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Under the Lilacs
1877 Mephistopheles RobertsBros NoNameSeries
"No Name Series" edition of A Modern Mephistopheles
AuthorLouisa May Alcott
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRoberts Brothers.
Publication date
1877
Publication placeUnited States

A Modern Mephistopheles is a gothic thriller[1] published by the Roberts Brothers in 1877 and written by Louisa May Alcott. As part of the No Name Series, its authorship remained anonymous until 1889 when it was printed alongside Alcott's A Whisper in the Dark. It is based on Goethe's Faust and contains stylistic elements Alcott used when she wrote under the name A. M. Barnard. The novel follows Felix Canaris and Gladys, two young people whose lives are manipulated by a wealthy semi-invalid Jasper Helwyze. Under Helwyze's direction, Canaris and Gladys marry. Helwyze seeks to undermine their relationship in order to learn about human psychology. Gladys and Canaris eventually overcome Helwyze's influence on them.

A Modern Mephistopheles received critical and positive reviews in its early publication. It was noted for its discussions on psychology as well as its symbolism in the characters. Newspaper reviews claimed it was unpleasant to read while acknowledging that parts of it were interesting. A Modern Mephistopheles uses Greek myths and art to discuss character relations. It explicitly references The Scarlet Letter, Arthurian legends, and Faust. Analysis of the novel has included femininity and gendered relationships with art. Using her femininity to influence the other characters, Gladys redeems Canaris from Helwyze.

Background

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A Modern Mephistopheles first appeared in the No Name Series, in which readers were meant to guess the authors with authors adopting styles other than their own.[2] Alcott wrote, “This book was very successful in preserving its incognito; and many persons still insist that it could not have been written by the author of ‘Little Women.’”[3] The first edition where Alcott’s name was attached to the book was printed by Roberts Brothers in 1889 in a volume entitled A Modern Mephistopheles, and A Whisper in the Dark, which was a publication of two of Alcott's books.[4]

Alcott came up with the idea for the book after reading Faust and described it as an “[attempt] at something graver than magazine stories or juvenile literature.”[5] In writing the novel Alcott combined elements from A Modern Mephistopheles; or, The Fatal Love Chase and "The Freak of a Genius".[6] Alcott liked the break from writing moral stories for children, preferring instead the style used in sensation novels.[7] In writing A Modern Mephistopheles Alcott drew upon the literary style she used under her early pseudonym A. M. Barnard.[8]

Plot

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Nineteen-year-old Felix Canaris burns his unsuccessful poetry and attempts suicide. His attempt is interrupted by the arrival of a stranger named Jasper Helwyze. Helwyze, hearing of Canaris's situation, decides to intervene. He invites Canaris to become the secretary of his personal library. There, Helwyze offers to help Canaris by writing the poems himself and publishing them under Canaris's name. This gives him the ability to control Canaris by threatening to reveal the true authorship.

One year later, Canaris talks in the garden with Gladys, who expresses her interest in the now-published poetry. Even though Canaris is famous, he feels his fame is insufficient. He explains to Gladys that Helwyze lived successfully until he fell and received a debilitating injury; as a result of his injury, his fiancee married someone else. Helwyze still suffers the effects of his fall. In turn, Gladys explains that she lives with Helwyze's former fiancee, Olivia Surry. Meanwhile, Helwyze suggests to Olivia that they encourage Canaris to marry Gladys. Helwyze intervenes in Canaris's and Gladys's lives in order to learn about human nature and psychology.[9] When Helwyze encourages him to marry, Canaris says he wants to wait. Helwyze threatens to discontinue mentoring him, and Canaris agrees to marry. Even though Helwyze wants Canaris to marry Gladys, Canaris wants to marry Olivia. They decide that if Olivia refuses his love, Helwyze can do what he wants with him. While Canaris declares his love to Olivia, Gladys visits Helwyze and mentions she will have to leave Olivia; Helwyze offers to take her in if she nurses him in his semi-invalid state.

