The discovery of a Greek statue in a garden in Rome brings out the pagan heritage in a Roman Count, nearly ruining his marriage to a young American.
The un-named narrator is an American painter, resident in Rome. His god-daughter, Martha, marries an Italian count: partly for love of him and partly for love of his ‘history’. The latter leads to the young couple’s doing up the family’s villa in teh city. As part of this, they engage an archaeological expert and some workmen to look for classical remains in the garden. They find a life-size pagan statue of a female goddess, probably a Juno, complete, although with a detached hand. The Count becomes ‘infatuated’ with the goddess and with his pagan ancestors: he spirits away the hand, keeping it in a special box, and has the statue erected in a summer-house, where he spends an increasing amount of his time with the statue. Through an accidental return at night the narrator spots the Count paying homage before the goddess in the moonlight. Martha has felt neglected and worried by the Count’s behaviour and when the narrator reveals what he has seen, they together find spots of blood by the statue. This, and the fact that the Count has not come home after the previous evening, suggest that things are going too far, so the contessa orders that the statue be buried again. The count is released from his ‘spell’ by this action and the pair recover their happiness.
these synopses
© 2003
part of an etext edition of
The last of the Valerii
on
the Ladder : a Henry James website