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| Few more nightmarish figures stalk English literature
than Aleister Crowley (1875-1947 ), poet, magician, mountaineer
and agent provocateur. In this groundbreaking study, Paul Newman
dives into the occult mire of Crowley's works and fishes out
gems and grotesqueries that are by turns ethereal, sublime,
pornographic and horrifying. |
| Like Oscar Wilde before him, Crowley stood in
"symbolic relationship to his age" and to contempories
like Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton and the Portugese modernist
Fernando Pessoa. An influential exponent of the cult of the
great god Pan, his essentially 'pagan' outlook was shared by
major European writers as well as English novelists like E.M.
Forster, D.H. Lawrence and Arthur Machen. |
| Paul Newman lives in Cornwall. Editor of the literary
magazine 'abraxas', he has written over ten books including
'Lost Gods of Albion' and 'A History of Terror:Fear and Dread
Down the Ages'. He was among the international scholars asked
to contribute to 'Scribner's Dictionary of Ideas' and recently
his Arthurian novel 'Galahad' was awarded the Peninsula Prize. |
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