The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel is a 1935 novel by the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. Set primarily in the fictional town of Great Falls, Connecticut, it relates the life of Oliver Alden, the descendant of an old Boston family. Santayana wrote of the novel that "it gives the emotions of my experiences, and not my thoughts or experiences themselves."Santayana, George. The Letters of George Santayana. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955. p. 282
Alden's life demonstrates "the essential tragedy of the late-born Puritan."George Santayana, ""The Last Puritan"". Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994, 5. In the Prologue, Santayana explains that, "in Oliver puritanism worked itself out to its logical end. He convinced himself, on puritan grounds, that it was wrong to be a puritan." The tragic aspect is that in spite of his realization he maintained the character that was his cultural bequest.
History of the novel The novel took Santayana forty-five years to complete and was a best-selling novel in 1936 (second only to Gone with the Wind). It was first published in 1935 by Constable Publishers in London. The 721 page novel was printed in Great Britain by Robert Maclehose and Co. Ltd. It was first published in the U.S. by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York. It was reprinted again in 1937 (this edition included a preface in which Santayana described the writing process and his philosophical intentions), 1940, and 1961.National Union Catalogue vol. 520. London: Mansell Information, 1977 It was most recently published in 1994 as the fourth volume of The Works of George Santayana, a critical edition of the philosopher's writings published by MIT Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT edition is based on the original typescript, making the content true to Santayana's original intentions. This edition also has footnotes to the text that provide the reader with historical information, commentary, and notes on editing decisions. The cover was "inspired by George Santayana's choice of the 1935 Constable edition dust jacket of The Last Puritan.George Santayana, The Last Puritan. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994, front and back jacket."
Santayana was at first hesitant about having the novel published. It contains explicit content (by the standards of the time) such as drug use, sexual deviance, atheism, etc. Considering that he was writing about many of his colleagues, he was afraid that it might be very controversial. But, as he wrote in one letter: "The dangerous sides of the book...seem to have been overlooked or timidly ignored by the critics."Santayana, George. The Letters of George Santayana. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955. p. 309 In writing this so-called "memoir in the form of a novel," Santayana was very concerned with its interpretation and reception. "There is no loud or obvious tragedy coming," he writes, "only a secret failure in the midst of success. But [Oliver] is a wonderful noble boy, if only I am able to make the reader see it."Santayana, George. The Letters of George Santayana. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955. p. 271
Synopsis
Santayana separated the book into five parts. He named the different sections of the book according to how each individual period of time matched up with Oliver Alden's life: Ancestry, Boyhood, First Pilgrimage, In The Home Orbit, and Last Pilgrimage.
Part I: Ancestry Part I provides the necessary back story on the characters who shape Oliver's childhood and helps us understand the significance of Oliver's conflict: the conflict between Oliver's sense of duty and his “true nature”. The section begins with Nathaniel Alden, Oliver's reclusive Puritan uncle, and we are clued into his life and his philosophy. It is easy to dismiss Nathaniel as a prig, but his philosophy is practical enough and his life is in such unwavering unison with his beliefs, (a unison hard to find in many of the characters) that he serves as a good example of an early American Puritan unaffected, or just escaping, the oncoming genteel tradition. The detailed caricature of Nathaniel is significant because it shows how he affects Peter's life, which in turn, affects Oliver's. Nathaniel's problem is that his beliefs are so strong that he doesn't validate any world view except his own.
In the book A Philosophical Novelist, George Santayana says, "Nathaniel is an unwitting purveyor of Epicurean atomism to his half brother, accidentally encouraging in him a cynical tendency toward self indulgent agnosticism."Kirby-Smith, H.T. A Philosophical Novelist – George Santayana and The Last Puritan. Southern Illinois University Press, 1977, Carbondale and Edwardsville p.142 Nathaniel fails to see Peter's potential; he is distracted by Peter's curiosity and favor for recreation and hanging out with "heathens." He sees Peter's actions as evil and feels a need to force change in the young boy's life. Nathaniel wants Peter to follow the will of God – prudent and tempered living with a respect for the social order of that time. When Peter began to go in a direction that he felt was unbecoming of a young man, Nathaniel tries to prove how loyal he is to God's will by sending Peter west to a camp for wayward youth.
Further analysis on Ancestry The first section of the novel, "Ancestry", sets the tone for the rest of the story. We see the ancestral ground work for the development of Oliver's mental conflict, his dedication to duty. In section seven of Ancestry, Harriet Alden stares down on baby Oliver and describes the portraits of four generations of family, consisting of clergymen, lawyers, merchants, and physicians. It seems as if we are being predisposed to Oliver's inevitable struggle.
