A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)

A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay, first published in 1920. An interstellar voyage is the framework for a narrative of a journey through fantastic landscapes. The story is set on Tormance, an imaginary planet orbiting the star Arcturus. The lands through which the characters travel represent philosophical systems or states of mind as the main character, Maskull, searches for the meaning of reality. The book combines fantasy, philosophy, and science fiction in an exploration of the nature of good and evil and their relationship with existence. Described by critic, novelist, and philosopher Colin Wilson as the "greatest novel of the twentieth century", it was a central influence on C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, and through him on J. R. R. Tolkien, who said he read the book "with avidity". Clive Barker called it "a masterpiece" and "an extraordinary work ... quite magnificent".

The book sold poorly during Lindsay's lifetime, but was republished in 1946 (the year after his death) and many times thereafter. It has been translated into at least six languages. Critics such as the novelist Michael Moorcock have noted that the book is unusual, but that it has been highly influential with its qualities of "commitment to the Absolute" and "God-questioning genius".

Background

David Lindsay was born in 1876. His father was a Scottish Calvinist and his mother English. He was brought up partly in London and partly in Jedburgh in the Scottish borders. He enjoyed reading novels by Walter Scott, Jules Verne, Rider Haggard and Robert Louis Stevenson. He learnt German to read the philosophical work of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. He served in the army in a clerical position in London in the First World War, being called up at age 38. He married in 1916. After the war ended in 1918, he left his position with an insurance company and moved to Cornwall with his wife to write. Lindsay told his friend E. H. Visiak that his greatest influence was the work of George MacDonald.

Synopsis

Tormance is a planet orbiting Arcturus, 37 light years from Earth. Arcturus is a double star, consisting of Branchspell, a large yellow sunlike star, and Alppain, a smaller blue star. The light of the second sun, Alppain, is only seen from the north; the southern parts of the planet are illuminated only by Branchspell. Maskull, longing for adventures, accepts an invitation from Krag, an acquaintance of his friend Nightspore, to travel to Tormance after a séance. The three travel to an abandoned observatory at Starkness in Scotland, where there is a tower which has Tormance's heavy gravity; climbing it is difficult. Maskull learns he will not return from the voyage. They set off in a "torpedo of crystal" from the top of the tower, propelled by Arcturian "back rays".

Maskull awakens to find himself alone in a desert on Tormance. His body has grown three new organs: a breve, a protuberance on his forehead that enables telepathy; poigns, two lumps on his neck that increase empathy; and a magn, a tentacle from his heart that increases his capacity for love. A woman, Joiwind, exchanges blood with him to allow him to survive on Tormance; she tells him that Surtur created everything. She worships Surtur. Her husband Panawe suggests that Maskull may have stolen something from the Maker of the universe, to ennoble his fellow creatures. Maskull travels to the Lusion Plain, where he meets a being who claims to be Surtur. The being says that Maskull is on Tormance to serve him, and disappears. Maskull meets a woman, Oceaxe, from Ifdawn, who has a third arm in place of her magn. She speaks scornfully to Maskill, but shows interest in having him as her lover, and gives him a red stone to convert his magn into a third arm. Maskull wakes to find his magn transformed into a third arm, which causes lust for what is touched, and his breve changed to an eyelike sorb which allows dominance over the will of others. He travels through Ifdawn with Oceaxe; she wants him to kill one of her husbands, Crimtyphon, and take his place. Maskull is at first revolted at the idea, but kills Crimtyphon when he sees him using his will to force a man into becoming a tree. Tydomin, another wife of Crimtyphon's, uses her will to force Oceaxe to commit suicide by walking off a cliff; she persuades Maskull to come to her home in Disscourn, where she will take possession of his body. On the way they find Joiwind's brother Digrung who says he will tell Joiwind about Maskull's murder of Crimtyphon; to prevent this, and encouraged by Tydomin, Maskull absorbs Digrung, leaving his empty body behind. At Tydomin's cave, Maskull goes out of his body to become an apparition that appeared at the seance where he met Krag. He awakens free of Tydomin's mental power.