A critical examination of Francis Ebejer's English novels

Abstract

Francis Ebejer's novels are highly complex because he is preoccupied with various themes which give his novels a prismatic quality. In his works, namely his plays and novels Ebejer studies Man both as a social animal and as individual with his own beliefs whether they be religious, political, moral or social. In the novels set in Malta; A Wreath For The Innocents, Wild Spell of Summer, and In The Eve of The Sun most particularly Ebejer also sees potentialities in the Land as a living organism influencing lives. The author burdens his protagonists, especially Joseph and Miguel, the latter being the antihero of Ebejer's "American" novel, Come Again in Spring, with a sense of guilt, and internal power; and pressures from society, an external force. Ebejer himself told me that he is preoccupied with Time, in the sense that the past is ever embedded in the present and even catches up with the future.