The Captive of the Castle of Sennaar: An African Tale

Janis Svilpis is a professor of English at the University of Calgary.

Cumberland was an 18th-century gentleman—a collector, scholar,
scientist, inventor, painter, reformer, and writer. This is his utopian
novel in two parts, the first originally published in 1798, the second
now printed for the first time, though written about 1800–1810. In
Part 1, set in a cell in an African castle, Lycas tells his
fellow-prisoner Memmo about Sophis, an art-loving community of
Enlightenment deists modeled on the ancient Greeks. In Part 2, Memmo
regains his freedom and meets the Jovinians, pious Christians devoted to
converting their Muslim neighbors. Their spirituality and morality
differ, but they are alike in rejecting European conventions in
religion, economics, politics, marriage, and social life. Both are
beyond Europe in their handling of social ills like prostitution, and
the Jovinians are especially compassionate—for instance, in their
humane care of the aged and the insane. This is a fiction by a
thoughtful and humane man.

For various reasons, The Captive has been ignored by historians of
utopian writing. Now that both parts are in print, it may be due for
revaluation: it is as skilfully written and historically illuminating as
many better-known works. Lycas and Memmo have real fictional interest,
and the two societies are often portrayed through narratives about the
problems they themselves face—witness the episode of Antonio the
despairing hermit in Part 2—so that the story is not one continuous
anthem of praise for utopian solutions. The novel is, moreover, well
edited, as one would expect from a scholar of Bentley’s stature, and
the book is physically well produced. Libraries ought to have it, and
scholars will be pleased that it is available.