The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Department of English

Vernon Lee, “Dionea,” 1890

What are some literary antecedents for a frame in which an official reports the advent of a deity? (Browning’s “Cleon,” and Lee reverses the situation for an ostensibly Christian doctor is reporting on the advent of a pagan deity)

What is the effect of the use of a frame, documentary style, and educated observer to report on the advent of a pagan goddess?

What do we know about the narrator? About his correspondent? About their relationship? (he is writing a history of the decline of the pagan deities, and serves as the physician to a convent; she is described as changing and mercurial, and is unusually interested in her protégé)

What is added to this tale by its style?

Are the comic or sly elements to this narrative, and if so, how do these affect its message? (Venus is unstoppable, a life force)

Is there humor to the fact that even a historian of the pagan deities does not at first identify Venus? (also there is humor in the many clues which the reader is expected to identify)

At what point does the reader understand Dionea’s identity? Which of her actions are explicable only when this is known?

What purpose is served by the tale’s many allusions to literary works? To artists and art works?

What is the narrator’s view of pagan revivals? Does his (or his author’s) view resemble those of Pater and Swinburne? (Pater saw the Renaissance as the revival of classical literature tinged with a modern melancholy; Swinburne’s “Hymn to Proserpine” laments the supplanting of ancient Grecian rites with Christianity

What purpose is served by foreign quotations? By the accounts of rural stories and myths? (i. e., the accounts of local belief in witchcraft)

Is the tale’s physical setting important? What is the effect of the descriptions of the coastal Mediterranean?

What meanings are implicit in the tale of the sculptor Waldemar and the sad death of him and his wife? What erroneous view of the nature of women, and his own desires, had he held?

What are some of the traits of Dionea/Venus? (immoral, impersonal, a stirrer of passion, herself only lightly moved)

Had Venus been featured in previous Victorian literary works? (William Morris’s The Earthly Paradise, her legends familiar from Sabine Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages)

What do we learn from the ending? Is it important that the narrator does not observe Venus’s next transmutation directly but must hear of her from a “sailor boy”? Is he a fitting witness?

"A Wicked Voice" (1890)

1.     Is this a dramatic monologue? If so, how reliable do we feel the speaker’s testimony to be?

2.     What is suggested by the title’s use of the word “wicked” rather than “evil”? (some ambiguity, beauty of singer’s voice not an unmixed evil, even if destructive)

3.     Are there other nineteenth century tales in which a portrait assumes powerful or living qualities? (D. G. Rossetti’s “St. Agnes of Intercession,” Oliphant’s “The Portrait”)

4.     What is the significance of the opening discussion of the speaker’s preference for older forms of music rather than Wagner’s operas?

5.     What is his declared response to emphasis on the singer’s voice? Why does he find this threatening or abhorrent?

6.     How is the speaker identified? (Magnus, a composer, originally from Norway) What is implied by his name?

7.     What traits does he ascribe to himself? (a lover of nobility in art, 229)

8.     Is the reader expected to ascribe significance to the fact that Magnus is originally from Norway? According to this story, what contrasting qualities will he have found in Italy? (land of sensuous temptation)

9.     Is it significant that he has chosen to write an opera on the topic of Ogier the Dane? How are the legends of Ogier described, and will these form any precedent for the narrator? (Ogier loses sense of time, obsessed with love for a fairy)

10.     What are features of the tale’s setting? (emphasis on moon, unhealthy airs)

11.     What is indicated by the narrator’s strong negative response to the portrait of Zaffirini? (anticipates fated ending)

12.     How is Zaffirini characterized? (feminine, mocking, implacable) What is the significance of the fact that he is described as possessing both masculine and feminine traits?

13.      What does the narrator learn from his friend’s account of Zaffirini’s past treatment of the latter’s great aunt? Is the singer now dead?

14.      How does the narrator treat Zaffarini’s portrait? Is this ominous? What chain of events does this set in motion?

15.     What happens to the speaker after repeatedly hearing this voice? Is he able to control his desires through will power?

