God's Fool (novel)
Encyclopedia
God’s Fool: A Koopstad Story is an English-language novel
by the Dutch writer Maarten Maartens
, first published in 1892. The title is based on 1 Corinthians
3:19: ‘For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.’ Elias Lossell, the principal person, may be a fool, but he has God's wisdom.
in the literary periodical Temple Bar
in 1892. The novel appeared as a book in the same year, simultaneously with Richard Bentley & Son in London
in three volumes
and D. Appleton & Company
in New York
in one volume. The book was reprinted several times; the last printing was in 1927, by Appleton. There are also editions by Macmillan
(from 1902 onwards), Tauchnitz
(in the Collection of British and American Authors) and Constable & Co.
(as a volume of the Collected Works, 1914).
The book was translated into German as Gottes Narr in 1895 and into Dutch as God's gunsteling in 1896 and as De dwaas Gods in 1974. The German translation has been reprinted several times, for the last time in 1924. The Dutch translations did not meet with any success.
Thanks to a somewhat thoughtless testament Elias becomes the rightful owner of the firm of Volderdoes Zonen, tea-merchants. His half-brothers, the twins Hendrik and Hubert, manage the firm on his behalf.
Hendrik tries to save up as much money as he can to buy out Elias and take over the firm. His spendthrift wife Cornelia does not make it easy for him. While Hubert stays in China to look after the firm’s interests there, Hendrik starts speculating with Elias’s money at the instigation of his brother-in-law Thomas Alers. Hubert returns to Koopstad and gradually learns what his brother has done. He firmly disapproves.
This leads to a quarrel between the twins in Elias’s house that escalates into murder. Hubert kills Hendrik. Elias understands what happened. In the last chapter he decides to take the blame of the murder on himself. So the novel has an open end.
. Breuls’s chapter III.2: ‘The principles of method’ focuses on the differences and similarities between the two writers. Many critics, like, for instance, another German, Leon Keller, praised its ‘Dutch characteristic atmosphere’. Marion Spielmann
said the characters of Thomas Alers and the Lossells in God’s Fool ‘live for us in his pages with a vividness that makes it hard to believe that they have no counterparts except as types.’ In 1924 the book was still so well-known that Dru Drury, president of the South African Medical Association, mentioned it in his address at the 19th South African Medical Congress: ‘You may hear an articulate infant mind speaking in (…) Elias Lossell.’
The book has been criticized too, especially the beginning and the end. The first two chapters are flashforward
s. Gertrude Buck and Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris in their book A Course in Narrative Writing found fault with them and called this way of telling a story ‘gallery-play’. Edmund Gosse
told Maartens in a letter dated 6 December 1892 that he did not like ‘the end of vol. III, which you must really forgive me for sternly disapproving of. I don’t think this melodramatic burst of fratricide worthy of you – I don’t indeed.’ Van Maanen too called the end ‘not wholly satisfactory’, but: ‘we cannot but praise [the book] for its skilfully-spun intrigue, its clever psychological analysis and its keen satire.’
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the Dutch writer Maarten Maartens
Maarten Maartens
Maarten Maartens, pen name of Jozua Marius Willem van der Poorten Schwartz , was a Dutch writer, who wrote in English...
, first published in 1892. The title is based on 1 Corinthians
First Epistle to the Corinthians
The first epistle of Paul the apostle to the Corinthians, often referred to as First Corinthians , is the seventh book of the New Testament of the Bible...
3:19: ‘For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.’ Elias Lossell, the principal person, may be a fool, but he has God's wisdom.
Publication
The novel was first published in serial formSerial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
in the literary periodical Temple Bar
Temple Bar (magazine)
Temple Bar was a literary periodical of the mid and late 19th and very early 20th centuries . The complete title was Temple Bar – A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers. It was initially edited by George Augustus Sala, and Arthur Ransome was the final editor before it folded, while he...
in 1892. The novel appeared as a book in the same year, simultaneously with Richard Bentley & Son in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in three volumes
Three-volume novel
The three-volume novel was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form of popular literature.The format does not correspond closely to what would now be considered a trilogy of...
and D. Appleton & Company
D. Appleton & Company
D. Appleton & Company was an American company founded by Daniel Appleton , who opened a general store which included books.- Timeline :* 1813 Relocated from Haverhill to Boston and imported books from England...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in one volume. The book was reprinted several times; the last printing was in 1927, by Appleton. There are also editions by Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
(from 1902 onwards), Tauchnitz
Tauchnitz
Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers.Karl Christoph Traugott Tauchnitz , born at Grossbardau near Grimma, Saxony, established a printing business in Leipzig in 1796 and a publishing house in 1798...
