| The Master of Man | |
| Author: | Hall Caine |
| Country: | UK |
| Language: | English |
| Published: | 1921 (Heinemann) |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages: | 432 pp |
The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin was a best-selling 1921 novel by Hall Caine. The fictional story is set on the Isle of Man and is concerned with Victor Stowell, the Deemster's son, who commits a romantic indiscretion and then gives up on all of his principles in order to keep it a secret. However, in the face of the mounting consequences, Victor confesses publicly to his crime and is punished, but redemption comes through a woman's love. The penultimate of Caine's novels, it is romantic and moralistic, returning to his regular themes of sin, justice and atonement, whilst also addressing "the woman question." It was adapted for a film entitled Name the Man in 1924 by Victor Sjöström.
The central idea for the plot of The Master of Man came from a correspondence which Hall Caine had in September 1908. Following a performance of the theatrical version of his earlier novel, The Christian, Caine was identified as a likely signatory in a petition against the harsh punishment of a woman named Daisy Lord. After giving birth to a child out of wedlock the young woman had killed the child secretly but was discovered and arrested. At the trial she explained that "I thought I would put an end to it so that it should not have the trouble I have had."[1] Caine signed the petition but he kept the accompanying letter as a record of its story.[2]
In writing about the novel for promotional purposes, however, Caine makes no mention of this English case of Daisy Lord. Instead, he attributed his inspiration to a vague story from Manx legal history:[3]
There was [a] judicial scandal in the Isle of Man, which [...] somehow entered into the region of the heroic, partly by reason of the part played in it by a great and noble woman. That was the scandal whereof the main features form the groundwork of the following story - the story of a sin, perhaps a little or at least a natural and pardonable sin, which, being concealed and denied at the beginning, went on and on from consequence to consequence (as all hidden sins must), increasing like a snowball in weight and momentum until it was in danger of submerging with an avalanche the entire community.
Described as a Roman à clef by Caine's modern biographer, the novel also used many themes and occurrences from Caine's own life.[4] One notable instance of this is the episode where Bessie is sent away to be educated before she would be fit to marry the educated and higher-class Victor Stowell, which clearly recalls Caine's having set up Mary Chandler in Sevenoaks in order to be educated before their own marriage.[5] As was usual in Caine's work, he makes no acknowledgement of his main sources, instead writing that "while the principal incidents of the tale I have now to tell owe something to reminiscence, I have exercised so freely the storyteller's licence in telling them [...] that I can claim no better authority for my story than that of an independent creation, with a general background of fact."
Caine first spoke of his ideas for the novel to Bram Stoker in 1912 shortly before his death.[2] Although Caine then began work on the novel in 1913, he put it aside in order to concentrate on writing in support of the Allies during World War I, apparently not picking it up again until one day after the Armistice, on 12 November 1918. By the autumn of 1919 the book had begun to appear in serial form in magazines in America and in the UK, although the episodes had to be later interrupted and held back due to problems with Caine's health and personal life (through strain on his marriage and also at the death of his publisher, William Heinemann). After working on the novel in St. Moritz, the Savoy Hotel in London and at his home, Greeba Castle, in the Isle of Man, the book was completed and ready for publishing in book form in July 1921.[2]
Victor Stowell, the son of the Deemster (judge), was letting his talents go to waste until he met Fenella Stanley, the Lieutenant Governor's daughter, who inspires him to try to make something of himself. His progress in studying to become an advocate is halted when he learns that Fenella has become a Warden at a Lady's Settlement in London. Understanding that her seven-year contract means that she therefore cannot marry him, Victor slides into disrepute. This leads eventually to his giving into the temptation to sleep with Bessie Collister, who he meets at a dance hall in Douglas.
Determined to marry Bessie for the sake of honour, Victor looks to prepare her for her rise in society by enrolling her at a school in Derbyhaven. The only person he tells of this to is his friend, Alick Gell, who regularly visits Bessie on Victor's behalf.Unaware of Victor's night with Bessie, Fenella unexpectedly returns to the island in order to win Victor's heart. He is able to become engaged to Fenella when Alick admits to being in love with Bessie. By this time Victor has proven himself as a uniquely gifted lawyer, both in his oration and sense of justice. In recognition of this he is put forward for the position of Deemster.
Bessie realises that she is pregnant by Victor and flees to have the baby secretly at her mother's house. However, when the baby is born she kills it by mistake as she tries to smother its cries in order to avoid discovery. When the baby's body is found, she is arrested and charged with infanticide. Alick agrees to defend her in court, believing emphatically her denial of the charges. Victor is to sit as Deemster for the first time on this case, unaware of who it concerns.
Victor discovers that the trial is of Bessie but there is no way for him to avoid sitting on the trial. He determines to get the best judgement possible for Bessie in order to mitigate his guilt, even if it compromises justice. However, despite Victor's interfering to support Alick's defence, incontestable evidence appears which links Bessie to the murder. Bound by the law, Victor gives the necessary judgement of execution, with the expectation of the customary mitigation of punishment being issued by the Crown. Both Fenella and Alick leave the courtroom aware of Victor's true involvement with the case.
