Doctor Dido

Last updated

Doctor Dido
Author F. L. Lucas
Genre Historical novel
Publisher Cassell
Published in English
8 September 1938

Doctor Dido is a historical novel by the British writer F. L. Lucas. First published in 1938, it was his third novel (not including the novella The Wild Tulip, 1932). With much local and antiquarian detail, it tells the story of Samuel Plampin, Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge and Vicar of St Peter's Babraham, who in 1792 brings to the vicarage as his housekeeper a young Frenchwoman he finds in Cambridge, a destitute refugee from The Terror.

Contents

Plot summary

Just arrived in Cambridge on a sodden evening in September 1792 is Mademoiselle Sophie Letourneur, 26, a spirited femme de chambre in the household of the Duc and Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld-d'Enville. She has travelled for nine days from Revolution-torn Paris, carrying a secret message from her Anglophile master to Prime Minister Pitt. She had been told Pitt was in his constituency; now she learns he is at Stowe. She speaks little English, has been robbed on the way and is destitute. She is rescued by Samuel Plampin of Trinity, 45, Doctor of Divinity, King's Reader in Hebrew at the University, and Vicar of St Peter's Babraham. A bachelor (as Fellows had to be then) and hoping for a little adventure, he offers her hospitality for the night. (He is fluent in French, having spent six months in Paris in 1772 "bear-leading a rich lordling". [1] ) Next day they travel to Stowe, where Sophie learns from Pitt that her master has been killed and that she cannot safely return to France. Plampin, already drawn to her ("I had forgotten how exhilarating a clever woman can be" [2] ) invites her to remain with him as his housekeeper.

His very ears seemed dumbly to protest, as they heard his mouth utter this egregious folly. [3]

She accepts. A friendship develops. He is kind and amusing, regaling her with anecdotes from the parish and University. An Enlightenment man, he is attracted by her French grace, wit and good sense. On New Year's Eve he proposes marriage; she declines, but agrees to be his mistress. Villagers and University colleagues guess the truth. "Come down off it, Tim Tolliday," says a villager to Plampin's coachman in the 'George' one evening, when the latter has been defending "Emmy Grays" and "Parson's Mamzell". "We all knows what Frenchies be." [4] In an excruciating scene the unimaginative Reverend Aaron Knatchbull of neighbouring Hadworth proposes to Sophie, in vain. Ten years pass, happy for Plampin, content for Sophie – "though there were moments when she would feel stifled among these East Anglian cabbages, buried alive in these foggy turnip-fields" [5] – years clouded only by heresy-hunts of supposed Jacobins in Cambridge and grim news from France.

The Peace of 1802 brings the chance for émigrés to return home and for the British to travel abroad once more. Madame Letourneur longs to see her daughter again; Plampin welcomes the chance of a holiday. But in Paris things start to go wrong. So much that Plampin had admired about the France of his youth has been swept away (though he had begun by admiring the Revolution). The old values have been replaced by vulgarity, aggressiveness, Napoleonic fervour. Plampin grows irritable and finds himself at loggerheads with Sophie's brother Charles, a cocky young Captain of Hussars, who regards the English doctor as grotesque and a poor match for his sister. Only the gracious Madame Letourneur is true to the France Plampin loved. Sophie meets Victor Duroc, Captain of Engineers, a former childhood friend. She grows uneasy and three times begs Plampin to take her back to England: but he is now enjoying the Bibliothèque nationale and the art treasures recently taken from Italy by Bonaparte. He brushes aside her fears. Growing estranged, she goes to amusements without him, wears make-up, dresses in the Grecian style. They quarrel. Victor, she admits to her mother, makes her feel for the first time in her life "alive". One day Plampin returns from the library to find her gone. A sad, guilt-ridden letter from Sophie informs him that she is now Madame Duroc and on her way to Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean.

