Shadows and Elephants - Softcover

Hower, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1440198667 ISBN 13: 9781440198663

Publisher: iUniverse, 2010

Synopsis

An exotic historical novel of Gilded Age New York andColonial era India - the story of the most scandalous and adventurous couple of the nineteenth century.
"Edward Hower is a writer of talent and substance."
-William Kennedy

"An effecting story of love and friendship." -Ann Beattie

"Sympathetic and wonderfully readable" -Edmund White

"A generous and lively novel." -Joy Williams

"A mesmerizing Experience." -Lee Smith

About this title

From the Publisher:

Russian-born mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky was notorious the world over for claims to psychic powers. One of the most scandalous women of the nineteenth century, she founded an international society that exists to this day and is indeed the mother of everything that is referred to as 'new age.' Lambasted by the newspapers of her day as being an imposter, a forger, a delirious hashish smoker, a spy for the Czar and instigator of frauds, she was nonetheless venerated by the some of the most influential people of the era (including Thomas Edison and Abner Doubleday in New York City; and in London, W.B. Yeats and the young Mohandis P. Ghandi) as being a divine conduit to the world of the dead. Having never before been the subject of a novel, Edward Hower has researched the facts and recreated her incredible search for enlightenment from Gilded Age New York City to India and Ceylon.

Hailed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a writer whose work is "Breathtakingly fresh and gripping...weird, haunting, and magical," Hower infuses Blavatsky with passion, intellect and determination. He adds a deeply personal dimension to the woman dubbed "the Priestess of the Occult," while exposing both the 'tricks' of her trade and her serious attempts to reach 'the other side.' No less fascinating is her partner, based on the Civil War hero Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who is plagued with personal guilt associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and seeks forgiveness from the deceased. Forced from his own country in his search for enlightenment, he eventually becomes known in the Orient as 'The White Buddhist' and is worshipped for his powers as a faith healer.

Remarkable in its sensuous recreation of colonial India and Ceylon, Shadows and Elephants is a lush historical novel about the cultural responses to the ravages of the Civil War; about the origins of occultism in America; and finally about a rare and lasting friendship between a woman and a man that survives public ridicule, poverty, sexuality and time.

From the Back Cover:

"Edward Hower has written a sympathetic and wonderfully readable study of a brilliant fraud and her chief accomplice. The characters are based on Madame Blavatsky, the Russian-born 19th century founder of Theosophy, and her protector Colonel Henry Steel Olcott. The action moves quickly from the United States to India and Ceylon, the homeland of mystics and fakirs. Hower's portrait of Blavatsky is full of affection; he presents her as a survivor, a big heart and a genuine visionary. India, in Hower's prose, also becomes a major character; it gleams and sweats with sensuality, mystery and humanity. This is a stunning book, vivid, dramatic and full of warmth." (Edmund White)

"Edward Hower's novel is an exploration of personal dynamics, as well as a document about people who undertake an unusual spiritual journey. It's a vivid road trip through territory the author sees in close detail, an affecting story of love and friendship that is filled with unusual, unexpected (and all too human) twists and turns."(Ann Beattie)

"I have never read a book which fulfills so completely John Gardner's idea that a novel should be a "continuous dream." From its evocative title to the astonishing "ascension" of its mysterious heroine at the end, Shadows and Elephants is a mesmerizing experience for the reader." (Lee Smith)

"Hower's knowledgeable enchantment with an enchanted India illuminates this exploration of the peculiar mental and emotional life of the notorious Madame Blavatsky as she seeks enlightenment in a land that in no way takes her seriously. A generous and lively novel." (Joy Williams)

About this edition

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1440198667
• ISBN 13: 9781440198663
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320