Product Description

By the author of "Sunday Whiteman", this novel of intellectual obsession and passion concerns two groups of people who are united in their investigation into the "great experiment of nature" in a Norfolk village, but divided by a century of time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #262218 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Customer Reviews

One of the best novels this reviewer (!) has ever
If, as I was, you were put off by the synopsis of The Chymical Wedding, don't be. Normally I never read a book with the word "obsessive" in the blurb, and for those of you who don't either, I'd like to set the record straight. Lindsay Clarke's The Chymical Wedding is one of the best novels I have ever read. It may contain obessions, dark sides, self-centred fathers and tormented ministers but the mood of the novel is completely at odds with this description. It sits light to life. It's capable of encompassing all the vagaries of human existence in the way that the best nineteenth century novels did (I'm thinking particularly of Middlemarch). It deals with some very dark topics, true, but it's wistful, rather than tormented, and in a way that is very English. Of course it tells a story -- two stories, which are woven together compellingly. The characters in the present have to try to unravel what happened to people in the same place a hundred years ago. (If you liked Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, or are a fan of Penelope Lively, then you'll like this bit.) The Chymical Wedding has some pertinent things to say about the difficulties of being a man (or indeed human) in the late twentieth century. It looks at some aspects of the occult without the credulousness of the New Age movement, and finds them to occupy a very necessary, and long-forgotten place in our culture. They have been neglected to the detriment of our collective mental health. But, best of all, it has an effect at a very deep level. It tugs at you, as life tugs at Alex Darken, makes you sit up and take notice. The whole book is suffused with a greenish, golden light, which will stay with you long after you put it down.

A masterly piece of work
This is a wholly captivating piece of work. Whether you are in the slightest knowledgable about alchemy or the Hermetic tradition or not, you'll soon pick plenty up on your journey through this work, and journey it is. It is a work of erudition, often by no means simple and I would advise anyone to keep a dictionary handy since the vocabulary is glorious, rich and to the point, the whole structure of the book being superbly composed, some of it sits on the very thinnest edge of understanding - you don't get to coast through this work. I can quite see why John Fowles said of it that it excited him enormously. It is an exciting book on many levels; it sets you thinking; it reveals how the lead of humanity can be transcended into gold - at a price: do you tell or do you not tell? Is the Hermetic secret exactly what it says, ever to remain a secret? It seems it is - unless you are prepared to go and do a lot more work yourself. Yes, I liked this book a lot. I admire its integrity. I admire the intellectual capacity of its author. I very much admire the way he pieced this together. We have a lot to learn from alchemy and this is not a bad dip into it. Not bad at all.

OK but not great
I was recommended this book by a friend and therefore felt that I had to finish it. It is full of portentous mysticism and I never really got into it. It is one of those books in which there is little dialog, but lots of description of what people are doing and thinking. The author speaks for the characters rather than them speaking for themselves. As a result it is a bit of a turgid read. Also I just did not really buy the big dramatic climax of the book (I won't give it away), the characters seemed to be doing the will of the author rather than what their characters would lead you to expect them to do. 2 stars.