Michael

Michael is a novel published in 1916 by the prolific British author E. F. Benson (1867–1940) and one of his few works centered on a male protagonist. The hero, Michael Comber, is the only son and heir of the Earl of Ashbridge; after university he enters the Guards by family convention, and at twenty-three it is time for him to marry as arranged. Yet he is short, stout, and ugly, with arms that hang to his knees, awkward, shy, and unpopular in aristocratic circles, and his one true passion is music. The story begins in his flat on Half Moon Street, London, where he generously pays off the debts of his cousin Francis, revealing his "gift for giving" and the rift between family tradition and personal inclination. Michael ultimately resigns his commission and resolves to study the piano seriously, a betrayal of "respectability" that meets fierce opposition from his father. He then goes to Bayreuth and Munich, confirms his path amid Wagner's music, and meets the half-German, half-English pianist Hermann Falbe and his sister, the singer Sylvia. Guided and encouraged by the two, Michael shows talent in both performance and composition, and for the first time finds friendship and love. Then the First World War breaks out: Hermann, convinced that "German blood" calls him, returns home to enlist, while Michael rejoins the British army. The two unexpectedly meet in the trenches, and Michael fires without recognizing the other, learning only afterward that the fallen man was his dearest friend. He returns wounded and must tell Sylvia everything; the novel closes amid the tearing apart of love, loyalty, and war. The tone is gentle throughout, the descriptions of English countryside and aristocratic estates are delicate, and the book is a mirror of British social sentiment around the First World War and of the theme of "art versus pedigree."