{"id":75026,"date":"2026-08-07T18:22:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=75026"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:23:54","slug":"reading-group-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2026\/08\/07\/reading-group-selection\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading group selection for August: Goose of Hermogenes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Book Beat reading group will meet Wendesday, August 26 at 7pm<\/strong> for a discussion of Ithell Colquhoun’s novel: Goose of Hermogenes<\/em>. Copies are in store now and discounted 15%. <\/p>\n

A trance-like feminist fairy tale of magic, alchemy, and the battle of the sexes\u2014for fans of Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, and O Caledonia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s foremost surrealist painter puts a lushly visual spin on the Philosopher\u2019s Stone in her first-ever novel!<\/p>\n

In this modern fairy tale inspired by alchemy, a nameless narrator is determined to protect the precious jewels in her possession from her uncle, the Prospero-like ruler of an island stronghold. Locked in a battle of wills, her uncle is equally determined to steal the jewels and use their power in his attempts to conquer death by magic.<\/p>\n

Trapped in his house, she must use guile, strength, and the knowledge unlocked by a series of dreamlike encounters to escape without becoming herself a victim of his dark rituals. By the end of the novel, she has passed through numerous stages of transformation, discovered sexual ecstasy, spoken with the dead, and returned to where she began\u2014her family home.<\/p>\n

Enchanted islands, journeys across water, myth, magic and mystery define this narrative of twists and turns. The Goose of Hermogenes, which is another name for the philosopher\u2019s stone, can transmute base metals into gold and confer eternal life. Structured around the process of alchemical transformation, rife with symbolic imagery, hallucinatory trances and cries from the unconscious, Colquhoun\u2019s novel is a feminist fable and its creator\u2019s supreme artistic vision.<\/p>\n

“Originally published by Peter Owen in London, in 1961, Goose of Hermogenes has been rescued from neglect by Pushkin Press, reprinted in an attractive paperbound edition, with an introduction by Jennifer Higgie. The novel should find favor among adventurous readers who will find themselves drawn in to its mysterious world and mesmerized by its oneiric lyricism.”
\n–-Eclectica.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ithell Colquhoun<\/strong> (1906\u20131988) was a prominent British painter, author, and occultist who played a vital role in the British Surrealist movement before charting her own independent, esoteric path. Over a career spanning seven decades, she seamlessly blended automatism, Celtic mysticism, and hermetic rituals into a highly unique body of visual and written work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book Beat reading group will meet Wendesday, August 26 at 7pm for a discussion of Ithell Colquhoun’s novel: Goose of Hermogenes. Copies are in store now and discounted 15%. A trance-like feminist fairy tale of magic, alchemy, and the battle of the sexes—for fans of Angela Carter, Leonora Carrington, and O Caledonia Britain’s foremost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}