prince of Poland and heir to the throne.
He resents Clotaldo for keeping this secret from him for all those years. He finds Duke Astolfo irritating and is
dazzled by Estrella's beauty. When a servant warns him about the princess's betrothal to Astolfo, Segismundo is
enraged by the news and throws the servant from the balcony.
The king demands an explanation from his son. He tries to reason with him, but Segismundo announces he will fight
everyone, for his rights were denied him for a long time. Basilio warns him that he must behave, or he might find out
he's dreaming. Segismundo interrupts a conversation between Rosaura and Clarin. Rosaura wants to leave, but
Segismundo tries to seduce her. Clotaldo steps up to defend his child, but Segismundo pulls out a dagger threatening
to kill him. As Clotaldo begs for his life, Astolfo challenges Segismundo to a duel. Before they proceed, the king
sedates the prince again and sends him back to his cell.
Segismundo's reflections
(close of Act II)
The king dreams he is a king,
And in this delusive way
Lives and rules with sovereign sway;
All the cheers that round him ring,
Born of air, on air take wing.
And in ashes (mournful fate!)
Death dissolves his pride and state:
Who would wish a crown to take,
Seeing that he must awake
In the dream beyond death's gate?
....
'Tis a dream that I in sadness
Here am bound, the scorn of fate;
'Twas a dream that once a state
47
Life Is a Dream
48
I enjoyed of light and gladness.
What is life? 'Tis but a madness.
What is life? A thing that seems,
A mirage that falsely gleams,
Phantom joy, delusive rest,
Since is life a dream at best,
And even dreams themselves are dreams. UNIQ-ref-0-6e4a056c106067b6-QINU
Segismundo's soliloquy (in Spanish)
Problems playing this file? See media help.
After recriminating Astolfo for wearing another woman's portrait around his neck, Estrella commands Rosaura (still
going by Astrea) to fetch this locket for her. When she approaches Astolfo for the locket, he says he recognized her
as Rosaura and refuses to give her the locket, because the portrait inside is hers. Estrella walks in and demands to see
it immediately, but, afraid of being discovered, Rosaura says the locket in Astolfo's hand is actually her own, and
that he has hidden the one she was sent to fetch. Estrella leaves furious. Meanwhile, Clotaldo sends Clarin to prison,
believing that Clarin knows his secret.
Segismundo mutters in his sleep about murder and revenge. When the prince wakes up, he tells Clotaldo about his
"dream". Clotaldo tells him that even in dreams, people must act with kindness and justice. When he leaves,
Segismundo is left reflecting on dreams and life.
Act III
The people find out that they have a prince and many rebel, breaking him out of his prison tower, although at first
they comically mistake Clarin for the prince. Segismundo finds Clotaldo, who is afraid of his reaction. Segismundo
forgives him, asking to join his cause, but Clotaldo refuses, swearing allegiance to the king. Back in the palace,
everyone prepares for battle, and Clotaldo reveals to Rosaura that he is her father. She asks him to take Astolfo's life,
as he had taken her honor before leaving her. Clotaldo refuses, reminding her that Duke Astolfo is now the heir to
the throne. When Rosaura asks what will be of her honor, Clotaldo suggests that she spend her days in a nunnery.
Disheartened, Rosaura runs away.
As war nears, Segismundo sees Rosaura, who tells him that she was the youth who found him in his prison and also
the woman who he tried to seduce in court. She tells him that she was born in Muscovy of a noble woman who was
disgraced and abandoned. She had the same fate, falling in love with Astolfo and giving him her honor before he
abandoned her to marry Estrella. She followed him to Poland for revenge, finding that Clotaldo is her father, but he
is unwilling to fight for her honor. Rosaura compares herself to female warriors Athena and Diana. She wants to join
Segismundo's battle and to kill Astolfo or to die fighting. Segismundo agrees. While soldiers cheer for Segismundo,
Rosaura and Clarin are reunited, and the king's soldiers approach.
Segismundo's army is winning the battle. Basilio, Clotaldo, and Astolfo are preparing to escape when Clarin is killed
in front of them. Segismundo arrives and Basilio faces his son, waiting for his death, but Segismundo spares his life.
In light of the Prince's generous attitude, the King proclaims Segismundo heir to his throne. As King, Segismundo
decides that Astolfo must keep his promise to marry Rosaura to preserve her honor. At first Astolfo is hesitant
because she is not of noble birth, but when Clotaldo reveals that she is his daughter, Astolfo consents. Segismundo
then claims Estrella in marriage himself. Segismundo resolves to live by the motto that "God is God",
Life Is a Dream
49
acknowledging that, whether asleep or awake, one must strive for goodness.
Themes and motifs
Dreams vs. reality
The concept of life as a dream is an ancient one found in Hinduism and
Platonism. It has been explored by writers from Lope de Vega to
Shakespeare.[10] Key elements from the play may be derived from the Christian
legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, which Lope de Vega had brought to the stage.
This legend is, itself, a derivation of the story of the early years of Siddharta
Gautama, which serves as the basis for the film Little Buddha that illustrates the
Hindu-Buddhist concept of reality as illusion.
Fate vs. free will
The idea of a Prince who is prophesized at birth to be doomed to cause a disaster,
and his father the King attempting to avert that disaster, is similar to that of
Oedipus killing his father.Wikipedia:Citation needed De Vega's play Lo que ha
de ser (1624) also includes the incarceration of a child and the importance of
astrology.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Calderón
The concept of free will versus predestination is also widely discussed in religion. Catholic Spain's
Counter-reformation defined human will as able to choose the good (in cooperation with God's grace), while the
Calvinist conception talked about the total depravity of the human will unless predestined by God to be renewed by
grace.Wikipedia:Citation needed In Calderon's work, however, Catholicism is melded with "pagan" astrology, as
Segismundo's horoscope, as interpreted by Basilio, becomes the cause of his incarceration. In the end, and favoring
the Spanish, Catholic faith, Segismundo chooses pardon against the oracle.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Father vs. son conflict
One of the major conflicts of the play is the opposition between king and prince, which parallels with the struggle of
Uranus vs. Saturn or Saturn vs. Jupiter in classical mythology.[11] This struggle is a typical representation of the
opposition in baroque comedy between the values represented by a fatherly figure and those embodied by the son.
An opposition which, in this case, may have biographical elements.[12]
Other motifs and themes
Motifs and themes derived from a number of traditions found in this drama include the labyrinth, the monster, the
four elements, original sin, pride and disillusionment.[13][14][15][16]
Life Is a Dream
50
Analysis and Interpretations
Rosaura subplot
The Rosaura subplot has been subjected to much criticism in the past as not
belonging to the work. Menéndez y Pelayo saw it as a strange and exotic plot,
like a parasitical vine.[17] Rosaura has also been dismissed as the simple stock
character of the jilted woman. With the British School of Calderonistas, this
attitude changed. A. E. Sloman explained how the main and secondary actions
are linked.[18] Others like E. M. Wilson and William M. Whitby consider
Rosaura to be central to the work since she parallels Segismundo's actions and
also serves as Segismundo's guide, leading him to a final conversion.[19][20] For
some Rosaura must be studied as part of a Platonic ascent on the part of the
Prince. Others compare her first appearance, falling from a horse/hippogriff to
the plot of Ariosto's Orlando furioso where Astolfo (the name of the character
who deceives Rosaura in our play), also rides the hippogriff and witnesses a
Burgtheater - Sigismund und
prophecy of the return of the mythical Golden Age. For Frederick de Armas,
Rosaura - Calderon de la Barca
Rosaura hides a mythological mystery already utilized by Ariosto. When she
goes to Court, she takes on the name of Astraea, the goddess of chastity and justice. Astraea was the last of the
immortals to leave earth with the decline of the ages. Her return signals the return of a Golden Age. Many writers of
the Renaissance and early modern periods used the figure of Astraea to praise the rulers of their times. It is possible
that Rosaura (an anagram of auroras, "dawns") could represent the return of a Golden Age during the reign of
Segismundo, a figure that represents King Philip IV of Spain.[21]
Segismundo's soliloquy
Life Is a Dream is one of Calderón's most well-known and well-studied works.
This interest not only hails from the play's complex philosophy, but also from its
notable dramatic structure. However, ever since Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo's
1910 classification of Life Is a Dream as a philosophical drama, criticism has
largely dwelled on the existential issues of the work, often at the cost of paying
specific attention to its formal dramatic characteristics.Wikipedia:Citation
needed
A few central ideas constitute the major philosophical themes of the play: the
opposition between destiny and liberty, the topic of life as a dream, and the
theme of free will. These central themes overshadow other themes present, like
the education of princes, the model ruler, power, and justice.
Focusing on Segismundo's line, "Y los sueños, sueños son", a more accurate
English translation, better representing Calderón's poetic and philosophical
La vida es sueño, 35th Festival
intent, may be given as: "And dreams themselves are merely the dreams of
dreams", implying and underscoring the ephemeral nature of human life and physical existence.
Life Is a Dream
51
Segismundo's conclusions
There have been many different interpretations of the play’s ending, where Segismundo condemns the rebel soldier
who freed him to life imprisonment in the tower. Some have suggested that this scene is ironic – that it raises
questions about whether Segismundo will in fact be a just king. Others have pointed out that Calderón, who lived
under the Spanish monarchy, could not have left the rebel soldier unpunished, because this would be an affront to
royal authority.
It is worth considering that Segismundo’s transformation in the course of the play is not simply a moral awakening,
but a realization of his social role as the heir to the throne, and this role requires him to act as kings act. For some,
the act of punishing the rebel soldier makes him a Machiavellian prince.[22] Others argue that, while this action may
seem unjust, it is in keeping with his new social status as the king. Daniel L. Heiple traces a long tradition of works
where treason seems to be rewarded, but the traitor or rebel is subsequently punished.[23]
It may well be that, rather than intending his audience to see this action as purely right or wrong, Calderón
purposefully made it ambiguous, creating an interesting tension in the play that adds to its depth.
Adaptations
• Operas: Life Is a Dream by Jonathan Dove (composer) and Alasdair
Middleton (libretist); Directed by Graham Vick. Premiered by
Birmingham Opera Company, Argyle Works, Birmingham, on 21
March 2012;[24] and Life Is a Dream by Lewis Spratlan (composer)
and James Maraniss (librettist), premiered by the Santa Fe Opera on
24 July 2010.[25][26]
• Theater: Fever/Dream, a 2009 play by Sheila Callaghan
• Popular song: Some of the latter lines from Act 2 are sampled in the
Jumpstyle song "Que es la Vida" by Martillo Vago.[27]
La vida es sueño, 35th Festival
• Dramatic novel: United States of Banana by Giannina Braschi is based on "Life Is a Dream" from which it takes
its hero Segismundo, a Puerto Rico prisoner whose father, the King of the United States of Banana, has
imprisoned him in the dungeon of the Statue of Liberty for the crime of having been born; Segismundo's mother
died in childbirth (AmazonCrossing, 2011).
• Film: Raúl Ruiz's 1987 film Mémoire des apparences is a partial adaptation of Life Is a Dream (and was
distributed under this title in its English-language subtitled version).[28]
References
[1] Introduction to Pedro Calderon De La Barca's, "The Wonder-Working Magician" on barca.classicauthors.net (http:/ / barca. classicauthors.
net/ WonderWorkingMagician/ ) Retrieved 23 July 2010
[2] Brockett & Hildy, p.145
[3] Cowans, Jon (ed). Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003), p. 15
[4] Payne, "Spanish Society and Economics in the Imperial Age" (Ch. 14)
[5] Mariana, Jaun. On Kings and Kingship (1599)
[6] Brockett & Hildy, p. 134
[7] Payne, Stanley G. "The Spanish Empire" (Ch. 13) (http:/ / libro. uca. edu/ payne1/ spainport1. htm) in A History of Spain and Portugal, vol.
1, The Library of Iberian Resources Online (1973), accessed December 7, 2013
[8] Constantakis,p.186
[9] Constantakis, p.186
[10] De La Barca, Pedro Calderón. Introduction to "The Wonder-Working Magician" (http:/ / barca. classicauthors. net/
WonderWorkingMagician/ ), barca.classicauthors.net. Retrieved 8 November 2013
[11] De Armas, Frederick A. "The Critical Tower", The Prince in the Tower: Perceptions of La vida es sueño, pp. 3–14, Lewisburg: Bucknell
University Press, 1993
[12] Parker, Alexander A. "The Father-Son Conflict in the Drama of Calderón", Forum for Modern language Studies, 2 (1966), pp. 99–113
Life Is a Dream
52
[13] Ambrose, Timothy. "Calderón and Borges: Discovering Infinity in the Labyrinth of Reason", A Star-Crossed Golden Age: Myth and the
Spanish Comedia, (ed.) Frederick A. de Armas, pp. 197–218. Lewisburg: Bucknell University press, 1998
[14] Maurin, Margaret S. "The Monster, the Sepulchre and the Dark: Related Patterns of Imagery in La vida es sueño", Hispanic Review, 35
(1967): 161–78
[15] Sullivan, Henry W. "The Oedipus Myth: Lacan and Dream Interpretation", The Prince in the Tower: Perceptions of La vida es sueño, pp.
111–17
[16] Heiple, Daniel L. "Life as Dream and the Philosophy of Disillusionment", The Prince in the Tower: Perceptions of La vida es sueño, pp.
118–131.
[17] Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Calderón y su teatro. Madrid: A. Perez Dubrull, 1881.