Rejected by Olivia, Canaris turns to courting Gladys. Again he expresses that he does not wish to marry her, so Helwyze says he will discontinue mentoring Canaris and marry her himself. Canaris becomes jealous and decides to marry Gladys. When they return from their honeymoon, he begins writing again and Gladys becomes Helwyze's companion. He enjoys her company and attempts to distract her from her devotion to Canaris as well as her Christian beliefs. Later, Gladys finds that Canaris is ready to destroy his book and she convinces him to publish it.

After Helwyze's book is published under Canaris's name, Canaris is again famous and spends most of his time in society. Gladys discovers that he has been gambling, and when she brings it up to him they decide to spend more time together in hopes of reducing Helwyze's influence on them. Helwyze becomes jealous of the couple. At his bidding, Olivia returns to distract Canaris from his newly-found love for Gladys. Because Gladys refuses to express her disappointment, Helwyze secretly gives her hashish. After Gladys and Olivia act out sections from Idylls of the King, Gladys succumbs to the hashish and falls asleep. While she sleeps, Helwyze puts her into a trance and questions her, finding out that she fears his love and desires his death.

Canaris again devotes himself to Gladys but maintains a friendship with Olivia. When Olivia finds out Gladys is pregnant, she confesses that her interactions with Canaris were for personal enjoyment, then suggests the couple take a trip to get away from Helwyze. Later, Helwyze attempts to get Gladys to doubt her husband's fidelity, and she asks him to stop. After she and Canaris get back from their trip, Helwyze is ill. Canaris overhears Helwyze trying to influence Gladys's feelings toward her husband. He wants to murder Helwyze, but Gladys stops him and Canaris reveals that Helwyze wrote all of his books. Shortly after, Gladys delivers her baby and both die; Canaris blames himself for their deaths. Meanwhile, Helwyze is dying and Canaris resolves to make an honest living.

Reception

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Godey’s Lady’s Book guessed that the book was written by a female with little experience who later “may make her mark.”[10] Additional newspapers such as The Commonwealth and North American Review guessed that the author was a woman.[11] Other guesses as to the book's authorship included Julian Hawthorne,[12] Harriet Prescott Spofford,[13] and Louisa May Alcott.[14] Upon discovering the authorship, Public Opinion expressed surprise, writing that the style differed from what she typically used but that the "tone...and lofty moral purpose" were unchanged.[15]

The Daily Evening Traveller wrote about similarities between Alcott’s and Hawthorne’s characters, noting that Alcott’s were “only inferior…in psychological depiction.”[16] Springfield Daily Republican predicted it would not sell well and called it “a disagreeable story” with “a certain degree of interest.”[17] The Boston Courier predicted that it would be popular among the No Name Series.[18] Hartford Daily Courant described it as "strange, mythical, and unsatisfactory" and The Woman’s Journal called it “thrilling, weird, and intense”.[19] According to Madeleine B. Stern, Alcott was more satisfied with A Modern Mephistopheles than the general public was.[20]

Intertextuality

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Faust and The Scarlet Letter

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Rena Sanderson analyzes Alcott's mentions of Faust, Greek tragedies, and Dante in chapter one as symbolic of Canaris's character fall.[21] Alcott's continued references to Greek myths, Faust, and King Arthur legends deal with a woman's point of view.[22] It also includes references to and analysis of The Scarlet Letter in a conversation between Gladys and Helwyze. Elbert compares Gladys, Canaris, and Helwyze to Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, respectively.[23]

A Modern Mephistopheles begins with a section from Faust[24] that reads, "The Indescribable, / Here it is done: / The woman-soul leadeth us / Upward and on!"[25] Helwyze is compared to Mephistopheles, Olivia to Margaret, Canaris to Faust, and Gladys to Margaret, or Gretchen.[26] As in Faust, A Modern Mephistopheles contains "the tempter, the temptation, [and] the tempted one."[27]

