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The Solitudes (The Aegypt Cycle, #1)

John Crowley

Why we're reading this: Jude: there is John Crowley's Aegypt series. The second part: Love & Sleep, is singular in its power and …more
[close] Jude: there is John Crowley's Aegypt series. The second part: Love & Sleep, is singular in its power and longevity in my life, but truly does require reading wonderful part one, now titled The Solitudes (formerly Aegypt).

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Jul 11, 2008 Terry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: occult, fantasy

4 - 4.5 stars

The world is a strange place. Or at least it can be. Somewhere behind the mundane facts of Egypt lies the storied land of Aegypt, the land from which mythic truths are born into the world. There is, as Crowley would say, more than one history of the world.

This is a secret that is discovered one day by Pierce Moffet, a history instructor at a small liberal college in New York whose lack of motivation, and strange ideas, are making his current academic position tenuous. Carried by hi 4 - 4.5 stars

The world is a strange place. Or at least it can be. Somewhere behind the mundane facts of Egypt lies the storied land of Aegypt, the land from which mythic truths are born into the world. There is, as Crowley would say, more than one history of the world.

This is a secret that is discovered one day by Pierce Moffet, a history instructor at a small liberal college in New York whose lack of motivation, and strange ideas, are making his current academic position tenuous. Carried by his interests, and the synchronicity of fate, from the big city to the small town of Blackberry Jambs in the Faraway Hills, Pierce embarks on a strange adventure that could change not only his life, but perhaps even the very fabric of reality as we thought we knew it.

The book switches between telling us about Pierce’s recent past and current adventures in the country (along with the stories of some of the unique individuals he comes to meet in his new home) with the story of Doctor John Dee, occult advisor and intelligencer for Queen Elizabeth, in the 16th century and the possibly related tale of Hermeticist Giordano Bruno. What do the two storylines share in common and how are they connected? The reader soon finds that the historical segments of the story come from a book within the book we are reading: specifically, a historical fiction novel written by the equally fictional Fellowes Kraft (former resident of Blackberry Jambs and literary hero of Pierce’s childhood). I have to say that while I enjoyed the book as is, I would have been even happier to have had a complete copy of the novel of Kraft’s instead of simply a few excerpts.

This is the start of an epic tetralogy (and while it may be Crowley’s most ambitious work I doubt that many would argue that it displaces the more famous _Little, Big_ as his magnum opus), and many of Crowley’s obsessions from _Little, Big_ appear once again in this book, given an even wider scope for development and examination. From musings on the nature of reality and the intersection of the mundane with the numinous, the ‘real’ with the mythic, to the place of a somewhat ambivalent hero (who is about as much a cipher as a main character can be) lost in a world whose meaning lies far beyond his understanding, and a view of the retroactive creation of the stories that we make of the stuff of our lives, Crowley’s obsessions and interests are on full display. Not least of these is his ongoing fascination with John Dee who takes something close to center stage, though it must be admitted that the real occult hero of the story is Giordano Bruno, the de-frocked monk martyred in the name of magic (or was it science?)

I first read this book many moons ago and remember enjoying it while being somewhat baffled by it as well. I’d like to think my bafflement was a little less this time around, but my enjoyment was equal, if not greater, than it was before.
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Jan 09, 2017 Dharmakirti rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fiction, fantasy, magical-realism

I don't know that I'm able to do this wonderful novel justice. But this is one of the best novels I've read in years. Highly recommended!

Pierce Moffett has lost his job as a history professor. While travelling to interview at another school, the bus he's on breaks down in a place called Faraway Hills and he runs in to a former student who now tends sheep.

Rosie Mucho's marriage is falling apart. As an escape, she turns to the historical fiction of the (fictional) local writer, Fellowes Kraft. Th ...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Brooke rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, general-fiction

There is more than one history of the world - or so John Crowley says repeatedly in Aegypt (original titled The Solitudes, apparently), the first in a four-book series.

I have to admit, I almost didn't make it through. The first 1/3 of the book is sloooow and pretentious. I hate leaving books unfinished, though, so I plowed ahead. Once Crowley finishes laying out his thesis and starts moving along, it gets better. Still so very pretentious, but better.

It skips back and forth and up and down bet ...more

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