Arcturus is probably the finest book to date in Savoy's excellent 'cult classics' reprint range. It's also one of the easiest to come by in other editions - an American publisher has also recently brought out a 'special' edition - but this frankly pisses all over any of the others I've seen.
The book is more normally treated by publishers as straight fantasy or science fiction, understandably considering the vagaries of the book trade, and given generic covers of dodgy fantasy art to fit. But Lindsay's book stands alone, flanked only by other British visionary masterpieces: Alan Moore in his introduction cites Bunyan, Machen and Aickman as members of the select crowd to which Lindsay belongs. This edition is the first I've seen to do justice to such exalted company, a hardback printed on glossy paper with a gold-leaf edge and a dust jacket comprising paintings by symbolist painter Jean Delville. An introduction by Alan Moore and a lengthy essay by Colin Wilson help to place Lindsay in context, and a selection of philosophical aphorisms by Lindsay give a clearer idea of where he's coming from.
And the book itself? I first read Arcturus a few years ago, and enjoyed it as a sustained flight of fancy but little more; it took a second reading for the book to sink in properly, and what at first seemed like a rambling adventure now seems rigorous, logical and immensely powerful. The story involves a visit to Tormance, a planet in the double solar system of Arcturus, during which our protagonist moves from region to region, enjoying bizarre transformations to mind and body and leaving a trail of bodies and discarded philosophical systems behind.
Lindsay's imaginative vision stops the book from becoming overly didactic, and the ideas expressed are finally uniquely compelling. There is no sub-Narnia poorly concealed Christian rhetoric here; in fact there are very few reference points for Lindsay's world view. Influences and similarities can be traced - Blake, Nietzsche, Buddhism - but Arcturus is Lindsay's own, one of the finest realisations of a personal imaginative and philosophical universe ever written. It's tempting to imagine that at some future date this Gnostic text will give rise to its own religion, Scientology for the able-minded, its devotees far from the glassy-eyed imbecility of Hubbard acolytes; given the use of Lovecraft's fiction for occult purposes, it's probably only a matter of time before esoteric orders of Tormance begin to spring up.
If you already own Arcturus you'll probably want an edition that does it justice; if you haven't read it yet and are interested in imaginative fiction, you need a copy. Either way this is indispensable, and full marks to Savoy for giving it the attention it deserves.
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