[18] A. E. Sloman, "The Structure of Calderón's La vida es sueño," in Critical Essays on the Theater of Calderón," ed. Bruce W. Wardropper,
90–100. New York: New York University Press, 1965"
[19] E. M. Wilson, "On La vida es sueño," in Critical Essays on the Theater of Calderón, 63–89
[20] William Whitby "Rosarura's Role in the Structure of La vida es sueño," in Critical Essays on the Theater of Calderón, 101–13
[21] Frederick A. de Armas, The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderón. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1986.
[22] H. B. Hall, "Segismundo and the Rebel Soldier," Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 45 (1968): 189–200.
[23] Daniel L. Heiple, "The Tradition Behind the Punishment of the Rebel Soldier in La vida es sueño," Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 50 (1973):
1–17.
[24] http:/ / www. birminghamopera. org. uk
[25] World-premiere production of three-act "Life Is a Dream" from the Santa Fe Opera's website (http:/ / www. santafeopera. org/ tickets/
production. aspx?performanceNumber=3972)
[26] David Belcher, "What Dreams May Come", [[Opera News (http:/ / www. operanews. com/ operanews/ templates/ content. aspx?id=16040)],
July 2010, Vol. 75, No. 1]
[27] Que es la Vida – Martillo Vago (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=Uvr7yA0F0yA), YouTube
[28] Life Is a Dream (http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0091590/ releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt#akas) at the Internet Movie Database
External links
Spanish Wikisource has original text related to this article:
La vida es sueño
• New production of La vida es sueño in Spanish at Repertorio Español in New York City. November 2008 (http://
www.repertorio.org)
• Full text at Project Gutenberg in an English translation (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6363) (Denis
Florence MacCarthy, 1873)
• Theater project produced by Puy Navarro in collaboration with Amnesty International. Francisco Reyes,
Associate Producer. March 2007 at The Culture Project, NYC (http://www.lavidaessueno.com)
• Odeon Theatre, Bucharest, Romania. Life is Dream. 2011 (http://www.teatrul-odeon.ro/eng/spectacole/
viata-e-vis.html)
Frankenstein
53
Frankenstein
This article is about the novel by Mary Shelley. For the characters, see Victor Frankenstein or Frankenstein's
monster. For the historic German castle site see Frankenstein Castle. For other uses, see Frankenstein
(disambiguation).
Frankenstein;
or, The Modern Prometheus
Volume I, first edition
Author
Mary Shelley
Country
United Kingdom
Language English
Genre
Horror, Gothic, Romance
Published 1818 (Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones)
Pages
280
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley about eccentric
scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley
started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty. The first edition
was published anonymously in London in 1818. Shelley's name appears on the second edition, published in France in
1823.
Shelley had travelled to Europe, visiting Germany and Switzerland. In 1814, prior to writing the famous novel,
Shelley took a journey on the river Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim which is just 17 km (10 mi) away
from Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries before her visit an alchemist was engaged in experiments.[1][2][3]
Later, she traveled in the region of Geneva (Switzerland)—where much of the story takes place—and the topics of
galvanism and other similar occult ideas were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her lover
and future husband, Percy Shelley. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see
who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days about what her possible storyline could be, Shelley
dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made; her dream later evolved into the
story within the novel.
Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be
one of the earliest examples of science fiction. Brian Aldiss has argued that it should be considered the first true
science fiction story, because unlike in previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science
fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to
achieve fantastic results.[4] It has had a considerable influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a
complete genre of horror stories, films, and plays.
Frankenstein
Since publication of the novel, the name "Frankenstein" is often used to refer to the monster itself, as is done in the
stage adaptation by Peggy Webling. This usage is sometimes considered erroneous, but usage commentators regard
the monster sense of "Frankenstein" as well-established and an acceptable usage.[5][6][7] In the novel, the monster is
identified via words such as "creature", "monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile insect", "daemon", "being", and "it".
Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as "the Adam of your labours", and elsewhere as
someone who "would have" been "your Adam", but is instead "your fallen angel."
Summary
Frankenstein is written in the form of a frame story that starts with
Captain Robert Walton writing letters to his sister.
Captain Walton's introductory frame narrative
A variety of different editions
The novel Frankenstein is written in epistolary form, documenting a
correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister,
Margaret Walton Saville. Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific
knowledge in hopes of achieving fame. During the voyage the crew spots a dog sled mastered by a gigantic figure. A
few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has
been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion; he
sees in Walton the same over-ambitiousness and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton as a warning.
Victor Frankenstein's narrative
Victor begins by telling of his childhood. Born into a wealthy Geneva family, Victor and his brothers, Ernest and
William, are encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world through science. As a young boy, Victor is
obsessed with studying outdated theories that focus on simulating natural wonders. When Victor is four years old,
his parents adopt an orphan, Elizabeth Lavenza, with whom Victor later falls in love.
Witnessing a lightning strike on an oak tree inspires Victor to harness its power for his experiments. Weeks before
he leaves for the University of Ingolstadt in Germany, his mother dies of scarlet fever, creating further impetus
towards his experiments. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, soon developing a secret technique
to reanimate dead tissue, which eventually leads to his creation of the Monster.
Because of the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body, Victor is forced to make the Creature
roughly eight feet tall. As a result, the beautiful creation of his dreams is instead hideous, with yellow eyes and skin
that barely conceals the muscle tissue and blood vessels underneath. Repulsed by his work, Victor flees. Saddened
by the rejection, the Creature disappears.
Victor falls ill from the experience and is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. After a
four-month recovery, he returns home when he learns of the murder of his brother William. Justine, William's nanny,
is hanged for the crime after William's locket is found in her pocket. Upon arriving in Geneva, Victor sees the
Monster at the crime scene, leading him to believe the Creature is responsible. However, he doubts anyone would
believe him enough to stop the hanging.
Ravaged by grief and guilt, Victor retreats into the mountains. The Monster locates him, pleading for Victor to hear
his tale. Now intelligent and articulate, the Creature tells how encounters with people led to his fear of them and
drives him into the woods. While living near a cottage, he grew fond of the family living there. The Creature learned
to speak by listening to them and he taught himself to read after discovering a lost satchel of books. When he saw his
reflection in a pool, he realised his physical appearance was hideous. Despite this, he approached the family in hopes
of becoming their friend, but they were frightened and fled their home. The Creature then burned the cottage in a fit
of rage.
54
Frankenstein
The Monster then demands that Victor create a female companion like himself. He argues that as a living being, he
has a right to happiness. The Creature promises he and his mate will vanish into the South American wilderness,
never to reappear, if Victor grants his request.
Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees. Clerval accompanies him to England, but they separate in Scotland.
Victor suspects that the Monster is following him. Working on the female creature on the Orkney Islands, he is
plagued by premonitions of disaster, particularly the idea that creating a mate for the Creature might lead to the
breeding of a race that could plague mankind. He destroys the female creature after he sees the Monster watching
through a window. The Monster confronts him, vowing to be with Victor and Elizabeth on their upcoming wedding
night. The Monster then kills Clerval, leaving the corpse to be found where Victor lands in Ireland. Victor is
imprisoned for Clerval's murder and suffers another mental breakdown in prison. After being acquitted, he returns
home with his father.
In Geneva, Victor marries Elizabeth and prepares to fight the Monster. Wrongly believing the Creature threatened
his life, Victor asks Elizabeth to stay in her room while he looks for "the fiend". While Victor searches the house and
grounds, the Creature murders Elizabeth. From the window, Victor sees the Monster, who taunts Victor with
Elizabeth's corpse. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and Elizabeth, Victor's father dies.
Seeking revenge, Victor pursues the Monster to the North Pole; however, he does not kill his creation.
Captain Walton's concluding frame narrative
At the end of Victor's narrative, Captain Walton resumes the telling of the story. A few days after the creature
vanishes, the ship becomes entombed in ice and Walton's crew insists on returning south once they are freed. In spite
of a passionate speech from Frankenstein, encouraging the crew to push further north, Walton realises that he must
relent to his men's demands and agrees to head for home. Frankenstein dies shortly thereafter.
Walton discovers the creature on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the creature's misguided
reasons for his vengeance and expressions of remorse. Frankenstein's death has not brought him peace. Rather, his
crimes have increased his misery and alienation, and his words are almost exactly identical to Victor's own in
describing himself. He vows to kill himself on his own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of his existence.
Walton watches as he drifts away on an ice raft that is soon lost in darkness, never to be seen again.
55
Frankenstein
Composition
How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate
upon, so very hideous an idea?[8]
During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer", the
world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption
of Mount Tambora in 1815.[9] Mary Shelley, aged 18, and her lover
(and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the
Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was
consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor
holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until
dawn.
Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company amused
themselves by reading German ghost stories translated into French
from the book Fantasmagoriana,[10] then Byron proposed that they
"each write a ghost story".[11] Unable to think of a story, young Mary
Godwin became anxious: "Have you thought of a story? I was asked
each morning, and each morning I was forced to reply with a
mortifying negative."[12] During one evening in the middle of summer,
Draft of Frankenstein ("It was on a dreary night
of November that I beheld my man
the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. "Perhaps a
completed ...")
corpse would be re-animated", Mary noted, "galvanism had given
token of such things".[13] It was after midnight before they retired, and
unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the grim terrors of her "waking dream".[14]
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the
hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs
of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be
the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.[15]
In September 2011 the astronomer Donald Olson, after a visit to the Lake Geneva villa the previous year, and
inspecting data about the motion of the moon and stars, concluded that her waking dream took place "between 2am
and 3am" 16 June 1816, several days after the initial idea by Lord Byron that they each write a ghost story.[16]
She began writing what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded this
tale into a full-fledged novel.[17] She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I first stepped
out from childhood into life".[18] Shelley wrote the first four chapters in the weeks following the suicide of her
half-sister Fanny.[19] Byron managed to write just a fragment based on the vampire legends he heard while travelling
the Balkans, and from this John Polidori created The Vampyre (1819), the progenitor of the romantic vampire literary
genre. Thus, two legendary horror tales originated from this one circumstance.
The group talked about Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment ideas as well. Shelley believed the Enlightenment
idea that society could progress and grow if political leaders used their powers responsibly; however, she also
believed the Romantic ideal that misused power could destroy society (Bennett 36–42).[20]
Mary's and Percy Bysshe Shelley's manuscripts for the first three-volume edition in 1818 (written 1816–1817), as
well as Mary Shelley's fair copy for her publisher, are now housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Bodleian
acquired the papers in 2004, and they belong now to the Abinger Collection. On 1 October 2008, the Bodleian
published a new edition of Frankenstein which contains comparisons of Mary Shelley's original text with Percy
Shelley's additions and interventions alongside. The new edition is edited by Charles E. Robinson: The Original
Frankenstein (ISBN 978-1851243969).
56
Frankenstein
57
Publication
Shelley completed her writing in May 1817, and Frankenstein; or, The
Modern Prometheus was first published on 1 January 1818 by the
small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding,
Mavor, & Jones.[21][22] It was issued anonymously, with a preface
written for Mary by Percy Bysshe Shelley and with a dedication to
philosopher William Godwin, her father. It was published in an edition
of just 500 copies in three volumes, the standard "triple-decker" format
for 19th-century first editions.
The second edition of Frankenstein was published on 11 August 1822
in two volumes (by G. and W. B. Whittaker) following the success of
the stage play Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein by Richard
Brinsley Peake;[23] this edition credited Mary Shelley as the author.
On 31 October 1831, the first "popular" edition in one volume
appeared, published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley.[24] This
Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell (1840–41)
edition was heavily revised by Mary Shelley, partially because of
pressure to make the story more conservative, and included a new, longer preface by her, presenting a somewhat
embellished version of the genesis of the story. This edition tends to be the one most widely read now, although
editions containing the original 1818 text are still published.[25] Many scholars prefer the 1818 text, arguing that it
preserves the spirit of Shelley's original publication (see Anne K. Mellor's "Choosing a Text of Frankenstein to
Teach" in the W.W. Norton Critical edition).
Name origins
The monster
Main article: Frankenstein's monster
Part of Frankenstein's rejection of his creation is the fact that he does not give it a
name, which gives it a lack of identity. Instead it is referred to by words such as
"monster", "creature", "daemon", "devil", "fiend", "wretch" and "it". When
Frankenstein converses with the monster in Chapter 10, he addresses it as "vile
insect", "abhorred monster", "fiend", "wretched devil" and "abhorred devil".
During a telling of Frankenstein, Shelley referred to the creature as "Adam".[27]
Shelley was referring to the first man in the Garden of Eden, as in her epigraph:
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?
John Milton, Paradise Lost (X.743–5)
The creature has often been mistakenly called "Frankenstein". In 1908 one author
said "It is strange to note how well-nigh universally the term "Frankenstein" is
misused, even by intelligent people, as describing some hideous monster".[28]
Edith Wharton's The Reef (1916) describes an unruly child as an "infant
Frankenstein."[29] David Lindsay's "The Bridal Ornament", published in The
An English editorial cartoonist
conceives the Irish Fenian movement
as akin to Frankenstein's monster, in
the wake of the Phoenix Park
murders.
