The Chymical WeddingIt is the early 1980s. Alex Darken, devastated by a broken marriage, has retreated to a remote village in the bleak flatlands of eastern England. On the Easterness Estate he meets the volatile, aging poet Edward Nesbit and his vibrant, psychic, young American lover, Laura. Slowly, he is drawn into a strange relationship with them as they piece together the lost studies of two of the present lord's ancestors. In 1849, Sir Henry Agnew and his elegant, brilliant daughter Louisa, were about to penetrate the last secrets of the mystical art of alchemy. They, like the researches a century and a half later, see in the "chemical wedding" of opposites -- sulphur and quicksilver, spirit and matter, male and female, reality and imagination -- a key to spiritual rebirth. As Edward, Laura, and Alex mirror the Agnew story, dreams and symbols, erotic ecstasy and philosophical argument, climax in a vision which, like those before them, they can grasp only as they skirt insanity and tragedy . . . . "Engrossing . . . By the time we start wanting to resist, it is too late. The book already has drawn us too deeply into its six intriguing main characters and its rich gothic folds of plot." -- Chicago Tribune |
Contents
The Green Man | 3 |
The Figure in the Stone | 21 |
The House of God | 41 |
Copyright | |
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alchemists alchemy Alex already answer asked believe breath Cambridge Catullus church chymical wedding cold Cybele dark dear Decoy Lodge desk door dream Easterness Edward Edwin Frere Emilia eyes face father feel felt fingers fire frown gaze glanced Gypsy Hall hand happened hear heard heart Henry Agnew Hermetic Horrocks John Pordage kiln knew lake Laura light lips listen looked Louisa Agnew marriage matter mean mind Miss Agnew Munding Mutus Liber mystery Nesbit never night nodded once parish parson perhaps Pightle quietly Ralph Rectory remembered Saxburgh secret seemed sense shook his head sighed silence skiff smile soul speak spirit stared stood sure talk tell there's things thought Thrandeston told took tried trying turned voice waiting walked watched water-meadows wife woman wondered words wrong Yaxley Zosimus