Book Review: Mr. Fortune’s Maggot

[osprey_archer]

A couple months ago, littlerhymes and I read Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes. My library copy was an omnibus edition also containing Warner’s Mr. Fortune’s Maggot, and for no better reason than this I decided to read this second book as well.

(Mr. Fortune’s Maggot is usually published in the US as Mr. Fortune, presumably because we don’t tend to use maggot in the sense it’s used in the title, which means something between “hobbyhorse” and “obsession.” Do the British still use it this way?)

To be honest, I assumed the two books were published as an omnibus because they were both about the same rather short length, and therefore made a pleasingly sized book together. In fact, as it turns out, they make a sort of diptych: What If You Just Abandon Society and Social Expectations, female and male versions.

In Lolly Willowes, Laura leaves London for the country town of Great Mop, where she becomes a witch. In Mr. Fortune’s Maggot, Mr. Fortune sails all the way around the world to an idyllic Pacific island, where he becomes a Christian missionary.

He’s quite bad at being a missionary. In fact, in his whole time on the island, he only makes one convert, Lueli, who is not so much a convert as a boy fascinated by all forms of novelty. Mr. Fortune’s weird stories about a god who was a man who died on the cross are just as strange and interesting as Mr. Fortune’s harpsichord, and Lueli sees no reason why listening to them should stop him from also hanging onto his own carved wooden god (for each islander has their own god).

At last, the unobservant Mr. Fortune realizes that Lueli is still worshipping his own wooden god in secret. They have a confrontation, where Mr. Fortune orders Lueli to burn his idol, and Lueli can neither bring himself to refuse or comply, and it seems that at very least their friendship is about to go up in smoke when the volcano at the center of the island erupts, forcing Mr. Fortune and Lueli to flee, leaving the idol behind to be burnt to a cinder by the lava.

Which might seem like the act of a jealous God, insisting that Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me. But in the aftermath, it’s Mr. Fortune who loses his faith in God. Lueli, as faithful to his burnt god as ever, collapses into a depression, because surely he can’t long survive its destruction.

First, Mr. Fortune attempts to heal Lueli by teaching him calculus. When this fails and Lueli tries to drown himself (only to be saved by the girl he soon after decides to marry), Mr. Fortune carves him another idol, which cheers Lueli far more effectively than writing equations in the sand. Having given Lueli this new wooden god, Mr. Fortune leaves the island, and we last see him sailing away in a launch.

Comments

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

I had heard of Mr Fortune's Maggot but I had no idea (as a British English speaker) that "maggot" could be used with that meaning and I've never encountered it elsewhere IRL or in fiction! :O That clears a lot up actually, the title always had me vaguely confused.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I found the title vaguely alarming honestly, given the more usual meaning of the word maggot. This is one case of the US changing the title that I can really get behind!

[sanguinity]

First, Mr. Fortune attempts to heal Lueli by teaching him calculus.

I love this deranged and quixotic man.

[osprey_archer]

His reasoning seems to be that higher math is like God in that it is changeless and eternal, and therefore the most comforting thing in the universe now that he can't offer Lueli the comfort of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Which, like, I can see his reasoning here, but also he IS lovably deranged.

[lokifan]

Wow! I love that.

Another Brit who's never heard maggot used that way here, btw!

[conuly]

What a fascinatingly unexpected ending.

[osprey_archer]

It's not quite as out of left field as "then the heroine of this hitherto realistic novel sold her soul to Lucifer!" but in its own way it's just as unexpected.

[landofnowhere]

That's quite a story! Also I realized that I have actually read part of this as a kid -- an excerpt of it was included in the anthology The World of Mathematics. I don't remember it well but think it was one of my favorite bits of the "Mathematics in Literature" section (which also included a bit from Gulliver's Travels and Aldous Huxley's story Young Archimedes).

[osprey_archer]

Oh fascinating! The bit where he's trying to teach Lueli equations in the sand on the beach, I presume?

[landofnowhere]

Actually the bit where he's trying to teach Lueli geometry, starting with what a point is, and going on to finding the height of the tree by lying down and making similar triangles.

[littlerhymes]

Well, all things considered, it seems to have worked out okay for both Lueli and Mr Fortune?

