As with all of the "Krishna" novels and novellas, the title of The Virgin of Zesh has a "Z" in it, a practice de Camp claimed to have devised to keep track of them. Short stories in the series do not follow the practice, nor do Viagens Interplanetarias works not set on Krishna.
Plot and storyline
Herculeu Castanhoso, assistant security officer at the Terran spaceport of Novorecife, looks on disapprovingly as his detested boss, security chief Afanasi Gorchakov, fraternizes in the spaceport bar with three new arrivals to the backward planet Krishna: the vainglorious amateur poet Brian Kirwan, psychologist Gottfried Barr, and missionary Althea Merrick. Althea has been left stranded and without resources because the unreliable Bishop Harichand Raman, her superior in the Ecumenical Monotheist Church, has failed to meet and provide her with her first assignment. Kirwan, bound with Barr for a utopian Terran colony on the island of Zesh, is trying to persuade her to join them, while Gorchakov is pressuring her to marry him. Trying to prevent a fight between the two, Althea is caught between them and knocked out, whereupon the security chief fells Kirwan and peremptorily orders Castanhoso to get the other men out of the bar. He is last seen pouring kvad down teetotaler Althea's throat in an effort to revive her.
Althea awakens in Gorchakov's apartment to discover that she consented to marry him while drunk and is now hitched. Panicking, she rejects him and tries to escape. Enraged, he strips and whips her until she breaks free and brains him with an alarm clock. Slipping out, she seeks Kirwan and Barr, who agree to spirit her out of Novorecife with Castanhoso's help and take her with them to Zesh. She is to be Barr's assistant in his project of measuring the intelligence of the primitive tailed Krishnans of Zá, the island adjacent to Zesh, whose culture has recently made startling advances. The three take flight by buggy down the Pichide River to the coastal fishing village of Qadr, whence they cross by ferry to the Free City of Majbur. There they seek the aid of Krishnan Gorbovast Bad-Sár, resident commissioner of the king of Gozashtand and well-known benefactor of Terran travelers. He gets them on the next ship out to Zesh, the Labághti, captained by Memzadá of Darya.
During the voyage, Althea is nearly raped by a sailor, who is keelhauled by Memzadá as punishment. Emerging with his lungs full of water, the sailor is revived by Althea via artificial respiration. He is perplexed by her benevolence. Later he brings her a note, asking that she not read it until after she and her companions are landed on Zesh. She complies, only to find it contains a warning: the Dasht of Darya intends to conquer both Zesh and the neighboring island of Zá, and they should leave the island. They realize the threat is serious, as Kirwan had previously discovered the Labághti is carrying a large load of weapons. But by this time the ship has sailed, and they are stranded.
The trio is greeted by a welcoming party from the utopian colony of Elysion, including its leader, Diogo Kuroki, who calls himself Zeus. The colonists, a group of Roussellian naturalists, have all taken new names from Classical myth, legend or history. Kuroki redubs Kirwan, who has come to join the colony, Orpheus. The others are told they can work for their keep until they gain permission to continue on to Zá. Althea tells Kuroki of the coming attack, but he refuses either to leave Zesh, take any defensive measures, or even to warn the Záva from whom the colony rents its land, citing his group's principles of pacifism and neutrality. In the days that follow all three grow increasingly disenchanted with the colony, and decide to inform the Záva of the impending invasion themselves in return for passage out of the war zone. To do so they secretly visit the Záva oracle the Virgin of Zesh, but she takes off precipitously on hearing their news, without responding to their request.
The next morning the island is visited by Yuruzh, chief of the Záva, ostensibly to visit the oracle, but actually to contest the Daryava invasion, of which he has been informed by the Virgin of Zesh. He reprimands Kuroki for having withheld the intelligence. Yuruzh is much more human-looking than the rest of the apelike Záva, and Althea finds herself attracted to him. The invasion fleet is sighted, and she is recruited to set a trap for the enemy. At Yuruzh's direction, she swims out to the flagship pretending to have escaped the chief and claiming that he is on Zesh with just a few followers. Sofkar, the Dasht of Darya, has her bound to the mast with orders that she be killed if her story proves false, and takes his ships into the harbor. They founder on a line of submerged stakes set by Záva hiding in the water, who then swarm aboard. Yuruzh takes the Dasht captive and rescues Althea as his main fleet issues forth from Zá to take the Daryava from behind. After the battle the people of Elysion, having overthrown Kuroki, deliver him to Yuruzh to assuage his displeasure with the colony.
At this point a merchant ship appears and lands two unwelcome interlopers: Bishop Raman and Afanasi Gorchakov. The latter claims Althea; she appeals to Raman but he declines to defend her on the grounds that she is married to the security chief and has compromised her reputation by running off with Kirwan and Barr, as well as by going around naked (which is common behavior in this tropical climate). Gorchakov abducts her at gunpoint, killing Kirwan when he tries to intervene. Barr has already fled. Abandoning Raman, Gorchakov forces Althea aboard his ship, the Ta'zu, and puts out to sea. In his cabin he prepares to torture and murder her for abandoning him, but is interrupted by a thrown knife and then Yuruzh, who swings in through the porthole. The Terran and Krishnan fight, struggling for the knife. Yuruzh prevails and kills Gorchakov.
