First published in 1885, Babylon concerns an artists’ colony in late Victorian Rome. The narrative introduces two artistic geniuses – one a landscape painter; the other a sculptor – from very different humble backgrounds. Hiram Winthrop, a shy young man, is an ardent admirer of nature and has been raised on a farm in New York State, in a family of narrow-minded fundamentalists. Conversely, Colin Churchill is growing up in rural Dorset, spending his time modelling figures in clay from the river for his sweetheart Minna. The local vicar admires Churchill’s work and lends him support in his artistic endeavours.
Winthrop is rescued by Lothrop Audouin, a rich, refined Boston intellectual, who is a confirmed bachelor that has fled industrial America for a solitary, yet comfortable life on the shores of Lake Ontario. Generously, Audouin funds Winthrop’s schooling and college life. Meanwhile, Churchill works at wood-carving and then puts himself under the tutelage of Cicolari, a stone sculptor, and his genius rapidly expands. After various difficulties, both Churchill and Winthrop are drawn to Rome. Churchill quickly makes a name for himself, but Winthrop is apprenticed to a unsympathetic historical painter and endures a harder time.
Much lighter in tone, Allen’s second novel is full of lively incident and offers an intriguing account of artistic genius in wholly unpropitious places. Interestingly, there is a model for John Ruskin, under the guise of John Truman, who eventually raises Winthrop to prominence. Critics were quick to point out the close resemblance of the plot to Henry James’ Roderick Hudson, a bildungsroman originally published in 1875 as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly.