The Revolt of the Angels · Chapter
XVII explained
Arcade and Prince Istar seek funding from the financier Max Everdingen (the fallen angel Sophar) for their revolution in France and Heaven, but Everdingen refuses, defending the financial system and offering instead to fund a revolt in Heav
What happens
Arcade and Prince Istar seek funding from the financier Max Everdingen (the fallen angel Sophar) for their revolution in France and Heaven, but Everdingen refuses, defending the financial system and offering instead to fund a revolt in Heaven alone.
Themes in this chapter
Rebellion and Revolution
Arcade and Istar plan a universal revolution starting in France and extending to Heaven; they seek funds to arm rebel angels.
Class and Hierarchy
The fallen angel Sophar embodies the capitalist class; Arcade and Istar represent the discontented lower orders of angels and revolutionaries.
Freedom vs. Tyranny
Arcade and Istar aim to overthrow both earthly financial tyranny and the celestial hierarchy of Ialdabaoth.
Characters to notice
- Arcade
Works at a printer's and lives in an attic; conducts propaganda among guardian angels, winning 50,000 to revolt; seeks funds from Max Everdingen.
- Prince Istar
Manufactures bombs but lacks funds; accompanies Arcade to request money from Max Everdingen; demonstrates a small copper cylinder bomb.
- Baron Max Everdingen
Revealed as the fallen angel Sophar; a wealthy financier who refuses to fund revolution in France but offers to fund a revolt in Heaven.
- Sophar
Canonical name for Max Everdingen; formerly guarded Ialdabaoth's treasures; fell to earth and became a banker.
- Zita
Mentioned as having surmised that guardian angels were discontented.
- Théophile Belais
His rooms are filled with bombs left by Prince Istar.
Key passages
“Arcade led a life of obscure toil. He worked at a printer’s in the Rue St. Benoît, and lived in an attic in the Rue Mouffetard.”
Arcade lived humbly, working as a printer and residing in a small attic room.
Describes Arcade's modest circumstances during his revolutionary activities.
“So successful was he that he won over to the side of revolt fifty thousand of those guardian angels who, as Zita had surmised, were discontented with their condition and imbued with the spirit of the times.”
Arcade's propaganda convinced 50,000 guardian angels to join the rebellion, confirming Zita's earlier suspicion.
Highlights the scale of Arcade's recruitment among the angels.
“In Heaven he was named Sophar, and guarded the treasures of Ialdabaoth, a great collector of gold and precious stones.”
Before his fall, Sophar was the angel in charge of Ialdabaoth's treasure hoard.
Reveals Max Everdingen's celestial origin and role.
“Baron Max Everdingen’s large mansion, which rears itself on the heights of the Trocadéro, is crammed with the spoils of Christian Europe.”
Everdingen's mansion on the Trocadéro hill is filled with art and treasures looted from Christian Europe.
Illustrates the financier's immense wealth and collection.
“It is only necessary to let it fall on the ground immediately to reduce this mansion with its inmates to a mass of smoking ashes, and to set a fire going which would devour all the Trocadéro quarter.”
Prince Istar's small bomb could destroy the entire mansion and surrounding neighborhood if dropped.
Demonstrates the destructive power of Istar's devices.
