In the Beginning

by Norman Douglas

1927. English novelist and travel writer. He lived for years on the island of Capri and in Italy and other Mediterranean countries, and he made these the settings for his books. The book Along that broad and languid stream were few human habitations; only a fisherman's hut here and there on some sandy reach, with a black tub, his boat, drawn up on the shore or tethered to stakes in the gray-green water. At no great distance inland stood a collection of reed-cabins plastered together with dried mud and a village.

259 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind. His travel books, such as Old Calabria (1915), were also appreciated for the quality of their writing.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting novel, though not very successfull in it's intent. It showcases an ancient, more primitive world, where the Gods regularily went down to Earth for business or pleasure, and Demons menaced the land and sometimes one couldn't quite tell them apart from their actions.

The story begins at a slower pace, introducing Linus, unknowingly to himself a half God, son of the Earthquake-(among other things) loving Earth God, and his life among his tribe. His friend and love interest in one, her father, his sickly and foolish Uncle, the chief of the three Elders of his people, all become introduced along with several of the Gods of the Celestial Halls. The story proceeds well enough until the time when Linus impregnates the fish Goddess Derco and she takes revenge on him by killing him, his love and her father in one fell swoop.

This moment is where the story takes a turn for the worse. Before the story seemed more focused in elaborating on Linus' life and relationships to other and the general state of affairs of the world at large. But once Linus dies, he is brought back to life by his father, who basically makes him into a completely different person with only hazy memories of his past life. In that respect it feels as if we were cheated and this is a new character in all but name. Nothing of what was established concerning Linus, his people, family or hobbies beforehand seems to matter. The village of Linus' birth never comes back into the story after that, his love of horses, everyone who interacted with him more in depth previously is either dead or never accounted for again, outside of the Satyr Nea-Huni.

The story now turns to Linus' gathering of following, running into the daughter he had with Derco and unknowingly marrying her. If anyone who read this far was expecting a King Oedipus development, it never occurs and the story even tells us that Symira, the daughter of Linus and Derco, wouldn't care even if she found out.

The rest of the story rather absent mindedly deals with some minor incidents from the lives of Linus and Symira as they found a city and rule it. There is little going on from this point beyond the author going on about Linus' sexual apetite and how he grew to be an eccentric old man who thought himself a god. Symira offers him a speedy exit via the pyre, and stays on, sinking into largely anonymous debauchery which the author narrates in a rather detached way, until her sudden repentance and death many years later in the walls of what essentially is a convent. The story, already rather lacking in detail or meatier incident, or the natural or supernatural variety, since Linus' ressurection, begings to aimlessly wander following his death, and indeed the story seems to only go on a bit longer to get to a satirical ribbing of humanity's flaws.

Sadly the book offers a near infinite canvas on which to paint scenes and incidents of adventure, intrigue, horror, comedy and farce using all the assorted tools of a Greek myth, full of adultery, envious divinities, monsters and curses, but the author choses to instead distance himself from the proceedings and deliver more of a summary of long years filled with no particularily exciting incidents.

It's a shame too because the best part of the book comes early on when the Satyr Nea-Humi laments the lost civilisation of his fellows, being the last of his kind, and what marvels, achievements and what wisdom was theirs back then, when the world was young. In these moments especially, and in some towards the end detailing the terrible affliction of debating good and evil which the Great Father visits upon mankind as punishment, I was strongly reminded of Eric Linklater and his "A Spell for Old Bones". If only Douglas had kept things more personal and focused like Linklater.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Beginning is Norman Douglas' version of the story of Ninus and Semiramis, mythical rulers of ancient Assyria.

The demigod Linus is ravished by a fish-goddess, thinking him mortal, who is subsequently appalled to find herself pregnant, believing that no mortal could do this. She gives birth to a daughter, Symira, and leaves her to die. Symira is found by a fisherman and later gifted to a powerful man as a concubine. After a victory in battle she meets the true love of her life - Linus. Unaware of their kinship, the two create a great and powerful kingdom.

Douglas interweaves his story with the tale of the final two satyrs alive, who watch as humankind moves into the pristine garden world that they had created, and see how they, with the connivance of capricious gods, turn it into what we now think of as early civilisation.

Douglas wrote In the Beginning in 1927, and his sour view of humankind is made pretty clear. In the midst of the Roaring 20s, he was writing an allegory of the damage that unbridled and wanton behaviour can bring to a society. Perhaps he foresaw the crash to come, and was warning of it in this book.