The Out of Print Collection: A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

I’ve coupled Voyage and Lilith together because they are best read in tandem, along with some CS Lewis 🙂 Indeed, CS Lewis was inspired by BOTH of these works, AND David Lindsay was inspired by Lilith to write Arcturus! It’s tangled web of literary deliciousness.

 

David Lindsay was deeply inspired by the works of George MacDonald, and the work Lilith specifically inspired him to write his first novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, which was published in 1920. Lindsay, a Scot like MacDonald, had just returned from the war and on a whim decided that he wanted to become a writer. A Voyage to Arcturus is thought to be the first fantasy novel that takes place on another planet; some consider it to have laid a significant foundation for the science fiction genre. It was one of the most philosophically advanced fantasy novels of the time, and has been hailed by some critics as the “greatest novel of the twentieth century”. In spite of this, the novel never achieved wide readership due to its strangeness and metaphysical preoccupations. Of note, Arcturus was a central influence on C.S. Lewis, who wrote his Space Trilogy as a Christian response to Lindsay’s Gnostic approach to morality and the nature of existence. J.R.R. Tolkien, too, said he read the book “with avidity”. 

I am excited to offer this hard to find title in my Out of Print Collection.

 

From the back:

 

 

Maskull, a man longing for adventure, suddenly finds himself traveling across space in his search for the meaning of life. After landing on the planet Tormance in a different body, Maskull embarks on a fantastic adventure across the untamed landscape of a faraway world, where the inhabitants, though human-like, are dictated by a completely different set of rules. As he travels across this feral plain, he learns about the nature of good and evil and how moral law affects existence.

 

Published in 1920, A Voyage to Arcturus combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction, and is thought to be the first fantasy novel that takes place on a different planet. The novel was a central influence on C.S Lewis’s Space Trilogy, which was written as a Christian response to Lindsay’s Gnostic approach to morality and the nature of existence. J.R.R. Tolkien said he read the book “with avidity”. Despite its pointed influence, the novel never achieved wide readership due to the strangeness and metaphysical preoccupations of its storyline.

 

This exciting title is now available with beautiful cover art by Haleigh DeRocher, found exclusively at sweetsequels.com.