New Look at the Pilgrims

With a formidable background of information, gathered from the British Museum and other extraterritorial sources, Ernest Gebler has compiled a competent, though uninspiring, chronicle of the voyage of the Mayflower.

Reversing the traditional, or Founding Fathers, viewpoint, his narrative deals largely with the trip itself, taking the immigrants only through the first few months of their settlement in the New World.

Whatever may be true about the Pilgrims as a whole, they were a heterogeneous lot--in morals, in social class, even in beliefs. Gebler hops around from one to another of them, never going deeply into their feelings, but pausing occasionally for sweeping generalizations about the philosophical and historic significance of the voyage.

The lack of depth is probably the outstanding failing of the book; conversions, pronouncements, and changes of personality occur frequently, with little background. This sort of superficiality is almost inevitable in a straight historical novel which is tied so closely to documentary facts.

The documentary element is represented at intervals by excerpts from the records kept by Gilbert and Edward Winslow, two of the voyagers, and from the Mayflower's log, kept by one Captain Christopher Jones.

Captain Jones is converted during the course of the voyage to a more pious point of view than is held by the usual man of the sea. Gebler tells of this conversion with admirable lack of bathos, at the same time conveying the force of the event. The conversion, incidentally, is achieved by the presence of Priscilla Mullins, she of "speak for yourself, John" fame, who appears one night in the captain's cabin and displays a touching naivete that softens the old rotter's heart.

John Alden, he who finally spoke for himself, is the central character of the novel, if indeed anyone deserves that title. The narration of his wooing of Priscilla is kept free from sexual or romantic overplaying, fortunately.

It is the lack of any "sensational coverage" and the calm appraisal of intrinsically stirring events that distinguish "The Plymouth Adventure" as an enjoyable work of historical fiction. Perhaps devotees of the historical novel will find the going slow and unexciting, especially in the earlier parts, but those who are after serious enjoyment will find "The Plymouth Adventure" to their taste.