A Christian missionary tries to make converts on the remote island of Fanua, with many amusing results. In the preface to Sylvia Townsend Warner’s 1927 novel, Mr Fortune’s Maggot, the poet and novelist describes a vivid dream. A man stood on an ocean beach, wringing his hands in despair. As soon as she was out of bed, Townsend Warner started writing the dream up as a novel. Timothy Fortune is a former bank clerk, turned Reverend. He gave up his staid employment with the Lloyds Bank to pursue a career converting “heathens” to Christianity. When he arrives on the tropical island of Fanua, he is treated kindly and a pleasant hut is set up for him. The first friend he makes is the young boy Lueli. We don’t know the exact age of Lueli, but presume him to be a youth in his early teens. Mr Fortune quickly becomes devoted to the boy, falling in love with him, a love described as “spiritual”. Lueli has a perfectly simple beauty: “In colour he was an agreeable brown, almost exactly the colour of nutmeg; his hair was thick but not bushy, and he wore it gathered up into a tuft over one ear, in much the same manner as was fashionable at the French Court in the year 1671.” Mr Fortune thinks he has converted Lueli to Christianity, his only convert. But soon he realises this is a delusion, as Lueli, like all the people of the island, have their own personal god they worship. When a volcano erupts on the small island, it causes both trauma and revelation. Lueli loses something, and becomes quite despondent. Mr Fortune loses something too, but gains new insights. The plot of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s second novel sounds like a twee bit of whimsy. A deluded Englishman, a remote Polynesian island and its simple, uncomplicated people existing in a state of rude health. What elevates it is Townsend Warner’s gently witty, poetic language and subtle portraits. In fact, the writing is utterly faultless. The plot unravels in a perfectly natural way, journeying from innocence to experience, with many amusing twists and turns. We laugh at Mr Fortune’s naivety, his misdirected good intentions, but reserve some sympathy as we see our own follies reflected in him. An uncanny story, told in a poetic voice alive with bold imagery and gentle irony. Mr Fortune's Maggot, by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Published by Penguin Modern Classics. $22.99 Comments are closed.
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