He understood too well. In the grey light of disillusion, he saw now his own past folly; as a traveller who has climbed some height leading only into a wilderness, not homeward, looking back too late through the last pallors of sunset, sees all too clearly how and where he went astray. [6]

Plampin suffers an immediate collapse. With sensitivity and tact, Madame Letourneur nurses him; at the earliest opportunity he returns to England. Babraham and Cambridge buzz with gossip about his solo return. He is nicknamed "Doctor Dido" by unkind colleagues and students. Home is full of sad reminders of Sophie. His faith lost, Plampin can no longer bear his ecclesiastical duties, resigns his living, and returns to college. No longer believing in scholarship or the future, he abandons his life-work, A Natural History of Enthusiasm (planned as a sly Gibbonian counterblast to all things Romantic). The Combination-Room is stifling with petty rivalries and malice. He finds solace for his unhappiness by tutoring bright young students, by botanizing among the hedgerows and woods of East Anglia, and by visits to the North and the West Country. Ten lonely years pass. One day a letter from old Madame Letourneur brings news that both Sophie and Victor Duroc are dead, drowned in the crossing of the Beresina in November 1812 during the Retreat from Moscow. In the Combination-Room on New Year's Eve 1812, as the port goes round, Plampin is taunted by a colleague for having taken "one French lesson too many". "If you refer to the lady who did me the honour to keep house for me," replies Plampin, breathing heavily, "I have had my last lesson from her." [7] He reads to the hushed gathering a letter dictated to an orderly by Captain Charles Letourneur, now a mutilé de guerre, describing the horrors of the Crossing of the Beresina and the details of Sophie's death (she had abandoned the safety of Danzig to nurse her wounded husband during the retreat). In the silence that follows, Plampin walks out. One of the dons acidly quotes Scripture: "The lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword." [8] The uneasy talk that follows is broken by the entry of a college servant, who has just found Plampin hanged.

Background

The novel was written in the shadow of the coming war (see F. L. Lucas, Appeasement). In his 1938 Journal Lucas described it as "filled, between the lines, with all our hopes and fears for present and future, and dedicated, with growing misgivings for that future, 'To the Enduring Friendship of England and France'." [9] Its depiction of the Napoleonic war-lust gripping France in the early 19th century foreshadows that of Hitler's Germany:

Suddenly all his self-centred pain lost itself once more in an infinite pity ... for the whole of this human race so mad to heap sorrows of its own seeking on the sorrows nothing can avoid. [10]

The policy of Appeasement, which Lucas deplored, colours other passages: "To the English, she reflected, clear-headedness is indecent – one's mind's must always be properly clothed in a chaste modicum of cloud... For the present she decided after all to shut her eyes, English-fashion, and drift." [11] For Lucas's attitude to 18th Century France, see Cécile (1930), Background.

Lucas's Journal reveals that the death of Shelagh Clutton-Brock (see F. L. Lucas, Personal life) was much in his mind as he was writing Docto Dido, his sense of sorrow and loss probably colouring his account of Plampin's sorrow for the lost Sophie. [12]

Themes

Doctor Dido is the familiar story of the middle-aged bachelor who falls in love with a woman much younger than himself, and pays for much bliss with much unhappiness. [13] It explores "The dreadful fatality of passion, its inhuman indifference, once its tide has turned, to all that the most devoted adoration can ever do to turn it back again". [14] It is, in addition, a satire on University life, contrasting the parochialism of Cambridge with the world-shaking events on the Continent, the malice of the Combination-Room with the kindliness of individuals. It disapproves of the monasticism imposed on dons by the ban on married Fellows:

—"Good God, Pellew, without assistance I don't believe you would know a woman from an isosceles triangle."
—"I would not go quite so far as that. I know something of isosceles triangles." [15]

Like the earlier Cécile (1930) and the later English Agent (1969), Doctor Dido traces the tension between 18th-century rationalism and, in varying forms, Romantic unreason. Samuel Plampin is a man of the Age of Reason who has outlived his era and feels alienated by the new world. Too late, he realises that he, the satirical historian of "Enthusiasm", has himself been guilty of Romantic excess. Lucas's hostility to religion is another undercurrent in the novel, as it was in Cécile and in the novella The Woman Clothed with the Sun (1937). When Plampin adduces Mr Paley's watchmaker analogy to try to convince Sophie, she crushes him with the reply: "Mon ami, if as he says a watch implies a watchmaker, then a crime implies a criminal... Either abandon all reasoning for ever, or admit that God is meaner than yourself – you who would never will a single ant an instant's pain." [16]

