The Maze

Benjamin Bold in Eileen Simpson's novel is a poet of probable genius. Now in early middle age, he has worked for more than 20 years with only limited recognition. He hungers for fame, fully expects it with the publication of his third book, and in the months preceding the book's publication he nearly destroys his wife and himself. Alternately charming and vicious, brilliant and stupid, Bold is a thoroughly convincing portrait of a certain type of man. He happens to be a poet in this narrative, and very "poetic" he is for the most part; but his psychology is that of the egomaniac who would subordinate everyone around him -- friends, family, wife -- to his own raw, ungovernable need. So passionately driven an individual often finds peace and happiness unendurable; he is cruelest to himself. And yet irresistible. For Benjamin Bold, as seen through the eyes of his much-injured wife Rosy, is simply far more interesting than any normal man. Other men, by comparison, are tame and disappointing. A would-be lover Theo, an Englishman who has come to Harvard for a lecture series, senses the young wife's unhappiness but is ultimately rejected by her; though Benjamin is impossible, though their marriage is all but finished, Rosy's fate is to remain in love with him. Even when, at the novel's conclusion, she makes a desperate attempt to be free of him, he is still at the very center of her world. She cannot stop thinking of him. She is subordinate to him; he is clearly a superior personality.