The Tale of Gold and Silence

by Brian M. Stableford (Adapted By), Gustave Kahn

Gustave Kahn, born in in 1859, was at the heart of the Symbolist Movement in the 1890s, a pioneer and champion of free verse and one of the editors of the prestigious Mercure de France. Much Symbolist prose -- The Tale of Gold and Silence (1898) is a cardinal example -- can be construed as an exercise in the further development of the archetypal images subsequently categorized and explored by Jung. The Tale of Gold and Silence (1898) occupies a location that is virtually unique. It is not only Kahn's most overtly extravagant symbolist novel, but one of the most overtly extravagant symbolist novels ever attempted, mingling parables, Old Testament and visionary fantasies, throwing in a couple of mock-folktales and an adventure story for good measure. Kahn's knowledge of and attitude to symbolism was colored by his Jewish heritage, and it was natural for him to deploy symbolist methods in his reexamination of Old Testament mythology and the supposed modifications introduced by the subsequent reinterpretation of much of that mythology by the New Testament.

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.