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Thread: Is there anything in English literature with a mystic nature?

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    Registered User kashin's Avatar
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    Is there anything in English literature with a mystic nature?

    (i.e. writings relating/pertaining to transcendental existences/experiences--not cheap horror or thrill type sci-fi, etc.--but those with intrinsic depths providing probing insights--shedding lights on our human paths. )
    Last edited by kashin; 11-12-2010 at 04:37 AM.

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    Maybe "A Strange Story" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton could interest you.

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    Voice of Chaos & Anarchy
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    What kind of mysticism do you prefer. Look for things by Katherine Kurtz. The Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny is oddly mystical. There are quite a few things that are part of the Golder Dawn movement.

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    "The Magus" by John Fowles.
    There is hope, but not for us.

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    Registered User Veho's Avatar
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    I'm not sure whether this is what you're looking for really, but I would give The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter a try.
    "...You are not wrong, who deem
    That my days have been a dream;
    Yet if hope has flown away
    In a night, or in a day,
    In a vision, or in none,
    Is it therefore the less gone?..." E. A. Poe

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    Registered User kelby_lake's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kashin View Post
    (i.e. writings relating/pertaining to transcendental existences/experiences--not cheap horror or thrill type sci-fi, etc.--but those with intrinsic depths providing probing insights--shedding lights on our human paths. )
    The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman?

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    Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. In fact I think most of his books concern individuals who undergo some kind of enlightening mystical experience. He was much influenced by the Eastern religions, Gnosticism and also the work of Carl Jung.

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    The best examples I can offer, to what you ask are, James Hogg's novel The confessions of a justified sinner AND Byron's closet drama Manfred.

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    I'd try Heart of Darkness, assuming you haven't read it already. The horror therein is so profound it borders on the metaphysical and -- as Marlow (the storyteller) discovers -- it's not communicable.

    Also, regarding the "shedding lights on our human paths" -- consider War and Peace.
    Last edited by Meechboo; 11-12-2010 at 07:27 PM.

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    Artist and Bibliophile stlukesguild's Avatar
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    William Blake
    Thomas Traherne
    George Herbert
    Henry Vaughan
    Christopher Smart
    William Butler Yeats
    Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
    The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
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