16.      Where does he flee to ameliorate his condition, and what results from this attempt? (visits palace where Zaffarini had seduced and murdered the great aunt through his charms)

17.      How is the palace described? (old, decayed) What warning is the composer given by its inhabitants? (not to breathe in miasmic night air)

18.      What causes him to violate this admonition? (obsession with hearing Zaffarini’s voice)

19.      How is the voice described? Are some of the descriptions erotic? (veiled, then pulsing, breaks through and stabs the auditor)

20.      Are the senses blended in the narrator’s descriptions (synesthesia), and if so, what effect does this create?

21.      How is suspense created throughout the plot? In what ways does Magnus repeat the fate of the aristocratic aunt? How does this affect the reader’s expectations for his future? (he has heard the voice twice and begs its singer to permit him to hear it once more; Magnus’s predecessor had died on the third hearing of the voice)

22.      What has happened to his ability to write? (can no longer compose)

23.      Are there realistic explanations for his fate? (has contracted a fatal fever, as was not uncommon in this time and place)

24.      How does the story end? Is it appropriate that it should end with the speaker’s plea? That his fate is uncertain?

25.      Is there a moral to this story? Or alternately, is it important that there is no stated moral or possibility for “redemption”?

26.      What are the story’s basic themes? (divided self, power of art to evoke obsessive desires, destructiveness of attraction, permeability of the senses, the power of the unconscious, erotic attraction in sound)

27.      Are there parallels between “A Wicked Voice” and other works of the 1880s-90s which describe the power of music to stir undesired emotions? (Lionel Johnson, “The Dark Angel”)

“Prince Alberic and the Snake Lady” (1890)

1.     What tone is adopted by the narrator of this tale? With whom does the narrator sympathize, and who receives ironic treatment?

2.     What myth/plot pattern organizes this story? (a work of art’s power to encode a recurrent, determining myth or historical fate) Have you encountered earlier instances in which an artwork or legend predicts or determines future events? (Dante G. Rossetti’s “St. Agnes of Intercession”)

3.     Are there other instances in nineteenth-century literature in which an artistic creation takes on a life of its own?

4.     What are some basic themes of the story? (youth and love vs. age and narcissism; artifice vs. natural beauty; the blending of dreams and reality; the impossibility of crossing boundaries of identity)

5.     How is the Duke represented? Does he govern his kingdom well? (wasteful, spends half the realm’s revenues on entertainments) Do his subjects apparently agree with his statements? (may be an element of coercion)

6.     What is revealed by the Duke’s taste in art? Can you recall other instances in literature in which artistic artifice is contrasted with nature beauty? (Spenser’s “Bower of Bliss”; Tennyson’s “The Palace of Art”)

7.     After Alberic’s death can the reader regret the extinction of the House of Luna?

8.     What are some features of Alberic’s manner and character? (a handsome man with long golden locks--seems both masculine and feminine)

9.     How is the godmother/lady described? What does she represent?

10.     What is the snake lady’s relationship to Alberic? (teaches him to read and ride horses) How does he respond? Is their relationship benign?

11.     What literary antecedents are suggested by her snake features? (a lamia or femme fatale, cmp. Melusine, Keats’s “Lamia,” Morris’s “The Lady of the Land”)

12.     How is the story furthered by the presence of the Dwarf, the Jester, and the Jesuit? What qualities do they represent? (conniving of court)

13.     What are ways in which Lee’s story reverses conventional stereotypes? (the snake is sympathetic, the religious figure is cunning and malicious)

14.     When introduced to court, what virtues does Alberic manifest? Were these expected? How has he learned such decorum and probity? (perhaps from the Snake Lady)

15.     What motivates the Duke’s determination that Alberic should marry a weathly heiress? (wishes money for frivolous expenses)

16.      What prevents Alberic from succeeding in his efforts to rescue the Snake Lady from her bondage? (imprisoned and attacked) How does she die? (hacked to death by Duke and his minions)

17.     What causes Alberic’s death? Does this seem appropriate for his character?

18.      How are landscapes used symbolically throughout the story? (convey sensuous experience) Interiors? (e. g., the current palace vs. the older, more primitive one)

19.      Are there humorous touches to this story and its descriptions?

20.      How is the narrative furthered by its setting in Italy?

21.      How is the story enhanced by its author’s knowledge of the historical milieu? Is Lee’s presentation of the practices of the House of Luna closer to the historical reality of the time or to parody?

22.     What is unusual or unexpected about this tale’s representation of love, sexuality and romance? Can you see parallels between Lee’s portrayals and those of other decadent writers?

 


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