A Voyage to Arcturus - Lindsay, David

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Résumé :
Scottish novelist David Lindsay was born to a middle-class Calvinist family, forced by poverty to work as an insurance clerk instead of attending university, and at the age of forty took up the cause and worked his way to Corporal of the Royal Army Pay Corps in World War I. After the war he moved to Cornwall with his wife and began writing full-time, publishing his first novel, A Voyage to Arcturus, in 1920. Although the science fiction novel initially sold less than six hundred copies, it has come to be known as a major underground novel of the 20th century, and heavily influenced C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet. The story is set at Tormance, an imaginary planet orbiting Arcturus, where an adventurous Scot named Muskall has traveled following a s?ance at an Observatory. While there he encounters myriad characters and lands which Lindsay employs as a critique of various philosophical systems. A fascinating combination of fantasy and philosophical reflection, A Voyage to Arcturus remains as a hugely influential novel for other writers of the genre ever since its initial publication. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Biographie:
Scottish poet and herald Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (c. 1490-c. 1555) attained the highest heraldic post of Lyon King of Arms. He is still considered as a respected poet whose writings, notably as a makar, capture the spirit of the Renaissance. He was the son of Garmylton and David Lyndsay, Second of the Mount (Fife). His birthplace and early schooling are unclear, however, there is evidence that he may have gone to the University of St. Andrews because there is an entry for Da Lindesay for the academic year 1508-1509 on its books. He worked as a courtier for the future King James V of Scotland, first as an equerry and subsequently as an usher (assistant to a head tutor). His poems make reference to his involvement in James V's education, and some of them offer the young monarch guidance. He wed court seamstress Janet Douglas in 1522. He was appointed Snowdon Herald for his first heraldic position, then in 1529, he was made Lord Lyon King of Arms and knighted. He worked in diplomacy (twice in foreign embassies, to the Netherlands and France), and as a general master of ceremonies due to his heraldic authority.