The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
**Overview of "The Sot-Weed Factor" by John Barth**
"The Sot-Weed Factor" is a historical novel set in the 17th century, following the life of Ebenezer Cooke, or Eben, who is born into a tobacco plantation family in colonial Maryland. The narrative explores Eben's journey from a carefree youth to a determined poet, shaped by significant encounters including a vow of devotion to a prostitute named Joan Toast and a fateful meeting with Lord Baltimore, who manipulates Eben into political schemes. The story weaves themes of identity and transformation, as Eben navigates a series of misadventures that lead him to question his aspirations.
Eben's life becomes increasingly convoluted, involving explosive encounters with pirates, mistaken identities, and a painful reunion with Joan, now afflicted by smallpox. As he grapples with his disillusionment, Eben ultimately shifts from aspiring to write an epic to crafting a bitter satire that reflects his experiences. The novel culminates in his reluctant marriage to Joan, alongside revelations of lineage and community ties that shape his future. "The Sot-Weed Factor" offers a rich tapestry of character interactions and societal critiques set against the backdrop of early American colonization, exploring complex dynamics of love, power, and belonging.
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
First published: 1960
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Picaresque
Time of plot: Late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
Locale: Maryland
Principal Characters
Ebenezer orEben Cooke , son of Andrew Cooke, owner of a tobacco plantationAnna Cooke , his twin sisterHenry Burlingame , their tutor in youth and associate in later lifeJoan Toast , a prostitute who becomes Eben’s ideal love and later his wifeJohn McEvoy , her pimp
The Story
Ebenezer, or Eben, Cooke and his twin sister, Anna, are born in 1666 to Andrew Cooke on a tobacco, or sot-weed, plantation at Cooke’s Point in the colony of Maryland. Their mother dies giving birth and their father returns to England, hiring eventually as his children’s tutor a young man who had been found floating in Chesapeake Bay with the name Henry Burlingame III pinned to his chest. Burlingame hopes to find the secret journal of Captain John Smith. Burlingame had an ancestor who had served with the famous explorer and thought that the secret of his birth might be found in the journal.
Eben goes to Cambridge for his formal education. After a period of indecision and carousal with his friends, he finally determines that he wants to be a poet. Burlingame also reappears to assist Eben during this period. Andrew Cooke asks him to return to Maryland to take over the operation of the family plantation. Two events then occur to shape Eben’s future.
On a dare, Eben meets a prostitute named Joan Toast, and he is taken by her beauty and personality. Instead of having sex with her, he vows eternal devotion to her and to preserve his virginity eternally. John McEvoy, Joan’s pimp, wants Eben to pay for the time he spent with her even though there had been no sex. Eben gains an enemy. The second important event is Eben’s interview with Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore and former governor of Maryland, who appoints Eben poet laureate of Maryland and urges the astonished young man to help Calvert regain the governorship of Maryland, which had been wrested from him by a host of villains headed by Jonathan Coode. Calvert had no authority to name Eben to any position because Calvert is no longer governor of Maryland. In fact, Calvert is not Calvert; he is Burlingame, in the first of many disguises.
Eben, Bertrand (Eben’s servant), and Burlingame head for a seaport to begin their voyage to Maryland, but brigands set upon Eben, thinking that he will cause trouble for Coode’s side of the Maryland conspiracy. Burlingame is separated from the others. Eben and Bertrand exchange identities to confuse those who are after Eben. Bertrand, pretending to be Eben, gets a coquettish daughter of a landowner pregnant and gambles away part of Eben’s estate. The ship they are on is attacked by pirates and they are taken prisoner. The pirate ship encounters a ship carrying prostitutes headed for the New World; the pirates rape the women. Even Eben is so caught up in the mood that he almost rapes a woman who later turns out to be his ideal love, Joan Toast.
The pirates cast Eben and Bertrand overboard. The two make their way to land, which turns out to be Maryland. There they make friends with an Indian chief and eventually make their way to Cambridge, where an open-air court is in session. Eben, thinking that an injustice is about to be done, insists on making the court’s judgment himself, giving some land to the plaintiff. The land turns out to be his own estate. He had given his land to Henry Warren, a blackguard who had turned Eben’s land into an opium farm. Eben is forced to work as a servant on the land that had been his. During this time of servitude he again meets Joan Toast, now known as Susan Warren and suffering from smallpox. He is so disillusioned by the course his life has taken that he abandons his idea of writing an epic about Maryland and instead writes a bitter satire, “The Sot-Weed Factor.”
John McEvoy has reappeared, and he, Bertrand, and Eben are captured by local Indians. Eben is able to use his relationship with the Indian chief he had befriended earlier to free himself and his companions. This episode also produces the solution to the mystery of Burlingame’s parentage. He is one of three brothers descended from a martyred priest and an Indian maiden. One of his brothers is the consort of Anna Cooke, who had followed her brother to the New World.
The governor of Maryland convenes a special court to settle the claims to Malden, the manor-house on Eben’s family estate, which are finally resolved in Eben’s favor. To reclaim his estate, however, Eben is forced to marry, and have sex with, the no-longer-beautiful, pox-ridden Joan Toast. Burlingame is reunited with Anna, who had loved him when they were in England. She gives birth to a boy, Andrew. At the end of the novel, Eben settles down to run the plantation and take care of his wife, sister, nephew, and servants. Burlingame, who finally discovers who he really is, disappears from the novel.
Bibliography
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