Illustration from an 1882 issue of
[26]
Punch
Frankenstein
Rover, 12 June 1844, mentioned "the maker of poor Frankenstein." After the release of James Whale's popular 1931
film Frankenstein, the public at large began speaking of the monster itself as "Frankenstein". A reference to this
occurs in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and in several subsequent films in the series, as well as in film titles such as
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Victor Frankenstein's surname
Mary Shelley maintained that she derived the name Frankenstein from a dream-vision. Despite her public claims of
originality, however, a number of other sources have been suggested as Shelley's actual inspiration. Literally, in
German, the name Frankenstein means "Stone of the Franks". The name is associated with various places in
Germany, such as Castle Frankenstein (Burg Frankenstein) in Darmstadt, Hesse, or Castle Frankenstein in
Frankenstein, Palatinate. There is also a castle called Frankenstein in Bad Salzungen, Thuringia, and a municipality
called Frankenstein in Saxony. Until 1945, Ząbkowice Śląskie, now a city in Silesia, Poland, was known as
Frankenstein in Schlesien, which was the location of the 1606 gravediggers affair—yet another suggested inspiration
for the writer.Wikipedia:Citation needed Finally, the name is carried by the noble House of Franckenstein from
Franconia.
Radu Florescu argues that Mary and Percy Shelley visited Castle Frankenstein, near Darmstadt, in 1814 during their
return to England from their elopement to Switzerland. It was at this castle that a notorious alchemist, Konrad
Dippel, experimented with human bodies, and Florescu reasons that Mary suppressed mention of her visit in order to
maintain her public claim of originality. A literary essay by A. J. Day supports Florescu's position that Mary Shelley
knew of and visited Castle Frankenstein before writing her debut novel.[30] Day includes details of an alleged
description of the Frankenstein castle that exists in Mary Shelley's 'lost' journals. According to Jörg Heléne, the 'lost
journals', as well as Florescu's claims, cannot be verified.[31]
Victor Frankenstein's given name
Main article: Victor Frankenstein
A possible interpretation of the name Victor derives from Paradise Lost by John Milton, a great influence on Shelley
(a quotation from Paradise Lost is on the opening page of Frankenstein and Shelley even allows the monster himself
to read it).[32] Milton frequently refers to God as "the Victor" in Paradise Lost, and Shelley sees Victor as playing
God by creating life. In addition to this, Shelley's portrayal of the monster owes much to the character of Satan in
Paradise Lost; indeed, the monster says, after reading the epic poem, that he empathises with Satan's role in the
story.
There are many similarities between Victor and Percy Shelley, Mary's husband. Victor was a pen name of Percy
Shelley's, as in the collection of poetry he wrote with his sister Elizabeth, Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire.
There is speculation that one of Mary Shelley's models for Victor Frankenstein was Percy, who at Eton had
"experimented with electricity and magnetism as well as with gunpowder and numerous chemical reactions", and
whose rooms at Oxford were filled with scientific equipment.
Percy Shelley was the first-born son of a wealthy country squire with strong political connections and a descendant
of Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring, and Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel.[33] Victor's family is
one of the most distinguished of that republic and his ancestors were counsellors and syndics.
Percy had a sister named Elizabeth. Victor had an adopted sister, named Elizabeth.
On 22 February 1815, Mary Shelley delivered a two-month premature baby and the baby died two weeks later. Percy
did not care about the condition of this premature infant and left with Claire, Mary's stepsister, for a lurid affair.[34]
When Victor saw the creature come to life he fled the apartment, though the newborn creature approached him, as a
child would a parent. The question of Victor's responsibility to the creature is one of the main themes of the book.
58
Frankenstein
59
Modern Prometheus
The Modern Prometheus is the novel's subtitle (though some modern editions now drop the subtitle, mentioning it
only in an introduction).[35] Prometheus, in later versions of Greek mythology, was the Titan who created mankind at
the behest of Zeus. He made a being in the image of the gods that could have a spirit breathed into it.[36] Prometheus
taught man to hunt, read, and heal their sick, but after he tricked Zeus into accepting poor-quality offerings from
humans, Zeus kept fire from mankind. Prometheus being the creator, took back the fire from Zeus to give to man.
When Zeus discovered this, he sentenced Prometheus to be eternally punished by fixing him to a rock of Caucasus,
where each day an eagle would peck out his liver, only for the liver to regrow the next day because of his
immortality as a god. He was intended to suffer alone for eternity, but eventually Heracles (Hercules) released him.
Prometheus was also a myth told in Latin but was a very different story. In this version Prometheus makes man from
clay and water, again a very relevant theme to Frankenstein, as Victor rebels against the laws of nature (how life is
naturally made) and as a result is punished by his creation. Prometheus, a Greek Titan who sculpted man from clay
and then stole the light of fire from the gods to give to man, these acts can be attributed to the enabling of civilisation
and the gift of knowledge man acquired from him. Zeus punished Prometheus; bound to stone while an eagle each
day would eat away Prometheus's liver. Suffering this agonising torment Prometheus would face his punishment for
eternity. “Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving, particularly the quest for scientific
knowledge, and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences. In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic
era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy: Mary
Shelley, for instance, gave The Modern Prometheus as the subtitle to her novel Frankenstein.” [14] Mary Shelley
seemingly titled the book after the conflicted principles of knowledge in the story symbolising Victor as the Modern
Prometheus.
The Titan in the Greek mythology of Prometheus parallels Victor
Frankenstein. Victor's work by creating man by new means reflects the
same innovative work of the Titan in creating humans.
Some have claimed that for Mary Shelley, Prometheus was not a hero
but rather something of a devil, whom she blamed for bringing fire to
man and thereby seducing the human race to the vice of eating meat
(fire brought cooking which brought hunting and killing).[37]
Byron was particularly attached to the play Prometheus Bound by
Aeschylus, and Percy Shelley would soon write his own Prometheus
Unbound (1820). The term "Modern Prometheus" was actually coined
by Immanuel Kant, referring to Benjamin Franklin and his then recent
experiments with electricity.[38]
In 1910, Edison Studios released the first
motion-picture adaptation of Shelley's story.
Shelley's sources
Shelley incorporated a number of different sources into her work, one of which was the Promethean myth from
Ovid. The influence of John Milton's Paradise Lost, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner, are also clearly evident within the novel. Frankenstein also contains multiple references to her mother,
Mary Wollstonecraft, and her major work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman which discusses the lack of equal
education for males and females. The inclusion of her mother's ideas in her work is also related to the theme of
creation and motherhood in the novel. Mary is likely to have acquired some ideas for Frankenstein's character from
Humphry Davy's book Elements of Chemical Philosophy, in which he had written that "science has ... bestowed upon
man powers which may be called creative; which have enabled him to change and modify the beings around him ...".
References to the French Revolution run through the novel; a possible source may lie in François-Félix Nogaret's Le
Miroir des événemens actuels, ou la Belle au plus offrant (1790): a political parable about scientific progress
Frankenstein
60
featuring an inventor named Frankénsteïn who creates a life-sized automaton.[39]
Within the last thirty years or so, many writers and historians have attempted to associate several then popular
natural philosophers (now called physical scientists) to Shelley's work due to several notable similarities. Two of the
most notable then-contemporary natural philosophers have been Giovanni Aldini and his many public attempts in
London from 1801 to 1804 at human reanimation through bio-electric Galvanism (as reported by History Channel),
and Johann Konrad Dippel who was supposed to have developed chemical means to extend the life span of humans.
In both cases, while Shelley was obviously aware of these men and their activities, in no published or released notes
written by Shelley, does Shelley herself make any mention or reference of these men or their experiments.
Reception
Initial critical reception of the book mostly was unfavourable, compounded by
confused speculation as to the identity of the author. Sir Walter Scott wrote that
"upon the whole, the work impresses us with a high idea of the author's original
genius and happy power of expression", but the Quarterly Review described it "a
tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity".
Mary Shelley had contact with some of the most influential minds of her time.
Shelley's father, William Godwin, was very progressive and encouraged his
daughter to participate in the conversations that took place in his home with
various scientific minds, many of whom were actively engaged in the study of
anatomy. She was familiar with the ideas of using dead bodies for study, the
newer theory of using electricity to animate the dead, and the concerns of
religion and the general public regarding the morality of tampering with God's
work.
Illustration by Theodor von Holst
from the frontispiece of the 1831
[40]
edition
Despite the reviews, Frankenstein achieved an almost immediate popular
success. It became widely known especially through melodramatic theatrical adaptations—Mary Shelley saw a
production of Presumption; or The Fate of Frankenstein, a play by Richard Brinsley Peake, in 1823. A French
translation appeared as early as 1821 (Frankenstein: ou le Prométhée Moderne, translated by Jules Saladin).
Frankenstein has been both well received and disregarded since its anonymous publication in 1818. Critical reviews
of that time demonstrate these two views. The Belle Assemblee described the novel as "very bold fiction" (139). The
Quarterly Review stated that "the author has the power of both conception and language" (185). Sir Walter Scott,
writing in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine congratulated "the author's original genius and happy power of
expression" (620), although he is less convinced about the way in which the monster gains knowledge about the
world and language. The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany hoped to see "more productions from this
author" (253).
In two other reviews where the author is known as the daughter of William Godwin, the criticism of the novel makes
reference to the feminine nature of Mary Shelley. The British Critic attacks the novel's flaws as the fault of the
author: "The writer of it is, we understand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the
novel; but if our authoress can forget the gentleness of her sex, it is no reason why we should; and we shall therefore
dismiss the novel without further comment" (438). The Literary Panorama and National Register attacks the novel
as a "feeble imitation of Mr. Godwin's novels" produced by the "daughter of a celebrated living novelist" (414).
Despite these initial dismissals, critical reception has been largely positive since the mid-20th century. Major critics
such as M. A. Goldberg and Harold Bloom have praised the "aesthetic and moral" relevance of the novel and in more
recent years the novel has become a popular subject for psychoanalytic and feminist criticism. The novel today is
generally considered to be a landmark work of romantic and gothic literature, as well as science fiction.[41]
Frankenstein
61
In his 1981 non-fiction book Danse Macabre, author Stephen King considers Frankenstein's monster (along with
Dracula and the Werewolf) to be an archetype of numerous horrific creations that followed in literature, film, and
television, in a role he refers to as "The Thing Without A Name." He considers such contemporary creations as the
1951 film The Thing from Another World and The Incredible Hulk as examples of similar monstrosities that have
followed in its wake. He views the book as "a Shakespearean tragedy" and argues: "its classical unity is broken only
by the author's uncertainty as to where the fatal flaw lies—is it in Victor's hubris (usurping a power that belongs only
to God) or in his failure to take responsibility for his creation after endowing it with the life-spark?"[42]
Frankenstein discussed controversial topics and touched on religious ideas. Victor Frankenstein plays God when he
creates a new being. Frankenstein deals with Christian and metaphysical themes. The importance of Paradise Lost
and the creature's belief that it is "a true history" brings a religious tone to the novel.[43]
Derivative works
There are numerous novels retelling or continuing the story of Frankenstein and his monster.
For more details on derivative works, see Frankenstein in popular culture.
Films, plays and television
See also: List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster
• 1826: Henry M. Milner's adaptation, The Man and The Monster; or The Fate
of Frankenstein opened on 3 July at the Royal Coburg Theatre, London.
• 1910: Edison Studios produced the first Frankenstein film, directed by J.
Searle Dawley.
• 1915: Life Without Soul, the second film adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel,
was released. No known copy of the film has survived.
• 1931: Universal Studios' Frankenstein, directed by James Whale, starring
Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye, and
Boris Karloff as the monster.
• 1935: James Whale directed the sequel Bride of Frankenstein, starring Colin
Clive as the Doctor, and Boris Karloff as the monster once more. This
incorporated the novel's plot motif of Doctor Frankenstein creating a bride for
the monster omitted from Whale's earlier film. There were two more sequels,
prior to the Universal "monster rally" films combining multiple monsters from
various movie series or film franchises.
A promotional photo of Boris
Karloff as Frankenstein's monster,
using Jack Pierce's makeup design
• 1939: Son of Frankenstein was another Universal monster movie with Boris Karloff as the Creature. Also in the
film were Basil Rathbone as the title character and Bela Lugosi as the sinister assistant Ygor. Karloff ended
playing the Frankenstein monster with this film.
• 1942: The Ghost of Frankenstein featured brain transplanting and a new monster, played by Lon Chaney Jr. The
film also starred Evelyn Ankers and Bela Lugosi.
• 1942–1948: Universal did "monster rally" films featuring Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Wolf-Man.
Included would be Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott and
Costello Meet Frankenstein. The films introduced Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster.
• 1957–1974: Hammer Films in England did a string of Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing, including The
Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Co-starring in these
films were Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, Veronica Carlson and Simon Ward. Another Hammer film, The Horror
of Frankenstein, starred Ralph Bates as the main character, Victor Frankenstein.
Frankenstein
• 1965: Toho Studios created the film Frankenstein Conquers the World or Frankenstein vs. Baragon, followed by
War of the Gargantuas.
• 1972: A comedic stage adaptation, Frankenstein's Monster, was written by Sally Netzel and produced by the
Dallas Theater Center.[44]
• 1973: The TV film Frankenstein: The True Story appeared on NBC. The movie starred Leonard Whiting, Michael
Sarrazin, James Mason, and Jane Seymour.
• 1981: A Broadway adaptation by Victor Gialanella played for one performance (after 29 previews) and was
considered the most expensive flop ever produced to that date.
• 1984: The flop Broadway production yielded a TV film starring Robert Powell, Carrie Fisher, David Warner, and
John Gielgud.
• 1992: Frankenstein became a Turner Network Television film directed by David Wickes, starring Patrick Bergin
and Randy Quaid. John Mills played the blind man.
