Caesar or Nothing by Pío Baroja

First published:Cesar o nada, 1910 (English translation, 1919)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Political satire

Time of work: Early twentieth century

Locale: Spain, Italy, and France

The Story:

Juan Guillen was a highwayman of Villanueva. When Vicenta, his youngest daughter, was ruined, she went away to Valencia, where she married Antonio Fort, a grocer. Francisco, Juan’s eldest son, became a priest and changed his name to Fray Jose de Calasanz de Villanueva. Juan Fort, son of Vicenta, became a priest and was called Father Vicente de Valencia. He later became Cardinal Fort. Isabel, Vicenta’s daughter, married a soldier, Carlos Moncada. Isabel and Carlos became the parents of Caesar Moncada and of Laura, later the Marchesa of Vaccarone.

Defying family tradition, Caesar rebelled at the idea of becoming a cleric. He attended various schools but cared little for the subjects taught there. Convinced that he had a definite mission in life, he set about preparing himself for it. Academic subjects did not enter into his plans. At school in Madrid, he met Ignacio Alzugaray, who became his lifelong and intimate friend. He also met Carlos Yarza, a Spanish author employed in a bank in Paris, and through him Caesar became interested in financial speculation. Caesar developed a system, which he could explain only vaguely, to use in playing the stock market, but he had no money at the time with which to try it out.

Caesar and his sister Laura went to Rome, where Laura became popular in fashionable society. Caesar, however, cared little for social functions, art, and the historical relics of ancient Rome. After a time, he did meet some important personages, among them Countess Brenda, with whom he had an affair.

Cardinal Fort, their kinsman, sent the Abbe Preciozi to act as a guide for Caesar and Laura. Caesar disliked his uncle, the cardinal, and cared little if the abbe carried back to the cardinal his nephew’s frank opinion of his eminence. Through the abbe, Caesar tried to find people who would help him become a financial dictator, and he was directed to sound out Father Herreros and Father Miro. The cardinal, however, learned of Caesar’s scheming and put a stop to it.

Archibald Marchmont fell in love with Laura. Both were unhappily married. Susanna Marchmont, Archibald’s wife, was in turn attracted to Caesar, and she and Caesar took a trip together as man and wife. While in Rome, Caesar also met an Englishman named Kennedy through whom he learned much about the history of Rome and the history of the Borgias. Caesar Borgia’s motto, “Caesar or Nothing,” struck a responsive note in the latent ambition of Caesar Moncada. Without quite knowing why, he began to make notes about people in Rome who were members of the Black Party and who had connections in Spain.

Coming from the Sistine Chapel one day, Caesar and Kennedy met a Spanish painter who introduced them to Don Calixto, a senator and the political leader of the province of Zamora in Spain. Caesar accepted Don Calixto’s invitation to dine with him and agreed to act as his guide about Rome. The don was appreciative, and when Caesar jokingly asked whether the don would consider making him a deputy, Don Calixto agreed to put Caesar’s name on the ballot as a candidate for the district of Castro Duro whenever Caesar returned to Spain.

When Caesar returned to Spain, he reminded Don Calixto of his promise. Deciding to run on the Conservative ticket, Caesar drove about the country to meet the voters and to determine the most important political personages of the district. Don Platon Peribanez and Antonio San Roman were, he discovered, quite influential. Father Martin Lafuerza, the prior of a monastery, had a great deal of political influence in and about Castro Duro. Caesar’s friend, Ignacio Alzugaray, came to Castro Duro and made himself useful to Caesar in many ways. At the house of Don Calixto, Caesar met Amparo, the don’s niece, but at first Caesar and Amparo could not get along. Later, however, they fell in love and planned to be married.

In the election, Caesar defeated his two opponents, Garcia Padilla and San Roman, and left Castro Duro to go to Madrid as deputy. In Madrid, he became quite influential behind the political scene. When the Minister of Finance faced a crisis in his career, he sent Caesar to Paris to meet a financial expert who had a plan to save the government. Suspecting the minister, Caesar planned an airtight speculation which would make his own fortune and remove the minister from office.

