Catalina by W. Somerset Maugham ~ 1948. This edition: Pan, 1978. Paperback. 239 pages.
I’ve dipped into Maugham’s more mainstream novels over the years – The Painted Veil and The Moon and Sixpence spring to mind – but this rather frou-frou satire set in Spain during the years of the Inquisition was certainly not what I had expected.
Our young heroine, Catalina, a sixteen-year-old beauty unfortunately crippled after being run over by a bull, prays incessantly to the Virgin Mary to heal her, for when she lost the use of her leg, she also lost her handsome lover. Lo and behold! a vision of the Virgin appears to her with a promise that she can be healed if the right person gets involved. Says Mary, “The son of Juan Suarez de Valero who has best served God has it in his power to heal you. He will lay his hands upon you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, bid you throw away your crutch and walk. You will throw down your crutch and you will walk.”
Catalina hobbles home and tells her mother of the vision, but the response is dismissive – “probably just a dream!” – and it is also not wise to draw too much attention to oneself in regards to claiming divine visitations, what with it being the height of the Inquisition and all. It’s even more sobering to consider that one of the sons of de Valero referenced by the Virgin, the saintly Bishop Don Blasco de Valero, is a chief Inquisitor.
There are three de Valero brothers, Don Blasco (the priest), Don Manuel (the prominent military man), and Don Martin (the humble baker). When Catalina’s vision inevitably becomes a topic of public discussion, everyone assumes that Don Blasco will be the one to pull off the miraculous cure, but things go a bit awry.
Maugham pads out his tale with many long digressions, many concentrating on Don Blasco’s back story and his current crisis of faith. Don Blasco’s saga is mirrored with that of another prominent member of the Spanish religious elite, Doña Beatriz de San Domingo, Prioress of a Carmelite convent.
Doña Beatriz’s ears perk up when she hears Catalina’s story, and, ever-quick to grasp opportunities to enhance the status of her nunnery, attempts to lay claim to the miracle-about-to-happen, as the vision of the Virgin took place upon the steps of the Carmelites’ church.
There are quite a number of surprises in store for the protagonists of this novel, and some for the reader, too. I was intrigued by Maugham’s mixture of satire and seriousness; there were passages of true emotional appeal here and there that caught at one’s heartstrings, but, as the novel progressed, these became more elusive, as the farcical elements took over.
Catalina’s eventual fate is not as predictable as one would initially think, and the Virgin pops up again to oversee Catalina’s wellbeing.
I thought, for the first few chapters, that I might have found something of a hidden gem with this one, but unfortunately I can’t award it that status. It’s more of a curiousity read, and I suspect it will be relegated to the “read once, don’t think I’ll read it again” stacks.
The last published full-length work by W. Somerset Maugham, Catalina is available on Project Gutenberg, and is relatively cheap and easy to source as a printed version through all the usual online book places, for those wishing to round out their collection of this author’s work.
It’s tough to give a numerical rating, as I truly enjoyed substantial parts of Catalina, but now that ten days or so have passed after my reading, I look back on the overall experience and sadly must settle on a modest 6/10.
This is not at all what I think of when I think of Maugham and sounds oddly intriguing – curiosity read is the perfect way to describe it.