• 1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein appeared in theatres, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, with Robert
De Niro and Helena Bonham Carter. Its all-star cast also included John Cleese, Ian Holm, and Tom Hulce.
• 2011: The National Theatre, London presented a stage version of Frankenstein, which ran until 2 May 2011. The
play was written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle. Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch
alternate the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature. The National Theatre broadcast live performances of the play
worldwide (at 13:00 and 19:30) on 17 March.
• 2014: I, Frankenstein is a 2014 fantasy action film. The film stars Aaron Eckhart as Adam Frankenstein and Bill
Nighy. The film is based on the graphic novel.
• 2014: Penny Dreadful (TV series) is a horror TV series that airs on Showtime, that features Doctor Victor
Frankenstein as well as his creature.
• 2015: Paul McGuigan is working on a new version, with James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein and Daniel
Radcliffe as the assistant Igor.[45]
Free adaptations
• 1967: I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night and its sequel, Frankenstein Unbound (Another
Monster Musical), are a pair of musical comedies written by Bobby Pickett and Sheldon Allman. The casts of
both feature several classic horror characters including Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.
• 1973: The Rocky Horror Show, is a British horror comedy stage musical written by Richard O'Brian in which Dr.
Frank N. Furter has created a creature (Rocky), to satisfy his (pro)creative drives. Elements are similar to I'm
Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night.
• 1973: Frankenstein: The True Story has the monster be originally very handsome but become progressively uglier
as the story progresses. It incorporates many elements from the Hammer horror series.
• 1973: Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Usually, the doctor is a man whose dedication to science takes him too far,
but here his interest is to rule the world by creating a new species that will obey him and do his bidding.
• 1974: Young Frankenstein. Directed by Mel Brooks, this sequel-spoof has been mentioned as one of the best
movie comedies of any comedy genre ever made, even prompting an American film preservation program to
include it on its listings. It reuses many props from James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein and is shot in
black-and-white with 1930s-style credits. Gene Wilder portrayed the descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, with Peter
Boyle as the Monster.
• 1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The
Rocky Horror Show (1973), written by Richard O'Brien.
• 1984: Frankenweenie is a parody short film directed by Tim Burton, starring Barrett Oliver, Shelley Duvall and
Daniel Stern.
• 1985: The Bride. Specifically, a remake of 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein which incorporated the novel's
bride-motif omitted from the 1931 film.
62
Frankenstein
• 1986: Gothic, directed by Ken Russell, is the story of the night that Mary Shelley gave birth to Frankenstein.
Starring Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson.
• 1988: Frankenstein (フランケンシュタイン) is a manga adaptation of Shelley's novel by Junji Ito.
• 1989: Frankenstein the Panto. A pantomime script by David Swan, combining elements of Frankenstein, Dracula,
and traditional British panto.
• 1990: Frankenstein Unbound. Combines a time-travel story with the story of Shelley's novel. Scientist Joe
Buchanan accidentally creates a time-rift which takes him back to the events of the novel. Filmed as a low-budget
independent film in 1990, based on a novel published in 1973 by Brian Aldiss. This novel bears no relation to the
1967 stage musical with the same name listed above.
• 1991: Frankenstein: The College Years, directed by Tom Shadyac, is another sequel-spoof in which
Frankenstein's monster is revived by college students.
• 1995: Monster Mash is a film adaptation of I'm Sorry the Bridge Is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night starring
Bobby Pickett as Dr. Frankenstein. The film also features Candace Cameron Bure, Anthony Crivello and Mink
Stole.
• 1998: Billy Frankenstein is a very loose adaptation about a boy who moves into a mansion with his family and
brings the Frankenstein monster to life. The film was directed by Fred Olen Ray.
• 2003: Reading Frankenstein,[46] a new media performance work in which Mary Shelley is a genetic engineer and
artificial life scientist and her Creature a hybrid form of computational a-life. It was co-created by director Annie
Loui and artist-writer Antoinette LaFarge for UC Irvine.
• 2004: Frankenstein made for TV film based on Dean Koontz's Frankenstein.
• 2005: Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove, a 90-minute feature film homage of classic monsters and
atomic age creature features, shot in black and white, and directed by William Winckler. The Frankenstein
Monster design and make-up was based on the character descriptions in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel.
• 2009: The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, a short film from Chillerrama.
• 2009: Anuman Interactive (French publisher) launches Frankestein, a hidden objects game freely inspired by
Mary Shelley’s book, on iPhone and iPad.[47]
• 2011: Frankenstein: Day of the Beast is an independent horror film based loosely on the original book.
• 2011: Victor Frankenstein appears in the ABC show Once Upon a Time.
• 2012: Frankenweenie, Tim Burton's feature film remake of his 1984 short film of the same name.
• 2012: A Nightmare on Lime Street, Fred Lawless's comedy play starring David Gest staged at the Royal Court
Theatre, Liverpool.[48]
• 2014: Bruce vs. Frankenstein, a comedic adaptation directed by and starring Bruce Campbell, is loosely based on
the original book and a sequel to Campbell's own 2007 film My Name Is Bruce.
• 2014: Frankenstein, A critically acclaimed original musical adaptation from South Korea based on the original
book.
• 2014: "Frankenstein MD" A web show currently being worked on by Pemberly Digital starring Victoria, a female
adaptation of Victor.
63
Frankenstein
Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Hobbler, Dorthy and Thomas. The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein. Back Bay Books; August 20, 2007
Garrett, Martin. Mary Shelley. Oxford University Press, 2002
Seymour, Miranda. Mary Shelley. Atlanta, GA: Grove Press, 2002. pg 110-111
The Detached Retina: Aspects of SF and Fantasy by Brian Aldiss (1995), page 78 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=N1WWSRVeOC8C& pg=PA78#v=onepage& q& f=false).
[5] Bergen Evans, "Comfortable Words," New York: Random House, 1957
[6] Bryan Garner, "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage", New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
[7] "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American English", Merriam-Webster: 2002
[8] "Preface", 1831 edition of Frankenstein
[9] Sunstein, 118.
[10] Dr. John Polidori, "The Vampyre" 1819, The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register; London: H. Colburn, 1814–1820. Vol. 1, No.
63.
[11] paragraph 7, Introduction, Frankenstein 1831 edition
[14] Shelley, Mary. paragraphs 11–13, "Introduction" Frankenstein (1831 edition) (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ files/ 42324/ 42324-h/ 42324-h.
htm) Gutenberg
[15] Quoted in Spark, 157, from Mary Shelley's introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.
[16] Radford, Tim, Frankenstein's hour of creation identified by astronomers (http:/ / www. theguardian. com/ books/ 2011/ sep/ 26/
frankenstein-hour-creation-identified-astronomers), The Guardian, Sunday 25 September 2011 (retrieved 5 January 2014)
[17] Bennett, An Introduction, 30–31; Sunstein, 124.
[18] Sunstein, 117.
[19] Hay, 103.
[20] Bennett, Betty T. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: An Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
[21] Bennett, Betty T. Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley: An Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998
[22] D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, "A Note on the Text", Frankenstein, 2nd ed., Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1999.
[23] (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=qykBJvG0iJQC& pg=PA3& lpg=PA3& dq=Presumption;+ or,+ the+ Fate+ of+ Frankenstein+
shelley& source=bl& ots=oSVYNcxkcK& sig=_irYl8LMfaANIpdNHZqQg3WQkNA& hl=en& ei=v3W5TZ68CY2LhQeo4PH9Dg& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=10& ved=0CFQQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage& q=Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein shelley& f=false)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein Bedford Publishing (2000) pg 3
[24] See forward to Barnes and Noble classic edition.
[25] The edition published by Forgotten Books is the original text, as is the "Ignatius Critical Edition". Vintage Books has an edition presenting
both versions.
[26] Frankenstein:Celluloid Monster (http:/ / www. nlm. nih. gov/ hmd/ frankenstein/ escaping. html) at the National Library of Medicine
website of the (U.S.) National Institutes of Health
[27] from the traveling exhibition Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature (http:/ / www. ala. org/ ala/ ppo/ currentprograms/ frankenstein/
frankensteinpenetrating. cfm)
[28] Author's Digest: The World's Great Stories in Brief (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=rBoOAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA238), by Rossiter
Johnson, 1908
[29] The Reef, page 96.
[30] This essay was included in the 2005 publication of Fantasmagoriana, the first full English translation of the book of 'ghost stories' that
inspired the literary competition resulting in Mary's writing of Frankenstein.
[31] RenegadeNation.de (http:/ / www. renegadenation. de/ darmstadt/ frankensteinengl. html) Frankenstein Castle, Shelley and the Construction
of a Myth
[32] Wade, Phillip. "Shelley and the Miltonic Element in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." Milton and the Romantics, 2 (December, 1976), 23–25.
(http:/ / www. english. upenn. edu/ Projects/ knarf/ Articles/ wade. html)
[33] Percy Shelley#Ancestry
[34] "Journal 6 December—Very Unwell. Shelley & Clary walk out, as usual, to heaps of places...A letter from Hookham to say that Harriet has
been brought to bed of a son and heir. Shelley writes a number of circular letters on this event, which ought to be ushered in with ringing of
bells, etc., for it is the son of his wife." Quoted in Spark, 39.
[35] For example, the Longman study edition published in India in 2007 by Pearson Education
[36] In the best-known versions of the Prometheus story by Hesiod and Aeschylus, Prometheus merely brings fire to mankind. But in other
versions such as several of Aesop's fables (See in particular Fable 516), Sappho (Fragment 207), and Ovid's Metamorphoses, Prometheus is
the actual creator of humanity.
[37] (Leonard Wolf, p. 20).
[38] RoyalSoc.ac.uk (http:/ / royalsociety. org/ exhibitions/ 2006/ benjamin-franklin/ ) "Benjamin Franklin in London." The Royal Society.
Retrieved 8 August 2007.
64
Frankenstein
[39] Douthwaite, "The Frankenstein of the French Revolution" chapter 2 of The Frankenstein of 1790 and other Lost Chapters from
Revolutionary France ( Frankenstein of 1790 and other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France (http:/ / press. uchicago. edu/ ucp/ books/
book/ chicago/ F/ bo13265096. html), 2012).
[40] This illustration is reprinted in the frontispiece to the 2008 edition of Frankenstein (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ 098092104X)
[41] UTM.edu (http:/ / www. utm. edu/ staff/ lalexand/ frankqst. htm) Lynn Alexander, Department of English, University of Tennessee at
Martin. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
[42] Stephen King: Danse Macabre, Everest House, 1981, ISBN 978-0896961005
[43] Ryan, Robert M. Mary Shelley's Christian Monster. University of Pennsylvania, n.d. Web. 22 October 2011. http:/ / www. english. upenn.
edu/ Projects/ knarf/ Articles/ ryan. html.
[44] Blood on the Stage, 1950–1975: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery and Detection, by Amnon Kabatchnik. Scarecrow Press, 2011, p. 300
[45] Hello Igor... Daniel Radcliffe gets into character on the set of the brand new Frankenstein movie (http:/ / www. dailymail. co. uk/ tvshowbiz/
article-2517033/ Daniel-Radcliffe-set-Igor-new-Frankenstein-movie. html), The Daily Mail
[46] LaFarge, Antoinette, and Annie Loui. "Excerpts from Reading Frankenstein: Mary Shelley as 21st Century Artificial Life Scientist" (http:/ /
adanewmedia. org/ 2013/ 11/ issue3-lafargeloui/ ). Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media & Technology, Fall 2013.
[47] http:/ / jeuvideo. afjv. com/ press_0912/ 091216_hdo_aventure. htm
[48] A Nightmare On Lime Street – Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool (https:/ / royalcourtliverpool. ticketsolve. com/ shows/ 126522067/ events/ )
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• Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft,
Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
• Rauch, Alan. "The Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein". Studies in Romanticism 34.2
(1995): 227–53.
• Selbanev, Xtopher. "Natural Philosophy of the Soul", Western Press, 1999.
• Schor, Esther, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Scott, Grant F. "Victor's Secret: Queer Gothic in Lynd Ward's Illustrations to Frankenstein (1934)." Word &
Image 28 (April–June 2012): 206–232. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666286.2012.
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• Smith, Johanna M., ed. Frankenstein. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
1992.
• Spark, Muriel. Mary Shelley. London: Cardinal, 1987. ISBN 0-7474-0318-X.
• Stableford, Brian. "Frankenstein and the Origins of Science Fiction". Anticipations: Essays on Early Science
Fiction and Its Precursors. Ed. David Seed. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
• Sunstein, Emily W. Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality. 1989. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
ISBN 0-8018-4218-2.
• Tropp, Martin. Mary Shelley's Monster. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
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67
• Veeder, William. Mary Shelley & Frankenstein: The Fate of Androgyny. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1986.
• Williams, Anne. The Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frankenstein.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Frankenstein
Frankenstein
• Frankenstein at Project Gutenberg
• Frankenstein 1818 edition at Project Gutenberg
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Chronology & Resource Site (http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/
mschronology/mws.html)
• "On Frankenstein" (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/PShelley/frankrev.html), review by Percy
Bysshe Shelley
• "13 Ways of Looking at Frankenstein" (http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/51771/
13-ways-of-looking-at-frankenstein), slideshow by Life
• "My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" (http://www.maryshelley.nl)
• Frankenstein: a new reality! (http://web.quipo.it/frankenstein)
• Inside look at the "Frankenstein Phenomenon" (http://www.frankensteinfilms.com/)
Middlemarch
68
Middlemarch
For other uses, see Middlemarch (disambiguation).
