MOUNT ANALOGUE (Shambhala Pocket Classics) (Paperback)

~ Rene Daumal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A reissue of a twentieth-century classic in the acclaimed Tusk Ivories series A twentieth-century classic, Mount Analogue combines the author's poetic gifts and philosophical accomplishments in a manner that is both entertaining to read and profound to contemplate. The novel is a representation of the author's own spiritual quest, transposed into fictional form, and was published posthumously in 1952. This edition is newly translated by Carol Cosman, with an afterword by Vera Daumal. Among other things, this is an allegory for the journey of life, as well as a marvellous tale in which the narrator/author, one of an intrepid company of eight, sets sail in the yacht Impossible to search for Mount Analogue, the solid, geographically located, albeit hidden, peak that reaches inexorably towards heaven - as Mount Olympus reached to the home of the Greek gods, or Mount Sinai to the presence of Yahweh. Daumal, often described as one of the most gifted literary figures in twentieth century France, died before the novel was completed, providing an uncanny one-way quality to the journey that the reader cannot help but share. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

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Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (November 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877738505
• ISBN-13: 978-0877738503
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,648,867 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A symbollically non-Euclidian adventure in mountainclimbing., August 1, 2004

By	tommyterror (Silverlake, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mount Analogue (Paperback)

This is one of those 'secret books' passed from friend to friend, artist to artist. My own initiation into this work certainly came at the most needed moment, and I hope this deliriously engaging analogy speaks to you now as sweetly as it whispered to me back then. Daumal's intriguing characters are hell-bent on marking the mountain that unites heaven and earth, a geographical place that "cannot not exist." Daumal draws obvious inspiration from his metaphysical tutelage under G.I. Gurdjieff, and the book has been radically reimagined by filmmaker and Tarot master Alejandro Jodorowsky in his epic 70's masterpiece "The Holy Mountain." Have a go-go.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific read and a literary classic, June 11, 2004

By	Steven E. Bradbury "stevenedgarbradbury" (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mount Analogue (Paperback)

This is a terrific book even for those who are not into mountain climbing or the spiritual philosophy of Gurdjieff. Indeed, when I first read Mount Analogue more than 25 years ago--back in the days when I ignored introductions and back-cover blurbs--I took it for a surrealistic parody of the SciFi travel fantasies of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Part of its appeal for me lay in the way it connected my childhood interests in SF and Fantasy to my growing fascination with the high road of literary modernism. Like some armchair basecamp, Daumal's novel helped me to acclimatize myself before ascending to the loftier and more rarified air of The Magic Mountain and The Waste Land and Ulysses. But it's continuing appeal is that it is an absolutely gripping story, one that seizes you from the first page with all the tenacity of its half-crazed visionary hero Pierre Sogol, and doesn't let go for days and even weeks after you've finished reading it. Here, I think the translator, Roger Shattuck, deserves half the credit, for his English is a pleasure to the eye and the ear and to whatever it is in us that aspires to reach those sublime states where, like Daumal's narrator, we can say : "I ASSURE YOU THERE WAS FIRE AROUND US IN THE AIR!"

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A small gem., January 2, 1998

By	Matt Greenberger (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This small, unfinished work is packed with wonderful ideas and a spirituality that appeals to both the head and the heart. Daumal's characters have the conviction that the mythical mountain that reaches from earth to heaven must actually exist, so they do the only reasonable thing -- they mount an expedition. A beautiful book.