Greek mythology

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Helwyze calls Canaris and Gladys Ganymede and Hebe.[28] He also calls Canaris his "Greek slave," which Elbert explains is an allusion to the Greek Slave statue by Hiram Powers.[29] Keck describes Helwyze and Canaris's relationship as Pygmalionist, where Helwyze is the creator and Canaris is the creation. Helwyze “represents the dualism of mind and matter as well as the confusion between creator and created, subject and object.”[30] Gladys is characterized as Galatea, but her death disconnects her as Helwyze’s creation.[31] This makes the male creators passive.[32]

Analysis

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Femininity

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Blackford, Elbert, Keck, Chapman, and Sanderson analyzed A Modern Mephistopheles in light of femininity in Alcott’s time. Keck explains that the novel takes a Neoplatonic view on female sexuality. Keck argues that Alcott was commenting on women’s place in society at the time.[33] Sanderson discusses Felix as representative of Alcott’s submission to a male-based society and discusses Gladys as representative of Alcott’s autonomy.[21]

Chapman describes Helwyze's influence as "objectifying" and "controlling." Eventually Gladys gains influence over him when she turns his methods onto himself, in which she objectifies and controls him in return.[34] Chapman explains that the first two sections of Idylls of the King that Olivia and Gladys act out relate to the impact of woman's influence on the listeners; the last two sections take "more traditional female roles." Chapman interprets this section of the novel as a critique of women's roles in society in Alcott's time.[35] Blackford and Sanderson write that Gladys’s motherhood is redemptive, in that she gains authority over the other characters and redeems Canaris from the effects of Helwyze’s influence.[36] Elbert explains that Gladys “achieve[s] power” through “moral power in the household.”[37]

Keck noticed a pattern of female suffering and empathy. Suffering is represented in what Keck calls Gladys’s “victimization” throughout the novel.[38] According to Keck, female heroism through suffering is manifest when Gladys asks Canaris to kill off the lady of his romance book instead of the male protagonist. This parallels her own death.[39] Elbert sees Gladys’s death as signifying “control” over her body, taking control away from the other characters.[40] Her death, says Sanderson, reshapes Helwyze’s household. Sanderson points this to female influence.[41] Chapman views Gladys's death as reflective of what was popular in literature at the time.[42]

Relationships with art

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Sanderson argues that in A Modern Mephistopheles Alcott is advocating female creativity in society.[43] Chapman argues that it is “not a celebration of the subtle victory of womanly influence over male vice so much as a mapping out” of how gender roles affect art.[44] The characters, she says, view the creation of art as masculine and art itself as feminine.[45]

Throughout the novel, Gladys is excluded from the making of art, but she eventually exercises power over others with art through her acting.[46] During the play she is an “active artist” and her death at the end of the novel prevents her from becoming passive in art.[47] Gladys, Elbert explains, participates little in writing as an art until she tells Canaris how to end his romance book. Until then she is the audience and not the creator of art.[48]

