The Root and the Flower
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Set in the war-torn world of Mughal India and first published in the gathering darkness of the 1930s, The Root and the Flower is an epic story of intrigue, murder, and romance; of Tantric abandonment and Buddhist renunciation; of emotional delirium and spiritual adventure.
The cast of characters includes Hari, a reckless and passionate warrior; Sita, in love with both Hari and her husband Amar, a prince who wishes to forsake the world but is increasingly drawn into a bloody political struggle; and Sita and Amar’s son Jali, whose precocious encounters with sex and violence threaten him with madness.
At once a dream of India and a vision of a world riven by political, ethnic, and religious conflicts, The Root and the Flower is a work of great range and singular poetic beauty. It is, in Penelope Fitzgerald’s words, a “strange masterpiece,” and one of the unsung glories of modern literature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Root and the Flower, British writer L.H. Myers's strange, mystical historical trilogy, was first published in the 1930s, and will now be reissued in one volume with an introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in a dreamlike version of Moghal India, it follows the adventures of a prince, his wife and their son Jali, each struggling separately with temptation and spiritual malaise. Lyrically written and exquisitely imagined, it is a haunting minor classic.
