The Gadfly
Encyclopedia
The Gadfly is a novel
by Ethel Lilian Voynich
, published in 1897
(United States
, June; Great Britain
, September of the same year), set in 1840s Italy
under the dominance of Austria
, a time of tumultuous revolt and uprisings. The story centers on the life of the protagonist
, Arthur Burton, as a member of the Youth movement, and his antagonist
, Padre Montanelli. A thread of a tragic relationship between Arthur and his love Gemma simultaneously runs through the story. It is a story of faith, disillusionment, revolution, romance, and heroism.
and revolutionaries. Arthur, the Gadfly, is an embodiment of the tragic Romantic
hero, who comes of age and returns from abandonment to discover his true state in the world and fight against the injustices of the current one. Gemma, his lover, and Padre Montanelli, his Priest, show various forms of love via their tragic relations with the focal character of Arthur: religious, romantic, and family. These emotions are compared with those which Arthur finds and shows as a revolutionary. The relationship between religious and revolutionary feelings is particularly drawn on. This is made particularly explicit at the climax of the book where sacred
descriptions intertwine with reflections on the Gadfly's fate. It is debatable to what extent an allegorical comparison can be drawn between the Gadfly and Jesus
.
The landscape of Italy
, in particular the Alps
, is a pervading focus of the book, with its often lush descriptions of scenery conveying the thoughts and moods of characters.
, Sidney Reilly
— a Russia
n-born adventurer and secret agent
employed by the British
Secret Intelligence Service
— met Ethel Voynich in London in 1895. Ethel Voynich was a significant figure not only on the late Victorian literary scene but also in Russian émigré circles. Lockhart claims that Reilly and Voynich had a sexual liaison and voyaged to Italy together. During this scenic tarriance, Reilly apparently "bared his soul to his mistress," and revealed to her the story of his strange youth in Russia. After their brief affair had concluded, Voynich published in 1897 her critically acclaimed novel, The Gadfly, the central character of which, Arthur Burton, was allegedly based on Sidney Reilly's own early life. However, Andrew Cook, a noted biographer of Reilly, disputes Lockhart's romanticized version of such events to be doubtful and counters instead that Reilly was perhaps informing on Voynich's radical, pro-émigré activities to William Melville
of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch
.
, the reflections on religion and rebellion proved to be ideologically suitable and successful. The Gadfly was exceptionally popular in the Soviet Union
and the People's Republic of China
exerting a large cultural influence. In the Soviet Union
The Gadfly was compulsory reading and the top best seller, indeed by the time of Voynich's death The Gadfly is estimated to have sold 2,500,000 copies in the Soviet Union alone.
The Russian composer Mikhail Zhukov
turned the book into an opera "The Gadfly" ("Овод" 1928). In 1955, the Soviet director Aleksandr Faintsimmer
adapted the novel into a film of the same title .
On the contrary, in Italy, where the plot takes place during the Italian Unification
, the novel is totally neglected: it had an only Italian translation in 1956, Il Figlio del Cardinale (literally, The Son of the Cardinal).
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 Ethel Lilian Voynich
Ethel Lilian Voynich
Ethel Lilian Voynich, née Boole was a British novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes. She was born in Cork. Her father was the mathematician George Boole. Her mother was feminist philosopher Mary Everest, niece of George Everest and an author for the...
, published in 1897
1897 in literature
The year 1897 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* January 2 - Newspapers in London, England erroneously report the death of Mark Twain. It is believed that the rumors began when Twain's cousin had become ill...
(United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, June; Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, September of the same year), set in 1840s Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
under the dominance of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, a time of tumultuous revolt and uprisings. The story centers on the life of the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Arthur Burton, as a member of the Youth movement, and his antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
, Padre Montanelli. A thread of a tragic relationship between Arthur and his love Gemma simultaneously runs through the story. It is a story of faith, disillusionment, revolution, romance, and heroism.
