John Crowley

 

Little, Big; or, The Fairies Parliament, by John Crowley.

My hardback copy of one of my favorite books. I used to have a largish softcover edition that Mr. Fleming gave me; I made a rather cold-blooded decision to … give it away? Sell it? Obviously, the act was so traumatic I’ve wiped it from my memory. Anyway, this is a good handy copy, with art by Gary A. Lippincott.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Aegypt (Hardback); Love and Sleep (Softcover); Daemonomania (Hardback); Endless Things (Hardback); The Solitudes (Softcover; previously publishes as ‘Aegypt’), by John Crowley.

“Ægypt is a series of four novels written by American author John Crowley. The work describes the work and life of Pierce Moffett, who prepares a manuscript for publication even as it prepares him for some as-yet unknown destiny, all set amidst strange and subtle Hermetic manipulations among the Faraway Hills at the border of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The four volumes mingle Moffett's real and dream life in America in 1977 (and, in an extended coda, into the early 1980s) with the narrative of the manuscript he is preparing for publication. Another manuscript, left unfinished by its author Fellowes Kraft and discovered by Moffett, is an historical fiction that follows the briefly intersecting adventures of Italian heretic Giordano Bruno and of British occultists John Dee and Edward Kelley. Moffett is trained as a historian, and is under contract to write a popular history covering hermetical themes. Early in the process, he conceives of writing a novel which, it is clear, would be Ægypt; his ruminations on that novel describe the structure of the novel he is in. The distinctions between Crowley's, Moffett's, and Kraft's books are continually elided and the three books are finally undifferentiated. The novels generally have three main "strands" reflecting on three main characters, one occurring in the present day generally following Pierce or Rosie Mucho in their artistic works, and two occurring in the Renaissance following the fictionalized historical activities of John Dee, Edward Kelley and Giordano Bruno as written by Fellowes Kraft. The difference is marked stylistically by dashes indicating dialogue for events that happened in the Renaissance and events in the twentieth century marked by dialogue in ordinary English quotation marks.” – Wikipedia. I have the first volume that was titled “Aegypt” apparently against Crowley’s wishes; it is now the name of the whole cycle. “In The Solitudes, the opening of the series, we are introduced to Pierce Moffett, an unorthodox historian and an expert in ancient astrology, myths, and superstition. The land that Moffett studies is not the real, geographical Egypt but Ægypt, a country of the imagination. When Moffett discovers the historical novels of local writer Fellowes Kraft, his course is charted. Kraft’s books interweave stories of Italian heretic Giordano Bruno, young Will Shakespeare, and Elizabethan occultist John Dee stories that begin to mingle with the narrative of Moffett’s real and dream life in 1970s America. As Moffett’s journey in and out of his comfortable reality continues, what becomes clear is revelatory: there is more than one history of the world … In Love & Sleep, the second volume of the series, the professor Pierce Moffett finds himself at a great turning point in the history of the world. As a child, Pierce was no stranger to magic, but those revelations faded with time. Now Pierce's search for a secret history of the world—one in which magic works and angels speak to humankind—has begun again … Dæmonomania [the third volume] is a journey into the very mystery of existence: what is, what went before, and what could break through at any moment in our lives. So it is for Pierce Moffett, would-be historian and author, who has moved from New York to the Faraway Hills, where he seems to discover—or rediscover—a path into magic, past and present. And so it is for Rosie Rasmussen, a single mother grappling with her mysterious uncle's legacy and her young daughter Samantha’s inexplicable seizures. For Pierce's lover Rose Ryder, another path unfolds: she’s drawn into a cult that promises to exorcise her demons. It is the dark of the year, between Halloween and the winter solstice, and the gateway is open between the worlds of the living and the dead. A great cycle of time is ending, and Pierce and Rosie, Samantha and Rose Ryder must take sides in an age-old war that seems to be approaching the final battle … [Endless Things] is the fourth novel—and much-anticipated conclusion—of John Crowley’s astonishing and lauded Ægypt sequence: a dense, lyrical meditation on history, alchemy, and memory. Spanning three centuries, and weaving together the stories of Renaissance magician John Dee, philosopher Giordano Bruno, and present-day itinerant historian and writer Pierce Moffett.” – Amazon. This straggling saga makes me wonder if Crowley knew exactly where he was headed when he set out, or if he wrote it as an experiment to see what the result would be. It’s all interesting and engaging reading, but it’s rather like wandering in an endless wood that finally kicks you out of its borders and tells you the ride is over. And I stood there thinking, “What? That’s it? Hmm.”

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Philosophical Fantasy. Series.

Novelties and Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction, by John Crowley.

I used to have another softcover called “Novelty”; this book includes all the stories from there, so I sold it. “Now, for the first time, all of his short fiction has been collected in one volume, demonstrating the scope, the vision, and the wonder of one of America's greatest storytellers. Courage and achievement are celebrated and questioned, paradoxes examined, and human frailty appreciated in fifteen tales, at once lyrical and provocative, ranging from the fantastic to the achingly real. Be it a tale of an expulsion from Eden, a journey through time, the dreams of a failed writer, or a dead woman's ambiguous legacy, each story in Novelties & Souvenirs is a glorious reading experience, offering delights to be savored . . . and remembered.” – Amazon. Stories I particularly liked were “The Nightingale Sings at Night” and “Great Work of Time”.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Short Stories. Softcover.

Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land, by John Crowley.

“One of our most accomplished literary artists, John Crowley imagines the novel the haunted Romantic poet Lord Byron never penned ...but very well might have. Saved from destruction, read, and annotated by Byron's own abandoned daughter, Ada, the manuscript is rediscovered in our time -- and almost not recognized. Lord Byron's Novel is the story of a dying daughter's attempt to understand the famous father she longed for -- and the young woman who, by learning the secret of Byron's manuscript and Ada's devotion, reconnects with her own father, driven from her life by a crime as terrible as any of which Byron himself was accused.” – Amazon. I had several other novels by Crowley (The Translator and Four Freedoms) that I sold; they were not what I wanted from Crowley. This one is acceptable, if not a book I found myself feeling particularly enthusiastic about; its reconstruction of a literary moment was what appealed most to me.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Novel. Historical. Hardback.

In Other Words, by John Crowley.

“John Crowley's masterful novels (Aegypt, Little, Big, The Translator) are marked by an uncommon combination of imaginative power and intellectual rigor. That same intellectual rigor is on full display in this, Crowley's first, long-overdue collection of non-fiction. In Other Words brings together more than forty pieces on a wide variety of subjects, and offers a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of a subtle, insatiably curious mind. In Other Words contains, among other delights, long, thoughtful musings on the late Renaissance scholar Ioan Culianu ("A Modern Instance: Magic, Imagination, and Power"), on Utopian fiction ("The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart"), and on the nature of narrative itself ("Tips and Tricks for Successful Lying"). In other pieces, Crowley takes an in-depth look at five writers whose work he finds especially significant (T.H. White, Anthony Burgess, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Disch, and Vladimir Nabokov), and offers shorter, equally incisive takes on writers such as John Updike, Italo Calvino, Thomas Berger, Kathryn Davis, and John Banville. In the closing section (entitled, simply, "Comix"), Crowley reveals a (perhaps) surprising affinity for the world of comic strips. His reflections on Walt Kelley, George Herriman, Ben Katchor, and Edward Gorey are informed and affectionate, and contain some of Crowley's most memorable critical writing.” – Amazon. Subterranean Press, with some decorations by Grandville.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Essays. Hardback.