[Editor: This book review, of the novel Far Caravan by E. V. Timms, is an extract from the “New novels” section published in the The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 27 April 1935.]
New novels
Times of turmoil in and around seventeenth-century Russia give well-taken opportunities for colour and movement in “Far Caravan,” by Mr. E. V. Timms, an Australian writer of popular historical romance (Angus and Robertson; 6/).
The period is that of the young Tsar Alexis, and of the Patriarch Nikon, whose aim was to obtain supremacy over a vast region as head of the Russian Church.
Nikon was a man of great wealth and luxury, the owner of many serfs, and the controller of an ecclesiastical court which was accused of grave injustice and of a habit of plundering. Such oppression might have been endured, but Nikon’s insistence that the long-accepted errors of illiterate copyists should be removed from the sacred books, and that changes should be made in a number of matters of Church usage, led to widespread revolt. There was strong support of the movement for a popular Church of the “old faith” as opposed to that controlled by Nikon, and this movement continued in spite of much torture and killing.
Mr. Timms brings into effective contrast the splendour of the surroundings of Alexis and Nikon and the conditions of the life of wanderers and serfs. The gathering of caravans and the assembling of hosts of armed Cossacks are described in picturesque chapters. A French girl and others from her land are among those who have leading places in the story.
Source:
The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 27 April 1935, p. 5 (Metropolitan Edition)
Editor’s notes:
Cossacks = a semi-nomadic people based in Eastern Europe (particularly in Southern Russia and Ukraine)
See: “Cossacks”, Wikipedia
ecclesiastical = of or pertaining to the Christian church, church clergy, or the church organisation
E. V. Timms = Edward Vivian Timms (1895-1960), novelist and screenwriter; he was born in Charters Towers (Qld.) in 1895, and died in zzz in 1960
See: 1) Anthony Barker, “Timms, Edward Vivian (1895–1960)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “E. V. Timms”, Wikipedia
Patriarch = a high-ranking bishop; the male head of a Christian Church
See: “Patriarch”, Wikipedia
serf = in earlier times (especially in medieval Europe), serfs were peasants who were legally bound to a plot of land, living in feudal servitude; serfs commonly grew their own food (giving some to their lord), and also served the owner of the land in certain ways, and required their lord’s permission to make certain life changes (e.g. to change occupations, to marry, to permanently leave the land); if the land was sold, then the serfs were sold as well (as an integral part of the deal), with their servitude being passed on from one feudal lord to another; serfs had very limited legal and customary rights (these varied, depending on the country or area in which they lived)
See: 1) “serfdom”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
2) “Serfdom”, Wikipedia
Tsar = (also spelt: “Czar”) an emperor of Russia, up until the murder of the Nicholas II (the last ruling monarch of the Russian Empire) and the Russian royal family by Communists in 1917 (the title was also applied to the rulers of the Bulgarian and Serbian empires)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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