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Divine Representations

Divine Representations

By Arnell, Carla A.

Published by State University of New York Press

English 2026
eBook

About this book

Explores how Edwardian era writers used the mystical novel as a way to represent transcendent experiences within the tradition of the English realist novel. Divine Representations examines the development of a unique form of "mystical novel" in the early twentieth century by a loose fellowship of like-minded British writers with a passion for mysticism. Although the Victorian era's growing fascination with all things esoteric and occult had led to sundry examples of "mystical" fiction, the Edwardian era saw the emergence of several mystics-cum-novelists—A. E. Waite, R. H. Benson, Evelyn Underhill, and Arthur Machen—who were largely skeptical of Victorian spiritualist and occult practices. They sought, instead, to disentangle mysticism from occultism and align it, explicitly or implicitly, with a Christian sacramental theology. Through close readings of their most exemplary mystical novels, the book identifies the distinctive features of this school of Edwardian mystical novelists, all of whom were inspired by the medieval past, inclined to distinguish mysticism from magic (to greater or lesser degrees), and interested in engaging the modern middlebrow reader with Christian mystical experience in ways not previously attempted in the English novel's realist tradition. Their work as novelists—but also as editors, translators, lecturers, and spiritual guides—illuminates popular attitudes toward mysticism that have persisted since the turn of the twentieth century and have powerfully influenced, for better or worse, the trajectory of religion and spirituality to the present day.

Availability

Divine Representations is available as eBook at 9 online bookshops. Bookshops carrying it include Bajalibros Argentina, Bajalibros Latam, Bookshop Uruguay.

Language
English
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Divine Representations is available as eBook at 9 online bookshops.
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