Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, by Tom Stoppard: A Review

Yesterday, in between long bouts of sleeping, I finished reading the novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, by Tom Stoppard. Stoppard is one of my favorite writers and, in my opinion, the greatest currently living. Lord Malquist is his first and only novel written in 1966 before he began writing the plays and film scripts for which he became renowned. The book has been in and out of print for the past 50 years and, naturally, is considered and oddity in Stoppard’s oeuvre. I’ve had a copy of the book for a couple of years now but only started reading it recently.

Despite being written in the mid-sixties, the book is quite like Stoppard’s “lighter” works from the seventies. There is no overall philosophical point to the work like his more “serious” plays … the book is just a lot of fun. Sure, there are a lot of witty asides about literature, politics, relationships, and religion, but nothing tying it altogether as a cohesive work. This is not a criticism, only a description. Stoppard’s On the Razzle has no meaningful point at all, but it’s a masterpiece and the funniest play ever written.

Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon is set around the day of Churchill’s funeral and is about a man, named Moon, who is hired to be the biographer of the ninth Lord of Malquist (the Boswell to Malquist’s Johnson). Moon is something of a radical who keeps a ticking bomb on his person waiting for someone in society to offend him enough to use it. Lord Malquist is a dandified effete who has a pet lion (banned from the Ritz), drives around in an 18^th century carriage, and is at the end of his financial rope.

Also thrown in are two cowboys in constant warfare throughout London, the frustrated servants of Malquist, a general, a donkey, the wives of the two main characters, and an anarchist out for revenge.

My favorite character is an Irishman who believes himself to be The Risen Christ. Any other author would use such a character to make fun of Jesus or the Christian Faith. Stoppard does neither. This character, though clearly delusional, is quite serious about the part and is doing his best to behave accordingly. The other characters, of course, realize he is mad but either don’t want to hurt his feelings or (in Malquist’s case) are just as mad as he is. Some of the best lines and most poignantly funny moments come from The Risen Christ.

I really didn’t know what to expect from this lone, mostly out-of print, Stoppard novel so my expectations were actually pretty low. That was a good thing because I came away pleasantly surprised.