It has a Jamesian "roving
central intelligence," which is a fancy way of saying it
dips in and out of a multitude of points of view. In early drafts,
I kept trying to get rid of characters— but they did not
want to go! And more kept popping up! Certainly it's easier to
sell a novel with one main character. It's asking a lot of the
reader to keep track of such a crowd. But I came to realize that
all of these many characters are absolutely necessary for this
story because the main protagonist is not a person but an idea:
the prince is the symbol of the future of the empire— the
idea of Mexico as an empire, Mexicans not as citizens, but as
subjects.
How does the story of the prince— the story of this idea—
live, evolve and ultimately fail? We have to go into the minds
of others to find out. There are a few important recurring characters,
such as the prince's parents, his nanny, Maximilian, and Charlotte,
but there are also a maid, a cook, a bandit, a visiting Belgian
aristocrat, General Almonte and General Bazaine, the U.S. Minister
to France, his wife, a bookseller, soldiers, Prince Louis of
France, a dentist, the widow of a Mexican politician, Father
Fischer, Cardinal Antonelli, the Pope— yes! even Pope Pio
Nono (Pius IX)— and so on.
>>Read more about the novel at Q
& A (which includes a Reader's Guide). |
C. M. MAYO
