The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Hardcover)

by Will Eisner (Author), Umberto Eco (Introduction) "A SUICIDE!...WHO IS HE, MON CAPITAIN?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Soviet Union, Will Eisner

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Eisner's final graphic novel examines the tangled history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a piece of anti-Semitic propaganda (with its origins in several generations of libel and plagiarism) that's been circulating for the past century. Eisner, who died earlier this year, was one of the patron saints of American comics, and his artwork improved as he got older. The ink-wash drawings here are among his most exquisite work, and his characters have the kind of grandly expressive, minutely observed body language that was his specialty. But Eisner was a far better cartoonist than a writer, and it's puzzling why an artist who thought as deeply as he did about visual narrative decided to take on a project that has no reason to be a comic book. There's basically nothing interesting for him to draw, and he adds nothing to well-documented history. The core of Eisner's book is an endless scene of two men comparing passages from it with Maurice Joly's Dialogue in Hell, from which it was plagiarized; not even the dramatization of their conversation (in a smoky Constantinople cafe) helps. The rest of the work is gorgeous to look at, but suffers from leaden expository dialogue and disastrous pacing, documenting the history of The Protocols without successfully understanding its insidious power.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–Published posthumously, this history of the Protocols is based on new evidence from the post-Soviet opening of the Russian archives. Mathieu Golovinski, a Russian aristocrat exiled in France, wrote the work for the secret police, to convince Czar Nicholas II that Jews were behind the political unrest in Russia and to persuade him to abandon liberal reforms. Golovinski plagiarized The Dialogues in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (1864), a satirical essay by French attorney Maurice Joly, implying that Napoleon III's plans for France were Machiavellian. Following the stories of Joly and Golovinski, the scene shifts to Constantinople, where a Russian exile offers to sell copies of the Dialogues and the Protocols to a reporter from the London Times. A comparison of the two documents leads to the publication of an article in 1921 exposing the Protocols as a forgery. Despite this revelation, it continued to be used, from the Nazis to Henry Ford to more contemporary hate groups and governments. Eisner appears as a character: researching his book, discussing why the Protocols survive despite repeated debunking, and talking to college students who distribute it. The artwork is occasionally over-the-top; one of Golovinski's superiors is a crazed, Rasputin-like caricature. The side-by-side comparison of sections of the Dialogues and the Protocols is so long that it risks losing readers completely. Despite these flaws, the book is well researched and, for the most part, accomplishes Eisner's goal of making the information available to a wider audience by using a graphic format.–Sandy Freund, Richard Byrd Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 148 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition/First Printing edition (May 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393060454
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060454
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #320,469 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Will's Last Testament, May 27, 2005

By	Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Perhaps no other single document has been responsible for more bloodshed than the Protocols. A thoroughly nasty hoax and complete forgery the Protocols reputed to be the minutes of a secret meeting of world Jewry that took place in conjunction with the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. The minutes detailed a conspiracy by these "Elders" to take over the world. Despite being revealed repeatedly as a hoax the Protocols have taken on a life of their own and continue to be brought up in areas around the world.

Will Eisner, perhaps the most creative and influential cartoonist, graphic artist, and/or sequential artist (whatever term one finds applicable), of our time spent the last twenty years of his life trying to unravel the origins of this deadly hoax. Bit-by-bit over the last twenty years Eisner read up on the Protocols and did significant amounts of research, including a review of files released in Russia (most of which dated to Tsarist and early revolutionary days) after the fall of communism. Eisner completed this graphic history book one month before he died, at the age of 87. The compelling art and narrative in "The Plot" helps to make Eisner's last work a wonderful epitaph for a creative giant. The year 2005 also marks the 100th anniversary of the Protocol's introduction in Russia in response to the 1905 Revolution. The bloody pogroms that followed bear stark witness to the horrid power of the Protocols.

After a brief but moving introduction by Umberto Eco, Eisner lays out a sequential history of the birth and strange life of the Protocols. The story begins with the creation of a book entitled "The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu" by a French writer named Maurice Joly. Joly's book was a thinly-disguised attack on Napoleon III's rule. The story continues and Eisner takes us into the life and less than wholesome career of Mathieu Golovinski. Golovinski, in conjunction with the Okhrana (the Tsar's version of the KGB) creates the Protocols by plagiarizing Joly's book almost completely. From there we see the Protocols exposed as a hoax by The Times of London in the 1920s. Yet despite that expose the Protocols are then used by both Adolf Hitler and the American car magnate Henry Ford. It is still being distributed today.

A significant portion of the book consists of side-by-side comparison of Joly's Dialogue In Hell and Golovinski's Protocols. The results are both compelling and conclusive. There may be some who feel that this rather lengthy insert is not appropriate for a graphic work such as this. I tend to think it both necessary and effective. Mere claims of fraud are not sufficient. It is important to set it out in black and white. Eisner does this to great effect.

It has been said that a graphic novel may not be the best method for discussing such a serious topic. I disagree. I think that the information provided by Eisner is absorbed very well by the reader. It is not an academic treatise to be sure but it was not intended to be. The information is easily absorbed even if one takes time to admire Eisner's graphic art which is powerful and compelling.

