Description
A young woman returns to her village as an ardent nationalist after qualifying as a doctor in London; a bittereinder who left the Transvaal Republic for the Argentine after the Anglo-Boer War returns to his grandfather's village as a highly critical expatriate; the local villagers pursue their lives; and the resulting issues of patriotism, language, race, religion, culture, politics and morality, so endemic to South Africa, combine as the action of the story builds to a deeply moving climax. The Mask is set in a village clearly recognisable as Clanwilliam in the Union of South Africa, formerly the Cape Colony where the author grew up in the 1880s and 1890s. It is fascinating not only for its insight into South African political and social issues some twenty-five years after the end of the Anglo-Boer War, but also - in the opinion of the editors - for its embodiment of Leipoldt's own deep-seated values and beliefs. It was said of Leipoldt after his death that: 'He preferred to contradict. He was the apostle of the opposite view.' In The Mask his characters engage in fiercely polemical debates, some of which undoubtedly express Leipoldt's own views, although no self-respecting apostle of the opposite view would allow himself to be pinned down too easily. Undoubtedly, however, the real Leipoldt lies in the different views expressed.
