Plans of the Deathless Gods

BOOK SUMMARY

Plans of the Deathless Gods.

The time: the seven years (1785-1792) before the breakup of European order instigated by the French Revolution.

The scene: Prussia, South Africa, New Zealand.

The characters: Curt Christoph von Allmen, who proposes the plan of a New Zealand sealing station as medium of commerce with China; his twin sister Maria, who composes an epic poem to commemorate its founding; their friend, philosopher Adam Sixtus l’Estrange, whose ruminations on the times issue in a surprising discovery.

The plot: Curt Christoph, a philhellene, envisions New Zealand as the scene of a restored Apollonianism—which his sister’s epic playfully portrays, and Adam Sixtus’ philosophical discovery ironically supports.