With the money he had gained through his speculations, Caesar began to devise and carry into execution many improvements in Castro Duro. He designed a better water system and also a library for the Workmen’s Club which he had previously established. In addition, he turned his back on the Conservative party and became a Liberal. Meanwhile, the reactionary element in the district was not idle. It formed institutions and organizations to compete with the Workmen’s Club and used every possible means to wreck the political organization of the workers, until there was a state of undeclared war between Caesar’s group and the others. During those disturbances, Caesar and Amparo were married.

Father Martin’s followers had hired a man nicknamed the “Driveller” to threaten and browbeat the more timid members of Caesar’s group. The “Driveller” picked a fight with “Lengthy,” the son of “The Cub-Slut,” and a man known as “Gaffer.” When “Lengthy” was killed in the fight, the workmen clamored for blood because they believed that the “Driveller” had done the deed at the request of the reactionaries of Father Martin. Caesar was requested by “The Cub-Slut” and the “Driveller’s” mother to spare the “Driveller’s” life, but for different reasons. “The Cub-Slut” wanted to revenge herself upon him, whereas the mother wanted to save her son. Caesar was in a quandary, and so he and Amparo went to Italy to visit Laura. It was believed that his act indicated a desire to retire from politics.

At home the political situation grew worse. When Caesar received a letter written by his liberal friends, Dr. Ortigosa, Antonio San Roman, and Jose Camacho, he decided that he would not retire. He returned to Castro Duro and joined his friends in the struggle once more.

The battle continued right up to the next election. One day, “The Cub-Slut” sent a note to Caesar, a message which he put distractedly into his pocket. Setting out to tour the district, he was wounded by an assassin when his car came to a crossroads, If he had read “The Cub-Slut’s” letter, he might not have been shot. After the attempted assassination of Caesar, the Liberal party began to lose ground, and the opposition used every possible method to defeat Caesar. Ballot boxes were stuffed; messengers carrying ballot boxes were robbed and false ballots substituted; voting places were hidden and made known only to the reactionary voters. As a result, Padilla won the election. Caesar Moncada retired from politics and, ironically, devoted his time to the collection of antiques and the study of primitive Castilian paintings. The improvements he had planned for Castro Duro were forgotten, for the reactionary elements in the district had gained the upper hand, and they kept it. Caesar had not become Caesar. He became nothing.

Critical Evaluation:

CAESAR OR NOTHING is, in several ways, Pío Baroja’s flirtation with the Nietzschean superman; his hero exemplifies the sort of will-to-power that is easily associated with Nietzsche. Caesar’s views on morality are little more than a restatement of the German philosopher’s doctrine: All that is good comes from power, and all that is bad comes from weakness. The cornerstones of his approach to life are energy, action, and courage.

In his book JUVENTUD, EGOLATRIA (1917; YOUTH AND EGOLATRY, 1920) Baroja readily admits that Nietzsche’s work influenced him. The portrait of Caesar is an exercise in the ethic of the superman. His interest in the Borgias is the result of a natural affinity for their conviction that might is right. He adopts Caesar Borgia’s motto for his own, seeing in it the perfect expression of his own ambition. Like Nietzsche’s superman, he breaks with Christian morality, having no feelings of guilt or sin. He is opposed to Christianity for several reasons, one of which is its tendency to renounce this life: he is unable to accept such otherworldliness. In fact, he goes so far as to say that Christianity is a retrogression compared to paganism. He does not believe in a personal God.

Caesar’s objection to Christianity is based not only on metaphysical and ethical grounds but also on social, political, and economic ones. He sees injustice in Spain and concludes that the Church is largely responsible because of its opposition to reform and its defense of the few against the masses. He cannot accept its insistence on tradition in the midst of people dying of hunger.

In the final analysis, it is Caesar’s pessimism which prevents him from attaining the stature of a fully developed Nietzschean superman. He ultimately lacks the will to struggle against apparently insuperable obstacles, to overcome the forces of reaction that impede social progress. It is not so much Caesar’s weakness, however, but the strength of the establishment in Spain that ensures his defeat.

Principal Characters:

• Caesar Laura, Marchesa of Vaccarone, formerly Laura Moncada
• Ignacio Moncada, Laura’s brother
• Amparo, Caesar’s wife
• Alzugaray, Caesar’s friend