Reception

The novel had mixed reviews. "The book wears altogether too studied an air," noted The Times Literary Supplement  ; "it carries a miscellaneous load of literary learning with a jocular lightness that seems rather forced and all too soon becomes monotonous. Mr Lucas may claim complete realism for his study of heavily academic manners, but the fact remains that realism of this sort makes for fatiguing reading." [17] "Doctor Dido has its longueurs," admitted another reviewer. "Its brilliant scenes of Cambridge university life at the end of the eighteenth century are too cruel." [18] Forrest Reid in The Spectator disagreed: "It has far too much vitality to be depressing," he wrote, "and for the reader at least, if not for Dr Plampin, there is the consolation of humour, wit, and irony." [19] Several reviewers noted the novel's emotive appeal. "The futility and loneliness which overwhelm the returned Dr Plampin," noted Desmond Shawe-Taylor in the New Statesman , "are so touchingly conveyed that we find ourselves at last really concerned for this author of A Natural History of Enthusiasm who had been unable to buttress his own heart against the unreasonable tides of passion." [20] "It deserves to be read and appreciated," stated The Cornhill. "Dr Plampin and Sophie will not readily fade from the reader's remembrance." [21] Appraising Doctor Dido in The Cambridge Review, D. A. Winstanley, author of The University of Cambridge in the Eighteenth Century (1922), one of Lucas's sources, thought the novel "most charming": "Nor is it only for its human appeal that this book deserves to be read. If it contained nothing but its descriptions of Cambridge scenery it would be a thing of delight." [22]

Publishing history

The novel was published on 8 September 1938 by Cassell and Company of London, whose director was Lucas's former student Desmond Flower. [23] It sold slowly. Cassell's London warehouse was destroyed in the Blitz, with the result that copies of the novel are now scarce. There was no US or Canadian edition. Flower nevertheless considered Doctor Dido Lucas's most successful novel artistically, [24] and in 1967, at the time of Lucas's death, was planning to reprint it. [25] Priority, however, was given to Lucas's new novel, The English Agent, written in his retirement (published posthumously by Cassell in 1969), and the planned reprint of Doctor Dido came to nothing.

Related Research Articles

<i>Dangerous Liaisons</i> 1988 film by Stephen Frears

Dangerous Liaisons is a 1988 American period romantic drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, based on his 1985 play Les liaisons dangereuses, itself adapted from the 1782 French novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It stars Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Peter Capaldi and Keanu Reeves.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> 1857 novel by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary, originally published as Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1857. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germaine de Staël</span> Swiss/French author (1766–1817)

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a prominent philosopher, woman of letters, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles. She was the daughter of banker and French finance minister Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, a respected salonhostess. Throughout her life, she held a moderate stance during the tumultuous periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, persisting until the time of the French Restoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dionne quintuplets</span> Canadian quintuplets, the first known to have survived infancy

The Dionne quintuplets are the first quintuplets known to have survived their infancy. The identical girls were born just outside Callander, Ontario, near the village of Corbeil. All five survived to adulthood.

<i>Les Liaisons dangereuses</i> 1782 epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Les Liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in four volumes by Durand Neveu from March 23, 1782.

<i>Justine</i> (de Sade novel) 1791 novel by the Marquis de Sade

Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue is a 1791 novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade. Justine is set just before the French Revolution in France and tells the story of a young girl who goes under the name of Thérèse. Her story is recounted to Madame de Lorsagne while defending herself for her crimes, en route to punishment and death. She explains the series of misfortunes that led to her present situation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolande de Polastron</span> French aristocrat and courtier (1749–1793)

Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac was the favourite of Marie Antoinette, whom she first met when she was presented at the Palace of Versailles in 1775, the year after Marie Antoinette became the Queen of France. She was considered one of the great beauties of pre-Revolutionary society, but her extravagance and exclusivity earned her many enemies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. L. Lucas</span> British writer and classical scholar (1894–1967)

Frank Laurence Lucas was an English classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and intelligence officer at Bletchley Park during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême</span> Madame Royale (1778–1851)

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte was the eldest child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and their only child to reach adulthood. In 1799 she married her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the eldest son of Charles, Count of Artois, henceforth becoming the Duchess of Angoulême. She was briefly Queen of France in 1830.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie d'Houdetot</span> French noblewoman

Elisabeth Françoise Sophie Lalive de Bellegarde, Comtesse d'Houdetot was a French noblewoman. She is remembered primarily for the brief but intense love she inspired in Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1757, but she was also for fifty years in a relationship with the poet and academician Jean François de Saint-Lambert.

