Svengalis Web: The Alien Enchanter in Modern Culture

Decades ago while earning a graduate degree in comparative literature, I happened to come upon a badly-written novel authored by George Du Maurier. When I later asked my professor about it, he explained that Trilby was in fact a bestseller after its publication (in 1894) but that its only claim to literary fame is that it introduces a character named Svengali. I recalled that conversation as I began to read Pick's book. It is a brilliant achievement. The "web" to which the title refers consists of all manner of connections between hypnotism and anti-Semitism. Those connections are presumably what attracted Pick to Trilby and, especially, to the implications of the novel's great success in Victorian England.Centuries earlier in A Merchant in Venice, Shakespeare introduced a usurer named Shylock who was viewed with contempt by most of the other characters. Revealingly, only Shylock fully honors all of the terms and conditions in his financial transactions to which others voluntarily (indeed eagerly) agree and yet he is reviled. Indeed, he is the principal victim in the play and yet, even today, is often viewed as the villain...usually by those who have not read the play or at least not read it with care. Shylock's name remains synonymous with unscrupulous money-lenders. Perhaps Pick had this in mind as he began to examine the character Svengali whose name is synonymous with hypnotic, almost irresistible evil. In any event, with consummate skill, Pick uses Svengali as a focal point through which to examine all manner of social and political forces at work in late-19th century England. In our own age when so many movies seem to be made primarily to sell merchandise, the "Trilby Phenomenon" also suggests commercial implications of mesmerizing significance.