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
Title page, first ed., Vol. 1, William Blackwood and Sons, 1871
Author
George Eliot
(pen name of Marian Evans)
Country
England
Language
English
Series
1871–72
Genre
Novel
Social criticism
Publication date 1874 (first one-vol. ed.)
Media type
Print (serial, hardback, and paperback)
Pages
904 (Oxford University Press, USA; 2008 reissue)
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, later
Marian Evans. It is her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes,
the son of her companion George Henry Lewes. During the following year Eliot resumed work, fusing together
several stories into a coherent whole, and during 1871–72 the novel appeared in serial form. The first one-volume
edition was published in 1874 and attracted large sales.
Subtitled "A Study of Provincial Life", the novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch, thought to be
based on Coventry, during the period 1830–32.[1] It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition
to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of
women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education. The pace
is leisurely, the tone is mildly didactic (with an authorial voice that occasionally bursts through the narrative),[2] and
the canvas is very broad.
Although it has some comical elements and comically named characters (Mr. Brooke, the "tiny aunt" Miss Noble,
Mrs. Dollop), Middlemarch is a work of realism. Through the voices and opinions of different characters we become
aware of various issues of the day: the Great Reform Bill, the beginnings of the railways, the death of King George
IV, and the succession of his brother, the Duke of Clarence (who became King William IV). We learn something of
the state of contemporary medical science. We also encounter the deeply reactionary mindset within a settled
community facing the prospect of what to many is unwelcome change.
The eight "books" which compose the novel are not autonomous entities, but reflect the form of the original
serialisation. A short prelude introduces the idea of the latter-day St. Theresa, presaging the character Dorothea; a
Middlemarch
postscript or "finale" after the eighth book gives the post-novel fates of the main characters.
Middlemarch has retained its popularity and status as one of the masterpieces of English fiction,[3] although some
reviewers have expressed dissatisfaction at the destiny recorded for Dorothea. In separate centuries, Florence
Nightingale and Kate Millett both remarked on the eventual subordination of Dorothea's own dreams to those of her
admirer, Ladislaw.[4] However, in the epilogue George Eliot herself acknowledges the regrettable waste of
Dorothea's potential, blaming social conditions. Virginia Woolf gave the book unstinting praise, describing
Middlemarch as "the magnificent book that, with all its imperfections, is one of the few English novels written for
grown-up people".[5] Martin Amis and Julian Barnes have cited it as probably the greatest novel in the English
language.[6]
Background
On 1 January 1869, George Eliot listed her tasks for the coming year in her journal. The list included "A Novel
called Middlemarch", along with a number of poetry and other projects.[7] Her most recent novel, Felix Holt, had
been published more than two years earlier and had not sold well.[8] Despite this, the projected new novel was to be
set in the same pre-Reform Bill England as Felix Holt, and would again deal with the reform issue, although less
centrally.
In its first conception, Middlemarch was a story involving Lydgate, an ambitious doctor, the Vincy family, and Mr.
Featherstone. Progress on the novel was slow; by September, only three chapters of the story had been completed.
The main reason for this lack of development was the distraction caused by the illness of Lewes's son Thornie, who
was dying slowly of tuberculosis.[9] Following his death on 19 October 1869, all work on the novel stopped. At this
point, it is uncertain whether or not Eliot intended to revive the original project; in November 1870, more than a year
later, she began work on an entirely new story, "Miss Brooke", introducing Dorothea. Exactly when she started to
combine this narrative with the earlier Lydgate-Vincy-Featherstone plot is unrecorded, but the process was certainly
under way by March 1871.[10]
As the scope of the novel grew, a decision was taken as to the form of its publication. In May 1871, Lewes asked
publisher John Blackwood to bring the novel out in eight parts, at two-monthly intervals from December 1871.
Blackwood agreed, and the eight books duly appeared throughout 1872, the last instalments appearing in successive
months, November and December 1872.[11]
Plot
Dorothea Brooke is an idealistic and well-to-do young woman who seeks to help those around her, for example
improving the lot of the local poor. She is seemingly set for a comfortable and idle life as the wife of neighbouring
landowner Sir James Chettam, but to the dismay and bewilderment of her sister Celia (who later marries Chettam)
and her loquacious uncle Mr Brooke, she marries instead Edward Casaubon, a dry, pedantic scholar some decades
older than Dorothea who, she believes, is engaged in writing a great work, The Key to All Mythologies. She wishes to
find fulfilment by sharing her husband's intellectual life, but during an unhappy honeymoon in Rome she experiences
his coldness towards her ambitions. Slowly she realises that his great project is doomed to failure and her feelings for
him descend to pity. She forms a warm friendship with a young cousin of Casaubon's, Will Ladislaw, but her
husband's antipathy towards him is clear (partly based on his belief that Ladislaw is trying to seduce Dorothea to
gain access to Casaubon's fortune) and Ladislaw is forbidden to visit. In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract
from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will "avoid doing what I should deprecate and apply yourself to do
what I desire"—meaning either that she should shun Ladislaw, or, as Dorothea believes, that she should complete
The Key to All Mythologies in his place, forever freezing her youthful intelligence and energy into animating the
dead hand of his extinct ideas. Before Dorothea can give her reply, Casaubon dies. She then learns that he has added
the extraordinary provision to his will that, if she should marry Ladislaw, Dorothea will lose her inheritance from
Casaubon.
69
Middlemarch
Meanwhile, Tertius Lydgate, an idealistic young doctor with advanced ideas
about medical research and reform, has arrived in Middlemarch. His voluntary
hospital work brings him into contact with the town's financier, Mr. Bulstrode,
who has philanthropic leanings; he is also a religious zealot with a secret past.
Bulstrode's niece is Rosamond Vincy, the mayor's daughter and the town's
recognised beauty, and she sets her sights on Lydgate, attracted by what she
believes to be his aristocratic connections and his novelty as a newcomer to the
town. She wins him, but the disjunction between her self-centred narcissism and
his idealistic notions of helping others ensures that their marriage is unhappy.
Lydgate overspends in order to please Rosamond, and he is soon deeply in debt
and has to seek help from Bulstrode. He is partly sustained emotionally in his
marital and financial woes by his friendship with Camden Farebrother, a
generous-spirited and engaging parson from a local parish.
70
George Eliot
At the same time, readers have become acquainted with Rosamond's university-educated, restless and irresponsible
brother, Fred, who is reluctantly destined for the Church. He is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Mary Garth, a
plain, sensible, and forthright young woman who will not accept him until he abandons the Church (in which she
knows he has no interest) and settles in a more suitable career. Mary's honesty contributes to Fred's losing a
considerable fortune, which was bequeathed to him by the aged and irascible Mr Featherstone, then rescinded by a
later will which Featherstone, on his deathbed, begs Mary to destroy. Mary refuses to engage in such an illegal act
and begs Featherstone to wait until the morning, when a legal will superseding the other will can be legally drawn
up. But Featherstone dies before the morning. Fred, in debt after some injudicious horse-dealing, is forced to take out
a loan that is guaranteed by Mary's father, Caleb Garth, to meet his commitments. When Fred cannot pay the loan,
Caleb Garth's finances become compromised, since he must pay back the loan himself. This humiliation shocks Fred
into reassessing his life, and he resolves to train as a land agent under the forgiving Caleb.
These three interwoven narratives, with side-plots such as the disastrous though comedic attempt by Mr Brooke to
enter Parliament as a sponsor of Reform, are the basis of the novel until well into its final third. Then a new thread
emerges, with the appearance of John Raffles, who knows about Bulstrode's shady past and is determined to exploit
this knowledge by blackmail. In his youth, the now fire-and-brimstone church-going Bulstrode engaged in some
questionable financial dealings; he also owes the foundation of his fortune to a marriage to a much older, wealthy
widow. Bulstrode's terror of public exposure as a hypocrite leads him to hasten the death of the mortally sick Raffles
by giving him access to forbidden alcohol and excessive amounts of opium. But he is too late: Raffles had already
spread the word. Bulstrode's disgrace engulfs the luckless Lydgate, as knowledge of the financier's loan to the doctor
becomes public, and he is assumed to be complicit with Bulstrode. Only Dorothea and Farebrother maintain faith in
Lydgate, but Lydgate and Rosamond are encouraged by the general opprobrium to leave Middlemarch. The
disgraced and reviled Bulstrode's only consolation is that his wife stands by him as he, too, faces exile.
The final thread in the complex weave concerns Ladislaw. The peculiar nature of Casaubon's will has meant that
suspicion has fallen upon Dorothea and Ladislaw as possible lovers, creating an awkwardness between the two. But
Casaubon's paranoia is well-founded, because Ladislaw is secretly in love with Dorothea. But he keeps that to
himself, having no desire to involve her in scandal or to cause her disinheritance. He has remained in Middlemarch,
working as a newspaper editor for Mr Brooke; he has also become a focus for Rosamond's treacherous attentions.
After Brooke's election campaign collapses, there is nothing to keep Ladislaw in Middlemarch, so he visits Dorothea
to make his farewell. But Dorothea, released from life with Casaubon but still the prisoner of his will, has come to
fall in love with Ladislaw. She had previously seen him as her husband's unfortunate relative, but the peculiar nature
of Casaubon's will led her to begin to see him in a new light, as well as to open herself and Ladislaw up to public
gossip. Renouncing Casaubon's fortune, she shocks her family again by announcing that she will marry Ladislaw. At
the same time, Fred, who has proven an apt pupil of Caleb's profession, finally wins the approval and hand of Mary.
Middlemarch
Beyond the principal stories we are given constant glimpses into other scenes. We observe Featherstone's avaricious
relatives gathering for the spoils, visit Farebrother's strange ménage, and become aware of enormous social and
economic divides. But these are backdrops for the main stories which, true to life, are left largely suspended, leaving
a short finale to summarise the fortunes of our protagonists over the next 30 years or so. The book ends as it began,
with Dorothea: "Her full nature...spent itself in channels which had no great name on the Earth. But the effect of her
being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on
unhistoric acts..."
Themes
Education
The book examines the role of education in the lives of the characters and how such education and study has affected
them. Rosamond Vincy's completion of school education is a foil to Dorothea Brooke's thirst for purposeful
education, which was generally denied women of the era. Rosamond initially admires Lydgate for his exotic
education and his intellect. A similar dynamic is present in Dorothea's and Casaubon's relationship, with Dorothea
revering her new husband's intellect and eloquence. Dorothea comes to question Casaubon's depth and penetration,
while Rosamond is too self-obsessed to sympathise with Lydgate's focus and ambition.
Despite extreme erudition, Mr Casaubon is afraid to publish because he believes that he must write a work that is
utterly above criticism. In contrast, Lydgate at times arrogantly drives ahead, alienating his more conservative fellow
physicians. He regards the residents of Middlemarch with some disdain, his sympathy tempered by the belief that
they are intellectually backward. Despite his education he lacks tact and the political skills necessary for
advancement in a small town.
Self-delusion
Most of the central characters of this novel have a habit of building castles in the air and then attempting to live in
them. Because they are idealistic, self-absorbed, or otherwise out of touch with reality, they make serious mistakes.
These mistakes cause them great unhappiness and eventually their illusions are shattered. Some characters learn
from this process and others do not. Those who learn not to build castles in the air generally end up happy, while
those who persist in ignoring pragmatism are miserable.
Dorothea, who wants nothing more in life than to do good, rejects a young man who would have been a reasonably
good match for her to marry the aged scholar Mr. Casaubon. She does this because she likes the idea of being an
assistant to him and helping him with his great intellectual pursuits. Unfortunately, she is so much in love with her
image of Mr. Casaubon that she fails to notice he is not actually writing anything. He is supposedly working on a
great work that, when completed, will link together and explain all world mythologies; however, he is so obsessed
with creating a perfect work of scholarship and so afraid of criticism from his peers that he never publishes anything.
He is not interested in contributing to the discipline for its own sake; rather, he uses scholarship to enhance his ego
and improve his image. Dorothea, in her youth and enthusiasm, does not recognise this. Later, when she meets
people who genuinely do love knowledge for its own sake (Ladislaw and Lydgate come to mind), she cannot help
but notice the discrepancy between what she wanted and what she actually chose. Yet this discrepancy does not keep
her from marrying a second time, to Ladislaw, whom she hardly knows. Based on a few days' acquaintance
developed during her honeymoon and a handful of occasional conversations, Dorothea is attracted to Ladislaw, but
does not have an opportunity to get to know him. Their mutual love is developed apart from one another.
Lydgate, the other tragic character in this novel, chooses his wife based more on physical attraction than on a
knowledge of her character. He marries the materialistic, self-absorbed Rosamond Vincy who, unbeknownst to
Lydgate, has been harbouring her own delusions and misconceptions about who Lydgate is. Once safely married,
they each find out exactly how poorly they suit one another. He cannot free himself of Rosamond, yet he is unwilling
71
Middlemarch
to set aside his (and her) upper-class pretensions to buy himself the time and resources to conduct his medical
research. He ignores the basic financial reality of life in Middlemarch, does not dispense prescriptions, and alienates
patients by not filling what they believe to be his proper role as a doctor. Eventually he succumbs to Rosamond's
desire to leave Middlemarch and turns into the kind of doctor he never really wanted to be, his research permanently
abandoned. He becomes financially successful, which appeases Rosamond. After Lydgate dies, Rosamond marries
someone better suited to her tastes, who can indulge her materialism and who never asks her to do anything difficult.
