The Great Victorian Collection
The Great Victorian Collection is a novel by Brian Moore that was published by Diogenes Verlag in Zurich in 1978. The original came out in 1975 under the title "The Great Victorian Collection" .
A modern fairy tale is told about the last few months in a young man's life. The fairy tale is packaged as a whimsical love story. The sleeping dream of a historian, the author of the dissertation "An investigation of the effects of the establishment of a colonial world empire on the social conventions of Victorian England using the example of the art and architecture of the time" materializes purely "by chance" in a miraculous way. The objects and their descriptions That this man of science has all studied so thoroughly escape his consciousness and become real - a "heroic piece of the art of copying".
action
Dr. Anthony Maloney, the 29-year-old Canadian assistant professor of history at McGill University in Montreal , is flying abroad - to California - for a seminar in Berkeley . Then Tony, as Anthony is called, takes a detour south to the sunny Big Sur region . There, in the artist paradise of Carmel-by-the-Sea , he stays at the Sea Winds Motel. Sleeping through the night in his room, Tony dreams of a Victoriana collection "into life". In this way: When Tony wakes up from his sleep and walks to the window of the room, the collection is in the US motel parking lot like a flea market. Of course, something like that doesn't go unnoticed for long in the US. Local reporter Fred X. Vaterman, with his girlfriend, the underage Mary Ann, is on Tony's heels. Fatherman's message will soon go around the world. Experts arrive, including a very competent one from London - from the Victoria and Albert Museum . The unanimous opinion of the greatest experts who had traveled, especially the General Director of the British Imperial Collections, emerged - the pieces under the subtropical Californian sun cannot be distinguished from the originals in the cooler Old England. What is more, the most careful inspection reveals specimens that must be considered lost; of which at most various succinct descriptions exist.
The marketing of the collection by experts from the east of the USA takes its course and culminates in the Great Victorian Village - with a copy of the Crystal Palace from 1851 - close to the motorway not far from Carmel. The marketing experts are not in such a hurry with the direct marketing of the collection in the motel parking lot. Tony's product is not supposed to be tangible, just a production of the imagination.
The novel can also be read as the story of a mental illness . Every morning Tony checks straight away to see if the collection has vanished overnight. Initially, this doctor of history fears that inappropriate behavior on his part could damage or even destroy the collection. He does not know exactly what should be "inappropriate". For example, Tony found out that he is not allowed to leave Carmel - otherwise it will rain on the precious collection. But this process also proves to be non-verifiable. In any case, months after his dream, Tony realizes that all he can dream is of his collection. And this dream, which recurs almost every night, wears him down. He drinks alcohol and when he also takes tranquilizers, the 30-year-old dies of acute weakness. His fear that he might destroy the collection has turned into its opposite. In addition, before his death, Tony had been shocked to discover that parts of the collection - for example clockworks and fountains - creak and fade over time.
Regarding the love story mentioned above: Tony's marriage fell apart. Right at the beginning of the novel, a Dutch clairvoyant calls Tony from overseas and suspects that a woman might be involved in his great telekinesis with a unique copy effect. So Tony fixes his attention on Mary Ann, finally turns her away from Father man, but unfortunately cannot be happy with the girl. Vaterman also proves to be impotent . Mary Ann escapes the two failures, never to be seen again.
Viktoriana
The novel is a mixture of fantasy and reality. Some things - mentioned from the art and science of the 19th century - can be verified. For example, the Rosse Telescope really does exist . And the crystal Osler fountain, built into the novel by Brian Moore in several places, really stood at the first world fair in London in 1851. The details of Matthew Cotes Wyatt or Charles Carrington are verifiable. The aforementioned portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent also exists. Nevertheless, it seems that most of the myriad details listed in the text were made up by Brian Moore.
Slippery is addressed several times. The collection includes erotica, for example 31 drawings by Martin van Maële . The author always pulls the emergency brake in good time at such critical points in his work. The relevant departments of frivolous content in the exhibition of "necromancer" and "magician" Tony are closed to the public in this case by the prudish California authorities.
Inconsistent
- On p. 216 of the source (4th Zvo) there is talk of "prayer ejaculations".
German editions
- source
Brian Moore: The Great Victorian Collection. Novel. Translated from the English by Helga and Alexander Schmitz. 283 pages. Diogenes, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-257-21931-8
Web links
In English
- Review at The Moore The Merrier
- Review in Lizzy's Literary Life