The Plumed Serpent

The Plumed Serpent is a political novel written by D. H. Lawrence and published in 1926. The inspiration for the novel came to the author during a trip to Mexico in 1923 and reflects his experience in that country.

The book tells the story of Kate Leslie, an Irish tourist who visits Mexico after the Mexican Revolution. There he meets a Mexican general named Don Cipriano, who supports the Men of Quetzalcoatl, a religious movement founded by the general's friend named Don Ramón Carrasco. In this movement, Cipriano is identified as the god Huitzilopochtli and Ramón as the god Quetzalcóatl.

Kate ends up marrying Cipriano, just as the Men of Quetzalcoatl put an end to Christianity in Mexico and replace it with the cult of the god Quetzalcoatl.

This novel received harsh criticism upon its publication as it was considered an attack on Christianity and had a somewhat fascist character, reflecting the decline of the white race and a certain misogyny of the author in believing that women should be subject to men.

"It was the Sunday after Easter, and the last bull–fight of the season in Mexico City. Four special bulls had been brought over from Spain for the occasion, since Spanish bulls are more fiery than Mexican. Perhaps it is the altitude, perhaps just the spirit of the western Continent which is to blame for the lack of 'pep', as Owen put it, in the native animal."