Not all the characters in Middlemarch cling to their delusions. Fred Vincy gets a rude awakening when the big
inheritance he expects fails to materialise. He sets aside his more frivolous pursuits and goes to work for Mary
Garth's father. Mr. Farebrother, who is also in love with Mary, helps to steer Fred away from temptation and keep
him on the best course. Mr. Farebrother does this with a great deal of regret, since if Fred were to fail to become a
productive, self-sufficient adult Farebrother himself would have his own opportunity to woo and win Mary, whom
he wants for himself. Yet, in the end, Fred is rewarded when he proves himself to be a reliable, sensible individual.
Mary accepts his hand in marriage.
Rosamond Vincy Lydgate never abandons her delusions about herself and persists in viewing herself as a
perpetually wronged princess even though she is scheming and manipulative; yet she does eventually realise that
being married to an idealistic doctor is not easy and that marrying into a wealthy family does not guarantee that she
and her husband will be rich. She also realises that Lydgate, whom she decided she loved because of his upper-class
background and distant origins, is not the meal ticket to which she felt entitled. At the end of the book, after
Lydgate's death, Rosamond correctly identifies the attributes most desirable to her in a husband: a fat wallet and an
indulgent nature. She obtains such a husband and lives happily ever after.
Characters
None of the characters in Middlemarch are intentionally humorous
in their diction, although Mary Garth employs great wit. Yet the
voice of the narrator comes across as wry and humorous in many
places.
Unlettered labourers speaking in dialect as minor characters add
flashes of humour and poignancy, as in Shakespeare.
• Dorothea Brooke — An intelligent and wealthy young woman
who aspires to do great work. Spurning signs of wealth in the
form of jewels or fancy clothes, she embarks upon projects
such as redesigning cottages for the tenants of her miserly and
embarrassingly neglectful uncle. She can seldom get anyone to
take her ideas seriously and she decides to marry the Reverend
Edward Casaubon, many decades her senior, to help him with
the writing of his great research project, The Key to All
Mythologies. The marriage is quickly revealed to be a mistake,
as Casaubon does not take her seriously and resents her youth,
enthusiasm, and energy. Her requests to assist him merely serve
to make it more difficult for him to conceal that his research is
Dorothea Brooke and Will Ladislaw
years out of date and his work is very lackluster. His research
on pagan parallels with Christian theology serves only to entice
those who know nothing about the field; those who are familiar with the area of research know that his work is
derivative and
72
Middlemarch
73
has been explored thoroughly by earlier researchers. When her
husband shunts her aside during their honeymoon, she finds a
kindred spirit in the Reverend's first cousin once removed, Will
Ladislaw, and the two become friends. After Casaubon's death,
when their mutual attraction might blossom, it is almost
renounced because of various complications, including the
provision in Casaubon's will that, if Dorothea were to marry
Ladislaw, she would be disinherited. Such a provision leads
people to wonder if Dorothea and Ladislaw had been engaging
in anything improper during Dorothea's marriage, which is a
great insult on the part of Casaubon. Eventually, however, they
do marry and move to London, but Eliot denies her a
straightforwardly happy ending since Dorothea, like Lydgate,
fails to reach her potential and sacrifices her dreams to support
her husband in his political career.
• Tertius Lydgate — An idealistic, proud, passionate, and
talented-but-naïve young doctor of good birth but small
financial means, he hopes to make great advancements in
medicine through his research and the charity hospital in
Middlemarch. He ends up entangled with Rosamond Vincy and
they marry unhappily. His pride and attempts to show that he is
not answerable to any man end up backfiring and he eventually
leaves town. He quickly falls out of love with his wife and ends
up sacrificing all of his high ideals to make a living that will
please Rosamond.
Mary Garth and Fred Vincy
• Rev. Edward Casaubon — A pedantic, selfish clergyman of
late middle age who is obsessed with finishing his scholarly
research, to the exclusion of other people and things. He
marries Dorothea Brooke, leading to a loveless marriage. His
unfinished book The Key to All Mythologies is intended as a
monument to the tradition of Christian syncretism. However,
we later learn that his life's work is useless as he does not read
German and is therefore behind on current studies. We also
learn he is aware of this but has put too much time into his
research to admit it to anyone else.
• Mary Garth — The practical, plain, and kind daughter of
Caleb and Susan Garth, she works as Mr. Featherstone's nurse.
She and Fred Vincy were childhood sweethearts, but she
refuses to allow him to woo her until he shows himself willing
and able to live seriously, practically, and sincerely.
Rosamond Vincy and Tertius Lydgate
• Arthur Brooke — The often befuddled and none-too-clever
uncle of Dorothea and Celia Brooke. He has a reputation as the worst landlord in the county, but tries to stand for
parliament on a Reform platform.
• Celia Brooke — Dorothea's younger sister is also a great beauty, but attractive in a far more sensual way. She
does not share Dorothea's idealism and asceticism, and is only too happy to marry the rejected Sir James Chettam.
Middlemarch
• Sir James Chettam — A neighbouring landowner, Sir James is in love with Dorothea and tries to ingratiate
himself to her by helping her with her plans to improve conditions for the tenants. When she marries Casaubon,
he marries Celia Brooke instead.
• Rosamond Vincy — Vain, beautiful, and shallow, Rosamond has a high opinion of her own charms and a low
opinion of Middlemarch society. She marries Tertius Lydgate because she believes that he will raise her social
standing and keep her comfortable and carefree. When her husband encounters financial difficulties, she thwarts
his efforts to economise, seeing such sacrifices as beneath her and insulting to her on the part of her husband. She
is unable to bear the idea of losing status in Middlemarch society.
• Fred Vincy — Rosamond's brother. He has loved Mary Garth since they were children. His family is hoping that
he will find a secure life and advance his class standing by becoming a clergyman, but he knows that Mary will
not marry him if he does so. Brought up with expectations from his uncle Mr Featherstone, he is spendthrift and
irresponsible. He later finds, by studying under Mary's father, a profession at which he can be successful and
which Mary will respect.
• Will Ladislaw — A young cousin of Mr Casaubon, he has no property because his grandmother married a poor
Polish musician and was disinherited. He is a man of great verve, idealism and talent but of no fixed profession.
He comes to love Dorothea, but cannot marry her without her losing Mr Casaubon's property.
• Mr. Humphrey Cadwallader and Mrs. Eleanor Cadwallader — Neighbours of the Brookes. Mr. Cadwallader
is a Rector. Mrs. Cadwallader is a pragmatic and talkative woman who comments on local affairs with wry
cynicism. She disapproves of Dorothea's marriage and Mr. Brooke's parliamentary endeavours.
• Mr. Walter Vincy and Mrs. Lucy Vincy — A respectable manufacturing family. They wish their children to
advance socially, and are disappointed by both Rosamond's and Fred's marriages. Mr. Vincy's sister is married to
Nicholas Bulstrode. Mrs. Vincy was an innkeeper's daughter and her sister was the second wife of Mr.
Featherstone.
• Mr. Caleb Garth — Mary Garth's father. He is a kind, honest, and generous businessman who is a surveyor and
land agent involved in farm management. He is fond of Fred and eventually takes him under his wing.
• Mr. Camden Farebrother — A poor but clever vicar and amateur naturalist. He is a friend of Lydgate and Fred
Vincy, and loves Mary Garth. His position improves when Dorothea appoints him to the living of Lowick after
Casaubon's death.
• Nicholas Bulstrode — Wealthy banker married to Mr. Vincy's sister, Harriet. He is a pious Methodist who tries
to impose his beliefs in Middlemarch society; however, he also has a sordid past which he is desperate to hide.
His religion, consisting of "broken metaphor and bad logic," consistently favours his personal desires, but is
devoid of sympathy for others. He is an unhappy man who has longed for years to be better than he is, and has
clad his selfish passions in severe robes.
• Mr. Peter Featherstone — Old landlord of Stone Court, a self-made man who married Caleb Garth's sister and
later took Mrs. Vincy's sister as his second wife when his first wife died.
• Mrs. Jane Waule - A widow and Peter Featherstone's sister, has a son, John.
• Mr. Hawley — Foul-mouthed businessman and enemy of Bulstrode.
• Mr. Mawmsey — Grocer.
• Dr. Sprague — Middlemarch doctor.
• Mr. Tyke — Clergyman favoured by Bulstrode.
• Rigg Featherstone — Featherstone's illegitimate son who appears at the reading of Featherstone's will and is
given his fortune instead of Fred. He is also related to John Raffles, who comes into town to visit Rigg but instead
reveals Bulstrode's past. His appearance in the novel is crucial to the plot.
• John Raffles — Raffles is a braggart and a bully, a humorous scoundrel in the tradition of Sir John Falstaff, and
an alcoholic. But unlike Shakespeare's fat knight, Raffles is a genuinely evil man with a jolly exterior. He holds
the key to Bulstrode's dark past and Lydgate's future. Bulstrode believes his secret will be safe with Raffles'
demise.
74
Middlemarch
Literary significance and reception
Virginia Woolf described Middlemarch as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people".[12] In
addition, V. S. Pritchett, in The Living Novel, wrote, "No Victorian novel approaches Middlemarch in its width of
reference, its intellectual power, or the imperturbable spaciousness of its narrative...I doubt if any Victorian novelist
has as much to teach the modern novelists as George Eliot...No writer has ever represented the ambiguities of moral
choice so fully". Critic Jerome Beaty argues that one could read Middlemarch as George Eliot's Reform novel,
although political history is represented only "indirectly".[13]
Popular since its first publication,[14] the novel remains a favourite with readers today. In 2003, the novel was listed
at number 27 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.[15] In January 2007, a book entitled The Top Ten (edited by J.
Peder Zane) listed Middlemarch as number ten in its list "The 10 Greatest Books of All Time", based on the ballots
of 125 selected writers.
In 1873, the poet Emily Dickinson wrote in a letter to her cousins Louise and Fannie Norcross:[16]
"What do I think of ‘Middlemarch’?" What do I think of glory – except that in a few instances this
"mortal has already put on immortality." George Eliot was one. The mysteries of human nature surpass
the "mysteries of redemption," for the infinite we only suppose, while we see the finite....
Film, television, and theatrical adaptations
Middlemarch has been adapted for multiple television and film projects.
• Middlemarch (1968 TV series), a BBC production directed by Joan Craft and starring Michele Dotrice
• Middlemarch (1994 TV serial), a BBC production directed by Anthony Page, with a screenplay by Andrew
Davies
• Middlemarch (2013 stage adaptation), an Orange Tree Theatre Repertory production adapted and directed by
Geoffrey Beevers in 3 plays: "Dorothea's Story", "The Doctor's Story", and "Fred & Mary."
Notes and references
[1] Carolyn Steedman, " Going to Middlemarch: History and the Novel (http:/ / quod. lib. umich. edu/ cgi/ t/ text/
text-idx?cc=mqr;c=mqr;c=mqrarchive;idno=act2080. 0040. 310;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mqrg)", Michigan Quarterly Review XL, no. 3
(Summer 2001). Retrieved 13 April 2013
[2] For example, at the beginning of Book 3, Ch. XXIX : "– but why Dorothea? Was her point of view the only possible one ..."etc
[3] Leavis, The Great Tradition
[4] Millet (1972), Sexual Politics, Nightingale quoted in George Eliot and Gender, Kate Flint 2001
[5] Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader, 1925, p. 175.
[6] Long, Camilla. Martin Amis and the sex war (http:/ / entertainment. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ arts_and_entertainment/ books/ article6996980.
ece?token=null& offset=0& page=1), The Times, 24 January 2010, p. 4: "They’ve [women] produced the greatest writer in the English
language ever, George Eliot, and arguably the third greatest, Jane Austen, and certainly the greatest novel, Middlemarch..."
[7] Ashton, p. 295
[8] Ashton, p. 287
[9] Ashton, p. 300
[10] Ashton, pp. 311–12
[11] Donald Gray, p. 191
[12] The Common Reader: George Eliot (http:/ / etext. library. adelaide. edu. au/ w/ woolf/ virginia/ w91c/ chapter15. html) Virginia Woolf, The
Times Literary Supplement, 20 November 1919
[13] Beaty, Jerome. "History by Indirection: The Era of Reform in Middlemarch." Victorian Studies. 1.2, 1957, p. 179
[14] Dolin Tim. George Eliot. Oxford UP, 2005. 99.
[15] "BBC – The Big Read" (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ arts/ bigread/ top100. shtml). BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 28 October 2012
[16] Linscott, Robert N., 1959. Selected Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson, Anchor Books, Random House, New York, p. 242
75
Middlemarch
76
Bibliography
• Ashton, Rosemary (1983). George Eliot. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-287627-9.
• Beaty, Jerome (1960). Middlemarch from Notebook to Novel: A Study of George Eliot's Creative Method. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press.
• Carroll, David, ed. (1971). George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & K Paul.
ISBN 0-7100-6936-7.
• Daiches, David (1963). George Eliot: Middlemarch. London: Arnold.
• Dentith, Simon (1986). George Eliot. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press. ISBN 0-7108-0588-8.
• Garrett, Peter K (1980). The Victorian Multiplot Novel: Studies in Dialogical Form. New Haven: Yale University
Press. ISBN 0-300-02403-7.
• Graver, Suzanne (1984). George Eliot and Community: A Study in Social Theory and Fictional Form. Berkeley:
University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04802-4.
