The Philosopher's Stone ( Black Stage , Fr. L'Œuvre au noir ) is a historical novel by the French writer Marguerite Jursenard , published in 1968 in Paris by the publishing house Gallimar . The second major novel Yursenar; in the same year he was awarded the Femina Prize .
| Philosopher's Stone | |
|---|---|
| L'Œuvre au noir | |
 Hans Vredeman de Vries . Alchemist's Laboratory | |
| Genre | Novel |
| Author | Marguerite Jursenar |
| Original language | French |
| Date of first publication | 1968 |
| Publishing house | |
Content
About Content
The action takes place in Central Europe of the 16th century (mainly in Flanders), split by a religious conflict and shaken by wars. The protagonist is Zenon Liger, an alchemist, doctor and natural scientist. The main prototype was Paracelsus , and the features of famous figures of the late Renaissance: Copernicus , Etienne Dole , Miguel Servet , Girolamo Cardano , Ambroise Pare [1] were also used to create the image.
The original name of the novel is the Black Stage (or the Stage of Blackening ) - the name of the first and most complex stage ( nigredo , or melanosis ) of the alchemical process - Great Work .
The essence of the black stage is “separation and decomposition of the substance” [2] to the state of a certain amorphous “black mass” of primary elements, in which, as in the initial chaos, all potentialities are hidden. The highest stage of alchemy - a kind of theurgic magic - involves the product of a similar process in the experimenter himself - ritual ( initiatory ) death and rebirth in a new quality. In Jung’s analytical psychology , on the well-known work of which “Psychology and Alchemy” was based on Jursenar, Great work corresponds to the process of individualization of personality, and transmutation means acquiring the archetype of “self” [3] .
Now two branches of the parabola met: mors philosophica happened: the acid-burned operator was both a subject and an object, a fragile distillation apparatus and black sediment at the bottom of the receiving vessel. The experience, which was considered possible to limit to the laboratory, spread to all ...
- Jursenar M. Memories of Hadrian. Philosopher's Stone. M., 1984, p. 306.
According to the author, the black stage also symbolically signifies attempts of the spirit to break out of the captivity of habitual ideas, routines and prejudices [2] .
Zeno goes through its "black stage" against the background of the horrors of Europe during the era of religious wars. Most of the characters in the novel die a painful death, frequent descriptions of cruelty and the methods of execution adopted at that time [3] . A kind of false novel in the novel clearly and vividly depicts the activities of Jan Leiden and his minions, the tragedy of Munster , who fell victim to the madness of fanatics, and the bloody finale of the Anabaptist sect.
According to researchers, in the novel there is evidence that Zeno, without knowing it, passes after the black stage white ( albedo ), and in the end, which is clearly mythological in nature, reaches the red stage ( rubedo ), completing the alchemical transmutation [4] .
Despite the abundance of alchemical and Kabbalistic allusions, the “Black Stage” is not a novel about alchemy, avoids mysticism and reflects quite traditional humanistic ideas. Alchemy in the novel is present mainly in the symbolic, Jungian sense.
Work on the book
The novel is written in the same monumental prose, reminiscent of cast bronze, as " Memoirs of Hadrian "; admired critics called the style of both works “marble” [5] . As with the creation of the previous novel, Jursenar has done significant work on the study of sources.
Descriptions of Zeno's scientific research are made, for the most part, on the basis of Leonardo's "Notebooks" [6] . The Latin formulas of alchemical manipulations are taken from the works of Marcelin Berthelot “Chemistry in the Middle Ages” (1893), C. G. Jung “Psychology and Alchemy” (1944, 1952) and Julius Evola's “Hermetic Tradition” (1948), authors who adhered to different views on alchemy [2] .
The book is based on the novel “Based on Dürer”, published in 1934 as part of the collection “Death rules the Wagon” and is a fragment of a youthful novel written by Yursenar in 1921–1924. She returned to this topic in the mid-1950s, at the end of work on Adrian's Memories. Basically, the novel was written by 1965 [7] .
When creating the novel, the same meditative tricks were used as during the work on Adrian:
When I wrote the second and third parts of this book, I often mentally or in an undertone repeated: Zeno, Zeno, Zeno, Zeno, Zeno, Zeno ... Twenty times, a hundred times and more. And she felt that as this name was repeated, reality became a little more condensed.
- Yursenar. M. Notes to the novel, p. 611
Screen version
In 1988, Andre Delvaux made a self-titled film based on the novel; the role of Zeno was performed by Jan Maria Volonte .
Notes
- ↑ Yourcenar, p. 369-370
- ↑ 1 2 3 Yourcenar, p. 373
- ↑ 1 2 Weinstein, p. 638
- ↑ Weinstein, p. 639
- ↑ Weinstein, p. 629
- ↑ Yourcenar, p. 371
- ↑ Jursenar, p. 587-588
Literature
- Yourcenar M. Note de l'auteur / L'Œuvre au noir. P., 1968
- Weinstein, O.B. Marguerite Jursenar // French Literature 1945-1990. M .: Heritage, 1995. ISBN 5-201-13223-5
- Yursenar M. Author's note. Notes to the novel / Selected works. Volume II St. Petersburg: Ivan Limbach Publishing House, 2004. ISBN 5-89059-041-3
See also
- 100 books of the century according to Le Monde