George Moore in the Footsteps of Ernest Renan in the Holy Land1

Abstract

In 1913, the Irish writer George Moore set sail across the Mediterranean for what was known in those days as The Holy Land. The result of this “fact-finding” mission was the publication in 1916 of the sensational The Brook Kerith — the life of Jesus, seen through the eyes of Joseph of Arimathea. Like his illustrious predecessor Ernest Renan, Moore’s fascination with spirituality owed much to a childhood steeped in the mystical Celtic tradition, which had survived over the ages on the remote North-West Atlantic seaboard. In this article, I will discuss what is hitherto uncharted territory, i.e. the influence of Renan’s 1861 mission in Palestine and the subsequent publications of La Vie de Jésus (1863) on Moore’s itinerary and literary production. To this end, a comparative textual analysis of La Vie de Jésus and The Brook Kerith proves to be more rewarding.