Books by David Lindsay

On the surface, Sphinx tells of the arrival into a polite and fashionable 1920's rural community of one Nicholas Cabot, a young man who has recently come into money. The deeper themes of the book include levels of consciousness, the nature of choosing, and the boundary between life and death - explored chiefly through the device of Cabot's esoteric chemical experiments. Like all of Lindsay's books, Sphinx gives up its secrets a little at a time, and rewards frequent re-reading.

The subjects addressed here include Radical Orthodoxy, the relationship between the Hebraic and Hellenic traditions, the Second Vatican Council, Catholicism as completing and transcending the various strands of Protestantism, Early Modern English Catholic literature, English Catholic literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Established status of the Church of England, the Jacobite roots of the Radical traditions in British politics, Opus Dei and the Left, the Catholic origins of modern science, and the Church's record on HIV infection in Africa, on the Holocaust, and on the Roman and Spanish Inquisitions. "An erudite defence of the Catholic position, this collection of theological, philosophical, literary and historical essays invites the reader to dive deep into the intellectual issues that challenge the Church today." Fr Dwight Longenecker, Catholic priest, blogger and author of The Quest for the Creed and The Romance of Religion.

Nicholas Cabot, 25 years old and newly endowed with his uncle's fortune, takes lodgings at the house of retired tragedian Leslie Sturt, intending to devote his time to perfecting an invention for recording dreams.At the Sturt household, Nicholas hears "Sphinx", a short piece of piano music by local composer Lore Jensen. Nicholas sees the Sphinx as being the symbol of "The dreams we dream during deep sleep and remember nothing of afterwards…", while Evelyn, the middle of the three Sturt daughters, says that the Sphinx is asking, "'Why are you living in the world?' As none of us can answer it, we all have to die."Soon after, Nicholas makes his first successful dream-recording, and finds it predicting a looming tragedy for the now creatively-bankrupt Lore Jensen. Meanwhile, he encounters a Sphinx of his own in the shape of Mrs Hantish, a young widow of whom Sturt says, "I do not think it is to malign her to place her in the fatal category…"Originally published in 1923, this is the third novel from David Lindsay, author of what Colin Wilson has called "the greatest imaginative work of the twentieth century", C S Lewis has described as "that shattering, intolerable, and irresistible work", and Alan Moore has called "less a novel than it is private kabbalah", A Voyage to Arcturus. Like the "spirit-usher" Backhouse from that novel, Nicholas Cabot seeks to "dream with open eyes". Sphinx is perhaps David Lindsay's most autobiographical novel, dealing as it does with the difficulties of pursuing a creative vision in the socially constricted inter-war years of the early 20th Century. It is also, thanks to its depiction of a grand masque and fancy dress ball at a large country house, his most identifiable as being written in the Roaring Twenties.

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920. It combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. Described by critic, novelist, and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century", it was a central influence on C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, and through him on J. R. R. Tolkien, who said he read the book "with avidity". Clive Barker called it "a masterpiece" and "an extraordinary work ... quite magnificent."An interstellar voyage is the framework for a narrative of a journey through fantastic landscapes. The story is set at Tormance, an imaginary planet orbiting Arcturus, which in the novel (but not in reality) is a double star system, consisting of stars Branchspell and Alppain. The lands through which the characters travel represent philosophical systems or states of mind, through which the main character, Maskull, passes on his search for the meaning of life.The book sold poorly during Lindsay's lifetime, but was republished in 1946 and many times thereafter. It has been translated into at least ten languages. Critics such as the novelist Michael Moorcock have noted that the book is unusual, but has been highly influential with its qualities of "commitment to the Absolute" and "God-questioning genius".

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France, 1700 - an age of wit and sophistication, frippery and flattery, reputation and ridicule; an age of politics, romance, intrigue and the sword.Gaston de Mailly, ex-solider and down-at-heel gentleman, is living in a Paris that has little use for his skill with a blade. Fortunately, his wit is equally sharp. Allying himself to the sceptical lawyer Fleurus, Mailly offers to try his hand at any case that can't be pursued through the normal channels of the law.And so, in a series of adventures ranging from Mailly having to save himself from a reputation-destroying joke at the Court of the Sun King Louis XIV at Versailles, to fighting his way out, with both wits and sword, from the tangles of an assassination plot, Mailly puts his shoulder to the Wheel of Fortune in an age of rapid rise and fall, sudden danger and artful deception.In the rakish charm and misanthropic wit of his hero Gaston de Mailly, David Lindsay, author of the early-20th century classic A Voyage to Arcturus, found a way to cut loose from his more serious fiction and indulge in theatrical intrigue, witty adventure and the artful picaresque to a highly entertaining degree.But readers of Lindsay's work will still find his key themes here: the lone hero caught between conflicting powers in a deceptive world; the individual's struggle to retain integrity in a constrained yet superficial society; and the search for a lasting and genuine soul-mate - all served with adventure and intrigue, wit and witticism, sword and poniard!This edition includes annotations and explanatory notes.(The Adventures of Monsieur de Mailly was first published in the US as A Blade for Sale.)

The Haunted Woman is a tense, atmospheric novel that questions the nature of reality. Isbel Loment is leading an ordinary, if uneventful, existence. She is engaged to a rather boring man and is just passing through her own life. Everything changes when she and her fiancé rent a remote house in Sussex. In the house Isbel discovers rooms that appear to exist in different realities from her own. Her discoveries in this house will change both her life and her destiny forever .

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay. First published in 1920, it combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. It has been described by the critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century" and was a central influence on C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. It has been described by the critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the greatest novel of the twentieth century. Lindsay's descriptive prose is simply beyond compare.The Haunted Woman is a tense, atmospheric novel that questions the nature of reality. Isbel Loment is leading an ordinary, if uneventful, existence

After a strange interstellar journey, Maskull, a man from Earth, awakens alone in a desert on the planet Tormance, seared by the suns of the binary star Arcturus. As he journeys northward, guided by a drumbeat, he encounters a world and its inhabitants like no other, where gender is a victory won at dear cost.

This was the fourth published novel from the author of 'A Voyage to Arcturus'. 'Adventures of Monsieur de Mailly' was first published in 1926 and published under the somewhat inappropriate title of 'Blade for Sale' in the United States in the same year. It has not been reprinted since and has never before been issued in paperback. 'Adventures of Monsieur de Mailly' is a humorous adventure set in the France of Louis XIV. Possibly the lightest and least fantastical of David Lindsay's novels, this romp through the realm of the Sun King nevertheless contains moments of high tragedy and tantalising glimpses of Lindsay's fascinating philosophy. An exciting adventure in its own right, this is a book no David Lindsay devotee will want to be without.

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay. First published in 1920, it combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. Lindsay's descriptive prose is simply beyond compare. It has been described by the critic and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century" and was a central influence on C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.