Oliver's relationship to duty goes back to his uncle Nathaniel Alden who seems to only do things out of a sense of duty. It is stated in the opening scene "If he [Nathaniel Alden] went out at all it was to perform some duty, such as to ascertain the state of his financial affairs." Peter is more inclined to be a free spirit and involve himself with pleasurable things. This gets him into trouble with his older sibling and is the catalyst for Peter's adventures around the world. It is also important to note how Nathaniel feels about interacting with others. He sees this as nothing more than mere gossip, and the pleasantries of conversation are nothing more than staged mechanical mannerisms. We see this when both Peter and Nathaniel attend one of the Unitarian Church services. When Nathaniel is interacting with the others, you get the distinct feeling that he only does so out of duty.
Piety is another form of duty for our dearly drab Nathaniel. He enjoys his Sunday ritual of going to church because, “if acquaintances met there they could decently ignore each other, or at most pass with a mute bow.” This confirms Nathaniel's anti-social personality, being that he rarely ever leaves his home in the first place. Even art for Nathaniel is a duty he declares for those who can afford it. He believes one ought to encourage art in a new country regardless of the quality. He possesses countless works of art which he generously donates to museums then keeps the letters of gratitude to, “refute any possible insinuation that he was a miser”, which his murdered father was accused of being. Nathaniel is undoubtedly incapable of any raw emotion and relies on his sense of duty and tradition to serve as sufficient emotional constructs. When the conundrum was proposed by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, why couldn't Nathaniel Alden open the blinds or light the gas in his house, he suggests, because he might see the pictures. This cleverly states what Nathaniel truly is, a fraudulent being.
When Nathaniel decides to attend the funeral of his late cousin Sarah Quincy, it's done to maintain the consistency of their relationship. Nathaniel says, “I feel that one's conduct ought always to be consistent to the last, and that I ought to attend her funeral.” How horribly mundane. It is only because of sheer duty that he attends his cousin's funeral, devoid of any true emotional attachment. Here Nathaniel even remarks that the undertaker has the duty not to be emotionally affected by his work. He goes on to say that if he ever goes to funerals or to church it is only from the sense of duty he retains and that he does not truly enjoy them.
We see Nathaniel's attitude invade young Peter's mind frame. It is Nathaniel that feels it to be his duty to save Peter from his consorting with lower status individuals by sending him away. It is made clear however that Nathaniel is only doing this to fulfill his own sense of duty and when examined closer Peter is in no real danger of anything from which he should be extracted. It is also brought out that when Nathaniel does this it is, “one of the busier and happiest days of his life”. Could it be that Santayana is trying to tell us if we move through life only for the sake of being mobile or we stay still just to be in a state of stagnation that our soul is in danger of being in dire straits? In the spirit of Santayana one could say, that is for the reader to decide.
Everything is duty to Nathaniel and this, despite Peter's extensive traveling, is what Peter ultimately succumbs too. During Peters more mentally distressing years, when he is in his mid-thirties, we begin to see him fall into the practice of duty for duties sake. His views on marriage are a distressing prevalence of his commitment to duty. He describes his wife Harriet in a surgical way. Peter, whom his wife refers to as Dr. Alden, has a very dutiful sense of what marriage is. He says that Harriet has no sense of humor, but he doesn't care because he is only looking for peace, not companionship. He describes Harriet as “a first rate woman” and says that if he tried to fare better in finding a mate he would probably fare worse, so why not just take her. He is just like his older brother Nathaniel at this point; he is introverted, anti-social, mechanical, and cold. He does, however, respect duty, and this, for better or worse, is what he uses to validate his existence.
Harriet's motives towards marriage are not altogether dissimilar from Peter's. She feels a deep sense of duty to her father, Dr. Bumstead and to her home and property. She doesn't really want to marry Dr. Alden, but it is the most sensible thing to do, given Dr. Alden's financial status through which she intends to preserve her home and watch over her father. When asked if she would still marry Dr. Alden if she chose to move to Boston where there are a host of other men to choose from, says she would because she has a duty to preserve her family's interests.
Given that these are Oliver's parents, the reader has an excellent precursor to what Oliver's life will be like growing up in that household.
Part II: Boyhood
In Part II we journey with Oliver, a rather extraordinary child, through his early life. This section, as well as Part I, serves as a map from which we can trace many of the older Oliver's tendencies. Santayana starts at the absolute beginnings of Oliver's life, (his genetic formation in the womb) and with fantastic style describes and gives coherence to Oliver's earliest sensations and perceptions of a vast new universe. Santayana notes, at the beginning of this section, that from his first action (being born punctually and denying the "drowsy temptation" to remain female) every decision he was to make, was a decision he would make on the basis of duty. "In his infancy, Oliver is already strongly disposed to go over the line of healthy egoism – to assert too vigorously his dominion over the world that he occupies".Kirby-Smity, H.T. A Philosophical Novelist – George Santayana and The Last Puritan. Southern Illinois Press, 1977, Carbondale and Edwardsville, p 144.