Goose of Hermogenes

Description

Ithell Colquhoun was a leading British surrealist artist and writer whose love of the esoteric and the occult had a profound influence on her work. No where is this more apparent than in the weird and wonderful alchemical novel "Goose of Hermogenes".An unnamed woman must escape her uncle's island when his sinister attentions fall upon an heirloom - a priceless jewel in her possession - that may help in his tireless efforts to conquer death.Gothic, erotic and dreamlike, "Goose of Hermogenes" is a dizzying work of surrealist imagination. This new edition features five of Colquhoun's watercolour paintings originally painted to illustrate the novel. However one wants to approach this obscure tale, it remains today as vividly unforgettable and disturbing as when it was first published by Peter Owen in 1961.

ITHELL COLQUHOUN (1906-88) is best remembered today as a British surrealist artist and writer. Her paintings hang in national collections as far apart as London and Tel Aviv as well as in many regional galleries. Her work is informed by a profound fascination with animism, the esoteric and the occult.

'Lurks somewhere between the territory of Beardsley and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast ... shudderingly enjoyable.' - Guardian; 'The whole novel possesses a haunting, visionary quality most uncommon in present-day prose.' - Daily Telegraph; 'An extraordinary book ... the descriptions have a gripping hallucinogenic clarity ... Part Gothic fantasy, part emblematic progress through a dream world where we are never sure we have the complete key to the meaning, we see the workings of a perceptive and curious painterly eye.' - Mandrake Speaks