Pilate's Wife
H.D. is the pseudonym used by notable Twenties poet Hilda Doolittle. Telling Pilate's story from the viewpoint of his wife, Claudia Procula, H.D. is quick to point out that she preferred to refer to Claudia as "Veronica" to help visualize the story. The name change didn't help. As Veronica, a bored Roman court wife, dabbles with her lovers and intrigues, one of her lovers arranges for her to visit a seer named Mnevis. The seer opens a new world to Veronica, and as escape from her nebulous dissatisfaction becomes the focus of her life, she devotes herself to plotting to help a condemned prisoner named Jesus escape execution. While the story hints that Jesus escaped death by being drugged and spirited away by Roman soldiers, the novelty of this angle is lost in the tedium of the writing. Although the story would have been shocking had it been published in its time, today it will interest only H.D. scholars at best. Contemporary collections can choose James R. Mills's Memoirs of Pontius Pilate (LJ 4/1/00) instead.Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.