Enoch Soames
Encyclopedia
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer Max Beerbohm
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
. It appeared in the collection Seven Men
Seven Men
Seven Men is a collection of short stories written by English caricaturist, essayist and parodist Max Beerbohm. It was published in Britain in 1919 by Heinemann and in the United States in 1920 by Alfred A. Knopf, and has been described as a "masterpiece."...
(1919) and was originally published in the May 1916 edition of The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
. It is well-known for its clever and humorous use of the ideas of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
and pacts with the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
. The story is also memorable for its complex combination of fact and fiction; though the hero Soames is a fictional character, the story is narrated by Beerbohm himself, and contains a written portrait of the real-life artist William Rothenstein
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein was an English painter, draughtsman and writer on art.-Life and work:William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Yorkshire. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford's burgeoning textile industry...
, as well as countless references to contemporary events and places.
Plot summary
As narrator, Beerbohm presents himself as a moderately successful young English essayist and writer in London during the 1890s. He purports to relate the fate of a friend of his named Enoch Soames, an utterly obscure, forgettable, miserable and unsuccessful English writer.Obsessed with the idea that he was a great author of literature and poetry and keenly curious about his sure future fame, Soames one day in 1897 makes a contract with the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
to be able to spend one afternoon (from 2:10 to 7 PM) in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
library exactly one hundred years in the future, on the 3rd day of June in the year 1997 — just to know what posterity thinks about him and his work.
When he returns, he tells Beerbohm that the only mention of himself he could find was a scholarly article which mentions (using a phonetic spelling apparently adopted by the late 20th century) a story by one Max Beerbohm "in wich e pautraid an immajnari karrakter kauld "Enoch Soames"—a thurd-rait poit hoo beleevz imself a grate jeneus an maix a bargin with th Devvl in auder ter no wot posterriti thinx ov im!" ("in which he portrayed an imaginary character called "Enoch Soames"—a third-rate poet who believes himself a great genius and makes a bargain with the Devil in order to know what posterity thinks of him!"). With characteristic delicacy, Beerbohm quotes the author as saying "It is a somewhat labud sattire" and adds "And 'labud'—what on earth was that? (To this day I have never made out that word.)" ("labud" here means laboured).
Beerbohm, shocked, denies that he would ever write such a thing. Soames, before being taken to Hell by the Devil, scornfully requests that Beerbohm at least try and make people believe that he, Soames, actually existed. Beerbohm concludes his narrative by calling down the author of the scholarly article in question for shoddy work; he notes that T.K Nupton must not have finished reading Beerbohm's story, otherwise he would have noticed Soames's (through Beerbohm) flawless predictions about the future and realized the story was not fiction. Beerbohm then notes that Soames had mentioned his presence in the reading room causing a great stir, and writes "I assure you that in no period could Soames be anything but dim. The fact that people are going to stare at him, and follow him around, and seem afraid of him, can be explained only on the hypothesis that they will somehow have been prepared for his ghostly visitation. They will have been awfully waiting to see whether he really would come. And when he does come the effect will of course be - awful."
Followup
An article by Teller, "A memory of the nineteen-nineties" ("Being a faithful account of the events of the designated day, when the man who had disappeared was expected briefly to return"), was published in the November 1997 The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
. It describes what happened to the people who actually went to the museum on the designated afternoon to see if Soames showed up; at 2:10 PM, a person meeting Soames' description appears, and begins searching through the catalogue and various biographical dictionaries. A few dozen minutes later, he slips out of sight of the watching Teller and audience, and disappears.