Sunday, January 2, 2011

General Fiction – Aleister Crowley, Robertson Davies, Lisa St Aubin de Teran Del Piombo, Nigel Dennis and Francesca Duranti

Apologies for the long silence and hiatus between posts, but expect more frequent updates from now on as I’ve retired from work and finally my time is my own.

So to welcome the new year, the peculiar and purportedly autobiographical Diary of A Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley, this edition by Samuel Weiser Inc  was published in 1970. One chapter is memorable for being entitled A Heroin Heroine.

crowley_drugfiend 

Quite a different kettle of fish is Canadian author Robertson Davies, who is an old favourite of mine. I present for your bibliographic pleasure several of his works…

Omnibus editions of his first two great trilogies The Salterton Trilogy and The Deptford Trilogy in King Penguin editions

davies_saltertontrilogy davies_deptfordtrilogy

…and the second volume of The Cornish Trilogy, The Lyre of Orpheus  in an advanced reading copy. I have the other two volumes in hard cover editions and have written about them previously.

davies_lyreoforpheus

Lisa St Aubin de Teran is described on Wikipedia as an autobiographical author and memoirist and is quite prolific. Her first novel Keepers of the House won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1982. She has obviously led an interesting life. I used to collect her books regularly, obviously being impressed with Keepers of the House, though have over the past two decades failed to keep up.

Here are the three novels I’ve so far located on my bookshelf.

de teran_keepers

de teran_joanna de teran_nocturnes

Back to a druggy theme, Fuzz Against Junk & The Hero Maker by Akbar Del Piombo  is a sort of novelty book, termed a collage novel, an early form of the graphic novel.

del piombo_fuzz

Nigel Dennis’ Cards of Identity is a “scathing satire of psychology, identity theory and class prejudice..” and from what I can recall was quite an enjoyable novel when I read it way back when.

dennis_cardsofidentity

And finally for this entry two books by Italian writer Francesca Duranti. The House on Moon Lake is a kind of literary ghost story and Happy Ending is a pastoral piece.

duranti_moonlake duranti_happyending

Next - “E” & “F” authors including Timothy Findlay and Ronald Firbank

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