 |
A VERY ENGLISH AGENT
Julian Rathbone. Abacus, $13.95 (437p) ISBN 0-349-11508-7
A work of literary devilry painted in masterful strokes, Rathbone's latest is the tale of Charlie Boylan, a dwarf who claims to have been agent 003 for the English
government in the 19th century. Utilizing multiple points of view and a number of literary devices (sometimes narrated from Charlie's written accounts, other times from characters' direct consciousness) the novel follows Boylan's attempts to establish the legitimacy of his claims in order to secure a "modest pension"
from the English government. His tale details his attempts on behalf of the government to assassinate would-be revolutionaries, including orchestrating the drowning of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Boylan's detailed recollections of living in Italy with Mary and Percy Shelley, in the role of a deaf-mute (arriving during one of Mary Shelley's near-fatal miscarriages and helping Shelley come up with rhymes for Percy's "The Triumph of Life") count as dramatic and comical highlights in a book with many such moments. Rathbone is a writer of considerable skill and insight, combining the sardonic wit of Flann O'Brian with the multi-layered trickery of Nabokov. The novel begins with the image of a butterfly - an homage to the lepidoptera-crazed Nabokov - and mimics the multi-textual conceits of
Pale Fire from the first sentence, where the author inserts a footnote to clarify the accuracy of what he simultaneously admits is "a work of
fiction." An historical novel as well as a work of high literary accomplishment, the book makes references to the advent of "a new system of deferred payment" (credit), public lavatories
and the bowler hat. The central question of the novel, however, remains the most intriguing: Are the would-be 003's accounts real, or the product of Charlie's desire to receive money from the government? The reader is left with more questions than answers. But then, sorting fact from fantasy in this book is half the fun. |
|