(in the Collection of British and American Authors) and Constable & Co.
Constable & Robinson
Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an independent British book publisher of fiction and non-fiction works. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co. it is probably the oldest independent publisher in the English-speaking world still operating under the name of its...
(as a volume of the Collected Works, 1914).
The book was translated into German as Gottes Narr in 1895 and into Dutch as God's gunsteling in 1896 and as De dwaas Gods in 1974. The German translation has been reprinted several times, for the last time in 1924. The Dutch translations did not meet with any success.
Plot summary
The novel is set in the fictitious Dutch town of Koopstad. The novel’s ‘hero’, Elias Lossell, becomes deaf and blind from an accident when he is nine years old. The people around him can communicate with him by writing letters with a finger on the palm of his hand. Although communication is possible, mentally he always remains a boy of nine.Thanks to a somewhat thoughtless testament Elias becomes the rightful owner of the firm of Volderdoes Zonen, tea-merchants. His half-brothers, the twins Hendrik and Hubert, manage the firm on his behalf.
Hendrik tries to save up as much money as he can to buy out Elias and take over the firm. His spendthrift wife Cornelia does not make it easy for him. While Hubert stays in China to look after the firm’s interests there, Hendrik starts speculating with Elias’s money at the instigation of his brother-in-law Thomas Alers. Hubert returns to Koopstad and gradually learns what his brother has done. He firmly disapproves.
This leads to a quarrel between the twins in Elias’s house that escalates into murder. Hubert kills Hendrik. Elias understands what happened. In the last chapter he decides to take the blame of the murder on himself. So the novel has an open end.
Critical reception
God’s Fool was Maartens’s best known novel and it was favourably received by most critics. One German critic, E. Kühnemann, even compared it to Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. This was exceptional though; more often Maartens was compared with ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
. Breuls’s chapter III.2: ‘The principles of method’ focuses on the differences and similarities between the two writers. Many critics, like, for instance, another German, Leon Keller, praised its ‘Dutch characteristic atmosphere’. Marion Spielmann
Marion Spielmann
Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann was a prolific Victorian art critic and scholar who was the editor of The Connoisseur and Magazine of Art...
said the characters of Thomas Alers and the Lossells in God’s Fool ‘live for us in his pages with a vividness that makes it hard to believe that they have no counterparts except as types.’ In 1924 the book was still so well-known that Dru Drury, president of the South African Medical Association, mentioned it in his address at the 19th South African Medical Congress: ‘You may hear an articulate infant mind speaking in (…) Elias Lossell.’
The book has been criticized too, especially the beginning and the end. The first two chapters are flashforward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
s. Gertrude Buck and Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris in their book A Course in Narrative Writing found fault with them and called this way of telling a story ‘gallery-play’. Edmund Gosse
Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...
told Maartens in a letter dated 6 December 1892 that he did not like ‘the end of vol. III, which you must really forgive me for sternly disapproving of. I don’t think this melodramatic burst of fratricide worthy of you – I don’t indeed.’ Van Maanen too called the end ‘not wholly satisfactory’, but: ‘we cannot but praise [the book] for its skilfully-spun intrigue, its clever psychological analysis and its keen satire.’
About the book
- Willem van Maanen, Maarten Maartens, Poet and Novelist, doctoral dissertation, Noordhoff, Groningen, 1928, Chapter III.5: ‘God’s Fool’ (pp. 59–65).
- Hendrik Breuls, A Comparative Evaluation of Selected Prose by Maarten Maartens, doctoral dissertation Technische Universität DresdenDresden University of TechnologyThe Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...
, 2005, Chapter II.5: ‘Christian ideals crushed: God’s Fool (1892)’ (pp. 67–71).