The Red Lion: The Elixir of Eternal Life - Softcover

Maria Szepes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965262170 ISBN 13: 9780965262170

Publisher: Horus Publishing, 1998

Synopsis

Conceived amidst the horrors and hellfire of the Second World War, Mria Szepes' novel about a man's search for the Elixir of Life offered a glimpse of hope at a time of con-flagration. By giving a broad cosmic perspective to the events touching the lives of everyone in Europe in those years, she put human existence in a broader scale extending beyond daily life and put forth a reason for existence within the entirety of the Universe. After the war this remarkable book was published in Budapest but was soon banned by the government. Following decades of hibernation, like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, it took on a new life. It was translated into German and, in 1984, became "Book of the Month" in Germany. Then in 1985 it won fourth place in the prestigious Fritz Lasswitz award as the most interesting foreign novel. That year it was republished in Hungary, and altogether in Europe more than 300,000 copies have been sold.

About this title

About the Author

Maria Szepes was born Magdolna Scherbach in Budapest, Hungary December 14, 1908. From a theatrical family, she appeared as a film actress under the name Magda Papia from 1916 - 1933. On January 2, 1931 she married Bela Szepes and was happily married to him for 56 years. Initially they lived in Berlin where she worked as a journalist and screenwriter. The Red Lion, Szepes first novel, was published in 1946 in Hungary. It was an immediate bestseller. Considered dissentient by the communist regime, the book was banned and ordered destroyed. Four copies survived and the novel began to be distributed underground. It was eventually smuggled out of Hungary and appeared in the West in 1984. Maria Szepes died in Budapest, Hungary September 3, 2007. She was 98.

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-9652621-8-9 Originally published in 1946 in Hungary, this ambitious and relentlessly arcane novel reshapes the stuff of legend into a compelling, if ponderous, philosophical melodrama. Subtitled ``The Elixir of Eternal Life,'' it recounts the harrowing adventures endured, over a span of four centuries, by Hans Burgner, a 16th-century alchemist's apprentice who murders his master in order to possess a potion rumored to confer the gift of immortality. Having drunk this elixir, Burgner is condemned to be repeatedly reborn, century after century, as a cursed visionary who sees, but is powerless to prevent, the injustices and cruelties that lie in wait for his fellowmen. Eventually purified by his sufferings, Cornelius (Hans's final incarnation) fulfills his destiny: to prophesy, to a world ravaged by war, the reappearance of the Messiah. Discursive and hyperbolic, The Red Lion, a bulky mixture of biblical, alchemical, and historical lore (which rather resembles Eugene Sue's epic romance The Wandering Jew), nevertheless explores with passionate intensity its deeply flawed hero's passage from sin and error, through a world more flawed even than he, to a paradoxical state of grace. It's a very imperfect novel, but a memorable reading experience all the same. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Horus Publishing
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0965262170
• ISBN 13: 9780965262170
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 390