Thomas Hope’s Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Greek, reached instant popularity. The anonymously published three-volume novel was at first credited to George Gordon, Lord Byron, who had written popular accounts of the Near East; Hope later claimed authorship in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. According to a 1911 encyclopedia article, Byron was so impressed with the novel’s depiction of Greece that he wept with regret that he had not written Anastasius.

Hope’s vast travels allowed him to bring authenticity to the popular picaresque form, focusing on an 18th-century Greek rogue who begins his first-person narration with a capsulated personal history: “My family came originally from Epirus: my father settled at Chio. His parentage was neither exalted nor yet low.” The youngest of seven children, he states, “poor Anastasius brought up the rear with but indifferent prospects.” Therefore, he must embark on wide travels and the great adventures common to a picaro to find his fortune.

Barred by the Turks from becoming a soldier, and by his parents from becoming a sailor, he agrees early on to enter church service and gains a slight education, although study bores him. Attracted still by a militant lifestyle, he decides to lead a personal “crusade” with a band of “ruffians” as his followers. His father pays for the damage he inflicts, and Anastasius leaves the church and pretends an interest in learning a trade. While awaiting an appointment to an apprenticeship, Anastasius serves the local consul and falls in love with his daughter. He soon must escape her attentions and, when his merchant apprenticeship is denied, surrenders to the song of sailors on a Venetian brig, offering his services to its captain.

Although terrified to leave home, Anastasius thrills to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Achilles, embarking on adventures of his own. As he moves about the country, he takes on various positions, learning “there is a danger in doing things too well. What was at first volunteered as an extraordinary feat, is soon assigned as a daily task.” This becomes his credo, and the avoidance of routine prevents his settling down.

He engages in varied adventures, including field battle; imprisonment; service to merchants, physicians, and wise men; encounters with pirates and with Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders; numerous romances; and the gain and loss of fortunes along the way.

References to Anastasius prove that it was widely read. Thomas De Quincey mentions its lack of authenticity when dealing with the subject of opium usage in his own book Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822). Although De Quincey declares the author of Anastasius “brilliant,” he also writes that the author’s “grievous misrepresentation” of the effects of opium clearly demonstrate he is not a user.

The character of Anastasius was employed in a most uncomplimentary way by the writer of an 1860 review of The Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill, author of “Vathek.” The North American Review noted that Beckford’s life offered little to admire, as he was completely selfish and held his fellow man in utter disregard, his “pursuits” having less value than those of “Anastasius Hope, ‘when he meditated on mutineers and planned pokers.’” Mary Shelley’s journals indicated she owned the book in 1821.

Anastasius was highly autobiographical, as Hope filled it with his own travel experiences. Later critics found its style too elaborate and too heavy with narrative, seldom interrupted by dialogue. Ignoring the later commandment of fiction to “show, don’t tell,” Hope did little other than narrate the plot to the reader. When the narrator promises at the book’s end to do away with the “eternal” I, he simply substitutes another narrator.

While the novel remained of interest decades later as a specimen of picaresque, its heavy authorial intervention did not please audiences who appreciated realistic, dynamic characters and light narration. Copies of the book remain scarce, and few literature courses give it more than a cursory mention.

Bibliography

“Hope, Thomas.” 1911 Encyclopedia. Pagewise. Available online URL: http://27.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HO/HOPE_SCOTT_JAMES_ROBERT.htm. Downloaded September 12, 2024.

Hope, Thomas. Anastasius. London: John Murray, 1820.

De Quincey, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings. Edited by Grevel Lindop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, 42.

“Mary Shelley’s Reading: Chronological List.” University of Pennsylvania. Available online. URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/FrankenDemo/MShelley/bydates.html. Downloaded September 12, 2024.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

Tags: 19th-century literature, Anastasius novel, autobiographical fiction, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, British literature 1820s, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, De Quincey, Eastern Mediterranean fiction, forgotten classics, Greek rogue character, Historical Fiction, Literary Criticism, literary travel narrative, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Memoirs of a Greek, opium in literature, Orientalism in literature, Picaresque Fiction, rare novels, Romantic period novels, Romantic-era fiction, Thomas Hope, Thomas Hope Anastasius analysis, Thomas Hope’s Anastasius, Thomas Hope’s Anastasius or Memoirs of a Greek, Travel Literature, Vathek, William Beckford