Return to Elysium [Paperback]

Joan Grant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1988

Elysium, according to its author, was technically her most difficult undertaking. It is the story of Lucina, the young ward of a Greek philosopher, surrounded by an exclusively masculine society, yet too clear-sighted to accept her rigid education. Later in life, as founder of a mystic cult in the young and primitive city of Rome, she discovers an existence that transcends death. Surrounded not by a masculine society, but by an equally exacting family which questioned her continually, Joan Grant fought to safeguard her past experiences and to relate the predicament of a priestess beset by "scientists" who want to know the how and why about everything and who, in their zeal to pick apart the mechanism and examine it, stop it from working. What Miss Grant tells us about Lucina is, perhaps, a way for her to unveil her own problems and offer us a glimpse at what she feels might be another future. The final lines of Return to Elysium are revealing. "I stood alone on the cliff above the sea as dawn spread phoenix wings across the sky. Today Lucina would be given a new name." Whatever the reader's opinion may be about reincarnation and insights into past experiences, there can be no doubt about the impact and the beauty of Return to Elysium as a work of high literary merit. "No novelist writing today," wrote the Daily Telegraph, "possesses more completely, perhaps than Miss Grant, what Henry James called 'the sense of the past."' "It is," reviewed the London Times Literary Supplement, "a constantly interesting and impressive book."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joan Grant authored a set of 7 remarkable novels, in which she recaptures the drama and setting of one of her own previous lives. Called "far memory" novels, these 7 books offer tremendous insight into the nature of reincarnation, spiritual development, and psychic talents. She also wrote a set of memoirs and one nonfiction study of reincarnation, Many Lifetimes, which she coauthored with her 3rd husband, Denys Kelsey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ariel Pr (October 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898041457
• ISBN-13: 978-0898041453
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Story of ancient Greece and Rome, January 24, 2004

By 

Gail Moore "avid reader" (vancouver canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return to Elysium (Paperback)

Lucina of Greece was orphaned at a young age and brought up by foster parents; the story begins when she is 13 and is sent to a place called Elysium for study under the tutelage of her philosopher guardian. She is the only woman in Elysium and thought to be very unusual because of her superior intellect. Her life is a battle between cool reason and logic and her own intense psychic abilities, later there is pain because her great strength has little outlet in a female life. She flees Elysium with two companions to the young city of Rome considered by Greeks to be an inferior society. Some years are spent as priestess and oracle giver in a temple until she fakes her own death to escape with a lover and retreats into marriage. Eventually Lucina does return to Elysium for a breath taking ending.

First published in 1947 this is apparently an autobiographical account of one the author's previous lives, but even if you can't accept the idea of this as a past life recollection, at the very least it is a really great read for historical fiction fans, there is an authentic feel to it. Often very witty, the intense psychological explorations stimulate thought about the meaning of life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully evocative, witty, May 12, 2009

By 

Angel19 "Angela Crespo-Lopez" (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return to Elysium (Paperback)

My favorite Joan Grant book. Her evocation of Ancient Greece (late period) and Rome are wonderful. Truly a unique writer for her period, you don't have to buy into her reincarnationist theories in order to enjoy her wonderful work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joan Grant's Return to Elysium, June 26, 2008

By 

Susan Baker "Light-n-Sound" (DC donut not the hole) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Return to Elysium (Paperback)

A novel with strong imagery and enlightenment. "All roads lead to the Tree, and all Soul's find their immortality." I have given copies to many friends. An important read.