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The Course of the Heart (1992)

par M. John Harrison

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340775,431 (3.42)10
The author of Things That Never Happen (starred review, Publishers Weekly) and Light (Tiptree Award winner) delivers an extraordinary, genre-bending novel that weaves together mythology, sexuality, and the troubled past and present of Eastern Europe. It begins on a hot May night, when three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. Years later, none of the participants can remember what exactly transpired; but their clouded memories can't rid them of an overwhelming sense of dread. Pam Stuyvesant is an epileptic haunted by strange sensual visions. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him. Self-styled Sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. The seemingly least effected participant in the ritual (who is haunted by the smell of roses) attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.… (plus d'informations)
Récemment ajouté parbibliothèque privée, gregtaylor, GaryV, torturedgenius, audient_void, Wojtek2023, BrambleBeard, RatGrrrl, elijahswood
  1. 00
    Mefisto par John Banville (paradoxosalpha)
    paradoxosalpha: Potent short novels with enthralling imagery, in which the protagonist's experiences with magic have equivocal results.
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» Voir aussi les 10 mentions

Affichage de 1-5 de 7 (suivant | tout afficher)
This is a beautifully worded book, very descriptive and evocative. The story is based on an occurance that is never fully explained, but that affects the characters' day-to-day experience for the rest of their lives. I can't say I enjoyed the story, but the way it was written made it easy to read. ( )
1 voter carliwi | Sep 23, 2019 |
M John Harrison, in an ideal world, would be acclaimed by all and sundry as one of our greatest writers. As it is his works are not as widely known as they should be.

Harrison started life as a Science Fiction writer, moved into fantasy with his Viriconium sequence (of which In Viriconium stands as a kind of masterpiece) and then, in the late 80's there was a shift into what I can only call magical realism. The Course of the Heart is of the latter strand and is a quite wonderful book. Harrison, beginning with the novel Climbers in 1989, began to write stories with a strong sense of place that were shot through with surreal imagery, dreamlike and disturbing, yet melancholy and moving as well.

The Course of the Heart stands between Climbers and Signs of Life and now that I have finished it, is one of my favourites of his works. The tale of three Cambridge students who, one June day, perform some kind of experiment (whether occult or scientific, or a mixture of both is never fully explained) with the aid of the strange and complex Yaxley, and end up living with the consequences for the next twenty-odd years.

Harrison imagines something called the Pleroma, a kind of Heaven, which all three glimpsed somehow. Lucas and Pam, who later marry, deal with it by inventing a mythical country (a realm of the Heart) somewhere in middle-europe. Lucas expands on this in the form of a fictional travel writer, Michael Ashman, and his investigations into 'The Coeur". Yaxley, a demented figure on the fringes, drifts in and out of the narrative, promising help, but never delivering. Hallucinatory imagery abounds. Pam and Lucas buckle under the strain, Pam becoming ill, Lucas burying himself in his fictions.

Harrison writes all this with such power, such vitality, that you end up wishing the Empress Gallica XII Heiriodule had been real, that The Coeur had not removed itself from the world. There are deep Gnostic philosophical arguments at the heart of this book, but they never get in the way of the story, which, in the end, is a love story.

This is a brilliantly written book, full of humanity, magic and loss. Do yourself a favour and get acquainted with the worlds of M John Harrison. ( )
  David.Manns | Nov 28, 2016 |
This is a wonderfully-written, intelligent book that I did not enjoy at all. A few things happen, some things are talked about, and there is a lot of waiting and looking at things. I feel as if the book would be better read by someone having grown up about 10-20 years before I did (I was born in '69), more intellectual, and more willing to be surprised by a novel willing to take on the vague ennui and seach for meaning by the well-educated middle class - a search that, like Yaxley's rituals, seem to yield nothing real and only things imagined. I can't rate it by stars b/c it would have to have two different ratings - a 4 for how good it is, a 1 for almost complete lack of enjoyment.
  amandrake | May 29, 2016 |
Fantasy's potential for escape, or for mere escapism, or for nothing in particular, is examined through the lives of four would-be escapists. Harrison's Imagist-like prose ensures the novel with keep you aesthetically pleased even as he repeatedly crushes your hopes beneath his heel. A refreshingly indirect novel, in every possible sense. ( )
  Longshanks | Jul 24, 2012 |
This is a beautifully worded book, very descriptive and evocative. The story is based on an occurance that is never fully explained, but that affects the characters' day-to-day experience for the rest of their lives. I can't say I enjoyed the story, but the way it was written made it easy to read. ( )
  carmelitasita29 | Oct 24, 2009 |
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The 2004 Night Shade Books edition (first US edition) adds the short story "The Great God Pan" which Harrison describes in a note as a 'rehearsal' for the novel. The UK ed (Gollancz, 1992) is dedicated "To JJ with love."
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The author of Things That Never Happen (starred review, Publishers Weekly) and Light (Tiptree Award winner) delivers an extraordinary, genre-bending novel that weaves together mythology, sexuality, and the troubled past and present of Eastern Europe. It begins on a hot May night, when three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. Years later, none of the participants can remember what exactly transpired; but their clouded memories can't rid them of an overwhelming sense of dread. Pam Stuyvesant is an epileptic haunted by strange sensual visions. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him. Self-styled Sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. The seemingly least effected participant in the ritual (who is haunted by the smell of roses) attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

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