BOOK REVIEW GILBERT AND SULLIVAN, THE CREATIVE CONFLICT by David Eden Review by Philip W. Plumb, Chairman, W. S. Gilbert Society Most of you have probably already heard of the latest book analyzing the men Gilbert and Sullivan: David Eden's "Gilbert and Sullivan, The Creative Conflict" (Associated University Presses, 1986--I think it costs about $28.00). A recent "W.S. Gilbert Society Journal (#1, Spring 1986, pp. 92-93) included a review of the work, by Philip W. Plumb, the Society's Chairman, and we hope he won't mind if we reprint its highlights here: TRIAL WITHOUT JURY David Eden, Chairman of the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, has written a book . . . which brings us some new facts and ideas: which is not afraid of going against received opinion and which is stimulating if finally unsatisfactory . . . . Mr. Eden claims that Gilbert's libretti reveal a significant autobiographical content and that he is shown "to have neurotic tendencies of infantile sado-masochism". He devotes a long chapter . . . to Gilbert's personality in which he asserts that Gilbert was "clearly a sadist" who "deliberately sought to destroy all those who opposed his will, and boasted about it afterwards". But Gilbert, we are told, "does not seem to be sadistic in the full sense". He had no intense relationship with his victims and thus, according to Eden, was an infantile personality which he acknowledged subconsciously by the using the name Bab, short for . . . baby. This "psycho-analysis" goes on for some time with various aspects of Gilbert's life and works selected to support the author's thesis. Eden even writes "we are entitled to surmise that he was, par excellence, one of those babies who refuses to do as he is bidden on the pot". (Mr. Plumb gives an example of Eden's examples) At a time when Freud himself is under heavy attack for his theories about mental disorders, perhaps it is not productive to spend any more time on Mr. Eden's rather tortuous attempts to classify Gilbert as a sadomasochist except to say that the bibliography makes no mention of A. Bronson Feldman's article "Freud's Allusion to Gilbert's 'Mikado'", Notes and Queries 1958, 469-70. The bibliography shows that the author has read widely but not deeply. No primary sources are quoted and reprints in anthologies have been used rather than the original papers. There are bibliographical notes at the end of the volume although some are not full enough to identify the reference. (Mr. Plumb gives an example of a letter of Gilbert's with a miscited source.) The letter is quoted to support Mr. Eden's contention that Gilbert's concept of the theatre was authoritarian and it is unfortunately typical of Eden's method that he leaves out the short sentence at the end of the letter to maintain standards in the touring companies--"I AM THE MORE SORRY as Mr. Carte speaks in high terms of you and your wife's ability." (Mr. Plumb gives another example of selective quoting, in which the author quotes one of Gilbert's most famous letters to Sullivan, but leaves out its most famous sentences: "You are an adept in your profession, and I am an adept in mine. If we meet, it must be as master and master--not as master and servant.") Gilbert, in Mr. Eden's book, cannot win. If he writes a letter in anger he is just being his true self; if he writes in conciliatory tones he is using fine rhetorical flourish to cover (but not conceal!) the bogus nature of its content (p. 192). Gilbert is accused (p. 189) of writing a greedy and selfish lyric "Is life a boon?" because "such a closely developed and verbal argument has no place in the operatic context". On the next page the song is described as self-gratifying literary artifice. This of a lyric widely considered to be worthy of comparison with the best of the Restoration poets and which was chosen by the Sullivan Memorial Committee to grace Sullivan's monument. (Mr. Plumb explains some of Eden's other theories: how Thackeray influenced Gilbert, and how Sir Joseph Porter was derived from the Pump family in Thackeray's "Book of Snobs," how Gilbert was very fond of Euphrosyne Parepa--the woman who was to have created to role of the Plaintiff in "Trial by Jury") . . . There are many other interesting insights into Gilbert's works in relation to his life and one could wish that Mr. Eden had ap- proached Gilbert as openly as he had treated Sullivan. The summation of Eden's argument is that although the Savoy operas are the best of their kind they are not the best comic operas that Gilbert and Sullivan might have written, largely because Gilbert consciously desired to restrain the part played by music. According to the author, Sullivan urged Gilbert to write all "The Gondoliers" to music rather than only the . . . opening scenes. This is a new theory for me for which Mr. Eden given no authority and which seems to have escaped Arthur Jacobs (Sullivan's latest and most scholarly biographer) in his consid- erable researches. Gilbert's ego, apparently, stood in the way of such a step! Sullivan throughout the book, is treated much more kindly than Gilbert. His weaknesses or failures are excused or ex- plained away. Quotations are favorable to his case rather than unfavorable as for Gilbert. Freud is not used to explain Sullivan's characteristics or behavior. (George Bernard Shaw is called upon to confirm that a non-Gilbert opera, "Haddon Hall," is "the highest and most consistent expression it (the Savoy genre) has yet attained" yet Shaw's opinion that "Utopia Ltd" "has Mr. Gilbert's lighter qualities without his faults" is not quoted. This would not support Mr. Eden's description of "Uto- pia" as "a mess of loose ends and missed opportunities." To continue to take issue with many opinions and statements in the book . . . would be unfair to a work which has many virtues. It is a book which makes the reader think and examine his or her views on the immortal partnership. To whom is the greater share of the praise due? Mr. Eden is in no doubt that it is Sullivan. Others may well differ." - * - * - * - The W. S. Gilbert Society has been formed to further the knowl- edge, study, appreciation and enjoyment of W. S. Gilbert's life and works. Their (very interesting!) journal comes out about twice a year, and overseas sea mail subscription rate is $14.00. If anyone would like to subscribe individually, you can same the W.S.GS a lot of trouble in changing money by either sending sterling cheques (the price is then L10), or by letting S/A Cole know--she can send a joint check for the interested. [This article appeared in Issue 9 (December 1986) of Precious Nonsense, the newsletter of the Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Posted by permission of Sarah Cole, Society Secre- tary/Archivist. For information on Society membership write to: The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society, c/o Miss Sarah Cole, 613 W. State St., North Aurora, IL 60542-1538.]