And instead of having the two-journey structure, this book is in three volumes, and those volumes are subdivided into thirteen books.

Instead of existing outside, though, the secret magic is woven into a carpet, hidden in plain sight. There’s a magical world bordering on ours, which people can access at rare times, but which is normally hidden and forgotten. This book was written a little before The Great and Secret Show, and has a lot of similarities to it. In and out the shuttle goes, fact and fiction, mind and matter woven into patterns that may have only this in common: that hidden among them is a filigree that will with time become a world. Thus the pagan will be sanctified, the tragic become laughable great lovers will stoop to sentiment, and demons dwindle to clockwork toys. The threads can always be traced back to some earlier tale, and to the tales that preceded that though as the narrator’s voice recedes the connections will seem to grow more tenuous, for each age will want the tale told as if it were of its own making. There is no first moment no single word or place from which this or any other story springs. Tags age art austen bible c bronte childhood christianity class conformity dad death depression dickens divorce education ethnicity family fantasy faulkner feminism film france gay gender geo eliot god gothic happiness him history horror identity islam isolation justice ksa life language lawrence lesbian library life love magic marriage mental health misogyny mom murder music mystery mythology nature nature love north carolina politics psychology racism rape religion sex sexuality shakespeare society suicide teaching television the closet the ex united kingdom united states victorian w collins work world war i world war iiĬlive Barker writes such beautiful horror.Įven this, one of his earliest novel-length stories, moves me to tears.

Weaveworld barker