Martin Eden

Martin is mildly annoyed the next day when he reads the reporter’s article. He cares little about the opinions of the bourgeoisie, but the article will make things even more awkward with Ruth’s family.

Maria abruptly ushers the cub reporter into Martin’s room. He hopes to interview Martin. Instead, Martin and Brissenden make fun of him, speaking about the reporter as if he weren’t there. Brissenden goads Martin into humiliating the reporter. Martin bends the reporter over his knee and spanks him until his hand goes numb. The humiliated reporter vows revenge.

The reporter publishes a slanderous article about Martin the next day, even interviewing Bernard Higgenbotham and Hermann von Schmidt, who denounce Martin as a bum.

Ruth writes Martin a dispassionate letter to break off their engagement. She tells Martin not to try to see her. Martin writes a letter in reply, explaining what happened, but Ruth doesn’t respond.

Martin’s reputation is ruined. No store will give him credit. Only Maria and Brissenden remain loyal, though Brissenden lies sick in his hotel room. Martin runs into Gerturde on the street, and she suggests that he leave town until the situation smooths over for him. Martin can’t help but pity his sister, who he thinks exemplifies slave morality.

For several weeks, Martin lacks orientation. He’s unable to work. He pawns his suit and bicycle again. When he encounters Ruth and Norman on the street, Norman threatens to call the police, and Ruth says she doesn’t love him anymore. Martin has disgraced her, and she doesn’t wish to see him again.

Nothing matters to Martin anymore. He finishes “Overdue” because he dislikes leaving things undone but doesn’t care about the future.

The Parthenon magazine enthusiastically accepts “Ephemera” for publication, offering $350. Martin seeks Brissenden for his consent. He feels a twinge of guilt for not visiting him recently. He finds Brissenden’s hotel room empty and learns that Brissenden died by suicide five days ago. Numb to everything, he telegraphs The Parthenon to go ahead and publish “Ephemera.”

The typewriter company comes to collect his typewriter on the very afternoon he puts the finishing touches on “Overdue.” Faint from hunger, he collapses in bed, reciting a poem Brissenden used to recite. Maria gives him soup to eat.

Martin receives the new issue of The Parthenon. “Ephemera” is the centerpiece, and Brissenden’s photograph is on the cover. The editors praise the work as the greatest American poem. Martin is nauseated by the vulgarity of the fanfare because Brissenden would have hated it, but he’s too numb to really care. He tears up Brissenden’s remaining poems.

Martin has a brief vision of his time in Tahiti, rowing an outrigger canoe with Moti, a chief’s son. As the happy vision fades, Martin groans and falls asleep.

Martin receives a publisher’s check for $22. He accepts it numbly; it means nothing to him except food. When he gets a $10 check for another publication, he decides to mail off more manuscripts, if only to pay off his many debts. He buys himself breakfast and the first pack of cigarettes he has purchased since Ruth made him quit. Money means nothing to him now.

The days slip by. He eats at cheap Japanese restaurants, sleeps, and gains some weight back. He doesn’t write. One day, he nearly visits the bohemians but flees at the last minute, unable to handle the thought of philosophy. “Ephemera” had created a huge cultural stir, and many people debated its value. Martin now thinks that Brissenden was right about the magazines and publishing. He wants to escape to the South Seas.

Through an unexplainable twist of fate, publishers start printing Martin’s works for real money. He opens a bank account. Remembering his promise to Gertrude, he draws a $500 advance on royalties for “Overdue” and gives it to her. She doesn’t know how to process this, but Martin explains that he obtained it by legitimate means. He suspects that Bernard will invite him back to dinner now.

Martin attends a bricklayers’ picnic and reunites with some of his old gang. He feels human for the first time in a long time. He sees Lizzie dancing with a workingman in the crowd. Martin later finds her alone. From the moment they speak, Martin knows that she’s his. She has matured and is even more beautiful. The man she had been with attacks Martin, but Martin easily fends him off.

Lizzie and Martin spend the afternoon together at the picnic. He feels tempted to marry her and include her in his plans. However, he soon gives up on the idea. She’d do anything for Martin, but his heart and outlook on life have sustained too much damage. He still worships love itself too much to give her anything less than his whole heart. Instead, he gives up on his idea of escaping to the South Seas, offering to use his money to fund her education or anything else that would improve her life. He can’t return her love but admires her deeply. They narrowly avoid a gang battle: Martin’s old friends defend them from being jumped by a workingman’s gang.

When Martin takes Lizzie home, they kiss. Lizzie sobs and says that she could die for him. Martin curses himself, knowing that if he could make her happy, he would.

