"The Secret Glory", Book IV, by Arthur Machen

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1 year ago
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0:00:00 Chapter 1
0:34:08 Chapter 2
1:01:07 Chapter 3
1:28:19 Chapter 4
1:52:37 Chapter 5

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Some interesting bits of theology in here, but please don't argue them with me. These are Machen's thoughts, and I am not going to take a stance on them one way or the other. I have to wonder how much of this book is autobiographical on Machen's part?

Manichee: Manichaeism, once upon a time (the 3rd century AD) a major world religion in what is today Iran.

Based on various hints throughout this book, we can probably narrow down the temporal setting of this story to about 1880, give or take a year or two, so a few years later than I would have guessed, but still pretty close.

The pictures used are:

Chapter 1: The picture used is "Tribute of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid to Charlemagne" by Jordaens, circa 1670. Consider the man setting down the box to be the alchemist with his geomancy box. It'll have to do.

Chapter 2: The picture used is of the British Museum in Great Russell Street, by W Simpson after E Walker, published 1852. I had been hoping for a picture of Soho circa 1880, but nothing suitable came up, but this fits a named location in the story, although it's a fair bit earlier than appropriate. Not sure how much London would have changed between 1850 and 1880? Probably a fair bit, but enough to negate the mood setting value of this picture? Don't know. Oh well.

Chapter 3: The picture used is the interior of a tavern by Marsilius Ficinus. Marsilius appears to be a 15th century Italian priest, but this painting is said to be 16th century? Regardless, it's a late medieval tavern. Hard to find any pics of medieval taverns at all, so this is what we are left with.

Chapter 4: The picture used is a poster by Charles Lucien Léandre for the original production of Jules Massenet's Panurge, based on Rabelais' Pantagruel. Printed by Imp. J. Minot (Paris); 1913.

Chapter 5: The picture used is "Dirty Raindrops" by Mediopathin, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en).

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35637/35637-h/35637-h.htm#IV

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