Alembic is an unsettling novel about madness and alchemy, epistemology and rock and roll, magic and perversion. Thomas Graves, a young antiquarian, works for ALEMBIC, a British government office investigating the contemporary applications of the secrets of alchemy. The strange world of alchemy, however, is as eerie as the rock and roll world of Thomas's friend Nicholas Spark, leader of a Led Zeppelin-like band called Celestial Praylin. Moving between these worlds, colorfully conveyed in d'Arch Smith's sonorous prose - at times elegant, at times comic - Thomas Graves feels his grip on reality constantly imperilled; his attraction to the fourteen-year-old daughter of one of his colleagues complicates his existence further. A dramatic turn of events brings all of his fears and fancies out in the open, suggesting finally that the world is as mad as Thomas thought himself to be. Alembic is itself an alembic, a vessel that allows things to disintegrate and be transformed into new, refined substances. Set largely in the early 1980s, Alembic ends in the early years of the twenty-first century as alchemy engineers a new world order of darkness and perfection, destruction and eternal life, concluding a novel of great originality and ill-boding.

Alembic

Smith, Timothy D'Arch

D'Arch Smith, Timothy

Literature & Fiction

Dalkey Archive Press

Timothy d'Arch Smith is a well-known bibliographer, reviewer and antiquarian bookseller with a special interest in the by-ways of literature, notably the occult and the curious.  For Aleister Crowley a book was a talisman and their every part right down to colour, dimension, and price was symbolic. He also used magical techniques to gain literary success--thus new editions of Crowley's writing multiply daily, tantalizing the bibliographer. All the more indispensable is this authoritative guide to his magical first editions.  Timothy d'Arch Smith, widely acknowledged as a leading expert on Crowley and on underground literature, offers several shorter articles on:  *Oxford's demonologist Montague Summers;  *R A Caton and his Fortune Press;  *Sexual prophet Ralph Chubb;  *Florence Farr;  *The British Library Private Case;  *and Timothy d'Arch Smith.  *For this new edition, he also adds an extra chapter on Crowley.     ''...one could hardly wish for a more stimulating guide...''  -The London Magazine  ''One of the more immediately striking things about the book is its gentle humour.''  - Time Out

The Books of the Beast: A guide to Aleister Crowley's Magical 1st Editions

Smith, T. d'Arch

d'Arch Smith, T.

British & Irish

Mandrake of Oxford

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by D'Arch Smith, Timothy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by D'Arch Smith, Timothy