Far Away and Long Ago
The Sinner of Saint Ambrose. By Robert Raynolds. (Secker & Warburg. 15s.) Or the three historical novels for review this week, the best is the one with the least promising subject. Mr. George Baker's The Last Shore retells the story of the Trojan War. He has already written a trilogy on the subject from the Trojan point of view; now he takes the Achaean side. To write a book of this kind would seem to be a self-inflicted punishment, because the author is necessarily inviting his reader to compare his work with the Iliad and Odyssey, and the story is so well-known that it must be difficult to create the necessary feeling of suspense. Yet Mr. Baker's success is complete. Homer is forgotten, and .a number of clever devices keep the reader from guessing what is going to happen next. Very often there is something chilling. about paraphrases of classical legends—too much white drapery and marble, too many perfectly chiselled faces and•limbs. But Mr. Baker's Homeric Greece sounds both attractive and believable.
The hero of the tale is a young man called Dictys, son of the King of Taurica, who arrives at Nauplia, the port of Mycenae, in search of his half-sister, Hypsipyle. Many years before, she had been separated from her family as the result of a series of astounding events of the kind that abound in Greek mythology. After making enquiries at Mycenae, Prince Dictys eventually traces Hypsipyle to Sparta, only to find that she has died there, leaving behind a daughter, named Melina. This part of the story is soon done with, and merely serves to introduce the reader to the principal characters at the courts of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Once back in Mycenae, Dictys falls in love with 1phigenia. But although Agamemnon likes him, neither he nor Clytemnestra regards the young man as a good enough match for their daughter. Their hopes settle first on Paris, who arrives on a state visit. Then, Paris having eloped with Helen, they choose Achilles. But the outbreak of war quickly puts an end to their matrimonial schemes, and when the Greek forces are held .fog- bound at Aulis, and Artemis demands a sacrifice, an end—at least temporarily-is put to Iphigenia. To say more would spoil Mr. Baker's most skilful effects.
The setting of The Emperor is India in the seventeenth century. This is the sequel to Mr. Payne's The Great Mogul, in which he described the adventures of Stephen Taverner, an Englishman, at the court of Shah Jehan, who built the Taj Mahal. Taverner became the prince's friend and favourite, was created Khan, and married a Persian princess. The Emperor, which opens with Taverner living in retirement in his palace on the banks of the Jumna, covers the latter part of Shah Jehan's reign. This reign, which was the high point of Mogul civilisation in India, had a tragic ending. While the Emperor was still in his sixties .a feud started between his four sons, Dara, Shuja, Aurangzeb, and Murad, over the succession to the Empire. Aurangzeb, a cold, treacherous character and outwardly a strict Moslem, won the backing of the ruling cast. Having fought his brother Dara through a number of campaigns, he eventually defeated him and put him to death, and then imprisoned his father, Shah Jehan, for the last eight years of his life in the fort at Agra.
Mr. Payne has, simplified the story by leaving out the two less important brothers, Shuja and Murad, and concentrating on the major pair. More than half the novel describes the growing tension between them. Attempts are made to murder Taverner. Spies are found lurking in his palace. At a public audience a scorpion is flung at the emperor. Signs and portents multiply. A party is given for Aurangzeb at which a mysterious fakir makes an elephant disappear. A royal princess is almost burned to death when she runs into a trip wire which pulls a lighted candle against her dress. Gradually the atmosphere of suspicion and dread is intensified, though perhaps the effect would have been greater if this part had not been drawn out so long. With the—outbreak of war, Mr. Payne comes into his own. His strength lies in description. Without indulging in purple passages, he makes the splendour of the Mogul court vivid and real. But he is even better at describing scenes of action. Battles are particularly difficult to make interesting or intelligible. The description of Dara's defeat could stand comparison with some famous passages of this kind in fiction.
Mr. Payne is less successful at drawing characters. Dara is very much the dreamy oriental of convention, and Taverner's wife, Meriam, though charming, is like an attractive French woman. At the beginning of the book, Shah Jehan is shown as nionstrously cruel to Taverner, having him shut up in a room while a rajah is beaten to death next door, yet in spite of this we are told that Taverner loved him, and later the emperor is portrayed as aloveable old grandfather. Aurangzeb's behaviour at the end is also out of character. He would hardly have pardoned Taverner after Taverner had insulted him to his face. There was not as yet a British fleet in the Indian Ocean tb safeguard Englishmen who behaved in such a temerarious or foolhardy way. With The Sinner of Saint Ambrose we are back in the ancient world again, but this time at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. Mr. Raynold's novel, which has already been pub- lished in America, is in the vein of Quo Vadis, and Its hero enjoys the best of all worlds. He has a riotous youth, knows all the interesting and powerful people of his age, and ends as a good Christian. The author writes with obvious enjoyment of his subject. His heart is in it, so it is not surprising that his book has been a best-seller.
PHILIP TROWE R.
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