“Christina Alberta’s Father” by H. G. Wells (post 2): As in “Don Quixote” (post 7), protagonist switches his name and personality, and tries to save the world

As quoted from his autobiography in the previous post, H. G. Wells said he had known people who had multiple personality, and concluded that he, himself, did not have it. But since he did show interest in the subject, I wanted to read one of his more psychological novels.

I am halfway through Christina Alberta’s Father, whose back cover describes it as a “comic novel” that “explores the fine line between insight and madness. Make the acquaintance of Mr Preemby — or should that be Sargon, King of Kings?” (1).

Just as Cervantes’s character, Alonso Quixano, switches to his alternate personality, Don Quixote, who thinks he can save the world (search “Don Quixote” to see past posts), so Wells’s character, Mr. Preemby, switches to his alternate personality, Sargon, who hopes to save the world.

The switch from Preemby to Sargon happens during a séance, but the narrator says Preemby had already had many behind-the-scenes alternate personalities, and it just happened that the séance brought out the Sargon one.

Halfway through the novel, Sargon, who sees himself as a king from antiquity, is trying to orient himself to 1920s London.

“So he walked up and down his little upper room in Midgard Street and elaborated his conception of his new role as lord and protector of the whole world…‘I must watch and observe. But not for too long. There is action. Action gives life. That fellow Preemby, poor soul, he could look at things, but dared he lift a finger? No! Everywhere suffering, everywhere injustice and disorder…and he did nothing…Awake!…The High Path…Honor. Sargon calls…H’rrmp…’ ” (1, pp. 193-194).

It is noteworthy that Sargon punctuates his statement with “h’rrmp,” because Preemby, throughout the first half of the novel (way before the séance brings forth Sargon), had been routinely making that same sound. The author evidently means this as confirmation that the Sargon personality is not an artifact of the séance experience, but had long been present and pulling occasional strings from behind-the-scenes.

Will the Sargon alternate personality come to the same end as the Don Quixote alternate personality? I will see.

1. H. G. Wells. Christina Alberta’s Father [1925]. London, Peter Owen Publishers, 2017.