What do you think?
Rate this book
Dragon of the Alchemists 1926
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2025
This book was something of an enigma to me. It claimed to be a fantasy novel written by Frederick Carter; in fact, it was nothing of the sort. It was actually six short essays followed by 38 reproductions of Carter's wood engravings. What is going on?
The answer can be found in the Publisher’s Note to Frederick Carter’s Symbols of the Apocalypse. He recounts some details of Carter’s interactions with D. H. Lawrence. Carter gave Lawrence an early draft of his book The Dragon of Revelation (later republished as The Dragon of the Apocalypse and then, yet again, as Symbols of the Apocalypse). This draft contained some chapters that Carter had attached as prefatory to his novel The Dragon of the Alchemists. Aha! Apparently somehow those essays got detached from the novel and Kissinger Publishing picked these up and published them in a separate volume.
As far as the origin of the images, I do not know if they originally were in The Dragon of the Alchemists. In his review of The Dragon of Revelation, D. H. Lawrence says that the manuscript he received from Carter contained drawings. So perhaps what we have here is a copy of the manuscript originally given to Lawrence? That would be pretty cool, but I don’t know how likely it is.
So of course I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the whole novel, but that’s ok. My main purpose in reading this was to see what influence Carter may have had on Lawrence. Carter complained that Lawrence didn’t give him the credit he deserved for inspiring Lawrence to write his book on the Apocalypse. I don’t know. Carter's influence seemed pretty minimal to me, except for perhaps giving Lawrence the idea of writing a book on Revelation in the first place.
As far as the writing itself goes, it didn’t exactly have me jumping up and down. I thought Symbols of Revelation was much better. The images, on the other hand were fantastic. So: three stars for the writing and five for the images.
Update: the entire contents of this book can be found at https://www.google.com/books/edition/.... This edition also has additionally the introduction by Arthur Machen, which is not included in this print edition. Sadly, I think that if you want to read the whole novel you will have to shell out a lot of money for it since it’s a rare book.
The answer can be found in the Publisher’s Note to Frederick Carter’s Symbols of the Apocalypse. He recounts some details of Carter’s interactions with D. H. Lawrence. Carter gave Lawrence an early draft of his book The Dragon of Revelation (later republished as The Dragon of the Apocalypse and then, yet again, as Symbols of the Apocalypse). This draft contained some chapters that Carter had attached as prefatory to his novel The Dragon of the Alchemists. Aha! Apparently somehow those essays got detached from the novel and Kissinger Publishing picked these up and published them in a separate volume.
As far as the origin of the images, I do not know if they originally were in The Dragon of the Alchemists. In his review of The Dragon of Revelation, D. H. Lawrence says that the manuscript he received from Carter contained drawings. So perhaps what we have here is a copy of the manuscript originally given to Lawrence? That would be pretty cool, but I don’t know how likely it is.
So of course I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the whole novel, but that’s ok. My main purpose in reading this was to see what influence Carter may have had on Lawrence. Carter complained that Lawrence didn’t give him the credit he deserved for inspiring Lawrence to write his book on the Apocalypse. I don’t know. Carter's influence seemed pretty minimal to me, except for perhaps giving Lawrence the idea of writing a book on Revelation in the first place.
As far as the writing itself goes, it didn’t exactly have me jumping up and down. I thought Symbols of Revelation was much better. The images, on the other hand were fantastic. So: three stars for the writing and five for the images.
Update: the entire contents of this book can be found at https://www.google.com/books/edition/.... This edition also has additionally the introduction by Arthur Machen, which is not included in this print edition. Sadly, I think that if you want to read the whole novel you will have to shell out a lot of money for it since it’s a rare book.
April 23, 2018
“The Dragon of the Alchemists”
connects seemingly separate specializations of the Western Mystery Tradition such as alchemy, astronomy, astrology, pagan religion and Hermetics. It is important to understand that Carter is not reducing the “Dragon” to a psychological concept, though it is difficult to discuss Mind without discussing psychology. Instead, in showing that this is principle exists across all disciplines and emphasizes it as an essential point of study, contemplation and practice for all Occultists in the pursuit of the Great Work.
Ultimately, I regret that I didn’t read this work when I first received it as a gift years ago. I find 1920s writing to be challenging and I always have to “translate it” to contemporary English and reduce some of the embellishing before I can grasp the concept. This text made my head explode a bit! It inspires me to dive into some new areas of learning and enriches that which I already work in
I recommend skipping the first few chapters and heading straight to the last chapter of the Dragon, as there are other published works that are clearer to read that address symbol, microcosm & macrocosm.
The illustrations in the publication are a lovely bonus. I find the images suitably talismanic, symbolic and mysterious. 93 Publishing produced lovely work.
Ultimately, I regret that I didn’t read this work when I first received it as a gift years ago. I find 1920s writing to be challenging and I always have to “translate it” to contemporary English and reduce some of the embellishing before I can grasp the concept. This text made my head explode a bit! It inspires me to dive into some new areas of learning and enriches that which I already work in
I recommend skipping the first few chapters and heading straight to the last chapter of the Dragon, as there are other published works that are clearer to read that address symbol, microcosm & macrocosm.
The illustrations in the publication are a lovely bonus. I find the images suitably talismanic, symbolic and mysterious. 93 Publishing produced lovely work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews