The Centaur
1911
The Centaur, published in 1911 by Algernon Blackwood, is a supernatural novel that follows Terence O'Malley, a man struggling to find his place in a modern world disconnected from nature. During a cruise through the Greek islands, he encounters a father and son whose presence evokes deep emotions and a sense of belonging. The narrative explores themes of identity, intuition, and the spiritual connection to the natural world, while also hinting at repressed desires and the influence of ancient forces. Blackwood's work is notable for its poetic style and psychological depth, earning praise from contemporaries like H.P. Lovecraft.
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“By which I mean that he saw in commonplace events the movement of greater tides than others saw.””
— Algernon Blackwood
“Any little Dreamer in his top-floor back, spinning by rushlight his web of beauty, was greater than the finest critical intelligence that ever lived. The one, for all his poor technique, was stammering over something God had whispered to him, the other merely destroying thoughts invented by the brain of man.””
— Algernon Blackwood
“He surprised Eternity in a running Moment.””
— Algernon Blackwood
“He was forever deciphering the huge horoscope of Life, yet getting no further than the House of Wonder, on whose cusp surely he had been born.””
— Algernon Blackwood
“I never realized before that the mere size of our old planet could have hindered the perception of so fair a vision, or her mere quantitative bulk have killed automatically in the mind the possible idea of her being in some sense living.””
— Algernon Blackwood
“The terror of a great freedom caught him, a freedom most awfully remote from the smaller personal existence he knew Today … for it suggested, with awe and wonder, the kind of primitive utterance that was before speech or the development of language; when emotions were still too vague and mighty to be caught by little words, but when beings, close to the heart of their great Mother, expressed the feelings, enormous and uncomplex, of the greater life they shared as portions of her”
— Algernon Blackwood
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Blackwood, Algernon. The Centaur. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-centaur-ee3b85e8-8b6b-43a5-8da3-fd651471e4c5.Blackwood, A. (1911). The Centaur. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-centaur-ee3b85e8-8b6b-43a5-8da3-fd651471e4c5Blackwood, Algernon. The Centaur. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-centaur-ee3b85e8-8b6b-43a5-8da3-fd651471e4c5.
