The Soul Of A Bishop: H.G. Wells

[poliphilo]

This is the book I've been reading on my e-book reader.  An Anglican bishop has drug induced visions and leaves the church to preach a non-sectarian gospel. When it's being a novel- dealing with its characters' foibles and relationships and social background- it's good; when it starts preaching less so. Novelists almost always come a cropper when they put their own views in their characters' mouths.  Wells is excellent on ecclesiastical politics and Christian doctrine (as always I'm amazed how much he knows) but his "new" gospel of God the King is feeble. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Too much preaching breaks the illusion. It's as if there was a stage direction "Enter novelist. There are ways round it I think. One is to be absolutely brazen, with the novelist standing up and saying, "look, this is me, preaching, so sue me", another is to have other characters with opposing views give the preacher a hard time. A nice trick is to make the character with the opposing views twice as charming and eloquent as the preacher. This is one G.B. Shaw routinely pulled off.