Victor visits Fenella but she tempestuously refuses to forgive him as long as Bessie is imprisoned. Victor then discovers that the Governor has not passed on his request for clemency and so Bessie is to be hanged. Convincing himself that the law is thus unjust and so correct to be overturned, Victor contrives a way of enabling Bessie to escape. He delivers Bessie to Alick, who escapes with her from the island.
When it is discovered that Alick is missing, the Manx people begin to riot, attributing Bessie's escape to him under the tacit blessing of the authorities. The Governor responds by asking Victor to sign a warrant for Alick's arrest. However, realising the rising magnitude of the effects of his crime, Victor confesses to the Governor and asks to resign. When the Governor refuses to accept his resignation, Victor realises that he must make a public declaration of his sins to the people. Fenella realises the extent of her feelings for him and promises to stand by him.
Victor hands himself in to the police and admits to everything. He is sentenced to two years in the prison at Castle Rushen and is only saved from despair by Fenella's taking a job as a warder in the prison in order to be close to him. The novel concludes with their commitment to one another through marriage, the ceremony being carried out within the prison walls.
Whilst writing the book, Caine gave it the working title of The Manx Woman. He was convinced to change the title at the suggestion of his agent at Heinemann, Charly Evans, who wrote: "I am convinced that the title The Master of Man has a ring to it like the chimes of Big Ben - something that stirs one to the utmost, and arouses every element of curiosity."[2]
Towards the end of its serialisation in magazines, a draft version of the completed book was sent to various friends, critics and public figures to obtain their responses for use in promotional material for the book. His good friend, Robert Leighton, responded emphatically, calling the book "your supreme achievement… the greatest and most perfect thing you have done. It seems to me you know human nature with absolute success."[6] However, the majority of those who received the book sent acknowledgements that were merely brief and polite. The most flattering extracts from these letters were included at the back of a limited edition of 100 copies of the book that were presented to Caine's family and friends.[2]
The book went on sale in July 1921 with an initial printing of 100,000 copies, announced in the Manx press as "to be immediately made available for the vast English holiday crowd that sets out on its annual vacation about the last week of July." The entirety of this print run sold out within a matter of days and the book immediately topped the best-seller list. However, Caine was bemused and annoyed to find that it held the top-selling spot for only for a short space of time.
The book was published in twelve translations in fifteen countries simultaneously with the British edition;[7] in Australia, Bohemia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Unlike previous Caine novels, this book failed to reach the top-selling spot in the United States, where the highest place it reached was third.[2]
Quotes from the press reaction to the novel, included in later editions of the book, were remarkable for drawing comparisons between Caine and Tolstoy:[8]
However, the general critical response was less positive. In the 27 years since Caine's great success of The Manxman, literary tastes had moved on and his didactic and melodramatic style was now distinctly out of fashion. This was put starkly in a review in The North American Review, where it was noted that "the sentiment aroused by the story depends in large measure upon an arbitrary and unreal contrast between Stowell's character and the things he does and suffers," and that "the novel as a whole is condemned by its sham inevitableness and its reckless idealizations."[9] Caine's modern biographer observes that even just the central plot point of Victor Stowell becoming Deemster "seems so unlikely as to vitiate the story at its central point."
Coming ten years before his death, during which time only The Woman of Knockaloe was published, this novel is considered to "effectively round off the Hall Caine canon."[10]
As for previous Hall Caine novels, a play adaptation was planned. However, it never materialised for The Master of Man. The film version of the book was negotiated by Caine's son, Derwent Hall Caine, who received a call on the matter directly from Samuel Goldwyn even before the book had been published.[2]
The film adaptation, released in America under the title Name the Man, initially had Maurice Tourneur as the director, having shot a film version of Caine's The Christian the previous year. However, he was replaced by Victor Sjöström before filming began. Sjöström wanted to change the leading actress, but Goldwyn Pictures was already committed to a contract with Mae Busch, who was to star as Bessie Collister.[11] The other leading actors in the film included Conrad Nagel as Victor Stowell, Hobart Bosworth as Christian Stowell (Victor's father), Creighton Hale as Alick Gell, and Patsy Ruth Miller as Fenella Stanley. After filming in Hollywood, the film was released in America on 27 January 1924.[12] The advertising for the film's release included the following notable description of the story:[13]
"It is a bit of Reality carved right out of life itself - as real as the face of your mother, or your own hand. It convinces you of its Humanness, of its stature through its Simplicity.[...] No human heart can escape the Drama and the Emotion which Seastrom has lifted from life and transferred to the screen. It speaks the universal language of the heart, no matter how noble or ignoble that heart may be."
As with his other novels set in the Isle of Man, Caine uses a great many unreferenced sources for the various episodes through which he gives the novel "a rather thin though persuasive effect of primitiveness in the Manx environment," as one American reviewer described it. The more prominent Manx references within the novel include the following: