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Title: The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance by Eric Rucker Eddison ISBN: 0-7351-0139-6 Publisher: Replica Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $32.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Beauty at the heart of the world
Comment: As a youngster I devoured fantasy greedily, any fantasy (there was not a fantasy-genre industry in those days, and fantasy was hard to come by.) Much of what I liked then I can no longer read: too much bombast and adolescent wish-fulfilment But Eddison improves with each rereading.
His prose is beautiful, as everyone remarks. If you don't have the patience for sentences of more than two clauses, or if you have a prim horror of archaic language, you should skip this book. (Or maybe you should re-examine the rewards of patience: but that's another matter). But if you have the capacity to appreciate beautiful English prose, if you can read Sir Thomas Browne or the King James Bible with pleasure, then you have a treat in store. Read this book: there aren't many like it.
There's a serious philosophy in this book. Eddison believes in greatness. It's no accident that his literary antecedents are in classical Greece and Iceland: Alkibiades and Grettir would have understood his devotion to the heroic, to the ferocious, doomed attempt to set one's indelible mark on the stream of time. For Eddison the reckless, whole-hearted, passionate life is the only life worth living, and the only life worth writing about.
It's not a philosophy I agree with. It lives too close to fascism and machismo for me: it insists upon and glorifies a sense of Self that I think is ultimately nonsense. But it's a philosophy that produced much of the most beautiful literature of the last century: Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats often wrote from just this standpoint. It may be wrong, but it's not childish. It situates Beauty at the heart of the world: greatness, to Eddison, is beautiful action, and all beautiful things demand worship. And reward it. "What I have promised," says Eddison's Aphrodite, "I will perform."
Read this book. Read Mistress of Mistresses too. They're dazzling, magnificent books.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Worm Ouroboros is a wonder; a charm; rich with delight
Comment: Mr. E.R.Eddison's master-work, the Worm Ouroboros, is without peer; but the heady and voluptuous beauty of his rich prose, alas, shall find few readers able to admire it. In a word, this book is for the few to whom fantasy means phantasmagorical, noble, ornamental, awe-striking, wondrous. His book is all this, and is like no other. The main action of the book takes place on Mercury, where and Earthly visitor, in a dream, witnesses the titanic war between two mighty kingdoms of that planet. There were never villains so black and pure of quill as the tyrannous King Gorice XII of Carce and his crew. Lord Gro, his henchman, cannot rest from intrigue and treason; the Lords Corsus, Corund and Corinius are tipplers, drunks, gamblers, leachers, and yet stern fighting-men and deadly both on battle-field and sea-fight.
In constrast, the Lords Juss, Spitfire, Gouldry Blazsco and Brandoch Daha are great and noble in a way never seen these days, and rarely seen erenow. They are men of honor, bold in emprise, valiant and fierce as hawks, but well-spoken, gentlemen first and last. To climb the unclimbed mountain at the end of the world, or to wrestle unto death a King for possession of a kingdom, or to rescue a brother from the pale regions of the dead, were all one matter to them; they flinch at nothing. Great wars, opulant prose, women of beauty without compare, bold princes, splendour, horrors stirred up from the pit by unlawful grammery, treasons, escapes, sword-fights, beauties to peirce the heart, all are here in this book: but this book is not meant for all.
Rating: 5
Summary: A reading experience lost & then refound!
Comment: I read this book when I was a freshman in high school and found it to be slow reading but amazing as a story. I put it back in the library and then promptly forgot the title as I then went on to read thousands (literally) of other fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and non-fiction books over the ensuing years. But every so often I would remember the scenes, events, and language of the book and want to read it over again. But, alas, I had moved on and I didn't remember the title anymore! I knew the storyline well enough to describe it to numerous bookstore clerks and owners but no one seemed to know anything about this work of art. Every time I went into any used book store I would go through all of the books looking for this lost treasure. This went on for years. Then one day I was visiting my sister who lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. When we went to rent a video at the little local market there was a small shelf of used paperbacks. Out of habit I looked through all of the titles and "Eureka!" there it was: "The Worm Ouroboros" by Eddison! Amazing.
Why do I write so much before actually reviewing the book? Because I wanted to illustrate how much the prose and storytelling of Eddison affected me and kept me searching for this book for well over 15 years! Now, to review:
As others have stated, the prose in this work is old fashioned and a bit stilted. In a way it is a little like reading Shakespeare for the first time. A little slow to start but once you really get into the story you forget all about the language and become immersed in the story. But don't be put off by any comparison to the language of Shakespeare! It is much easier to read than Romeo and Juliet! The flowery language just adds depth and character to the classic fantasy story of good vs. evil and a war between the good and the just against the evil elements of Eddisons world. To avoid being too confused, don't read the first chapter which awkwardly sets up the story as a dream of the narrator. This device was only used because the whole idea of a fantasy story as we know it did not exist and the author needed a way to "fool" the reader into accepting the unreality of the setting. Once you have read it one time you will be able to read the preface chapter with amusement. And believe me, if you like this book even a little, you will love it and it will become one of your all time Favorites.
A brief idea of the storyline is: The world is populated by many races of humanoid (and not so humanoid) beings. The Witches and Demons are the primary antagonists with the Demons the good guys and the Witches the bad guys. There are Goblins, Chimera and other assorted beings with familiar names but just take them as you find them instead of applying traditional descriptions. Eddison describes a whole new world which has, I believe, never truly been equaled. The whole story revolves around the adventures of the Demon brothers as they war against the Witch king for domination of the world (from the Witch perspective, the Demons only want to be left alone). There is no way to really describe this book in any way other than a simple outline for fear of misguiding a potential reader. Just read it!!! If you get past the first (really the second) chapter I think that you will be hooked until the end. Then you will be hooked forever as the story never really ends! LOL ~Good Luck!
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Title: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, Neil Gaiman ISBN: 034543191X Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 06 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Gormenghast Novels: Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone by Mervyn Laurence Peake ISBN: 0879516283 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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Title: The Well at the World's End by William Morris, John Gregory Betancourt, Lin Carter, Gregory Betancourt ISBN: 1587150883 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: The Mezentian Gate by E.R. Eddison ISBN: 0345272218 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 April, 1978 List Price(USD): $2.25 |
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Title: A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, John Clute, Loren Eiseley ISBN: 0803280041 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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