Aegypt (udgave 1994)

UPDATE May 23th, 2015:
Just re-read this one, almost exactly a year since the first time. Still excellent. My favorite quote:
The last wish: the only wish, in fact. That things could be, not as they are, but in some way different instead. Not better, really, or not better in all ways; a little larger maybe, more full of this and that, but mostly just different. New. That I, Pierce Moffett, could know that it had once been as it was and is that way no longer, that I could know it to have once been remade and so able to be remade again, all new, all other. Then perhaps this grief would at last be lifted from my heart.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: May 18th, 2014:
Both a profound meditation on the nature of history and a moving personal story. A balance that is almost impossible to get right. Usually, you like the ideas enough that the crappy story doesn't matter, or vice versa. But Crowley delivers both in equal measure. A rare treat.

I wholeheartedly, unreservedly and (a little too) insistently recommend this book to any of my friends who are currently professors in subjects related to the history of ideas. There are one or two of you. ;) NB It's much more about the late medieval/early modern period than anything resembling the Egypt the title suggests. Regardless of your particular area of interest, you'll get a lot out of it. I pinky swear.

I'm going to post some choice quotes in my tumblr shortly: http://untravel.tumblr.com ( )

Pierce Moffett leaves his job as a history lecturer in New York and meeting up with a former student settles in a small town where he plans to write history from the viewpoint of Renaissance occultists and also to research a local novelist who included Dr Dee and Giordano Bruno in his works.

I had very mixed reactions to this book. There were parts which were intriguing and mind stretching, where I couldn't wait to see how the story would develop and there were lots of rabbitholes to go down and then there were parts where the ornate poeticism just made feel I couldn't take much more and want to give it up.

It did not help matters that I thought this was the complete series in an omnibus but turns out to be just the first volume. I bought the second volume in a burst of optimism but I'm not sure whether I want to continue or start something else. ( )

I'm banking on this book grabbing me before too long. I'm nearly halfway though and it hasn't happened yet. It's the first of a 4-part series and I am so sure I'll like it that I've already bought the other three. I'm a big John Crowley fan, ever since reading his classic -- Little, Big -- and the reviews and descriptions of this series sound wonderful. Stay tuned... ( )

I really wanted to like this one, but couldn't really get into it. Took it on vacation - maybe that's the problem - maybe it's not a vacation book. ( )

Not any easy read as there are some rather dense sections chock full of enigmatic rambling, but otherwise I enjoyed this book by the author of _Little, Big_. Suffice to say it's not exactly linear or plot driven. "Once, the world was not as it has since become." When Crowley is good, he's great! ( )