The Holy Sinner

THE HOLY SINNER

by Thomas Mann

 

Award: Nobel Prize Winner 1952


Nomination: National Book Finalist 1952

 

Date Read: July 29, 2021

 

After adjusting to the language of this work, I was completely enraptured. The Holy Sinner reads more like a fairy tale – well, a fairy tale with multiple hits of incest. Mann re-creates the Middle Ages well with knights, duels, mistaken identity, redemption and yes, profound love, of sorts.

 

A prince and princess, with eyes only for each other, do the unthinkable and give birth to a son. Knowing that the son’s life is precarious and inexplicable, Gregorius is sent off in a tiny boat with money, silks and a tablet that describes his origins, a relic to haunt him all of his days. He is subsequently found by a an Abbott on an island and raised within the church. Gregorius’ birth is kept from him until he accidentally discovers the truth when he is around 17.

 

Knowing he is born of sin, he departs the comforts of the monastery to discover the truth about his parentage. He sets off posturing as a knight, although he has never ridden a horse or wielded a sword. He, of course, alights in the realm of his parentage, seeking an audience with the queen who is his mother, Sibylla. His father has long since been deceased.

 

After putting an end to a long-raging war and fighting off his mother’s suitor, Sibylla and Gregorius fall in love and wed, never knowing that they are mother and son. Or brother and sister. Or aunt and nephew. Or… I’m getting confused. They, in turn, have a daughter. How all of this progeny is born without severe defects, I just cannot explain. But it wouldn’t have made for as good of a book.

 

After a maid discovers the hiding place of an item that makes Gregorius cry, Sibylla is shown the spot and discover the tablet she wrote nearly 20 years before. The truth of who Gregorius actually is slowly dawns on her and she is horrified. She summons him immediately and they both are despondent in their sin. He tells her to resign her throne and dedicate her life to helping the poor and the sick while he sets off alone to find a place to pray all of his remaining days for forgiveness.

 

After spending 17 years on a rock, exposed to the elements and living on what, in effect, is liquid manna, a vision is sent to two gentlemen in Rome saying that the next Pope has been decreed by God and he is currently on a rock in the middle of a lake. So, they set out to find Gregorius and he becomes Pope, his mother comes to him and she is forgiven and they all live happily ever after.

 

There are moments here that this novel reads like a poem. Mann’s ability to write in Latin, Italian, French and English is skilled and his storytelling superb. This is definitely a work I will remember forever. Sort of like The Princess Bride, except with incest.

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