Under the Rose is a short story written by Thomas Pynchon. Released in 1961, it is part of Pynchon's collection Slow Learner and tells of spies in Egypt.
Characters[]
- Porpentine - a British spy
- Goodfellow - Porpentine's fellow spy
- Hugh Bongo-Shaftsbury - one of Moldweorp's spies, who has mysterious cybernetic enhancements
- Victoria Wren - Goodfellow's lover
- Mildred Wren - Victoria's sister
- Lepsius - one of Moldweorp's spies
- Sir Alastair Wren - Victoria's father
- Moldweorp - Porpentine's rival
- The Consul-General - Moldweorp's target
- Count Khevenhüller-Metsch
Plot[]
The Noble Savage 3, in which Under the Rose was first published
Around the turn of the twentieth century, two spies named Porpentine and Moldweorp stood opposed to one another. The conflict between the two men brings them to Egypt, where Porpentine meets with another of his agents by the name of Goodfellow to discuss a plot of Moldweorp's that is brewing. Porpentine believes that his nemesis is planning to assassinate a Consul-General and plans to travel to Cairo to intercept Moldweorp and his allies. To do this, Porpentine and Goodkind decide to accompany the family of one Victoria Wren (whom Goodfellow is dating) alongside a mysterious man by the name of Bongo-Shaftsbury with an extreme love for ancient Egypt. While preparing for this journey, Bongo-Shaftsbury is joined by a man named Lepsius, whom Goodfellow recognizes.
To get to Cairo, the party hires a train. While getting onto the train, Lepsius is robbed but has his bag recovered by Goodfellow. Once on the train, Bongo-Shaftsbury reveals to Victoria's sister Mildred that his arm has wires sticking out of it and implies that he is nothing more than an automaton mimicking a human. This frightens Mildred and Porpentine realizes that Bongo-Shaftsbury is one of Moldweorp's agents. Before he can do anything about this, Goodfellow is attacked by a thief.
Once the party arrives in Cairo, everyone checks into their hotels. While returning to his hotel room in the middle of the night, Porpentine believes that a spy has broken into his room. As such, he clambers to the windowsill and falls off before climbing up a nearby tree and catching Goodfellow sitting in bed with Victoria. The next morning, the two spies visit an opera-house that the Consul-General is also visiting. While there, Moldweorp and his spies try to assassinate the Consul-General but are stopped by Porpentine and Goodfellow. Moldweorp then escapes to the Sphinx, closely pursued by Porpentine and Goodfellow. They catch up in the Sphinx, where Moldweorp is able to turn the tables on his pursuers and seemingly kills Porpentine.
Sixteen years later, Goodfellow (now an old man dating a barmaid) visits the motorcade of an Archduke by the name of Franz Ferdinand due to rumors that the Archduke might be assassinated.
Notes[]
- Under the Rose was made into the third chapter of Pynchon's first novel, V.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt: Handbook for Travellers | Karl Baedeker | 1898 | A nonfiction book which possibly inspired this short story |
| Against the Day | Thomas Pynchon | 2006 | A novel by the same author set in a similar time period and with similar themes |
| The Night Manager | John le Carré | 1993 | A novel set in Egypt with similar themes |
| Works of Thomas Pynchon | ||
|
Early works (Collected in Slow Learner) | ||