Written by John Rodker

John Rodker

John Rodker was a British writer, modernist poet, and publisher of some of the major modernist figures. He was born in Manchester into a Jewish immigrant family, who moved to London while he was still young.-Career:...

 and published in 1929, Adolphe 1920 is a novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 set in Paris, spanning eight hours in the life of its protagonist, Dick.

It is similar in many respects to James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

's Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

and Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

's Mrs. Dalloway in its use of stream-of-consciousness narration and the limiting of the action to just one day. In this sense it is very much a modernist text.

Dick is a manic narrator, and reminiscent of Septimus Smith, the shell-shocked war veteran of Woolf's Mrs.Dalloway. There are several references to the after effects of the First World War, and the novella's fractured nature could be seen as a metaphor for fractured post-war Europe.

Plot summary

The novella is split into eight sections - each spanning roughly an hour. The narrative is fragmented, often making it difficult to tell who is talking or thinking, or whether events are occurring in the present or being recalled.

Section I

Dick awakes to find a fair being set up in the street outside. He recalls a visit he took to Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 with his ex-lover Angela. They visited a crypt

Crypt

In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....

. He watches a film of a Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 woman undressing in a mutoscope.

Section II

He returns to the crowd in the street and becomes nauseous as he is swept up by the mass of people. He meets the Snake-lady and propositions her - she accepts. He becomes lost in the crowd again, then is found by Monica, who is possibly his current girlfriend.

Section III

They enter a tent with waxwork displays of body parts, and disfigured people with what appear to be war-wounds. Dick picks up a dwarf

Dwarfism

Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches  , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....

. He and Monica kiss. He flees and watches another mutoscope film of a head biting a neck. He expresses a desire to rest.

Section IV

He returns to his bedroom and dreams of Angela. He wakes as Monica enters. He gazes at her, they kiss, then he takes her outside back into the crowd and slips away from her.

Section V

He leaves the crowd. He becomes confused and begins to daydream about Angela and his regret for love.

Section VI

He re-enters the fair and sees five wrestlers: a bear, a fat wrestler, a thin wrestler, a large woman, and a "flour-white-faced boy". They fight and the woman wins. Dick is disgusted by this. He then sees the ghost of Angela in the crowd, and has another daydream in a tent. He watches a projected film in which a face gets larger and larger on the screen.

Section VII

He collects Monica from his room and they go to a restaurant and then an aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

. He has a vision of Angela as Undine

Ondine (mythology)

Undines , also called ondines, are elementals, enumerated as the water elementals in works of alchemy by Paracelsus. They also appear in European folklore as fairy-like creatures; the name may be used interchangeably with those of other water spirits. Undines are said to be able to gain a soul by...

.

Section VIII

Angela returns and Monica is forced to leave. Monica returns with an unnamed escort. They pick up the Snake-lady from the fair and all five go to a club. In the club Dick specifically notes the jazz musicians, black waiters, dancers, and a singer. An unidentified black man sits with them and plays with the snake. Dick talks with Angela in an anteroom. He starts to stack glasses on one another: they topple over after Angela tells him to stop. Dick becomes delirious and returns home in a taxi. He goes to sleep.