Themes
The book is primarily concerned with the culture of revolutionRevolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
and revolutionaries. Arthur, the Gadfly, is an embodiment of the tragic Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
hero, who comes of age and returns from abandonment to discover his true state in the world and fight against the injustices of the current one. Gemma, his lover, and Padre Montanelli, his Priest, show various forms of love via their tragic relations with the focal character of Arthur: religious, romantic, and family. These emotions are compared with those which Arthur finds and shows as a revolutionary. The relationship between religious and revolutionary feelings is particularly drawn on. This is made particularly explicit at the climax of the book where sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
descriptions intertwine with reflections on the Gadfly's fate. It is debatable to what extent an allegorical comparison can be drawn between the Gadfly and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
The landscape of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in particular the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, is a pervading focus of the book, with its often lush descriptions of scenery conveying the thoughts and moods of characters.
Background
According to historian Robin Bruce LockhartRobin Bruce Lockhart
Robin Bruce Lockhart was a British author.The son of the British spy R. H. Bruce Lockhart, he wrote the 1967 book Ace of Spies about the super-spy Sidney Reilly, which was made into a 1983 television miniseries Reilly: Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill...
, Sidney Reilly
Sidney Reilly
Lieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC , famously known as the Ace of Spies, was a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service . He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations...
— a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-born adventurer and secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
employed 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...
Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
— met Ethel Voynich in London in 1895. Ethel Voynich was a significant figure not only on the late Victorian literary scene but also in Russian émigré circles. Lockhart claims that Reilly and Voynich had a sexual liaison and voyaged to Italy together. During this scenic tarriance, Reilly apparently "bared his soul to his mistress," and revealed to her the story of his strange youth in Russia. After their brief affair had concluded, Voynich published in 1897 her critically acclaimed novel, The Gadfly, the central character of which, Arthur Burton, was allegedly based on Sidney Reilly's own early life. However, Andrew Cook, a noted biographer of Reilly, disputes Lockhart's romanticized version of such events to be doubtful and counters instead that Reilly was perhaps informing on Voynich's radical, pro-émigré activities to William Melville
William Melville
William Melville was an Irish law enforcement officer and the first chief of the British Secret Service, forerunner of MI5.-Birth:...
of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
.
Popularity
With the central theme of the book being the nature of a true revolutionaryRevolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
, the reflections on religion and rebellion proved to be ideologically suitable and successful. The Gadfly was exceptionally popular in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
exerting a large cultural influence. In the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
The Gadfly was compulsory reading and the top best seller, indeed by the time of Voynich's death The Gadfly is estimated to have sold 2,500,000 copies in the Soviet Union alone.
The Russian composer Mikhail Zhukov
Mikhail Zhukov (conductor)
Mikhail Nikolayevich Zhukov was a Russian conductor and composer.Zhukov graduated 1918 from the National Choral Academy in Moscow. In 1919-22 he was first concert master, then 1922-32 conductor at the Stanislavsky Opera Studio...
turned the book into an opera "The Gadfly" ("Овод" 1928). In 1955, the Soviet director Aleksandr Faintsimmer
Aleksandr Faintsimmer
- Filmography :*Proshchalnaya gastrol' 'Artista *Traktir na Pyatnitskoy *Bez prava na oshibku *Pyatdesyat na pyatdesyat *Daleko na zapade *Devushka s gitaroy *The Gadfly...
adapted the novel into a film of the same title .
On the contrary, in Italy, where the plot takes place during the Italian Unification
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, the novel is totally neglected: it had an only Italian translation in 1956, Il Figlio del Cardinale (literally, The Son of the Cardinal).
Theatre adaptations
- 1898. The Gadfly or the Son of the Cardinal by G.B. Shaw.
- 1899. The Gadfly by S. Robson, E. Rose and E.L. Voynich.
- 1906. Žertva svobody. Drama v 4 d. i 2 k. by L. Avrian (in Russian).
- 1916. Ovod, drama v 4 dejstvijach i 7 kartin, by V. Zolotarëv (in Russian).
- 1940. Ovod: p’esa v 3 dejstvijach by A. Željabužskij (in Russian).
