Aegypt Cycle

Reengaging the ideas of alternate lives, worlds, and worldviews that pulsed through his remarkable Little, Big, John Crowley's Ægypt series is a landmark in contemporary fiction. The series helped earn Crowley the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and Harold Bloom installed the first two books in the series in his 1993 Western canon. Now, following the Spring 2007 hardcover release of the final book in the series (Endless Things), Overlook is bringing the entire tetralogy back into print and, for the first time, presenting it as a real series. In The Solitudes, the opening of the series, we are introduced to Pierce Moffett, an unorthodox historian and an expert in ancient astrology, myths, and superstition. The land that Moffett studies is not the real, geographical Egypt but Ægypt, a country of the imagination. When Moffett discovers the historical novels of local writer Fellowes Kraft, his course is charted. Kraft s books interweave stories of Italian heretic Giordano Bruno, young Will Shakespeare, and Elizabethan occultist John Dee stories that begin to mingle with the narrative of Moffett's real and dream life in 1970s America. As Moffett's journey in and out of his comfortable reality continues, what becomes clear is revelatory: there is more than one history of the world.

World Fantasy Award-Winning Author: "Affecting, cerebral, surprising and delightful . . . {An} extraordinary philosophical romance." -Publishers Weekly John Crowley's 'gypt series is a landmark in contemporary fiction. The series helped earn Crowley the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, and Harold Bloom installed its first two volumes in his Western canon. In The Solitudes, the opening of the series-nominated for both a World Fantasy Award and an Arthur C. Clarke Award-we are introduced to Pierce Moffett, an unorthodox historian and an expert in ancient astrology, myths, and superstition. The land that Moffett studies is not the real, geographical Egypt but 'gypt, a country of the imagination. When Moffett moves from Manhattan to a small town upstate, and discovers the historical novels of little-known local writer Fellowes Kraft, his course is charted. Kraft's books interweave stories of Italian heretic Giordano Bruno, young Will Shakespeare, and Elizabethan occultist John Dee-stories that begin to mingle with the narrative of Moffett's real and dream life in 1970s America. As Moffett's journey in and out of his comfortable reality continues, what becomes clear is revelatory: there is more than one history of the world. "A quirky celebration of truths that lie hidden, and an impassioned plea for the freedom to discover them." -USA Today "The narrative itself, which spirals through time and space rather like a maze that Pierce must penetrate, startles the reader again and again with the eloquent rightness of the web of coincidences that structure it." -The New York Times Book Review "Suggests an unlikely but thriving marriage between a writer like Anne Tyler and one such as Jorge Luis Borges." -Publishers Weekly Previously published as 'gypt

In Love & Sleep, the second volume of the series, the professor Pierce Moffett finds himself at a great turning point in the history of the world. As a child, Pierce was no stranger to magic, but those revelations faded with time. Now Pierce's search for a secret history of the world-one in which magic works and angels speak to humankind-has begun again. Love & Sleep is followed by the third volume in the Egypt cycle, Daemonomania, and the fourth, Endless Things.

An occult historian's journey of discovery continues in the second volume of this renowned literary fantasy series by "a deliciously elegant writer" (Kirkus). In The Solitudes, John Crowley introduced readers to Pierce Moffett, a scholar whose area of expertise lies beyond the realm of our daily reality: a land of the imagination known as 'gypt. Retreating to the quiet of upstate New York, Moffett discovers the works of Fellows Kraft, an uncanny source of hermetic revelations. Now, in Love & Sleep, Moffett begins to understand the true importance-and power-of his studies. His search for a secret history of the world has brought him to the threshold of a new era . . . one in which magic works and angels speak to humankind. John Crowley's 'gypt Cycle is widely regarded as a masterpiece of fantasy literature. Harold Bloom included both The Solitudes and Love & Sleep in his Western Canon.

So it is for Pierce Moffett, would-be historian and author, who has moved from New York to the Faraway Hills, where he seems to discover-or rediscover-a path into magic, past and present. And so it is for Rosie Rasmussen, a single mother grappling with her mysterious uncle's legacy and her young daughter Samantha's inexplicable seizures. For Pierce's lover Rose Ryder, another path unfolds: she's drawn into a cult that promises to exorcise her demons. It is the dark of the year, between Halloween and the winter solstice, and the gateway is open between the worlds of the living and the dead. A great cycle of time is ending, and Pierce and Rosie, Samantha and Rose Ryder must take sides in an age-old war that is approaching the final battle...Or is it? Daemonomania is a journey into the very mystery of existence: what is, what went before, and what could break through at any moment in our lives.

As the winter solstice approaches, so does the final battle of an age-old war in this third novel of the landmark literary fantasy series. The would-be historian and author Pierce Moffett has moved from New York to the Faraway Hills, where he seems to discover-or rediscover-a path into magic, past and present. Meanwhile, single mother Rosie Rasmussen grapples with her mysterious uncle's legacy and her young daughter Samantha's inexplicable seizures. And for Pierce's lover Rose Ryder, another path unfolds: she's drawn into a cult that promises to exorcise her demons. It is the dark of the year, between Halloween and the winter solstice, and the gateway is open between the worlds of the living and the dead. A great cycle of time is ending, and Pierce and Rosie, Samantha and Rose Ryder must take sides in an epic conflict that is approaching its ultimate confrontation . . . Or is it? Dæmonomania is a journey into the very mystery of existence: what is, what went before, and what could break through at any moment in our lives. It follows The Solitudes and Love & Sleep, both of which were included in Harold Bloom's Western Canon.

This is the fourth novel-and much-anticipated conclusion-of John Crowley's astonishing and lauded Ægypt sequence: a dense, lyrical meditation on history, alchemy, and memory. Spanning three centuries, and weaving together the stories of Renaissance magician John Dee, philosopher Giordano Bruno, and present-day itinerant historian and writer Pierce Moffitt, the Ægypt sequence is as richly significant as Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet or Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. Crowley, a master prose stylist, explores transformations physical, magical, alchemical, and personal in this epic, distinctly American novel where the past, present, and future reflect each other.