![]() ![]() This scene also takes place under 300 meters of water, in 1867, in Jules Verne’s pioneering novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It is a scene any Freemason would recognize, the event evoking universal elements of the ancient Fraternity paying last respects. The grave sealed, the mourners stand and approach the mound, sink again on bended knee, and extend their hands in a sign of final farewell. The body is interred, and the Master, arms crossed over his chest, kneels in a posture of prayer, followed by those assembled. Their leader calls a halt, the mourners form a semicircle around him and, at his signal, one of the men prepares the grave. Twelve mourners, four serving as pall bearers carrying their sorrowful burden upon their shoulders, march behind their Master to the middle of a clearing, in the center of which stands a pedestal of rough blocks surmounted by a rosy cross. Description of a Funeral on the Ocean Floor, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1916 translation published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York) “In the midst of the glade, on a pedestal of rocks roughly piled up, stood a cross of coral, that extended its long arms that one might have thought were made of petrified blood.” Swedish author Per Olov Enquist was born in 1934.Scottish Rite - March/April 2022 Jules Verne, Master Nemo, And The Nautilus: A Clandestine Travel Lodge? See Index of Scandinavian literature at the complete review. ![]() The Royal Physician's Visit Other books of interest under review:.Other books by Per Olov Enquist under review: The complete review's Per Olov Enquist page.He also does more, ably playing with literary form and with writing itself - without ever trying too hard. This is no childhood idyll, but it is a hopeful little saga: strength of will and belief carry him through.Įnquist tells a good story - from the hospital mix-up to the narrator's efforts to find Johannes and Eeva-Lisa again Enquist keeps the reader interested. In the dark, cold Swedish countryside, a land of silence and secrets, the narrator tries to make his way, helping the doomed Eeva-Lisa and then finding her again. Sparely and deceptively simply presented, Captain Nemo's Library presents a neat story that comes together very well. The end is revealed at the beginning, but the pieces necessary for understanding how the narrator reaches it (and indeed what he means) are only presented piece by piece.Ĭomposed of many relatively short passages and sections, the narrator describes his youth and the episodes with Eeva-Lisa that lead back to Johannes - and Nemo and the Nautilus. The children then grow up in the right households, with their actual parents, but in fact they grow up in the wrong households.Įach misses the world he has been removed from.Įventually they set out to set things right again, leading to the Nautilus and its library.Įnquist's novel has a prologue, four parts, and an epilogue. The world is unbalanced when the original mistake is undone. Johannes got a dozen after the switch of households, and he passes one on: Verne's The Mysterious Island, with its tale of the Nautilus, determining the end that Johannes and the narrator must meet.Ī third character figures prominently as well: Eeva-Lisa, a playmate-substitute and companion given to Johannes, but also a girl who becomes a significant figure in the narrator's life. The narrator never had any books in his youth. The two were switched at birth, something that is only discovered (or realized) when they are five or so.Īfter a prolonged legal battle the two switch families: it is 1940, they are six years old and their worlds have been thrown upside down.Ī bond still unites the two throughout their youth. The story of Captain Nemo's Library largely deals with the life of two childhood friends, the narrator and his friend Johannes, in bleak northern Sweden. Verne's book and character are a release for the narrator here, a different kind of escape into the world of fiction. Per Olov Enquist's novel has little to do with Jules Verne's great character Nemo, the captain who ventured twenty-thousand leagues under the sea, or the shipboard library of the fantastic submarine. General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the authorĪ- : well-conceived and well-written tale from darkest Sweden Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs. Captain Nemo's Library - Per Olov Enquist ![]()
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