[1]2,016 words
A. E. Ellis (Derek Lindsay)
The Rack [2] (Restored Edition)
Introduction by Alan Wall
Ashgrove Publishing Ltd, 2016
Constant Readers will no doubt recall my enthusiastic review of Valancourt’s re-issue of this somewhat forgotten masterpiece of midcentury British fiction.[1] There I concluded that
In the end, I can’t agree with some of those readers who have named this the best novel ever written, or even of the 20th century, but it’s certainly a more visceral, and valuable, experience than The Magic Mountain; rather than just reading about Hans and his interesting discussions and possible spiritual growth, one can come close to being, at least in imagination, the alchemical subject oneself. While Mann, true to his title, gives us only...