Eisner's last work is a fitting tribute to his life for at least two reasons. First, it provides an excellent overview of a publication that has caused havoc over the last 100 years. As Umberto Eco says in his introduction, "one must fight the Big Lie and the hatred it spawns". Eisner has done this to great effect. Second, "The Plot" provides yet one more piece of supporting evidence for the assertion that the graphic arts is a serious, provocative medium that need not play second fiddle to what may sometimes be referred to as pure `literature' or `the arts'. Eisner's legacy in this field is secure and The Plot serves as a fitting grace note to a long, distinguished career.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stand For Clarity And Justice, May 1, 2005

By	Michael F. Hopkins "A Deeper Groove" (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In what is the final work from Sequential pioneer Will
Eisner (1917-2005), the great graphic storyteller turns
his wide-ranging attention to the depiction of a
grievously non-fictional wrong. In THE PLOT, Eisner
culminates a decades-long examination of the historical
fabrication which is widely considered the source of
anti-Semitic propaganda which spans a century, working
its poison around the world, even now.

THE PLOT is an astute Sequential narrative denoting the
concoction of THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, and
painstakingly follows the blind establishment of this
gross and clumsy lie as authenticated fact across the
ages. A disgruntled Russian bureaucrat plagiarizes the
work of an 19th century Parisian satirist, transforming
a poke at the tyrannies of a French emperor into a
damning denigration of an entire group of human beings.

The astonishing point made by Eisner, more astonishing
than the hatching of a genocidal conspiracy for the sake
of political convenience, is the manner in which this
lie has endured, and spread its evil message across the
years... even after THE PROTOCOLS have been methodically
and repeatedly exposed as the malicious lie that it has
always been! From Tsarist Russia, this cancerous document
has sown its seeds of hate everywhere, from England's
Winston Churchill and America's Henry Ford in 1920 to
the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis from 1921 on through
WW II.
Even now, the bigotry engendered by the propagation of
THE PROTOCOLS wreaks havoc with the common sense of the world,
as reflected through its avid usage by the worst participants
of fundamentalism, whether engaged in the burning of crosses,
the bombing of mosques, or the terrorism of those taking
revenge for Crusades past with more blind slaughter.

Eisner's artistry, setting precedents for 70 years, is
prodigious here. His depiction of THE PLOT's unveiling
tableau, stark in its black & white tones while elusively
gray in its basic textures, is an ingeniously succinct
way to impart this penetrating tale of wrongdoing which
perversely endures, and a virtue which must never falter.

In utilizing the gifts which he has honed over the course
of a lifetime, Will Eisner has set a standard for the ages;
further establishing the Sequential field as a literary
arena far more diversified than the narrowing yardstick
applied to "funny pages", while taking a concrete stand
for Clarity and Justice.
Make no mistake about THE PLOT. There's nothing comic about
this tale, or what's at stake if we, as human beings do not
heed the truth, at last.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Christians: Don't Be Deterred By The Preface..., December 21, 2006

By	Encompassed Runner (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

Cartoonist Will Eisner's graphic narrative format is ingeniously well-suited for portraying the absurdity of the fraudulent and ridicule-worthy #1 antisemitic book of all time: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a plagiarized fiction passed off as fact. Both the format and the eerily intriguing cover might be especially attractive to teens, and the book would be a great addition to any high school library.

Eisner starts off with The Protocols' origin in France and Russia, then traces its resilient spread through time and geography. One of the most impactive parts of the book is when it visually depicts side-by-side comparisons of the Protocols with Maurice Joly's Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, the near-identical similarities so outrageous how anyone can believe this stuff as true is dumbfounding. The fascinating story maintains a fast pace, noting The London Times exposing of The Protocols as fraudulent, Henry Ford's appropriation of the lie, use of it by Hitler, legal rulings against the Protocals in Switzerland and South Africa, and more...yet it will not die, even after a U.S. Senate report busting it as a "Fabricated 'Historical' Document." Spain, Argentina, USSR, India, Egypt, Italy, the KKK, Lebanon, Japan, Turkey, Hamas, and so many others helped perpetuate the myth of an international Jewish conspiracy responsible for every bad event. The book ends with 2004, and so does not cover the present-day use of the Protocols on Islamic websites, the 2006 incident of a Hollywood figure spouting off about Jews responsibility for all wars, or any of the other new forms of Protocolsesque propaganda such as blaming social and political ills on some conspiratorial controlling "Israel lobby."

The Plot keeps its focus on key peoples, places and events involved in The Protocols' history, not delving much into the historical contexts or the specifics of The Protocols' 24 items. The strength of the book is in its appealing format that manages to make a powerful presentation without being pedantic, an enjoyable read about a descpicable topic. There is one serious (and ironic) flaw early in the book: In the Preface Eisner in talking about "devices that antisemites used to promote their message" says, "There had to be some weapon other than the ancient Christian Gospels' condemnation of Jews that appeared again and again and resurrected itself, vampire-like, to reinforce antisemitism." This is a sure way to alienate Christians, surely part of the target audience for this educational book, who might likely not make it to page one of the book proper, because of Eisner's misrepresentation of the Gospels and perpetuation of what we Christians consider to be a "big lie" or myth about our faith and because of the loss of credibility caused by Eisner purporting to be correcting a prejudicial lie while hypocritically propagating another. By his general, out-of-context reference to "Christian Gospels' condemnation of Jews," Eisner does what antisemites misrepresnting the name of Christ have done, that is he falsely makes it seem as if the Gospels are against the Jewish people and thereby justify antisemitism. Hopefully future editions of this book will remove this divisive and dishonest statement that isn't even about the focus of the book anyway, and is the reason for the 4-star rating.