<i>Valmont</i> (film) 1989 film by Miloš Forman

Valmont is a 1989 romantic drama film directed by Miloš Forman and starring Colin Firth, Annette Bening, and Meg Tilly. Based on the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, and adapted for the screen by Jean-Claude Carrière, the film is about a scheming widow (Merteuil) who bets her ex-lover (Valmont) that he cannot corrupt a recently married honorable woman (Tourvel). During the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont ends up falling in love with her. Earlier, Merteuil learns her secret lover (Gercourt) has discarded her and is about to marry her cousin's daughter- the virginal 15 year old Cécile. As revenge, the jilted Merteuil employs Valmont to seduce Cécile before her marriage to Gercourt.

<i>Journey to the End of the Night</i> 1932 autofiction novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Journey to the End of the Night is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in World War I, colonial Africa, the United States and the poor suburbs of Paris where he works as a doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babraham</span> Human settlement in England

Babraham is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Cambridge on the A1307 road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie of France</span> Princess of France

Sophie Philippine Élisabeth Justine of France was a French princess, a fille de France. She was the sixth daughter and eighth child of King Louis XV and his queen consort, Marie Leszczyńska. First known as Madame Cinquième, she later became Madame Sophie. She and her sisters were collectively known as Mesdames. In 1777, Sophie and her elder sister Adélaïde were both given the title Duchess of Louvois.

<i>Desmond</i> (novel) Creative work by Charlotte Turner Smith

Desmond is an epistolary novel by Charlotte Smith, first published in 1792. The novel focuses on politics during the French Revolution.

<i>Les Fugitifs</i> 1986 French film

Les Fugitifs is a French 1986 action comedy film, directed by Francis Veber. It was remade in 1989 as Three Fugitives, also directed by Veber.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (2014 film) 2014 film

Madame Bovary is a 2014 historical romantic drama film directed by Sophie Barthes, based on the 1856 novel of the same name by French author Gustave Flaubert. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans, Ezra Miller, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Laura Carmichael, Olivier Gourmet, and Paul Giamatti.

<i>The River Flows</i> (novel)

The River Flows is a semi-autobiographical first novel, published in 1926, by the British writer F. L. Lucas. The title is taken from a poem by T'ao Ch'ien, translated by Arthur Waley, three lines from which form the novel's epigraph.

<i>Cécile</i> (novel) Novel written by F. L. Lucas

Cécile is an historical novel by the British writer F. L. Lucas. His second novel, first published in 1930, it is a story of love, society and politics in the France of 1775–1776, set largely in Picardy and Paris, which locations form its two parts.

<i>The Woman Clothed with the Sun</i> Book by F. L. Lucas

The Woman Clothed with the Sun; being The Confession of John McHaffie concerning his sojourn in the Wilderness among the folk called the Buchanites, is a historical novella by the British writer F. L. Lucas. It purports to be an account, written in 1814 by a Scottish minister of the Kirk in middle age and published posthumously, of his youthful bewitchment by Elspeth Buchan and of the time he spent in the 1780s among the Buchanites. First published in 1937, it was Lucas's second historical novella, the first being The Wild Tulip (1932); he had also published a prize-winning historical novel, Cécile (1930).

References

  1. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.36
  2. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.36
  3. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.61
  4. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.91
  5. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.119
  6. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.240
  7. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.313
  8. ↑ Proverbs, 5:3-4
  9. ↑ Lucas, F. L., Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (London 1939), p.113
  10. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.302
  11. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.82
  12. ↑ Lucas, F. L., Journal Under the Terror, 1938 (London 1939), p.114, p.242
  13. ↑ The Cambridge Review, 3 March 1939
  14. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.240
  15. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.291
  16. ↑ Lucas, Doctor Dido, p.135
  17. ↑ The Times Literary Supplement , 10 Sept. 1938, p.581
  18. ↑ Tullis Clare in Time and Tide, 24 Sept. 1938, p.1324
  19. ↑ Forrest Reid in The Spectator, 17 May 1930
  20. ↑ Desmond Shawe-Taylor in the New Statesman, 24 Sept. 1938, p.460
  21. ↑ The Cornhill Magazine, vol.158, July-December 1938, p.719
  22. ↑ D. A. Winstanley in The Cambridge Review, 3 March 1939
  23. ↑ Flower, Desmond, Fellows in Foolscap – Memoirs of a Publisher (London 1991)
  24. ↑ Publisher's blurb on dust-wrapper of Lucas's The English Agent, Cassell & Co., 1969
  25. ↑ The Daily Telegraph obituary, 2 June 1967
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.