The Scarlet Fig; or, Slowly Through a Land of Stone

Vergil Magus #3

by Avram Davidson

The Last Manuscript of a Master

It began with an accident, as if Fate had a plan for Vergil Magus...

After his trials in the Very Rich City of Averno but before his crowning achievement of a certain magic mirror, the great sorcerer and alchemist finds himself on a journey nothing short of epic. Sure he is slated for death in Rome, Vergil seeks safety in the far reaches of the Empire - and finds a world teeming with wonders and magical oddities.

The "unhistoric" sea adventure is a deft mix of fantastic fact and fable, showcasing the author's keen attention to the often forgotten connections between them.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History

285 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Avram Davidson was an American Jewish writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and a Queen's Award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

Reviews

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

After accidentally touching a Vestal Virgin in Yellow Rome, Vergil prudently and discreetly flees, launching himself on an epic journey around the Tideless Sea, having many strange sojourns and encounters. Though there are many threads woven through it, this is mainly a book about A Journey as Vergil - and I cribbed this from the afterword, but it is helpful - is alchemically tempered by his adventures. I could listen to this all day - in fact, I did - but you do have to listen, the attention wanders for a few lines and suddenly the the narrator is talking about someone or other doing something strange, arcane or are themselves discoursing on some other subject and it's impossible to tell if it's the next bit of the story, a digression, or a memory. But it's wonderfully written in gracile flowing prose that often interrupts itself or repeats itself or diagress with itself, giving the whole thing a rich rhythmic feel that the narrator embodies with verve and relaxed naturalness that is, yes, deceptive because you have to pay attention or you'll be skipping back to work out how or why he's suddenly talking about camel dung or the serving order at a royal feast or the properties of the lotus.

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this entire book, and I still have no idea what happened in it.

All right, that's not entirely true; the endnotes summarize the major plot arc, and if you asked me to describe the plot I would mention all those things -- Vergil, the Vestals, exile, Carthage, the lotus-eaters (apparently the scarlet fig of the title is the lotus), lepers, Alexandria. And yet it manages to make very little sense.

I don't know if it's that I really know very little about the medieval conception of Vergil as a sorcerer. Maybe that's it. Because it took me until this book to figure out that the author renamed him (though he does wonder in one of those hallucinatory moments why his name isn't Maro). There are a lot of moments like that, where something has clearly whooshed right over my head. In a move that the introduction praises, SPQR has been metathesized to SQPR with a note saying that it stands for "senatusque populusque Romanus," because "Numa would have it so." Shouldn't it then be SQPQR, if you're going to be like that? What's the big deal about adding another and? Is it even grammatical to put a second-position clitic there? What does Numa have to do with anything? Was it grammatical in archaic Latin or something?

You see my problem. I can't tell if I'm thinking too hard about this or not hard enough, and it really doesn't make much sense. But if you'd like to read something that is basically a trippy trip through the Odyssey filtered through the medieval conception of Vergil, this book is there for you. Probably I should have stopped with the first one.

[Jgorsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book Davidson wrote about Virgil as a magician in Ancient Rome and was published posthumously. Davidson is a great and neglected writer, an orthodox Jewish fantasy writer who is closer to Borges than Asimov. I had wanted to read Fig when it was published a few years ago but it was too expensive--now the ebook costs only 3 bucks. Not the best place to start with Davidson--he is best at short stories and the Treasury is a great collection--after that I would read the limekiller stories and the other Virgil books. Fig is crammed with learning, the product of years of research and every page does a great job of evoking a magical Roman world but it has no plot. Virgil accidentally touches a vestal virgin--a capital offense and flees Italy. His voyage has some parallels to Ulysses, including the lotus eater (the scarlet fig is the lotus), but is somewhat aimless. Excellent in sections though

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved The Phoenix and the Mirror, the first book in Avram Davidson’s trilogy about the mage Vergil in ancient Rome, but the two sequels are disappointing. The first sequel, Vergil in Averno, is a travelogue of Vergil’s visit to Averno, a place that ancient Romans thought might be the gate to Hell. (It’s not nearly as interesting as that might suggest, though.) It had little plot, but at least it displayed Avram Davidson’s amusing sense of humor.

This second sequel, The Scarlet Fig, has even less plot. The story starts as Vergil encounters a condemned man who is pardoned by a Vestal Virgin on his way to be executed. Something happens to the Vestal Virgin’s carriage and in his attempt to keep her from falling, Vergil accidentally touches her arm. Vergil’s intentions were ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved The Phoenix and the Mirror, the first book in Avram Davidson’s trilogy about the mage Vergil in ancient Rome, but the two sequels are disappointing. The first sequel, Vergil in Averno, is a travelogue of Vergil’s visit to Averno, a place that ancient Romans thought might be the gate to Hell. (It’s not nearly as interesting as that might suggest, though.) It had little plot, but at least it displayed Avram Davidson’s amusing sense of humor.

This second sequel, The Scarlet Fig, has even less plot. The story starts as Vergil encounters a condemned man who is pardoned by a Vestal Virgin on his way to be executed. Something happens to the Vestal Virgin’s carriage and in his attempt to keep her from falling, Vergil accidentally touches her arm. Vergil’s intentions were ho... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

After his trials in the Very Rich City of Averno but before his crowning achievement of a certain magic mirror, the great sorcerer and alchemist finds himself on a journey nothing short of epic. Sure he is slated for death in Rome, he now seeks safety in the far reaches of the Empire—and finds a world teeming with wonders and magical oddities.

[AT · Rating 4 out of 5]

A posthumously cobbled-together novel that is best read as a series of vignettes. Has all of the wonderful flavor of his other Vergil novels, but none of the narrative cohesion.