My Favorite Trilogies in Literature

Sequels in literature are somewhat like sequels in film, inasmuch as the works that follow the first novel face a daunting challenge living up to the original. As a result, it is not always easy finding trilogies that are worth reading all the way through.

Of course, a number of authors have gone beyond three and put out much longer series, from Harry Potter to Harry Bosch. While the "rule of three" applies in comedy (Do a joke once or three times, not two, not more that three.), it does not seem to apply to novels, be they serious or comedic.

This essay will consist of my three favorite trilogies in literature. I started the first book of the first one when I was fourteen and finished the last book of the last one fifty years later. I do not want to give the impression that I am a painfully-slow reader who does nothing but read trilogies, but that happens to be the way things worked out over the course of those years. In any case, I enjoyed reading them all, whether I was an eager young teen or a doddering senescent old geezer. I will feature them in the order I digested them.

The Bounty Trilogy, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Probably the most absorbing book I read in all the years before my junior year in high school was Mutiny on the Bounty, the original novel of the trilogy. After having read it, I had to find and read its two sequels, Men Against the Sea and Pitcairn Island as soon as I could get my hands on them.

While the books are fiction, they are very much based in history. There really was a ship, HMS Bounty, and it really did have a mission to sail to Tahiti and gather breadfruit plants in a voyage commanded by Lieutenant William Bligh. Keep in mind that, in naval protocol, both American and British, the commanding officer on a vessel is referred to as its captain, regardless of the officer's military rank.

Bligh and as many of the loyal crew as could fit were actually cast adrift in one of the ship's longboats, after the mutiny, and did make it to safety, following a long, harrowing voyage. Some of the mutineers were caught, some escaped, and, among the former members of the ship's crew who were captured, there was considerable confusion over who had been loyal and who mutinous. All that stuff actually happened.

It remained for Nordhoff and Hall to tell the story in a gripping, compelling way. This particularly holds true for the first book. The following two novels, Men Against the Sea, which told the story of Bligh and his overthrown shipmates' survival, and Pitcairn Island, which looked at the lives of Fletcher Christian and the mutineers who escaped to that deserted island, were good enough, but not really as good as the first one, which I consider one of the great novels in the English language.

IMPORTANT WORD OF WARNING: There have been a few movies made, called Mutiny on the Bounty. Do not expect the same quality you get from the book. The original, featuring Charles Laughton (as Capt. Bligh) and Clark Gable (as Fletcher Christian) was only so-so, in my opinion, and a remake starring Marlon Brando as the mutinous Mr. Christian was a total waste of my time, to say nothing of the insult to my intelligence. If Brando ever gave a worse performance on the screen, I am mercifully unaware of it.

But let me not end this section on such a sour note. If you have not done so, find and read Mutiny on the Bounty. If you have teenage or pre-teen children (particularly boys), you could hardly find a better book to put in their hands.

The U.S.A.Trilogy by John Dos Passos

In an earlier essay about Henry Ford, I had occasion to refer to the USA trilogy, as a chapter called "Tin Lizzie," within the third book, dealt with that complex captain of industry in a sometimes scathing, sometimes admiring, but always honest manner. That type of portrait was typical of the material you see throughout the collection, pertaining to real people as well as the author's fictional characters.

As I also mentioned in the above essay, this collection by Dos Passos is not an easy read, by any stretch. If, for example, you find Stephen King (whom I admire) difficult to follow, then skip the hell out of this work. You will hate it to pieces.

One of the factors that complicate the trilogy is that Dos Passos was a rule-breaker, and many of the rules he broke never have gained acceptance into the general lexicon of literature since. On the other hand, he was a fascinating and eloquent storyteller, who, if you are willing to involve yourself in his work, will make you feel for the characters he created as though you knew them personally.

The first book of the trilogy, The 42^nd Parallel, was published in 1930. The second (and, to my way of thinking, the best) book, 1919, came out in 1932. He published the third book, The Big Money, in 1936. The timeframes for the three novels are, early 20^th century to World War I in the first one; World War I and a bit beyond in the second one and "the roaring 20s" in the third. Almost none of the characters are present for the entire trilogy. Some of them die-sometimes needlessly and foolishly-while others somehow fade out of the picture (an apt metaphor, since many of the collection's chapters are headed "The Camera's Eye").

But not all who die in this book do so in vain. The real characters in history, who populate large portions of the collection, often give their lives for their beliefs, and then you have the final chapter of the second novel, 1919. The chapter is about our nations first Unknown Soldier. It reads more as poetry than as literature. Please, take a moment to read, this, the finest passage of a very long and thoughtful work: The body of an American.

The Salterton Trilogy, Robertson Davies

My good-natured ribbing of Canada and Canadians aside (as in the infamous Odd Man Oot, the Special Canadian edition of my incessant quiz series), Robertson Davies, wrote this excellent trilogy on the general search for enlightenment in a small Canadian town.

My best friend and former college roommate first alerted me to Robertson Davies, telling me he thought the guy was funnier, even, than P.G. Wodehouse. A mighty tall order, I thought, then proceeded to take a Davies novel titled Fifth Business out of the library. It was a fascinating read, but not the least bit funny, particularly the grisly scene where the narrator wins the Victoria Cross in combat during the First World War. I remained puzzled about what my friend meant until I gave the author another try, this time with The Salterton Trilogy.

The three novels, Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice and A Mixture of Frailties, were published in the 1950s. The second book won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour, and it is a good piece of work, but my favorite was the first one: Tempest-Tost.

Those of you who are familiar with the excellent Canadian TV series, Slings and Arrows will be easily able to relate to this book, which came out a good many years before the series. And while, the TV characters struggle with Hamlet, Lear and the like, the characters in this book find themselves challenged to put on a production of The Tempest, hence the title.

As you read through these three amusing stories, you will need to keep in mind that they are set in an era that is now fifty to sixty years distant, and, while that may not have been such a big deal in, say, the eighteenth century, the rapid pace of our modern culture has made a good bit of the material seem, for lack of a better word, "quaint." Still, if you can settle yourself into the culture and values of the time, these stories can hardly help but amuse you.

Not, I would say, better than Wodehouse at his best, but darn close and well-worth reading.

As are they all.

Sources

Mutiny on the Bounty

Men Against the Sea

Pitcairn Island, all by Nordhoff and Hall

U.S.A. by John Dos Passos

Danzig USA: The Body of an American

The Salterton Trilogy, Robertson Davies

Wikipedia