Yuruzh explains to Althea that he had followed the Ta'zu and quietly taken the ship. After sounding her out on her current plans and prospects, he proposes marriage, stating he has admired her since first laying eyes on her. He also reveals the secret of the Záva's intelligence; when younger, he had been taken to Earth and given the experimental "Pannoëtic treatment", which turns lower primates into geniuses while driving human beings mad. (The rationale behind the treatment spoofs pseudo-scientific ideas current in the 1950s, particularly those of L. Ron Hubbard.) As a Krishnan and a hybrid between the advanced tailless and the primitive tailed races, Yuruzh might have gone either way, but in the event gained super-intelligence. Feigning that the treatment wore off, he was permitted to return to Krishna, where he has been uplifting his tailed compatriots by giving them the same treatment. He asks Althea to be his wife, and partner in his civilizing mission.
Althea, after some thought, accepts both of Yuruzh's offers, and the two proceed out to the captive ship's captain to be married. Though they cannot have children, there is every indication that they will have a happy and harmonious life.
Setting
The planet Krishna is de Camp's premier creation in the Sword and Planet genre, representing both a tribute to the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and an attempt to "get it right", reconstructing the concept logically, without what he regarded as Burroughs' biological and technological absurdities. De Camp intended the stories as "pure entertainment in the form of light, humorous, swashbuckling, interplanetary adventure-romances — a sort of sophisticated Burroughs-type story, more carefully thought out than their prototypes."[4]
As dated in the 1959 version of de Camp's essay "The Krishna Stories" and James Cambias's GURPS Planet Krishna (a 1997 gaming guide to the Viagens series authorized by de Camp), the action of The Virgin of Zesh takes place in A.D. 2150, falling between The Prisoner of Zhamanak and The Bones of Zora, and making it the ninth story set on Krishna in terms of internal chronology. Internal evidence in The Bones of Zora confirms the relative sequence of the stories.
Yuruzh may have been the unnamed tailed Krishnan resident at an Earthly scientific institute in de Camp's earlier Viagens story "The Colorful Character".
Relation to other works
Another instance of de Camp's use of a "lower" species raised to intelligence by scientific means can be found in his earlier short story "The Blue Giraffe" (1939). He also addressed the theme of future idealists attempting to create a primitive utopia on another planet in his later short story "New Arcadia" (1956). Yuruzh's back-story bears a striking resemblance to the basic plot of Daniel Keyes's story "Flowers for Algernon" (1959, expanded to novel-length in 1966), though Yuruzh, unlike Keyes's protagonist Charlie Gordon, merely feigns losing his newly gained intelligence. The Virgin of Zesh predates Keyes's story.
Related Research Articles
The Queen of Zamba is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the first book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. It was written between November 1948 and January 1949 and first published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction as a two-part serial in the issues for August and September 1949. It was first published in book form as a paperback by Ace Books in 1954 as an "Ace Double" issued back-to-back with Clifford D. Simak's novel Ring Around the Sun. This version was editorially retitled Cosmic Manhunt and introduced a number of textual changes disapproved by the author. The novel was first issued by itself in another paperback edition under the title A Planet Called Krishna, published in England by Compact Books in 1966. A new paperback edition restoring the author's preferred title and text and including the Krishna short story "Perpetual Motion" was published by Dale Books in 1977. This edition was reprinted by Ace Books in 1982 as part of the standard edition of the Krishna novels. The novel has been translated into German, French, Italian, Czech, and Polish. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
"Perpetual Motion" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published under the title "Wide-Open Planet" in the magazine Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories in the issue for September–October, 1950. It first appeared in book form under the present title in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It was also included in the paperback edition of The Queen of Zamba published by Dale Books in 1977. This edition was reprinted by Ace Books in 1982 as part of the standard edition of the Krishna novels. A trade paperback edition in which the story was paired with Richard Wilson's "And Then The Town Took Off" was issued by Armchair Fiction in May, 2013 as Wide-Open Planet & And Then The Town Took Off. The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.
The Hand of Zei is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the second book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. The book has a convoluted publication history.
The Hostage of Zir is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the seventh book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and the fifth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the third Krishna novel. It was first published in hardcover by Berkley/Putnam in 1977, and in paperback by Berkley Books in 1978. A new paperback edition was published by Ace Books in 1982 as part of the standard edition of the Krishna novels. An e-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into German and Czech.
