Hieroglyphics : A Note upon Ecstasy in Literature
Overview
What separates truly fine writing from the merely competent? In this searching essay, a great master of the weird tale sets out to name the elusive quality he calls ecstasy.
First published in 1902, this influential work of criticism finds Arthur Machen - the Welsh author famed for supernatural classics such as The Great God Pan - arguing his case through the voice of an unnamed Literary Hermit, a reclusive scholar of Barnsbury. For the Hermit, the mark of true art is not realism or instruction but a kind of rapture, a withdrawal from the ordinary that lifts prose and poetry toward the sublime. Wide-ranging and provocative, it remains one of the most original statements ever written on the aesthetics of imaginative literature.
This edition features:
- An accessible presentation of Arthur Machen's landmark 1902 meditation on what raises writing to the level of true art.
- The complete argument of the Literary Hermit, tracing the quality of rapture across prose, poetry, and myth.
- An illuminating window on the aesthetic thought of a writer better known for his tales of horror and the supernatural.
- A rewarding read for students of criticism, Decadence, and the fin-de-si cle debate over the purpose of imaginative art.
This item is Non-Returnable
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781528704281
- ISBN-10: 1528704282
- Publisher: Read & Co. Great Essays
- Publish Date: March 2018
- Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.31 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.38 pounds
- Page Count: 130
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