Zanoni
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Leila: or The Siege of Granada | |
Followed by | The Last of the Barons |
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Zanoni is an
It tells the story of its protagonist Zanoni, who possesses occult powers and knows the secret of eternal life.[2]
Characters
The principal characters are:[2]
- Zanoni – an initiate into Chaldean wisdom
- Mejnour – an older companion and fellow initiate
- Clarence Glyndon – an English artist who aspires to the secret knowledge
- Viola Pisani – a beautiful and purehearted but unsophisticated Neapolitan
- Mervale – a commonsensical and conventional-minded friend of Glyndon
- Nicot – a debased and selfish revolutionary
Plot
Zanoni has lived since the Chaldean civilisation. He is a Rosicrucian brother and cannot fall in love without losing his power of immortality. However, he falls in love with Viola Pisani, a promising young opera singer from Naples, who is the daughter of Pisani, an Italian violinist.[3] An English gentleman named Glyndon loves Viola as well, but is indecisive about proposing marriage and then renounces his love to pursue occult study. The story develops in 1789, during the French Revolution.
His master Mejnor warns him against a love affair but Zanoni does not heed. He finally marries Viola and they have a child. As Zanoni experiences an increase in humanity, he begins to lose his gift of immortality. He finally dies by the guillotine during the French Revolution.[4]
Theme
Bulwer-Lytton humanised
The name Zanoni is derived from the Chaldean root zan, meaning "sun", and the chief character is endowed with solar attributes.[6]
Argument
From the viewpoint of
Disraeli prediction
According to occult author C. Nelson Stewart, Bulwer-Lytton is well-versed in Rosicrucian and occult lore, all of which he brings to bear on his novel Zanoni; he also demonstrates a profound knowledge of
Influence
It is Zanoni's ultimate sacrifice that would give Bulwer-Lytton's friend Charles Dickens an idea on how to end A Tale of Two Cities.[9]
Zanoni was adapted into a Gujarati novel, Gulabsinh (1897), by Indian writer Manilal Dwivedi.[10]
Zanoni is referenced in The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard: “A book beside his chair was closed on a pencil that marked a place. He took it up and read the spine: "Zanoni. A Novel By The Right Honourable Lord Lytton." Such a book might well have appeared on the shelves of such a room. That it should be out, open, and read was more improbable.”
When David Bowie made a list of 100 books that had changed his life, he included Zanoni.[11][12]
Guardian of the Threshold
Speaking to Glyndon, Mejnour says of the Guardian, "... Know, at least, that all of us – the highest and the wisest – who have, in sober truth, passed beyond the threshold, have had, as our first fearful task, to master and subdue its grisly and appalling guardian."[13]
According to the German
See also
References
- ^ Bulwer-Lytton, Edward (1874). Zanoni. Routledge. p. xx.
...I found the whole written in an unintelligible cipher.
- ^ EBSCO.
- ISBN 0-8772-8920-4.
Zanoni loses his immortality by falling in love...
- ^ Bulwer-Lytton, Edward (1853). Zanoni. p. 136.
And did Zanoni really feel love for Viola?
- ^ Cross, Wilbur Lucius (1906). The development of the English novel. p. 160.
Bulwer-Lytton humanized Gothic art...
- ISBN 9780520914728.
It is worth noting that Zanoni is endowed with solar attributes...
- ISBN 0-4150-2368-8.
The manuscript is indebted to Plato's Phaedrus...
- ISBN 1-5645-9626-5.
He will be to the last largely before the public.
- Robespierreimprisons Zanoni along with his wife, the singer Viola.
- OCLC 462837743.
- ^ David Bowie’s Books: the 100 novels that inspired his best-known songs
- ^ David Bowie's Favorite Books
- ^ Bulwer-Lytton, Edward (1874). Zanoni. Routledge. p. 103.
...no foe is so malignant to man...
- ^ Steiner, Rudolf (1994). Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment (PDF). Read Books. p. 189.
...the highest degree an absolutely real experience...
- ISBN 978-1-9342-0604-1.
How difficult it is to achieve perfection.
External links
- Zanoni at Project Gutenberg
- Complete first edition in three volumes at Internet Archive listed in the Online Books Page
- Brief (1500 word) synopsis of the story line and explanation of the "Dweller of the Threshold"
- Zanoni public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- 2018 — Zanoni ISBN 1986074064