• Harvey, WJ (1961). The Art of George Eliot. London: Chatto & Windus.
• Kettle, Arnold (1951). An Introduction to the English Novel, Volume I: To George Eliot. London: Hutchinson.
• Leavis, FR (1948). The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad. London: Chatto & Windus.
• Neale, Catherine (1989). George Eliot, Middlemarch. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-077173-5.
• Swinden, Patrick, ed. (1972). George Eliot: Middlemarch: A Casebook. London: Macmillan.
ISBN 0-333-02119-3.
• Trainini, Marco, Vendetta, tienimi compagnia. Due vendicatori in «Middlemarch» di George Eliot e «Anna
Karenina» di Lev Tolstoj, Milano, Arcipelago Edizioni, 2012, ISBN 8876954759.
Further reading
Scholarship
• Beaty, Jerome (December 1957). "History by Indirection: The Era of Reform in "Middlemarch"". Victorian
Studies 1 (2): 173–179. ISSN 0042-5222 (http://www.worldcat.org/issn/0042-5222).
• Chase, Karen. Middlemarch in the Twenty-First Century (http://books.google.com/
books?id=vpipAAAACAAJ&dq=Middlemarch+in+the+twenty-first+century). Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2006.
External links
Middlemarch
• Middlemarch at Project Gutenberg.
• Middlemarch (http://www.planetpdf.com/ebookarticle.asp?ContentID=middlemarch_&gid=6147). Planet
PDF.
• Middlemarch (http://www.19thnovels.com/middlemarch.php). 19th novels.
• Middlemarch (http://girlebooks.com/ebook-catalog/george-eliot/middlemarch/) (PDF, PDB LIT). Girle
books.
• Middlemarch (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/middlemarch/middlemarchov.html). Victorian
Web.
• Middlemarch, a study of provincial life (http://www.archive.org/details/middlemarchstudy01eliouoft) 1 (first
ed.), Middlemarch (http://www.archive.org/details/middlemarchstudy02eliouoft) 2, Middlemarch (http://
www.archive.org/details/middlemarchstudy03eliouoft) 3, Middlemarch (http://www.archive.org/details/
middlemarchstudy04eliouoft) 4.
Middlemarch
77
• Middlemarch study guide and teacher resources (http://www.shmoop.com/middlemarch/). Shmoop.
•
"Garth, Caleb". New International Encyclopedia. 1906.
This article is about the novel by William Faulkner. For the Shakespeare quote, see Tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow. For other uses, see Sound and fury (disambiguation).
First edition
Author
William Faulkner
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Southern Gothic novel
Modernist novel
Publisher
Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith
Publication date 1929
[1]
OCLC
21525355
Dewey Decimal
813/.52 20
LC Class
PS3511.A86 S7 1990
The Sound and the Fury is a novel written by the American author William Faulkner. It employs a number of
narrative styles, including the technique known as stream of consciousness, pioneered by 20th-century European
novelists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner's fourth
novel, and was not immediately successful. In 1931, however, when Faulkner's sixth novel, Sanctuary, was
published—a sensationalist story, which Faulkner later claimed was written only for money—The Sound and the
Fury also became commercially successful, and Faulkner began to receive critical attention.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Sound and the Fury sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels
of the 20th century.
Plot
The Sound and the Fury is set in Jefferson, Mississippi. The novel centers on the Compson family, former Southern
aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. Over the course of the 30
years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town
of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically. The novel is separated into four distinct sections. The first, April 7,
1928, is written from the perspective of Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a cognitively disabled 33-year-old man.
Benjy's section is characterized by a highly disjointed narrative style with frequent chronological leaps. The second
section, June 2, 1910, focuses on Quentin Compson, Benjy's older brother, and the events leading up to his suicide.
In the third section, April 6, 1928, Faulkner writes from the point of view of Jason, Quentin's cynical younger
brother. In the fourth and final section, set a day after the first, on April 8, 1928, Faulkner introduces a third person
omniscient point of view. The last section primarily focuses on Dilsey, one of the Compson's black servants. Jason is
also a focus in the section, but Faulkner presents glimpses of the thoughts and deeds of everyone in the family.
The reader may also wish to look in The Portable Faulkner for a four-page history of the Compson family. Faulkner
said afterwards that he wished he had written the history at the same time he wrote The Sound and the Fury.[2]
Part 1: April 7, 1928
The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, a source of shame to the family due to his
diminished mental capacity; the only characters who evidence a genuine care for him are Caddy, his older sister; and
Dilsey, a matriarchal servant. His narrative voice is characterized predominantly by its nonlinearity: spanning the
period 1898–1928, Benjy's narrative is a series of non-chronological events presented in a stream of consciousness.
The presence of italics in Benjy's section is meant to indicate significant shifts in the narrative. Originally Faulkner
meant to use different colored inks to signify chronological breaks. This nonlinearity makes the style of this section
particularly challenging, but Benjy's style develops a cadence that, while not chronologically coherent, provides
unbiased insight into many characters' true motivations. Moreover, Benjy's caretaker changes to indicate the time
period: Luster in the present, T.P. in Benjy's teenage years, and Versh during Benjy's infancy and childhood.
In this section we see Benjy's three passions: fire, the golf course on land that used to belong to the Compson family,
and his sister Caddy. But by 1928 Caddy has been banished from the Compson home after her husband divorced her
because her child was not his, and the family has sold his favorite pasture to a local golf club in order to finance
Quentin's Harvard education. In the opening scene, Benjy, accompanied by Luster, a servant boy, watches golfers on
the nearby golf course as he waits to hear them call "caddie"—the name of his favorite sibling. When one of them
calls for his golf caddie, Benjy's mind embarks on a whirlwind course of memories of his sister, Caddy, focusing on
one critical scene. In 1898 when their grandmother died, the four Compson children were forced to play outside
during the funeral. In order to see what was going on inside, Caddy climbed a tree in the yard, and while looking
inside, her brothers—Quentin, Jason and Benjy—looked up and noticed that her underwear was muddy. This is
Benjy's first memory, and he associates Caddy with trees throughout the rest of his arc, often saying that she smells
like trees. Other crucial memories in this section are Benjy's change of name (from Maury, after his uncle) in 1900
upon the discovery of his disability; the marriage and divorce of Caddy (1910), and Benjy's castration, resulting from
an attack on a girl that is alluded to briefly within this chapter when a gate is left unlatched and Benjy is out
unsupervised.
Readers often report trouble understanding this portion of the novel due to its impressionistic language necessitated
by Benjamin's mental abilities, and its frequent shifts in time and setting.
Part 2: June 2, 1910
Quentin, the most intelligent and tormented of the Compson children, gives the novel's best example of Faulkner's
narrative technique. We see him as a freshman at Harvard, wandering the streets of Cambridge, contemplating death,
and remembering his family's estrangement from his sister Caddy. Like the first section, its narrative is not strictly
linear, though the two interweaving threads, of Quentin at Harvard on the one hand, and of his memories on the
other, are clearly discernible.
Quentin's main obsession is Caddy's virginity and purity. He is obsessed with Southern ideals of chivalry and is
strongly protective of women, especially his sister. When Caddy engages in sexual promiscuity, Quentin is horrified.
He turns to his father for help and counsel, but the pragmatic Mr. Compson tells him that virginity is invented by
men and should not be taken seriously. He also tells Quentin that time will heal all. Quentin spends much of his time
trying to prove his father wrong, but is unable to do so. Shortly before Quentin leaves for Harvard in the fall of 1909,
Caddy becomes pregnant by a lover she is unable to identify, perhaps Dalton Ames, whom Quentin confronts. The
two fight, with Quentin losing disgracefully and Caddy vowing, for Quentin's sake, never to speak to Dalton again.
Quentin tells his father that they have committed incest, but his father knows that he is lying: "and he did you try to
make her do it and i i was afraid to i was afraid she might and then it wouldn't do any good" (112). Quentin's idea of
incest is shaped by the idea that, if they "could just have done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell
78
except us" (51), he could protect his sister by joining her in whatever punishment she might have to endure. In his
mind, he feels a need to take responsibility for Caddy's sin.
Pregnant and alone, Caddy then marries Herbert Head, whom Quentin finds repulsive, but Caddy is resolute: she
must marry before the birth of her child. Herbert finds out that the child is not his and sends mother and daughter
away in shame. Quentin's wanderings through Harvard, as he cuts classes, follow the pattern of his heartbreak over
losing Caddy. For instance, he meets a small Italian immigrant girl who speaks no English. Significantly, he calls her
"sister" and spends much of the day trying to communicate with her, and to care for her by finding her home, to no
avail. He thinks sadly of the downfall and squalor of the South after the American Civil War. Tormented by his
conflicting thoughts and emotions, Quentin commits suicide by drowning.
While many first-time readers report Benjy's section as being difficult to understand, these same readers often find
Quentin's section to be near-impossible. Not only do chronological events mesh together regularly, but often
(especially at the end) Faulkner completely disregards any semblance of grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead
writing in a rambling series of words, phrases, and sentences that have no separation to indicate where one thought
ends and another begins. This confusion is due to Quentin's severe depression and deteriorating state of mind, and
Quentin is therefore arguably an even more unreliable narrator than his brother Benjy. Because of the staggering
complexity of this section, it is often the one most extensively studied by scholars of the novel.
The third section is narrated by Jason, the third child and Caroline's favorite. It takes place the day before Benjy's
section, on Good Friday. Of the three brothers' sections, Jason's is the most straightforward, reflecting his
single-minded desire for material wealth. By 1928, Jason is the economic foundation of the family after his father's
death. He supports his mother, Benjy, and Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter), as well as the family's servants. His role
makes him bitter and cynical, with little of the passionate sensitivity that mark his older brother and sister. He goes
so far as to blackmail Caddy into making him Miss Quentin's sole guardian, then uses that role to steal the support
payments that Caddy sends for her daughter.
This is the first section that is narrated in a linear fashion. It follows the course of Good Friday, a day in which Jason
decides to leave work to search for Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter), who has run away again, seemingly in pursuit
of mischief. Here we see most immediately the conflict between the two predominant traits of the Compson family,
which Jason's mother Caroline attributes to the difference between her blood and her husband's: on the one hand,
Miss Quentin's recklessness and passion, inherited from her grandfather and, ultimately, the Compson side; on the
other, Jason's ruthless cynicism, drawn from his mother's side. This section also gives us the clearest image of
domestic life in the Compson household, which for Jason and the servants means the care of the hypochondriac
Caroline and of Benjy.
April 8, 1928, is Easter Sunday. This section, the only one without a single first-person narrator, focuses on Dilsey,
the powerful matriarch of the black family servants. She, in contrast to the declining Compsons, draws a great deal
of strength from her faith, standing as a proud figure amid a dying family.
On this Easter Sunday, Dilsey takes her family and Benjy to the 'colored' church. Through her we sense the
consequences of the decadence and depravity in which the Compsons have lived for decades. Dilsey is mistreated
and abused, but nevertheless remains loyal. She, with the help of her grandson Luster, cares for Benjy, as she takes
him to church and tries to bring him to salvation. The preacher's sermon inspires her to weep for the Compson
family, reminding her that she's seen the family through its destruction, which she is now witnessing.
Meanwhile, the tension between Jason and Miss Quentin reaches its inevitable conclusion. The family discovers that
Miss Quentin has run away in the middle of the night with a carnival worker, having found the hidden collection of
cash in Jason's closet and taken both her money (the support from Caddy, which Jason had stolen) and her
79
money-obsessed uncle's life savings. Jason calls the police and tells them that his money has been stolen, but since it
would mean admitting embezzling Quentin's money he doesn't press the issue. He therefore sets off once again to
find her on his own, but loses her trail in nearby Mottson, and gives her up as gone for good.
After church, Dilsey allows her grandson Luster to drive Benjy in the family's decrepit horse and carriage to the
graveyard. Luster, disregarding Benjy's set routine, drives the wrong way around a monument. Benjy's hysterical
sobbing and violent outburst can only be quieted by Jason, who understands how best to placate his brother. Jason
slaps Luster, turns the carriage around, and, in attempt to quieten Benjy, hits Benjy, breaking his flower, whilst
screaming "Shut up!". After Jason gets off the carriage and Luster heads home, Benjy suddenly becomes silent.
Luster turns around to look at Benjy and sees Benjy holding his drooping flower. Benjy's eyes are "...empty and blue
and serene again.".
Appendix: Compson: 1699–1945
In 1945, Faulkner wrote an appendix to the novel to be published in the then-forthcoming anthology The Portable
Faulkner. At Faulkner's behest, however, subsequent printings of The Sound and the Fury frequently contain the
appendix at the end of the book; it is sometimes referred to as the fifth part. Having been written sixteen years after
The Sound and the Fury, the appendix presents some textual differences from the novel, but serves to clarify the
novel's opaque story.
The appendix is presented as a complete history of the Compson family lineage, beginning with the arrival of their
ancestor Quentin Maclachlan in America in 1779 and continuing through 1945, including events that transpired after
the novel (which took place in 1928). In particular, the appendix reveals that Caroline Compson died in 1933, upon
which Jason had Benjy committed to the state asylum; fired the black servants; sold the last of the Compson land;
and moved into an apartment above his farming supply store. It is also revealed that Jason had himself declared
Benjy's legal guardian many years ago, without their mother's knowledge, and used this status to have Benjy
castrated.
