|
''Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca'' (alternatively titled ''Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca in Arabia'' in variant fragments of the text that survive) is an Orientalist prose satire and picaresque mock-epic coauthored by Philip Freneau and Hugh Henry Brackenridge while both men were juniors at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University).〔For alternative title, see Leary, Lewis "Notes and Documents: Father Bombo's Pilgrimage," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 66 (1942): 459-478. p. 459.〕 Penned in the autumn of 1770 but not published in its entirety until 1975, ''Father Bombo'' is regarded by some to be the first American novel, competing alongside a number of other possible candidates.〔See Davidson, Cathy N. ''Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (Expanded Edition)''. Oxford UP, 2004. p. 155. See also Bell, Michael D. Introduction. ''Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca''. Princeton U Library, 1975. p. ix.〕 ''Father Bombo'' is a contender "by virtue of its early date, its undeniably native origin and materials," the future literary contributions of Freneau and Brackenridge, and the significant political careers of their College of New Jersey classmates, who included James Madison and Aaron Burr.〔Philbrick, Thomas. "Review: Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca." Early American Literature 10.3 (1975): 314-316. p. 314.〕 Madison, in fact, co-founded the American Whig Society with Freneau and Brackenridge in 1769 and was a literary collaborator.〔Bell, p. x.〕 The novel survives as one of the literary productions of the 'Paper War,' an exchange of satire that took place between the college's rival literary clubs, The American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society. (two organizations would later merge to form the American Whig-Cliosophic Society in the 20th Century. ) A roman à clef, ''Father Bombo'' recounts a number of thinly fictionalized events from the Paper War and caricatures Cliosophic Society members, who serve as the novel's absurd characters, including Bombo.〔Bell, p. xi.〕 ==Plot summary== As punishment for plagiarizing the classical Syrian satirist Lucian, Father Reynardine Bombo is commanded by an apparition of the "famous prophet Mahomet" to "take a long and tedious Journey to Mecca" on foot.〔Freneau & Brackenridge, ''Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca,'' Princeton U Library, 1975. p. 7.〕 To atone, Bombo must also convert to "Mahometanism," become a zealous devotee, and don a "Turkish habit and particularly that of a Pilgrim."〔 His forced religious conversion does not prevent Bombo from frequently indulging in alcohol and pork during his pilgrimage. Headed for the harbor of New York, Bombo sets off from his New Jersey "castle" (the fictional stand-in for the college's Nassau Hall) clothed in a turban and a "Turkish vest".〔Freneau 1975, p. 11, 8.〕 Seeking quarter in inns, houses of ill fame, and at his father's castle on Long Island, Bombo initiates a series of angry disputes when the characters he encounters fail to show the respect and deference that is his due as a pilgrim. These episodes often devolve into gross-out humor and violent slapstick pratfalls, of which Bombo is the usual victim despite his great size and pugnaciousness. While sailing across the Atlantic, Bombo is tied to the ship's yard-arm for propositioning the captain's wife and instigating a mutiny, abducted by French then Irish privateers, and finally set adrift in a barrel. Washing ashore on the Irish coast, Bombo tries his hand at teaching and panhandling. Bombo's trek across the Middle East and arrival in Mecca are hastily detailed in the book's final chapter. In Mecca, Bombo visits the mosque that purportedly contains the tomb of Mahomet, wherein he deposits dictionaries "in one of the most sacred closets of the place" in order to complete his penance and "pacify the Ghost of Lucian." 〔Freneau 1975, p. 92.〕 Bombo returns safely to his castle in New Jersey, a refined and more responsible scholar, and eventually retires to a country estate in the vicinity to live out his days. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|