Chapters 1-15 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1

The story begins with a servant named Ali alerting Kenneth Toomey that the Archbishop of Malta has come to visit. Toomey tells Ali to take the Archbishop into the bar and serve him a drink.

Toomey thinks about his career.

"I retired 12 years ago from the profession of novelist. Nevertheless you would be constrained to consider, if you know my work at all and take the trouble now to reread that first sentence, but I have lost none of my old cunning in the contrivance of what is known as arresting opening." Chap. 1, p. 7

Toomey thinks about his 81st birthday and how he has been receiving cables all day congratulating him on his birthday. Toomey's lover, Geoffrey, is in the room getting dressed. Geoffrey is 35 years old. Toomey notices that Geoffrey has begun to age and to gain...