"Edward Hower is a writer of talent and substance."-William Kennedy
Spiritualism, the conviction that the dead are able to contact living people from an afterworld, became popular in America after the Civil War, when grief-stricken survivors tried to contact the fallen. In an era of breakaway churches and rampant industrialization, ordinary people sought desperately to prove to themselves they possessed immortal souls. Spiritualism was also one of the few venues that offered women a chance to lead.
One such woman was Madame Helena Blavatsky, a Russian-born mystic who used her considerable intellectual gifts to rise to the top of the spiritualist hierarchy. Together with her partner, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, a popular journalist and Civil War hero, she attracted many of the leading celebrities of the age, such as Thomas Edison and Abner Doubleday in New York; and in London, W.B. Yeats, and the young Mohandas P. Gandhi. But, hounded by the press and subjected to scathing ridicule, they moved from the parlors of Gilded Age New York to the slums of Bombay then again to Ceylon, attempting to spread their ideas.
Loosely based on the lives of Blavatsky and Olcott, Shadows and Elephants follows two unforgettable fictional creations, passionate in their friendship, courageous in the face of public humiliation, and devoted absolutely to contacting the souls of the deceased in order to learn from their wisdom. Shadows and Elephants is a sensuous historical novel with totally contemporary resonance, for indeed, spiritualism has survived for over 130 years; reshaped in today's eclectic New Age beliefs.
Edward Hower is the author of four previous novels. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian; his reviews in the nation's most prestigious book pages. He has been awarded numerous creative writing grants. He lives in Ithaca, NY.
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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.
"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)
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