Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (Studies in the English Renaissance) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy In English Literature From Chaucer To The Restoration is the first comprehensive examination of the influence of alchemy in English literature from the late Middle Ages through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is interdisciplinary in nature, involving such fields as alchemy and hermeticism, the history of chemistry and medicine, philosophy, and literature. Darke Hierogliphicks is concerned primarily with the changing conceptions of alchemy throughout this three hundred year period, as shifting contexts for the study of literature. It is both a critical study of the use of alchemy by a large number of major and secondary writers, as well as a reference work on the topic. Darke Hierogliphicks is an impressive body of original research and a fascinate survey of a heretofore neglected influence on three centuries of English literature. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"This very useful, richly detailed, and profusely illustrated book traces the impact of the alchemical art on English literature over a three-hundred year period, from Chaucer to the Restoration.-- Cithara" -- Cithara

"A most significant contribution to this rapidly expanding field of research.... An impressive scholarly book, one that all scholars of Renaissance literature and the history of ideas will want to keep close at hand as a reference work.-- Journal of English and Germanic Philology" -- Journal of English and Germanic Philology

"Carefully examines literary representations of alchemists and literary appropriations of alchemical terminology.-- Medieval Academy of America" -- Medieval Academy of America

"Provides a full coverage of the subject.-- Seventeenth-Century News" -- Seventeenth-Century News

"Linden's close readings are illuminating and articulate.-- Sixteenth Century Journal" -- Sixteenth Century Journal

"Charts the relationship between alchemy and English literature from the late fourteenth until the late seventeenth century, providing us with a study of the views of a series of outsiders which goes some way to answering this question.... Darke Hieroglyphicks is a learned and informative study which has all the marks of a lifetime's interest in the subject.-- Times Literary Supplement" -- Times Literary Supplement

"An excellent book, demanding but clearly written and giving every sign of Linden's long and considered attention to his subject.-- Ben Jonson Journal" -- Ben Jonson Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; 1 edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813192129
• ISBN-13: 978-0813192123
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,208,420 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Language of Alchemy in English Literature, February 18, 2000

By	Yaakov Mascetti (Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (Studies in the English Renaissance) (Hardcover)

Linden is probably one of the few serious scholars to have taken into consideration the importance of the use of alchemical registers in various central works of late medieval and early modern English literature. Together with an impressive knowledge of the fundamental and less known works of sixteenth century English alchemy, Linden provides his readers with a fisheye view on the idiosyncratic uses authors like Chaucer, Donne, Herbert and others, have made of basic alchemic concepts. The text is important for those scholars and amateurs of the field who still think that alchemy occupies a central position in the "languages", in Pocock's words, spoken in Early Modern England. A work of admirable seriousness and impressive documentation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alchemy as a writerly art, October 10, 2007

By	Albert Hand "student-teacher of alchemical arts" (northern CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (Studies in the English Renaissance) (Hardcover)

This is a great place to start for anybody interested in the influence of alchemical symbolism on english literature. The alchemists (and especially those who produced alchemical texts) did all kinds of strange, obscure, difficult, puzzling, and therefore fascinating things with language. This fact was not lost on the many important literary figures who never got their hands dirty but found alchemy useful as a theme or symbol in their work, and as this book demonstrates they had many good reasons to take an interest. So will you. Alchemy has been too long neglected as a key element in the religious life of the renaissance and after, and the texts of literary authors dealing with alchemy are an important source for our understanding of this--which still has yet to be fully researched and explained. This book is an important first step, and hopefully will inspire many future studies.

Occultists and spiritual alchemists with an interest in literature and the history of alchemy will find much of value here, although it does not speak to the post-19th century occultist reading of alchemy as much as the renaissance and medieval tradition.

5.0 out of 5 stars Darke Hierogliphicks, November 9, 2009

By	javafusion - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (Studies in the English Renaissance) (Hardcover)

This is an inductive study and, insofar as possible, one guided by the principle of allowing the many examples of literary alchemy to speak for themselves: to reveal what they might about their creators' knowledge of alchemy, what was thought about it, and how this knowledge and these attitudes could be given artistic form and meaning. For this reason, the author quotes generously from primary sources, both alchemical and literary. In the case of the former, full quotation often followed by explanation is essential in making difficult material comprehensible; for the same reason, literary passages - especially those likely to be unfamiliar to readers - are presented with some degree of fullness and concern for context.