[osprey_archer]

More or less, although I must confess I'm not quite sure what Mr. Fortune is going to live on henceforth, as it's hard to imagine him returning to work for the church now that he's lost his faith. But he seems unconcerned about that really!

[littlerhymes]

I will trust his calm and chill attitude will land him in a calm and chill situation!

[genarti]

Is THAT what maggot means here! I admit the name has been offputting to me, but I figured there must be some sort of slang or regional or archaic meaning I didn't know... As indeed there is, apparently.

What a fascinatingly odd story! One always winces more than a little at a tale of missionaries and idyllic made-up Pacific islands, but at least this one seems to have turned out okay for everybody (except possibly Mr. Fortune, depending on how upset he is about his crisis of faith, I suppose).

[asakiyume]

When I saw the title of Osprey Archer's entry, I confess I immediately imagined a picture book with a kindly guy and His Unusual Pet.

[osprey_archer]

Ahaha the worst part is that I can absolutely imagine this ill-conceived picture-book. WHY does this man have a pet maggot. WHO CAN SAY.

[asakiyume]

I can imagine it too--I can totally imagine the cartoon-style drawings.

[genarti]

Me too! Right on the border between charming and worrisome...

quick mockup

[asakiyume]

Re: quick mockup

[osprey_archer]

AHAHA oh dear... I think the comment formatting cut off some of the picture. You should post this over on your journal!

Re: quick mockup

[asakiyume]

No, that’s it; I doodled it on scrap paper that had words on it, but that’s all there is :-)

Re: quick mockup

[skygiants]

THIS IS SO CUTE

Re: quick mockup

[asakiyume]

Just a guy and his dear maggot 😌😌😌

Re: quick mockup

[osprey_archer]

Little guy with his little maggot friend!

Re: quick mockup

[asakiyume]

So sweeeeeet (.... says no one ever)

Re: quick mockup

[osprey_archer]

To be honest the way you drew it, it DOES look sweet, until you pause to think about the whole maggot business. Has Mr. Fortune considered a puppy?

Re: quick mockup

[asakiyume]

I feel like if you tried to tell Mr. Maggot how much more cuddly a puppy is, he'd end up getting a body pillow instead. In the shape of a maggot -_-

Re: quick mockup

[osprey_archer]

Some people just won't be detached from their maggots, I guess!

[osprey_archer]

Mr. Fortune doesn't seem at all bothered by his crisis of faith - indeed it's not even a crisis, it just switches off like a light after the volcano, and he's like "Oh, okay." He devoted his life to it and it's gone and he's unconcerned.

I for one am a bit concerned what he's going to live on henceforth, but perhaps he can find people who will pay to learn higher mathematics.

[genarti]

Ha! Well, fair enough. Full marks for adaptability, and I hope he finds some Pacific Islander navigators to trade math with or something, I suppose.

[asakiyume]

Wow! What's the state of Mr. Fortune's heart and soul at the end? Having given up on Christian God (TM) has he decided life is much better with Agnosticism/Atheism/Wooden Idolism ... or just given up on that train of thought altogether?

[osprey_archer]

He seems to have more or less given up that train of thought (except for considering higher mathematics an adequate substitute for God, I guess). He seems just as cheerful as ever, though! He was unconcerned when he was a missionary who had one (1) convert to show for years of work, and he's unconcerned now that he's lost his faith at all.

[asakiyume]

Faith: really maybe not much more important than decorative buttons on coat pockets, and likely less so --Mr. Fortune, probably.

[regshoe]

Do the British still use it this way?

Adding to the 'possibly no'—I didn't know until now that that was what the title meant. I've been intrigued by the thought of this book for years, partly by the odd title and partly by the similar oddness of Sylvia Townsend Warner writing something that sounds so much like E. M. Forster's 'The Life to Come', but have been putting off reading it—I must do so soon!

[osprey_archer]

Maybe this usage of maggot has simply dropped out of sight all over the world.

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts if you do read the book!

[skygiants]

This is not at all what I expected by the title 'Mr. Fortune's Maggot' either!

[osprey_archer]

I'm not sure what I WAS expecting, but not what I got.

[silverusagi]

I have only encountered 'maggot' in the old timey sense in the title of the song that Elizabeth and Darcy dance to in the 1995 P&P, which is Mr Beveridge's Maggot.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, good catch! I never thought of that.