References

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  1. ^ Chapman 1996, p. 22.
  2. ^ Ullom 1969, pp. 12–13; Cheney 2010, p. 379
  3. ^ Ullom 1969, p. 13; Cheney 2010, p. 379
  4. ^ Ullom 1969, p. 13; Payne 1980, p. 2; Blackford 2011, p. 4
  5. ^ Cheney 2010, pp. 296, 379; Ullom 1969, p. 12
  6. ^ Blackford 2011, p. 4.
  7. ^ Sanderson 1991, pp. 41–42.
  8. ^ Stern 1949, p. 495-496.
  9. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 285–286, 293.
  10. ^ Payne 1980, p. 20.
  11. ^ Clark 2004, p. 286; Payne 1980, p. 20
  12. ^ Payne 1980, p. 20; Clark 2004, pp. 286–288
  13. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 286–289, 291, 293.
  14. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 285–286, 291–293.
  15. ^ Cheney 2010, p. 409.
  16. ^ Clark 2004, p. 285.
  17. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 285–286.
  18. ^ Clark 2004, p. 287.
  19. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 288, 291.
  20. ^ Stern 1949, p. 494.
  21. ^ a b Sanderson 1991, p. 47.
  22. ^ Keck 2016, p. 147.
  23. ^ Elbert 2008, p. 21.
  24. ^ Elbert 2008, pp. 26–27.
  25. ^ Clark 2004, p. 300.
  26. ^ Clark 2004, pp. 287, 289, 293, 299.
  27. ^ Clark 2004, p. 293.
  28. ^ Sanderson 1991, p. 46.
  29. ^ Elbert 2008, pp. 154–155.
  30. ^ Keck 2016, p. 148.
  31. ^ Keck 2016, p. 152.
  32. ^ Elbert 2008, pp. 27–28.
  33. ^ Keck 2016, pp. 151–152.
  34. ^ Chapman 1996, pp. 24–27.
  35. ^ Chapman 1996, pp. 27–29.
  36. ^ Blackford 2011, p. 29; Sanderson 1991, p. 46
  37. ^ Elbert 2008, pp. 25–26.
  38. ^ Keck 2016, p. 153.
  39. ^ Keck 2016, pp. 153–154.
  40. ^ Elbert 2008, p. 23.
  41. ^ Sanderson 1991, p. 49.
  42. ^ Chapman 1996, p. 33.
  43. ^ Sanderson 1991, p. 42.
  44. ^ Chapman 1996, pp. 34–35.
  45. ^ Chapman 1996, p. 23.
  46. ^ Chapman 1996, pp. 31–32.
  47. ^ Elbert 2008, pp. 32–33.
  48. ^ Elbert 2008, p. 25.

Works cited

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  • Chapman, Mary (1996). "Gender and Influence in Louisa May Alcott's A Modern Mephistopheles". Legacy. 13 (1): 19–37 – via JSTOR.
  • Cheney, Edna Dow (2010). Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals. Carlisle, Massachussetts, USA: Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-4290-4460-8.
  • Clark, Beverly Lyon, ed. (2004). "Under the Lilacs (1878)". Louisa May Alcott: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82780-9.
  • Blackford, Holly (2011). "Chasing Amy: Mephistopheles, the Laurence Boy, and Louisa May Alcott's Punishment of Female Ambition". Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies. 32 (3). University of Nebraska Press: 1–40 – via Project MUSE.
  • Elbert, Monika (2008). "Dying to Be Heard: Morality and Aesthetics in Alcott's and Hawthorne's Tableaux Morts". In Dill, Elizabeth; Weinstein, Sheri (eds.). Death Becomes Her : Cultural Narratives of Femininity and Death in Nineteenth-century America. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 19–36. ISBN 9781847185617.
  • Keck, Michaela (2016). "Of Marble Women and Sleeping Nymphs: Louisa May Alcott's A Modern Mephistopheles" (PDF). In Pestell, Ben; Palazzolo, Pietra; Burnett, Leon (eds.). Translating Myth. Oxfordshire, England, UK: Routledge. pp. 144–160. ISBN 978-1-315543-20-8.
  • Payne, Alma J. (1980). Salzman, Jack (ed.). Louisa May Alcott: A Reference Guide. Boston, Massachussetts, USA: G. K. Hall & Co. ISBN 0-8161-8032-6.
  • Sanderson, Rena (1991). "A Modern Mephistopheles: Louisa May Alcott's Exorcism of Patriarchy". American Transcendental Quarterly. 5 (1): 41–55 – via ProQuest.
  • Stern, Madeleine B. (1949). "Louisa M. Alcott: An Appraisal". The New England Quarterly. 22 (4): 475–498 – via JSTOR.
  • Ullom, Judith C., ed. (1969). Louisa May Alcott: An Annotated, Selected Bibliography. Washington, D. C., USA: Library of Congress. pp. 46–49.

Further reading

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  • Stern, Madeleine B. (1984). Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott. Boston, Massachussetts, USA: G. K. Hall & Co. ISBN 0-8161-8686-3.
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