Hitherto, we have made only brief references to A Voyage to Arcturus. This omission appears much more serious in that this book is the most famous of all David Lindsay's writing. The time has come, therefore, to do it justice. It has been called ‘an irritatingly-undefinable’ book, which has scarcely anything in common with other novels, English or foreign, contemporaneous or otherwise. It is, in truth, a book of many facets, being at once a work of imagination, a philosophical novel and a symbolic novel.

A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, WORK OF IMAGINATION

The cosmic journey

It will be necessary to wait nearly half a century for A Voyage to Arcturus to take its place in the first rank of fantasy literature. This view is shared by the author of quite a recent study. To-day, as we know, the wonderful, the mysterious, the strange, all appeal to current tastes. It may possibly be due to the books of Tolkien, and also to an unprecedented effort on the part of literary critics, that homage has at last been paid to this old genre that has now become one of the most lively forms of literature.

It must be conceded, however, that only the most die-hard fanatics will enthuse unreservedly over the writing of Rider Haggard, A. E. Van Vogt and Clifford D. Simak. Only a few titles from the output of these authors are remembered as more than a pleasant form of diversion.