The Virgin & the Wheels is a collection of two short science fiction novels by L. Sprague de Camp, published in paperback by Popular Library in 1976. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens is a 1953 collection of science fiction stories by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth book in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971 with a cover by illustrator Bob Pepper. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. It has also been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. The pieces were originally published between 1949 and 1951 in the magazines Astounding Science-Fiction, Startling Stories, Future Combined with Science Fiction, and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid is a 1982 collection of two science fiction novels by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. Both works are part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. The collection was first published in paperback by Ace Books in February 1983, and reprinted in April of the same year. It was issued as the fourth volume of the standard edition of the Krishna novels, and its component parts were at the time of publication the fifth and sixth Krishna novels, chronologically. Afterwards, publication of The Bones of Zora (1983) put The Tower of Zanid seventh in order of chronology.
The Stones of Nomuru is a science fiction novel by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, the tenth book in the former's Viagens Interplanetarias series and the first in its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Kukulkan. It was first published as a trade paperback by Donning/Starblaze Editions in September 1988, and as a mass market paperback by Baen Books in May 1991. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. It has also been translated into Italian.
The Tower of Zanid is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the sixth book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and the fourth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the seventh Krishna novel. It was first published in the magazine Science Fiction Stories for May 1958. It was first published in book form in hardcover by Avalon Books, also in 1958, and in paperback by Airmont Books in 1963. It has been reissued a number of times since by various publishers. For the later standard edition of Krishna novels it was published together with The Virgin of Zesh in the paperback collection The Virgin of Zesh & The Tower of Zanid by Ace Books in 1983. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into Italian and German.
The Continent Makers is a science fiction novella by American writers L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories in the issue for April, 1951. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It has also been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.
The Viagens Interplanetarias series is a sequence of science fiction stories by L. Sprague de Camp, begun in the late 1940s and written under the influence of contemporary space opera and sword and planet stories, particularly Edgar Rice Burroughs's Martian novels. Set in the future in the 21st and 22nd centuries, the series is named for the quasi-public Terran agency portrayed as monopolizing interstellar travel, the Brazilian-dominated Viagens Interplanetarias. It is also known as the Krishna series, as the majority of the stories belong to a sequence set on a fictional planet of that name. While de Camp started out as a science fiction writer and his early reputation was based on his short stories in the genre, the Viagens tales represent his only extended science fiction series.
The Prisoner of Zhamanak is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the eighth book of his Viagens Interplanetarias series and the sixth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the fourth Krishna novel. It was first published in hardcover by Phantasia Press in 1982, and in paperback by Ace Books in April 1983 as part of the standard edition of the Krishna novels. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into German.
"Calories" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published under the title "Getaway on Krishna" in the magazine Ten Story Fantasy in the issue for Spring 1951. It first appeared in book form under the present title in the collection Sprague de Camp's New Anthology of Science Fiction, published simultaneously in hardcover by Hamilton and in paperback by Panther Books in 1953.
The Swords of Zinjaban is a science fiction novel written by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, the eleventh book of the former's Viagens Interplanetarias series and the eighth of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the eighth Krishna novel as well. It was first published in paperback by Baen Books in February 1991. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
The Bones of Zora is a science fiction novel by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine Crook de Camp, the ninth book of the former's Viagens Interplanetarias series and the seventh of its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Krishna. Chronologically it is the sixth Krishna novel. It was first published in hardcover by Phantasia Press in 1983, and in paperback by Ace Books in August, 1984 as part of the standard edition of the Krishna novels. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The novel has also been translated into German.
The Venom Trees of Sunga is a science fiction novel by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the twelfth book in his Viagens Interplanetarias series and the second in its subseries of stories set on the fictional planet Kukulkan. It was first published in paperback by Del Rey Books in November 1992. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
"The Galton Whistle" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, a story in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It is the first (chronologically) set on the planet Vishnu. It was first published, as "Ultrasonic God," in the magazine Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories in the issue for July, 1951. It first appeared in book form under the present title in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It also appeared in the anthologies Novelets of Science Fiction, The Good Old Stuff, and The Good Stuff. The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian.
"The Inspector's Teeth" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It is the first (chronologically) set on Earth, and a linchpin tale in the sequence, showing how the interstellar political system forming the background of the rest of the series was established. It was first published in the magazine Astounding in the issue for April, 1950. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971. It also appeared in The Best of L. Sprague de Camp, and Anthropomorphic Aliens: An Interstellar Anthology. The story has been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and German.
"The Colorful Character" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories in the issue for December, 1949. It first appeared in book form in the collection Sprague de Camp's New Anthology of Science Fiction, published simultaneously in hardcover by Hamilton and in paperback by Panther Books in 1953.
"Finished" is a science fiction short story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, part of his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction in the issue for November, 1949. It first appeared in book form in the collection The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens, published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953 and in paperback by Signet Books in November, 1971.
↑ De Camp, L. Sprague (December 1959). "The Krishna Stories". New Frontiers. 1 (1): 3. Archived from the original(Essay) on 2020-07-28 – via fanac.org.
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