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Aegypt

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About this listen

 Is there more than one history of the world? This is the question Pierce Moffett is seeking to answer when, jilted and newly jobless, he gets off a bus by chance in the Faraway Hills and steps unawares into a story that has been awaiting him there. His search will bring him into contact with Rosie Rasmussen, another seeker marked by loss. And it will lead them both on a path toward the longed-for country of our oldest dreams and most unanswerable desires, toward a magnificent discovery.©1987 John Crowley (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical

Critic reviews

"A dizzying experience, achieved with unerring security of technique." ( New York Times Book Review)
" Aegypt is a must....Crowley [is] an original moralist of the same giddy heights occupied by the likes of Thomas Mann and Robertson Davies." ( San Francisco Chronicle)
"Affecting, cerebral, surprising and delightful, this extraordinary philosophical romance suggests an unlikely but thriving marriage between a writer like Anne Tyler and one such as Jorge Luis Borges." ( Publishers Weekly)
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Crowley's "Little, Big" is one of my favorite books so I jumped at the chance to hear Aegypt, which I hadn't read. I enjoyed this but I might try approaching it again in print-- I kept having to go back and listen to sections again because I couldn't quite follow what was happening. His style which is very oblique and poetical would have benefited from a professional reader-- the author does the reading himself, and while he does a good job the sound of the prose is maybe too essential to the book to leave it to a non-actor. If you like "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" you might give this a chance; it's similar in a sort of gentle, hippie-ish modern-day way.

Great writer not so strong on reading

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This novel (now re-named 'The Solitudes') is the first book in John Crowley's Aegypt quartet (the others - 'Love and Sleep\"; 'Daemonomania'; 'Endless Things' don't seem to be available as audio books yet, but can be bought in paperback). The four books really need to be read as one long novel, and what a wonderful experience that is, this is one of the great undiscovered masterpieces of modern American writing. The novel weaves together the stories of Pierce Moffett, a failing academic who is about to be taught a few things about life; John Dee the Elizabethan magus; and Giordano Bruno, Renaissance philosopher. At once a fascinating history lesson about Renaissance occult thought (if ever a book deserved to be called the Da Vinci Code for grown ups it is this); a gnostic parable; and a moving and powerful psychological tale of self transformation. The audio book is read by the author himself in a low key, deadpan style which works very well with the story.

Aegypt

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John Crowley delivers a sensitive and affecting reading of the first volume of his masterpiece, 'The Aegypt Quartet'. This is quite one of the best things I've heard on Audible.

A beautiful reading of a great modern novel

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I did enjoy this book but it was very hard work. I found the 'free love' feel of the modern storyline sat very strangely with its philosophical ramblings. I have a feeling that perhaps I may enjoy the next one more now that the characters are set. (Presuming it contains the same characters). Cannot give the heartfelt praise of other reviewers.

Unsure how I feel.

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