Opera, ballet, musical adaptations
- 1923. Prazdnik krovi, melodrama v 6 d. s prologom by S.I. Prokof’ev (opera) (in Russian).
- 1928. Ovod by Mikhail Zhukov (opera) (in Russian).
- 1930. Ovod, opera v 4 aktach by A. Ziks (opera) (in Russian).
- 1958. Ovod, opera v 4 dejstvijach, 7 kartinach by A. Spatavekkia (opera) (in Russian).
- 1967. Ovod by A. Černov (ballet).
- 1982. Rivares by Sulkhan Tsintsadze (ballet).
- 1983. Ovod by A. Kolker (rock musical) (in Russian).
Film adaptations
- 1928KrazanaKrazana is a 1928 Georgian black-and-white silent film directed by Kote Marjanishvili based on the novel The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich.-Cast:* Nato Vachnadze as Jema* I. Merabishvili as Arthur...
. Soviet Georgian film (Krazana) directed by Kote Mardjanishvili. - 1955Ovod (1955 film)The Gadfly is a 1955 Soviet drama film directed by Aleksandr Fajntsimmer based on the novel The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich.-Cast:* Oleg Strizhenov as Arthur* Marina Strizhenova as Gemma* Nikolai Simonov as Cardinal Montanelli...
. The Soviet director Aleksandr FaintsimmerAleksandr Faintsimmer- Filmography :*Proshchalnaya gastrol' 'Artista *Traktir na Pyatnitskoy *Bez prava na oshibku *Pyatdesyat na pyatdesyat *Daleko na zapade *Devushka s gitaroy *The Gadfly...
adapted the book into a film of the same name . Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
composed the film scoreFilm scoreA film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
. The Gadfly SuiteThe Gadfly SuiteThe Gadfly Suite, Op. 97a, is a suite for orchestra arranged from the composition by Dmitri Shostakovich for the 1955 Soviet film The Gadfly, based on the novel of the same name by Ethel Lilian Voynich .The Suite known as Op...
was arranged from the film. The Romance (Music)Romance (music)The term romance has a centuries-long history. Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. During the 18th and 19th centuries Russian composers developed the French variety of the...
,scored for violin and orchestra and inspired by Massenet's MéditationMeditationMeditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
from ThaisThaïsThaïs was a famous Greek hetaera who lived during the time of Alexander the Great and accompanied him on his campaigns. She is most famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis. At the time, Thaïs was the lover of Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander's generals...
has since become popular, and was used as the theme music for the series Reilly, Ace of SpiesReilly, Ace of SpiesReilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatizing the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies to ever work for the British. Among his exploits in the early 20th century were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of...
about master spy Sidney ReillySidney ReillyLieutenant Sidney George Reilly, MC , famously known as the Ace of Spies, was a Jewish Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard, the British Secret Service Bureau and later the Secret Intelligence Service . He is alleged to have spied for at least four nations...
. - 1980Ovod (1980 film)The Gadfly is a 1980 Soviet drama film directed by Nikolai Mashchenko based on the novel The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich. Screenplay written by Yuli Dunsky and Valeri Frid.-Cast:* Andrei Kharitonov* Sergei Bondarchuk* Anastasiya Vertinskaya...
. Film of the same name by Nikolai Mashchenko featuring Andrei Kharitonov, Sergei BondarchukSergei BondarchukSergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, and actor.- Biography :Born in Belozerka, in the Kherson Governorate, Sergei Bondarchuk spent his childhood in the cities of Yeysk and Taganrog, graduating from the Taganrog School Number 4 in 1938. His first performance as an...
and Anastasiya VertinskayaAnastasiya VertinskayaAnastasiya Alexandrovna Vertinskaya , a Soviet and Russian actress whose mass popularity and high critical acclaim made her one of the most distinguished figures in the history of the 20th century Soviet cinema...
. - 1987. Rivares. Soviet Georgian film of B. Chkheidze.
- 2003. Niumeng. Chinese film directed by W. Tianming