A rich (of course), good-looking (of course) young American boy spends a year in Italy, Egypt and France, mingling with the cream of decadent society. He encounters three women: Regina (Latin for Queen, standing in for the Queen of Olympus) who tempts him with thoughts of political power, Sophie (Greek for Wisdom) who is into amateur archaeology and, from her name alone, tempts him with wisdom, and Anna who is very lovely. Guess who he chooses! In Paris! This concept reminded me very much of a chapter ('The Judgement of Bally') in my novel Bally and Bro in which my (poor, good-looking) eponymous hero has to choose between June (aka Juno) who offers him riches, Sophie who offers to teach him, and lovely Helen who offers him a shag. Guess who he chooses!
Young Philip spends most of his time at parties being wooed by both men (Europe appears to be crammed with homosexuals) and women. Some of the happenings are weird, such as the enormously obese man who wants to die and the detective novelist who agrees to try and murder him, and the English/ Welsh Lord (there seems to be some confusion here) who enlists Philip in a conspiracy to restore the royal house of Savoy to the Italian throne, and later tries to enlist him in a quasi-religious cult worshipping a hermaphrodite. It's not just funny peculiar, there are also a few funny haha moments. But all this fun isn't enough to leaven the dough of politics and philosophy and posturing in Philip's endless discussions with his playmates. There were more than a few bits I scan-read; towards the end I skipped whole paragraphs.
The trouble is that Vidal is extraordinarily learned and he doesn't want to waste any opportunities to demonstrate his learning: "The perfect pearl of the Renaissance was misshapen by a rigid manner and the baroque was born of that tension between nature and artifice. Philip wondered if he would have the opportunity to tell Mr Norman that the word baroquie came from the Spanish word barocco which meant a misshapen pearl." (Ch 1) Philip never gets the chance ... but Vidal won't waste it.
It is conventionally written in the third person past tense; there are moments when the author's own voice intrudes, such as: "Part of the pleasure one gets from reading novels is the inevitable moment when the hero beds the heroine or, in certain advanced and decadent works, the hero beds another hero in an infernal glow of impropriety." (Ch 3)
I've read and adored a number of Gore Vidal novels. I love his historical novels: the series starting Burr and continuing with Lincoln, Empire and Washington DC. His Roman novel Julian is also great. I have been less impressed by The City and the Pillar and Myra Breckinridge, and the apocalyptic Kalki has moments of great silliness. This is my least favourite. Mostly boring and pompous.
Selected quotes:
- "His body ... was well-formed and greatly admired by the not inconsiderable company which had, at one time or another (and on some occasions at the same time) enjoyed it." (Ch 1)
- "He could scuttle the bark of others with some torpedo of esoterica ... it was he knew the surest way to total unpopularity in a pretentious age." (Ch 1)
- "'I want to look nice,' he added simply, expressing his philosophy in five words." (Ch 1)
- "For young men ... the body ... gives no trouble and, served properly, can be the best of all possible toys." (Ch 3)
- "Her face was lifted once a year until now it was almost totally expressionless, as though fixed for all time by some Medusa, in a mood mid-way between surprise and doubt." (Ch 4)
- "He did things to a soft-poached egg which Philip never wanted to see done again." (Ch 8)
October 2023; 316 pages
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