The "forbidden book" in The Forbidden Book is non-fictional, Il mondo magico de gli heroi of Cesare della Riviera, an alchemical text printed in 1605, with a revised edition in 1932 by a non-fictional Italian baron, Julius Evola. According to the afterword to The Forbidden Book, Evola is the direct inspiration for a central lecture on transcendence and the castes, and the "general philosophy of magic" found in the book is based on the writings of the Gruppo di Ur.
So, a novel of interest to those interested in Evola--and also a novel of interest to those who like novels that deal with "sex, death, love, religion, politics, magic, and all that," as one review has described The Forbidden Book.
Currently only a kindle; those who want paper must either read it in Spanish, Russian, Danish, Greek, Polish, Rumanian or Bulgarian (translations into these languages preceded the English publication) or wait: I'm told an English non-kindle version is on its way early next spring, from Red Wheel/Weiser.
This is a revised and corrected version of an earlier post with the same title.
2 comments:
For the information of readers who don't know, you can download a free version of Kindle for Windows or Mac from Amazon that allows you to read Kindle books on your home computer.
Looks intriguing! As a fun fact, Evola is mentioned in passing in Norwegian novelist Torgrim Eggen's latest tome, "Jern".
Post a Comment