BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - FICTION

The Dedalus Book of the Occult (2003) Gary Lachman The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence (2007)   Kirsten Lodge (Editor) The Dedalus Book of the Occult (subtitled The Dark Muse ) is one of Gary Lachman's lighter weight excursions into the history of the esoteric but it is well worth having in the Library. In effect, it is a series of suggestive and rather entertaining biographies from the Enlightenment world of Swedenborg, Mesmer and Cagliostro to the modernist occultism of the much less well known Daumal, Milosz and Lowry. There are just over 40 of these pen portraits under five occultist headings (Enlightenment, Romantic, Satanic, Fin de Siecle and Modernist) with good short introductions to each section. It is a book that can be usefully 'dipped into' whenever one of the 40 pops up somewhere else. The last quarter or so is a smattering of original texts, perhaps somewhat hard to fathom out of their full context and in an order that may have its own occult mea

The Pendragon Legend (1934) Antal Szerb   Amusing and ironic inter-war Hungarian take on occult themes - post-modern well before its time - The Pendragon Legend is no masterpiece but remains very interesting with some affectionate insights on how educated others saw the British in the 1930s - their class system, their literature, their national character, their empire and their 'stiff upper lip'. Szerb has been re-introduced to London by Pushkin Press. This is recommended as a pleasant amusing read that is a cut above the conspiracy schlock that has appeared in the wake of the Da Vinci Code. It is sad to note that he died in a labour camp in 1945. The witty irony of this book shows that a man who could laugh at himself and create a nice anti-hero also died that day.