The Pagans

Arlo Bates's 1884 novel follows a set of artists who have banded together under the playful name of the Pagans. Despite the title, the group has nothing to do with religion. The name is simply a label for a circle of friends who share ambitions, rivalries and romantic entanglements. The story looks closely at what it means to live as an artist, showing how hopes and setbacks, pleasures and hardships are woven together over a life. Running beneath the drama is a sharper argument about the gap between shallow, fashionable taste and the honesty, integrity and sincerity that real art requires. Readers who care about craft will find that the novel's questions about ambition, vanity and truthfulness still feel pointed.