The Martian, by George du Maurier

George du Maurier

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...

, published in 1898 (UK edition) is a long (471 pages), largely autobiographical, novel that describes the lives of two bosom friends, Barty Josselin and Robert Maurice, starting from their school days in Paris in the 1850s. Written in long descriptive passages with very little dialogue and many digressions, the book had considerably less success in its time than its predecessor, the popular Trilby

Trilby (novel)

Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United...

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Literary significance & criticism

Of a rather loose construction, its main points of interest lie for today's readers in lively descriptions of "la vie de bohême" and different parts of Paris through the second half of the 19th century, pages on Mechelen

Mechelen

Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...

 in Belgium and Whitby

Whitby

Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

 in the 1870s, and its superb illustrations.

As in Trilby, we find the recurrent theme of antisemitism, but less prominently than in the earlier work. What is new in it is the use of Swedenborgianism. Du Maurier writes that,

to the most sceptical he [Swedenborg] has restored that absolute conviction of an indestructible germ of Immortality within us, born of remembrance made perfect and complete after dissolution: he alone has built the golden bridge in the middle of which science and faith can shake hands. (p. 385)

In fact the "Martian" of the title is none other than an entity that undergoes successive reincarnations ad infinitum. This concept is linked to contemporary interest in eugenics

Eugenics

Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...

. This theme is explored in the context of the life of Barty and his offspring in the second half of the novel, starting with the beginnings of his loss of eyesight and his consultation of a reputed ophthalmologist in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, which is a genuine autobiographical piece of writing from du Maurier. It is implied that Barty's and his wife Leah's moral, intellectual and physical perfection will be passed on to evolve into even more perfect children to build a more perfect race of beings in the future

And to whom but Barty Josselin do we owe it that our race is on an average already from four to six inches taller than it was thirty years ago, men and women alike; that strength and beauty are rapidly becoming the rule among us, and weakness and ugliness the exception? (p. 386)).