Persona and Theme in George Moore's Confessions of a Young Man

87 PERSONA AKD THELE IN GEORGE MOORE'S CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG MAN By Michael M. Riley (Claremont Men's College) Confessions of a. Young Man (1888) , the first of George Moore's autobiographical works, is not really a difficult book, but it is easily and often misread. Those who express shock at Moore's values, outrage at his morals, or simply dismay at his excesses both literary and personal - are often guilty of misunderstanding the book. Helmut E. Gerber has observed that Moore's "early critics and, with few exceptions, even critics since then, have not read . . . [him] very attentively."2 For example, the judgment of an anonymous reviewer at the time the Confessions first appeared that it put forth "a disagreeable young man, of bad education and vicious habits, with a passion for literary garbage,"3 like the later view of Burton Rascoe that it should be read chiefly "for the malicious pleasure of discovering how ludicrous a donkey a young man can show himself in all seriousness to be," is dismayingly wrongheaded. Doubtless there are several reasons for Moore's troubled critical fate. Among other things, one of the Confessions' objectives was to be a volley "fired in the battle for artistic freedom,"^ a volley fired, it might be added, at just the sort of pomposity and philistinism reflected in the early reviewer's attitude . It is not too much to wish, however, that Rascoe - writing more than forty years later, when the war Moore fought was, if not won, at least being waged on other battlegrounds - might have perceived the considerable technical sophistication and humor of the autobiographer's re-creation of himself. An additional (and perhaps more important) factor clouding the issue is that the Confessions exists in nine different versions. Moore's well-known passion for revision presents a major obstacle to arriving at a reliable critical judgment of his work, for as Lionel Stevenson justly suggested, Moore was not always the best judge of his own work, his revisions not always improvements." Consequently, it is difficult to settle for the familiar practice of regarding the last edition with which an author was personally involved as definitive. In the case of the Confessions the revisions unfolded over a period of nearly thirty-nine years, from the appearance of the first nine of the twelve chapters in Time« L Monthly Magazine, July through November, 1887, to the final English edition in 1926. In addition to comparatively small stylistic changes, the revisions included sections of new material, extensive re-writings, the substitution of entirely new material„for whole passages, and a change in the identity of the persona.' Granted the unevenness of Moore's revisions overall, the Confessions is one book which profited from his continued attention. Gradually the strident tone and often awkward prose of the original mellowed and became more sophisticated, and Moore's compression of the original meterial enhanced the dramatic element in the plot as the 88 extensive monologue of the earlier versions gave way to incident in the later. The result was greater narrative and thematic clarity and force. Despite the many changes which the Confessions underwent, there is an underlying integrity» the original vision remains intact. Purged of its most objectionable traits, the book gains in depth, insight, and subtlety. True, it has its faults, moments when the tone falters or the desire to shock is rather transparent, but on the whole it is an energetic, clever, and engaging human comedy. Thus Moore's final revision, which reflects his hard-won artistic maturity, is clearly the version which merits critical attention. Perhaps the most important single revision has to do with the changing role of the persona. Originally Moore presented his confessions through a fictional narrator whom he called Edwin Dayne. There is, of course, in an autobiography the distinction to be observed between the autobiographer and the persona he creates to tell his story. That persona is an interpretation of the self. Such critics as Wayne Shumaker and Barrett John Mandel have insisted that the intent to interpret one's experience is an indispensable feature of autobiography. In Shumaker's words "all autobiography holds what was up to view...