God of the Labyrinth

by Colin Wilson

Gerard Sorme Trilogy (3)

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Gerard Sorme has been hired by a New York publisher to edit a book on Esmond Donelly, notorious 18th-century Irish rake, friend of Rousseau, Boswell and Horace Walpole, and author of a bawdy work on the deflowering of virgins. Sorme's quest for information on Donelly takes him to the home of a pyromaniac and flagellant in Baton Rouge, the labyrinthine corridors of the British Museum, and a remote castle in Ireland. As he digs deeper into the mystery of Donelly, Sorme uncovers a tale of show more intrigue, conspiracy, and murder involving a secret society, the Sect of the Phoenix, that dates back to medieval times. But the Sect still exists, and Sorme's researches have not gone unnoticed by powerful men who have their own reasons for wanting the truth about Esmond Donelly to remain hidden... show less

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223+ Works 13,615 Members
Colin Wilson was born on June 26, 1931 in Leicester, England. He attended a local technical school, where he did well in physics and chemistry, and left at 16 to work in a wool factory. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a laboratory assistant, tax clerk, laborer and hospital porter. His first book, The Outsider, was published in 1956 when he show more was 24 years old. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 works on a wide variety of subjects including philosophy, religion, occult and supernatural phenomenea, music, sex, crime and critical theory. His other works include Religion and the Rebel, The Age of Defeat, Ritual in the Dark, The Strength to Dream, Origins of the Sexual Impulse, The Occult, Alien Dawn, Dreaming to Some Purpose, The Angry Years: The Rise and Fall of the Angry Young Men, and Super Consciousness. His biographies include works on Bernard Shaw, David Lindsay, Herman Hesse, Wilhelm Reich, Jorge Luis Borges, Ken Russell, Rudolph Steiner, Aleister Crowley, and P. D. Ouspensky. Wilson died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 82. (Bowker Author Biography) Colin Wilson, author of such bestsellers as "The Outsider" & "The Occult", also writes on archaeology, astronomy, & cosmology. His recent book, "From Atlantis to the Sphinx", was a London "Times" bestseller. (Publisher Provided) show less

Some Editions

Lachman, Gary (Introduction)

Series

Common Knowledge

Original title
The God of the Labyrinth
Alternate titles
The Hedonists
Original publication date
1970
People/Characters
Gerard Sorme
Epigraph
No, I want sky not sea, prefer the larks to shrimps,

And never dive so deep but that I get a glimpse

O' the blue above, breath of air around. Elvire,

I seize—by ctching at the melted beryl here,

... (show all)The tawning hair that has just trickled off—Fifine.

Browning
'God keep from hurt', said he, 'the good fellow whose great codpiece has just saved his life. God keep from harm the one whose long codpiece has been worth to him, in one day, one hundred and sixty thousand and ninie crowns. ... (show all)God keep from hurt the one who, by his long codpiece, has saved a whole city from dying of famine. And by God, I'm going to make a book On the Advantages of Long Codpieces as soon as I have time'.

In fact, he did compose a large book, and a very good one, complete with diagrams; but it has not been published yet, as far as I know.
Rabelais, Bk II, Ch. 15
First words
(Introduction) Anyone familiar with Colin Wilson’s work will know that throughout it all runs a particularly vital thread: his obsession with sex.
Esmond Donelly died in December 1832, at the age of eighty-four.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)‘He is Esmond.’
Disambiguation notice
UK title: The God of the Labyrinth
US title: The Hedonists (“heavily cut,” per Wilson)

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
DDC/MDS
823.9Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fiction1900-
LCC
PR6073 .I44 .GLanguage and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

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Dutch, English, French
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ISBNs
7
ASINs
7