I wasn't a fan of Williams' unnecessarily complex prose and found this an obscure, slow read. That being said, the novel was memorable for its vivid, haunting imagery and theological meditations on sin and personal salvation.
The most interesting part of the novel was Williams' exploration of Lawrence Wentworth, middle-aged academic historian and loner misanthrope. As Wentworth grows obsessed with young actress Adela Hunt, he envies the handsome and youthful Hugh Prescott's easy possessiveness of her. His lustful frustration and envy result in the manifestation of a perfect, more docile double of Adela. Through the succubus, Williams shows us that Wentworth's pursuit of Adela is not about love for another being, but the glory of conquest for himself: a complex form of self-love. In the end, his actions lead him into a soul-deep internal deterioration, a descent into hell.
The chapter around the doctrine of substituted love was also interesting. Young Pauline Astruther lives in fear of confronting her doppelganger until dramatist Peter Stanhope promises to take on her fears through a process of mental and emotional 'transference.' This sympathy between Peter and Pauline propounds Williams' well-known thesis that one person can physically assume the burdens of another, something worth exploring.
Although Williams' fantasy, when compared with other Inklings members (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein) is more of a magical realism (his "other world" is indistinct from earth as we know it), I think fantasy literature just isn't my thing.
I wasn't a fan of Williams' unnecessarily complex prose and found this an obscure, slow read. That being said, the novel was memorable for its vivid, haunting imagery and theological meditations on sin and personal salvation.
The most interesting part of the novel was Williams' exploration of Lawrence Wentworth, middle-aged academic historian and loner misanthrope. As Wentworth grows obsessed with young actress Adela Hunt, he envies the handsome and youthful Hugh Prescott's easy possessiveness of her. His lustful frustration and envy result in the manifestation of a perfect, more docile double of Adela. Through the succubus, Williams shows us that Wentworth's pursuit of Adela is not about love for another being, but the glory of conquest for himself: a complex form of self-love. In the end, his actions lead him into a soul-deep internal deterioration, a descent into hell.
The chapter around the doctrine of substituted love was also interesting. Young Pauline Astruther lives in fear of confronting her doppelganger until dramatist Peter Stanhope promises to take on her fears through a process of mental and emotional 'transference.' This sympathy between Peter and Pauline propounds Williams' well-known thesis that one person can physically assume the burdens of another, something worth exploring.
Although Williams' fantasy, when compared with other Inklings members (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein) is more of a magical realism (his "other world" is indistinct from earth as we know it), I think fantasy literature just isn't my thing.
I wasn't a fan of Williams' unnecessarily complex prose and found this an obscure, slow read. That being said, the novel was memorable for its vivid, haunting imagery and theological meditations on sin and personal salvation.
The most interesting part of the novel was Williams' exploration of Lawrence Wentworth, middle-aged academic historian and loner misanthrope. As Wentworth grows obsessed with young actress Adela Hunt, he envies the handsome and youthful Hugh Prescott's easy possessiveness of her. His lustful frustration and envy result in the manifestation of a perfect, more docile double of Adela. Through the succubus, Williams shows us that Wentworth's pursuit of Adela is not about love for another being, but the glory of conquest for himself: a complex form of self-love. In the end, his actions lead him into a soul-deep internal deterioration, a descent into hell.
The chapter around the doctrine of substituted love was also interesting. Young Pauline Astruther lives in fear of confronting her doppelganger until dramatist Peter Stanhope promises to take on her fears through a process of mental and emotional 'transference.' This sympathy between Peter and Pauline propounds Williams' well-known thesis that one person can physically assume the burdens of another, something worth exploring.
Although Williams' fantasy, when compared with other Inklings members (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein) is more of a magical realism (his "other world" is indistinct from earth as we know it), I think fantasy literature just isn't my thing.
I wasn't a fan of Williams' unnecessarily complex prose and found this an obscure, slow read. That being said, the novel was memorable for its vivid, haunting imagery and theological meditations on sin and personal salvation.
The most interesting part of the novel was Williams' exploration of Lawrence Wentworth, middle-aged academic historian and loner misanthrope. As Wentworth grows obsessed with young actress Adela Hunt, he envies the handsome and youthful Hugh Prescott's easy possessiveness of her. His lustful frustration and envy result in the manifestation of a perfect, more docile double of Adela. Through the succubus, Williams shows us that Wentworth's pursuit of Adela is not about love for another being, but the glory of conquest for himself: a complex form of self-love. In the end, his actions lead him into a soul-deep internal deterioration, a descent into hell.
The chapter around the doctrine of substituted love was also interesting. Young Pauline Astruther lives in fear of confronting her doppelganger until dramatist Peter Stanhope promises to take on her fears through a process of mental and emotional 'transference.' This sympathy between Peter and Pauline propounds Williams' well-known thesis that one person can physically assume the burdens of another, something worth exploring.
Although Williams' fantasy, when compared with other Inklings members (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein) is more of a magical realism (his "other world" is indistinct from earth as we know it), I think fantasy literature just isn't my thing.
I wasn't a fan of Williams' unnecessarily complex prose and found this an obscure, slow read. That being said, the novel was memorable for its vivid, haunting imagery and theological meditations on sin and personal salvation.
The most interesting part of the novel was Williams' exploration of Lawrence Wentworth, middle-aged academic historian and loner misanthrope. As Wentworth grows obsessed with young actress Adela Hunt, he envies the handsome and youthful Hugh Prescott's easy possessiveness of her. His lustful frustration and envy result in the manifestation of a perfect, more docile double of Adela. Through the succubus, Williams shows us that Wentworth's pursuit of Adela is not about love for another being, but the glory of conquest for himself: a complex form of self-love. In the end, his actions lead him into a soul-deep internal deterioration, a descent into hell.
The chapter around the doctrine of substituted love was also interesting. Young Pauline Astruther lives in fear of confronting her doppelganger until dramatist Peter Stanhope promises to take on her fears through a process of mental and emotional 'transference.' This sympathy between Peter and Pauline propounds Williams' well-known thesis that one person can physically assume the burdens of another, something worth exploring.
Although Williams' fantasy, when compared with other Inklings members (C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein) is more of a magical realism (his "other world" is indistinct from earth as we know it), I think fantasy literature just isn't my thing.