Martin’s work “The Shame of the Sun” is published. He feels sad, comparing how excited the news would have made him a few months ago with how numb he now feels holding his first published work. He gives Maria a copy; she cherishes it as a token of their friendship and her faith in Martin. “The Shame of the Sun” causes an uproar, and three printings sell out almost immediately. Martin sells “The Smoke of Joy” and a collection of short stories to the same publisher, adding $5,000 to his fortune. Martin buys Maria’s house for her, and he buys her the dairy she dreamed of.

Martin is apathetic about life and fame, even as the publication of “Overdue” catapults him to even greater heights. Society’s shallowness nags at Martin when people like Judge Blount, who had once rejected him, suddenly accept him and publishers who had returned his writing with stock rejection forms now clamor to publish him, at pay rates that Martin himself sets. He’s the same person he was before he became famous. He feels like he has committed treason against Brissenden.

Marin succeeds in publishing all of his manuscripts. He knows that the public likes his work because of mass consensus rather than for its own merit. He considers “Ephemera” better than anything he ever wrote. He’s glad to be done with publishing, and he vows to never write again.

People such as Bernard Higgenbotham and Mr. Morse suddenly want to associate with Martin now that he’s rich and famous. Martin bitterly fixates on this. The only people who have appreciated him for who he is are working-class people, like Lizzie and his old gang. He knows Ruth loved him, but she didn’t believe in his work, ignoring the torturous toil he put himself through during his years of writing.

Martin gives Bernard Higgenbotham money to expand his business, stipulating that Gertrude won’t have to do any more laundry or cleaning. Hermann von Schmidt is quick to use Martin to climb the social ladder. He, too, is a recipient of Martin’s apathetic generosity.

At dinner after dinner, Martin is the guest of honor. He becomes increasingly bitter at each instance of praise and generosity from people who had ignored him when he was in dire need of food and company.

Kreis visits Martin one day to ask him to invest $1,000 in a venture. Martin gives him the money without listening to his explanation in gratitude for the night he spent with Brissenden at Kreis’s apartment. It was the best night of Martin’s life, but he declines Kreis’s invitation to return. Martin is done with philosophy.

Martin runs into Mrs. Morse, but he doesn’t care. His mind is consumed with the bitter mantra “work performed” (359). He concludes that he doesn’t exist. Jealous of the way that other women look at him but concerned that he doesn’t care, Lizzie tells Martin that he’s sick.

To Martin’s surprise, Ruth visits his hotel room. She claims to have come of her own volition, but Martin suspects that she came at her mother’s behest now that Martin is, in her eyes, eligible. Ruth is nervous, and Martin holds her dispassionately. He accuses her of wanting him back only because he’s now famous, even though he’s the same person he was when she broke off their engagement. Ruth protests but chides Martin when he swears, proving to him that she’s still afraid of life. Martin refuses to take her back. He has no love left. He thinks of Lizzie’s words and affirms that he’s sick in the head.

Martin falls into a reverie, forgetting that Ruth is in the room. Ruth, frightened, tries to leave. Against her will, Martin offers to walk her home. On the way, Martin sees Norman dart into a doorway to avoid notice. Ruth had lied about coming to see him alone.

On the way back, a transient person asks Martin for a quarter. It’s Joe, from the laundry. Even in his numb state, Martin is momentarily happy to see his old friend. Joe is delighted too. He has gained some weight, and he even quit drinking.

Martin arranges to meet Joe again the next day. He books a stateroom on a vessel leaving for Tahiti in five days’ time.

When Martin sets Joe up with a laundry business, Joe initially objects, and the two even physically scuffle because Joe thinks Martin is just trying to buy him off. Joe was legitimately happy to see Martin as a friend. Martin sends Joe to check out the laundry. In truth, Martin is glad to be rid of him. He has no patience for other people anymore, even Joe. Martin reflects on how tired he feels and how much he sleeps these days. He feels as if he’s moving toward death. He begrudges life in the same way he once begrudged sleep.

Martin prepares to depart for Tahiti. Joe is overjoyed about his new laundry, but Martin has little energy for him. In a final act of self-preservation, Martin sees a doctor to find out what’s wrong with him. He receives a clean bill of health; his mental and emotional well-being is the problem. Martin dutifully bids his family, Lizzie, and Joe farewell on the last day before his voyage. At last, it’s time to depart. As he boards the Mariposa, Martin sees Lizzie in the crowd. He briefly thinks of bringing her aboard, but the thought terrifies him.

Martin’s misery increases aboard the steamer. He can’t stand the passengers or the sailors. He tries to distract himself, only to realize that more of the same awaits him once he reaches Tahiti. He can’t even sleep.

A stanza from a Swinburne poem puts the idea in his head that life is his sickness and death will end his anguish. Martin climbs through his cabin’s porthole during the night and drops into the dark ocean. Fighting his body’s natural urge to survive, he dives deep and swims until he’s too exhausted to surface, and he drowns.