After the Death of Don Juan - Townsend Warner

[1001shelf]

After the Death of Don Juan - Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1938.


Place reviews here, please.

[Amanda]

The plot of this novel involves the mysterious disappearance of a notorious libertine in 18th century Seville. Intrigues and melodrama of illegitimate children, fake deaths, duels, a culture of suspicion, a peasant revolt and everything else ensues in what is ultimately an allegory for hardships of the 20th century Spanish civil war, in which it is made abundantly clear that Townsends Warner's sympathies were with the people's republic and not the fascists. I thought this worked really well and gave it 4 stars.

[Gail]

Townsend Warner takes the old Don Juan myth (Don Giovanni to opera fans) and looks at it from the perspective of a small cast of "noble" characters and a large cast of peasant characters. She keeps the story in the 1700's but she is definitely writing from the 1930's when Spain was in the middle of their civil war. The nobles are generally silly mindless people and the church and its leaders are suspect, although she does make the old man, father to Don Juan somewhat charming, witty and sympathetic. Ultimately however, Don Saturno, father to Don Juan, is ineffectual and although he believes himself to be a friend to the peasants, his actions do not help them in any way. The novel is not written as a simple allegory, rather some of the peasants and their opinions and concerns are really brought to life. I found it rather slow going for the first half in which the author needed to set up the whole myth (Don Juan's womanizing, being called out by the father of one of the woman, duel, death of the father, statue coming alive and dragging Don Juan to hell)...you know, with Mozart's amazing music playing in the background...but the book speeded up and rounded up as it went on. Needless to say, the ending was disturbing as the Spanish civil war did not end well.

[Kristel]

Reason read: Reading 1001, word of the month (After). I have had this book around since 2020. I am not sure why I bought it, perhaps this was an author featured on the Virago group. I've been a little slow in getting to it but now I have and am I ever happy to have read this here and now. Townsend Warner is an English author who had a heart for Spain. She became involved with Spain during the civil war serving in the Red Cross. This story is a spin off from the myth of Don Juan but in the story one can identify many of the concerns of writers during the civil war. The story has a land owner who has peasants working land around his home. The Catholic church also playing a major part as well. And of course the military. The setting is "the seventh decade of the eighteenth century Don Juan disappears." Questions for the reader "will the removal of the heir Don Juan release the peasantry from oppression?, are the corruptions of nobility to entrenched? From the back cover--"this wry novel interlaces legend and historical contemplation."

Noted passages;
pg53. "one should never deny to any section of mankind the means of feeling itself more miserable."

pg 86. "On her ears the accustomed words fell dry and sapless as the dead leaves of autumn."

pg246. There should be justice to the poor; for though Death is welcomed to the house of the oppressed and driven from the door of the rich man, yet in the end he knocks on both doors. Neighbor should stand by neighbor."

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