Theos-Talk Archives (January 2009 Message tt00225)

Zanoni was written in 1842, and is awfully didactic.  A Strange Story 
appeared twenty years later and is far more worthwhile.  I also 
prefer it to The Coming Race.  I would highly recommend to Cass to 
start with this because going to Australia is a pivotal plot element 
and is the setting for a good part of the book.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Drpsionic@... wrote:
>
> I've read it once, fell asleep 14 times in the process.
>  
> BL was very influential in Euro occult circles.  He was one of 
Eliphas  
> Levi's sources of inspiration and a lot of the stuff in the Golden 
Dawn comes  
> right out of his work.
>  
> Chuck the Heretic
>  
>  
> In a message dated 1/9/2009 6:56:21 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
> silva_cass@... writes:
> 
>  
>  
>  
> Yes Paul, I would be very interested in reading those extracts.    
My first 
> teacher pointed me to Bullwer Lytton's Zanoni, but still haven't 
read  it.  
> Perhaps this is the cue I  needed
> 
> Cass
> 
> ________________________________
> From:  kpauljohnson <_kpauljohnson@kpauljohn_ 
(mailto:kpauljohnson@...) 
> >
> To:  _theos-talk@yahoogrotheos-t_ (mailto:theos-
talk@yahoogroups.com) 
> Sent:  Friday, 9 January, 2009 6:51:55 PM
> Subject: Theos-World Bulwer-Lytton and  Bunsen
> 
> Hello all but especially Cass and Frank,
> 
> I have noticed  the recent references to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and 
Ernest 
> Bunsen, and while  these were made in other contexts I want to 
point out 
> that there is an  important connection between these individuals 
and the 
> founding of the  Theosophical Society. The first two books 
published by 
> a Founder of the  TS, in the first year of its existence, were Art 
Magic 
> and Ghost Land by  Emma Hardinge Britten. Robert Mathiesen's 
monograph 
> The Unseen Worlds of  Emma Hardinge Britten is an amazing tour de 
force, 
> establishing beyond  reasonable doubt that Bunsen was 
the "Chevalier 
> Louis" of those two books,  and that the "Orphic Circle" depicted 
in 
> them was a genuine occult  research group whose most eminent member 
was 
> Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Emma  and Bunsen first met as adolescent 
trance 
> mediums used in the experiments  of this group around 1840; then 
renewed 
> acquaintance years later after the  emergence of the Spiritualist 
> movement.
> 
> When I read Marion Meade's  HPB biography years ago, I found 
ridiculous 
> her assertion that a primary  basis for HPB's description of the 
Masters 
> was the novels of  Bulwer-Lytton. Why, I thought, would someone 
with 
> such vast documented  experience with so many authentic teachers 
have to 
> rely on silly Victorian  novels for her inspiration? What Meade and 
I 
> both missed was that it  wasn't B-L's *novels* that inspired HPB, 
it was 
> the man himself and his  nearly lifelong devotion to occultism. In 
a 
> letter written NOVEMBER 16,  1875, THE DAY BEFORE THE INAUGURAL 
ADDRESS 
> OF OLCOTT, HPB wrote to  Stainton Moses of Bulwer-Lytton that "He 
was an 
> *adept* [italicized in the  book, presumably underlined in the 
letter] 
> and kept it secret-- first for  fear [of] ridicule..and then 
because his 
> vows would not allow him to  explain himself plainer than he did." 
> (Letters I:202) At the moment I'm  reading Leslie Mitchell's 2003 
> biography of Bulwer-Lytton, and if any here  is interested will 
share 
> some excerpts about his occult preoccupations.  HPB was very 
accurate 
> about his fear of ridicule over his occult  involvements.
> 
> Paul
> 
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