The appendix also reveals the fate of Caddy, last seen in the novel when her daughter Quentin is still a baby. After
marrying and divorcing a second time, Caddy moved to Paris, where she lived at the time of the German occupation.
In 1943 the librarian of Yoknapatawpha County discovered a magazine photograph of Caddy in the company of a
German staff general and attempted separately to recruit both Jason and Dilsey to save her; Jason, at first
acknowledging that the photo was of his sister, denied that it was she after realizing the librarian wanted his help,
while Dilsey pretended to be unable to see the picture at all. The librarian later realizes that while Jason remains cold
and unsympathetic towards Caddy, Dilsey simply understands that Caddy neither wants nor needs to be saved from
the Germans, because nothing else remains for her.
The appendix concludes with an accounting for the black family who worked as servants to the Compsons. Unlike
the entries for the Compsons themselves, which are lengthy, detailed, and told with an omniscient narrative
perspective, the servants' entries are simple and succinct. Dilsey's entry, the final in the appendix, consists of two
words: "They endured."
80
Characters
See also: Compson Family
• Jason Compson III – father of the Compson family, a lawyer who attended the University of the South: a
nihilistic thinker and alcoholic, with cynical opinions that torment his son, Quentin. He also narrates several
chapters of Absalom, Absalom!.
• Caroline Bascomb Compson – wife of Jason Compson III: a self-absorbed neurotic who has never shown
affection for any of her children except Jason, whom she seems to like only because he takes after her side of the
family. In her old age she has become an abusive hypochondriac.
• Quentin Compson III – the oldest Compson child: passionate and neurotic, he commits suicide as the tragic
culmination of the damaging influence of his father's nihilistic philosophy and his inability to cope with his
sister's sexual promiscuity. He is also a character in Absalom, Absalom!. The bridge over the Charles River, where
he commits suicide in the novel, bears a plaque to commemorate the character's life and death.
• Candace "Caddy" Compson – the second Compson child, strong-willed yet caring. Benjy's only real caregiver
and Quentin's best friend. According to Faulkner, the true hero of the novel. Caddy never develops a voice, but
rather allows her brothers' emotions towards her to develop her character.
• Jason Compson IV – the bitter, racist third child who is troubled by monetary debt and sexual frustration. He
works at a farming goods store owned by a man named Earl and becomes head of the household in 1912. Has
been embezzling Miss Quentin's support payments for years.
• Benjamin ("Benjy", born 'Maury) Compson – the mentally disabled fourth child, who is a constant source of
shame and grief for his family, especially his mother, who insisted on his name change to Benjamin. Caddy is the
only family member who shows any genuine love towards him. Has an almost animal-like "sixth sense" about
people, as he was able to tell that Caddy had lost her virginity just from her smell. The model for Benjy's
character may have had its beginning in the 1925 New Orleans Times Picayune sketch by Faulkner entitled "The
Kingdom of God".
• Dilsey Gibson – the matriarch of the servant family, which includes her three children—Versh, Frony, and
T.P.—and her grandchild Luster (Frony's son); they serve as Benjamin's caretakers throughout his life. An
observer of the Compson family's destruction.
• Miss Quentin Compson – daughter of Caddy who goes to live with the Compsons under Jason IV's care when
Herbert divorces Caddy. She is very wild and promiscuous, and eventually runs away from home. Often referred
to as Quentin II or Miss Quentin by readers to distinguish her from her uncle, for whom she was named.
Style and structure
The four parts of the novel relate many of the same episodes, each from a different point of view and therefore with
emphasis on different themes and events. This interweaving and nonlinear structure makes any true synopsis of the
novel difficult, especially since the narrators are all unreliable in their own way, making their accounts not
necessarily trustworthy at all times. Also in this novel, Faulkner uses italics to indicate points in each section where
the narrative is moving into a significant moment in the past. The use of these italics can be confusing, however, as
time shifts are not always marked by the use of italics, and periods of different time in each section do not
necessarily stay in italics for the duration of the flashback. Thus, these time shifts can often be jarring and confusing,
and require particularly close reading.
81
Title
The title of the novel is taken from Macbeth's famous soliloquy of act 5, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth:
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Immediately obvious is the notion of a "tale told by an idiot", in this case Benjy, whose view of the Compsons' story
opens the novel. The idea can be extended also to Quentin and Jason, whose narratives display their own varieties of
idiocy. More to the point, the novel recounts the decline and death of a traditional upper-class Southern family, "the
way to dusty death". The last line is, perhaps, the most meaningful; Faulkner said in his speech upon being awarded
the Nobel Prize in Literature that people must write about things that come from the heart, "universal truths."
Otherwise they signify nothing.
Reception
The novel has achieved great critical success and a prominent place among the greatest of American novels. It
played a role in William Faulkner's receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.
It is near-unanimously considered a masterpiece by scholars and professors, but the novel's unconventional narrative
style very frequently alienates novice readers. Although the vocabulary is generally accessible, the frequent switches
in time and setting, as well as the occasional lack of regard for sentence structure grammar have proven it to be a
difficult read -- even for many fans of Faulkner.
Literary significance
The Sound and the Fury is a widely influential work of literature. Faulkner has been praised for his ability to recreate
the thought process of the human mind. In addition, it is viewed as an essential development in the
stream-of-consciousness literary technique. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Sound and the Fury sixth on its
list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Adaptation
• A film adaptation was released in 1959 directed by Martin Ritt and starring Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward,
Margaret Leighton, Stuart Whitman, Ethel Waters, Jack Warden, and Albert Dekker. The movie bears little
resemblance to the novel.
82
Limited edition
In 2012, The Folio Society released an edition, limited to 1480 copies, of The Sound and the Fury. This edition is the
first to use colored ink to represent different time sequences for the first section of the novel. This limited edition is
also sold with a special commentary volume edited by Faulkner scholars Stephen Ross and Noel Polk. According to
The Folio Society, "We can never know if this [edition] is exactly what Faulkner would have envisaged, but the
result justifies his belief that coloured inks would allow readers to follow the strands of the novel more easily,
without compromising the ‘thought-transference’ for which he argued so passionately." [3]
Notes
[1] http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 21525355
[2] http:/ / drc. usask. ca/ projects/ faulkner/ main/ criticism/ cohen. html
[3] "The Sound and the Fury; Folio Society Limited Edition" (http:/ / www. foliosociety. com/ book/ SAF/ sound-and-the-fury)
Further reading
• Anderson, Deland (1990). "Through Days of Easter: Time and Narrative in The Sound and the Fury". Literature
and Theology 4 (3): 311–24. doi: 10.1093/litthe/4.3.311 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/litthe/4.3.311).
• Bleikasten, André. The Ink of Melancholy: Faulkner's Novels from The Sound and the Fury to Light in August.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990.
• Bleikasten, André. The Most Splendid Failure: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Bloomington: Indiana UP,
1976.
• Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country. New Haven: Yale UP, 1963.
• Castille, Philip D. (1992). "Dilsey's Easter Conversion in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Studies in the
Novel 24: 423–33.
• Cowan, Michael H., ed. Twentieth century interpretations of The sound and the fury: a collection of critical
essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
• Dahill-Baue, William (1996). "Insignificant Monkeys: Preaching Black English in Faulkner's The Sound and the
Fury and Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved". Mississippi Quarterly 49: 457–73.
• Davis, Thadious M. Faulkner's "Negro": Art and the Southern Context. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1983.
• Fleming, Robert E. (1992). "James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones as a Source for Faulkner's Rev'un
Shegog". CLA Journal 36: 24–30.
• Gunn, Giles. "Faulkner's Heterodoxy: Faith and Family in The Sound and the Fury". Faulkner and Religion:
Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1989. Ed. Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1991.
44–64.
• Hagood, Taylor, ed. (2014). The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. Critical Insights. Ipswich, MA: Salem
Press.
• Hagopian, John V. (1967). "Nihilism in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Modern Fiction Studies 13: 45–55.
• Hein, David (2005). "The Reverend Mr. Shegog's Easter Sermon: Preaching as Communion in Faulkner's The
Sound and the Fury". Mississippi Quarterly 58: 559–80.
• Howe, Irving. William Faulkner: A Critical Study. 3d ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1975.
• Kartiganer, Donald M. The Fragile Thread: The Meaning of Form in Faulkner's Novels. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1979.
• Marshall, Alexander J., III. "The Dream Deferred: William Faulkner's Metaphysics of Absence". Faulkner and
Religion: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1989. Ed. Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of
Mississippi, 1991. 177–192.
• Matthews, John T. The Play of Faulkner's Language. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1982.
• Matthews, John T. The Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost Cause. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
83
• Palumbo, Donald (1979). "The Concept of God in Faulkner's Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay
Dying, and Absalom, Absalom!". South Central Bulletin 34: 142–46.
• Polk, Noel. "Trying Not to Say: A Primer on the Language of The Sound and the Fury". New Essays on The
Sound and the Fury. Ed. Noel Polk. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. 139–175.
• Radloff, Bernhard (1986). "The Unity of Time in The Sound and the Fury". The Faulkner Journal 1: 56–68.
• Rosenberg, Bruce A. (1969). "The Oral Quality of Rev. Shegog's Sermon in William Faulkner's The Sound and
the Fury". Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 2: 73–88.
• Ross, Stephen M. Fiction's Inexhaustible Voice: Speech and Writing in Faulkner. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1989.
• Ross, Stephen M., and Noel Polk. Reading Faulkner: "The Sound and the Fury". Jackson: UP of Mississippi,
1996.
• Sartre, Jean-Paul. Patrick J. Hoffmann & Olga W. Vickery, ed. William Faulkner; Three Decades of Criticism
(http://lavachequilit.typepad.com/files/time-space-faulkner-sartre.pdf). New York: Harcourt. pp. 225–233.
• Tredell, Nicholas, ed. (1999). William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying (http://books.google.
com/?id=WV8b1JoaLN8C&pg=PA7&dq=faulkner+sound+fury+sundquist#v=onepage&q=faulkner sound
fury sundquist&f=false) (First ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12189-7. Retrieved
August 28, 2009.
• Sundquist, Eric J. Faulkner: The House Divided. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1983.
• Urgo, Joseph R. "A Note on Reverend Shegog's Sermon in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". NMAL: Notes on
Modern American Literature 8.1 (1984): item 4.
• Vickery, Olga W. The Novels of William Faulkner: A Critical Interpretation. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP,
1964.
External links
•
•
•
•
Hypertext edition of The Sound and the Fury (http://www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/)
The Sound and the Fury: A Study Guide (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/Sound.html#Top)
Cliffs Notes (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Sound-and-the-Fury.id-125.html)
A comprehensive guide to Faulkner (http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/faulkner.html),
including chronologically organized breakdowns of Benjy and Quentin's sections.
• The Sound and the Fury (http://www.shmoop.com/sound-and-the-fury/) study guide, teaching guide, themes,
quotes
• William Faulkner quotes (http://www.yenra.com/quotations/faulkner-william.html)
• Book Drum illustrated profile of The Sound and the Fury (http://www.bookdrum.com/books/
the-sound-and-the-fury/9780099475019/index.html)
Preceded by
Novels set in Yoknapatawpha County Succeeded by
Sartoris or Flags in the Dust
As I Lay Dying
84
A Mercy
85
A Mercy
A Mercy
1st US edition
Author
Toni Morrison
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Novel
Publisher
Knopf
Publication date 11 November 2008
Media type
Print (Hardback, large print), unabridged audio CD, audiobook download, eBook
Pages
176 pp (Hardcover edition)
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-307-26423-7
OCLC
212855125
Dewey Decimal
813/.54 22
LC Class
PS3563.O8749 M47 2008
Preceded by
Love
[1]
A Mercy is Toni Morrison's 9th novel. It was published in 2008. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of
slavery in early America. It is both the story of mothers and daughters and the story of a primitive America. It made
the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008" as chosen by the paper's editors. In Fall 2010 it
was chosen for One Book, One Chicago program.[2]
Synopsis
Florens, a slave, lives and works on Jacob Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American and fellow laborer
on the Vaark farm, relates in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a smallpox plague
that destroyed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekka describes leaving England on a ship for the new world to be married
to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark accepts a young
Florens from a debtor in the hopes that this new addition to the farm will help alleviate Rebekka's loneliness. Vaark,
himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia,
commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.
All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in a new and alien environment filled with danger
and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekka's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman
who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous, ultimately proving to be the turning point
in her life.
Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various
religious practices of the time, and showing the relationship between men and women in early America that often
ended in female victimization. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us."
As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison often describes their progress in Biblical cadences, and
by the end of this novel, the reader understands the significance of the title, "a mercy."
A Mercy
Reviews
• Updike, John (3 November 2008). "Dreamy Wilderness: Unmastered Women in Colonial Virginia" [3]. The New
Yorker 38 (35): 112–113. Archived [4] from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ oclc/ 212855125
(http:/ / www. chipublib. org/ eventsprog/ programs/ oboc/ 10f_mercy/ oboc_10f_greeting. php), One Book, One Chicago.
http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ arts/ critics/ books/ 2008/ 11/ 03/ 081103crbo_books_updike
http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20090514024121/ http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ arts/ critics/ books/ 2008/ 11/ 03/
081103crbo_books_updike?
External links
• Publisher's page (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307264237)
• Interview on the book (http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/28/books/1194834031847/
a-conversation-with-toni-morrison.html)
• Analysis of A Mercy on Lit React (http://www.litreact.com/reactions/a mercy_morrison_conejos.html)
86
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Tao Te Ching - Brilliant Minds

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