Summary
Set against the backdrop of an early 20th-century London brimming with intellectual vanity, 'Jaffery' is a tragicomic exploration of the fragility of reputation and the heavy cost of unearned acclaim. The narrative revolves around a quartet of companions—Hilary, Adrian, Tom, and the eponymous Jaffery—whose bonds are tested when Tom Castleton perishes at sea, leaving his magnum opus in the hands of the ambitious Adrian Boldero. Driven by a desperate need to secure the hand of his beloved Doria, Adrian commits a cardinal sin of the creative soul: he publishes the manuscript as his own. This act of literary larceny catapults him into the stratosphere of the 'literary lion,' yet his success is a hollow shell built on mendacity. The arrival of Jaffery Chayne, accompanied by the fierce and autochthonous Liosha—the daughter of an Albanian chieftain—further complicates the social tapestry. As Adrian’s conscience becomes a terminal affliction, Jaffery is forced into a series of noble deceptions, ghostwriting a legacy for his dead friend to shield the grieving widow, Doria, from the shattering truth. The film ultimately transcends its melodrama to question where true loyalty lies: in the preservation of a beautiful lie or in the acceptance of a raw, untamed reality embodied by the devoted Liosha.
Synopsis
Jaffery Chayne is the spectacular one of four chums, the others being Hilary Freeth, a literary man, Adrian Boldero, a short story writer, and Tom Castleton, a playwright. The story opens with Tom Castleton going on a voyage for his health and leaving with his friend, Adrian, the manuscript of the first novel he ever attempted. Shortly after Castleton's trip, he dies at sea and when word is received by Adrian of his friend's death, the temptation to secure the girl he loves by publishing his friend's novel and taking the money and credit from it is so strong that he succumbs and becomes the "literary lion of the hour." Jaffery returns to London with the widow of his associate, who is an Albanian chieftain's daughter, the last one of her tribe. Jaffery arrives in London with this strange woman and she is introduced into the household of Hilary Freeth and meets Jaffery's friends. Adrian brings his sweetheart, Doria, and when she is introduced to Jaffery, it is a case of love, on Jaffery's part, at first sight, he having no eyes for Liosha, the widow desperately in love with him. Doria, however, marries Adrian, supposed to be the great author, and Jaffery leaves Liosha in London and then goes on another expedition. On his return he finds Adrian dead. His love for the wife, Doria, is as strong as ever and he tenderly cares for her and takes charge of Adrian's affairs. When Jaffery and Hilary are appointed the legal executors of Adrian's estate they find the original novel in Castleton's handwriting and nothing that could be made into a second novel from the pen of Adrian. They realize that Adrian has stolen his fame and fortune and that his conscience really has killed him. Jaffery realizes that the knowledge of this will probably be the death blow to Doria, who has always worshiped Adrian as a genius, so he takes the papers home and puts them out of sight in his desk and then begins to go through his own experiences and from them he writes a novel, signs it with Adrian's name and gives it to the publishers as the second work of the literary genius. The novel does make a tremendous sensation. When Jaffery proposes marriage to Doria she refuses him. The former starts on a long voyage. Liosha begs to go, too. Jaffery consents. The result is the strengthening of the love of Liosha for Jaffery. Doria learns the perfidy of her late husband and offers to be the wife of Jaffery in gratitude for his self-sacrifice. Jaffery, however, discovers he loves Liosha and Doria releases him.
Review Excerpt
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In the nascent years of the silent era, cinema was frequently a laboratory for the transmutation of popular literature into visual spectacle. Jaffery (1916), directed by George Irving and adapted from the William J. Locke novel, stands as a fascinating specimen of this period. It is a narrative that eschews the simplistic morality of contemporary melodramas, opting instead for a convoluted psychological study of intellectual theft, the burden of legacy, and the transformative power of cross-cu..."
