A Twentieth-Century Irishman’s First Century Palestine: George Moore’s The Brook Kerith1

Zuleika Rodgers

1 Introduction

A century ago, Life magazine hailed a fictional reflection on the origins of Christianity as “easily the most challenging piece of literature published in the present century.”2 George Moore’s novel, The Brook Kerith, set in first- century Palestine around the fictional world of Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus, and Paul, sold over 5,000 copies in the first month after publication in 1916. It was received with critical acclaim while also attracting criticism, condemnation, and calls for its author’s excommunication.3 No longer in print, the novel offers some interesting reflections on a popular depiction of Christian origins at the beginning of the twentieth century. George Moore’s (1852–1933) prolific opus of over sixty titles includes poetry, prose, and plays, and there is a large corpus of journalistic pieces and personal correspondence. His life story includes periods in Paris, Dublin, and London, where he engaged with some of the foremost artists, intellectuals, and writers of the age. A number of decades before the publication of The Brook Kerith, Moore reflected on the Bible and the origins of Christianity, and the individu- als, ideas, and movements he encountered contributed to the formation of the characters and construction of the world of the first century in the novel. Moore was certainly influenced by these experiences, but critics have noted that he defies classification (as an artist and a man) transcending national, religious, and aesthetic categorization. A recent biographer has noted that “Moore was an artist in self-invention” and “the best answer to the question of who George Moore was is the story of how he came to be himself.”4 Much of that journey is reflected in The Brook Kerith, and a brief overview of his life

1 Much gratitude is owed to the editors of this volume for inviting me to join John’s colleagues and friends in honoring his scholarship and friendship. 2 Adrian Frazier, George Moore, 1852–1933 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 403. 3 Frazier, George Moore, 402–3 and 425–26 provides an overview of the reviews and controversies generated by the book. See also Jennifer Stevens, The Historical Jesus and the Literary Imagination, 1860–1920 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010), 247–51. 4 Frazier, George Moore, xviii, xvii.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004324749_058 a twentieth-century irishman’s first century palestine 1129 illuminates how his interests and experiences contribute to his recreation of Christian origins and the world of first-century Palestine. It is particularly interesting to explore how his experiences in Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century are reflected in The Brook Kerith.

2 George Moore: Life in Context5

George Moore’s biographer Adrian Frazier has observed that he was the “anti-thetical man” (to use William Butler Yeats’s phrase) “at war with the cus- toms of his era/epoch,”6 and he came from a family that defied expectations. Based at Moore Hall in Co. Mayo in the west of Ireland, the Moores belonged to the Irish land-owning ascendency class, but they were Roman Catholic (a great-grandfather had converted for the sake of marriage) and supportive of the nationalist cause. His father, George Henry Moore (1811–1870), was a mem- ber of the Westminster Parliament and owner of one of the largest estates in Ireland, but he used his earnings (from horse racing) to support his tenants during the Great Famine (1845–1852). Having witnessed the horrors of these years, he became a supporter of the Tenants League and the cause of Irish independence. Besides also being a prolific writer and a very successful horse trainer, he made a significant contribution to the study of the Dead Sea when he led an exploratory expedition in 1837.7 Upon the death of his father in 1870, George, as eldest son, inherited the estate, and in the coming years he moved between Paris and London (and

5 For the chronology and events of Moore’s life, I have generally followed Frazier, George Moore. Other important works consulted include: Joseph Hone, The Life of George Moore (New York: Macmillan, 1936); Richard Allen Cave, A Study of the Novels of George Moore (Gerards Cross, Bucks: Colin Smythe, 1978). Elizabeth Grubgeld, George Moore and the Autogenous Self: The Autobiography and Fiction (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1994); For George Moore’s letters, I have referred to the following editions: John Eglinton, ed. and trans., Letters from George Moore to Ed. Dujardin, 1886–1922 (New York: Crosby Gaige, 1929); Rupert Hart- Davis, ed., George Moore: Letters to Lady Cunard, 1895–1933 (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957). For the editions of his writings: George Moore, The Brook Kerith: A Syrian Story (London: Penguin Books, 1952); Conversation on Ebury Street (London: Chatto and Windus, 1924); Hail and Farewell: Ave, Salve, Vale (Gerrards Cross: Smythe, 1976); The Untilled Field (Gerards Cross, Bucks: Colin Smythe, 2000); The Lake (Gerards Cross, Bucks: Colin Smythe, 1981). 6 Frazier, George Moore, 184. 7 His important work has recently been revealed in Haim Goren’s volume, Dead Sea Level: Science, Exploration and Imperial Interests in the Near East (London: I. B. Taurus, 2011), esp. 158–73.