The Alchemist

Livraga, Jorge A.

ISBN 10: 8485982665 / ISBN 13: 9788485982660

Published by New Acropolis Cultural Assn

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8485982665 Very good shape,clean pages,tight binding,text unmarked. Bookseller Inventory #

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Synopsis: The Alchemist is a historical novel about an aspiring young chemist who is a member of a Hermetic Lodge in the 16th Century. The brilliant youth is seeking wisdom and wishes to learn the secrets of Alchemy. The Holy Inquisition proclaims him a heretic. He is torn by his love for Hypatia, who is also a seeker of truth, and does not want to leave her, but he is forced to flee to save both of their lives.

His adventures lead him to Egypt and India, and he finally meets the great master Giordano Bruno who instructs him in the Mysteries of Transmutation. He knows that he must go back and share his newfound wisdom, but how can he do it without risking his life and the lives of those he loves?

In addition to being a best selling novel, The Alchemist is an extremely well-researched book which reveals much about the lost science of Alchemy and those who practiced it.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.: The bubbling of the liquids in the old retorts held for Pablo Simon the mysterious power of the singing of sirens; it took him out of his unfathomable inner ocean and bound him to the rocks of tangibility, on the rough continent of matter. But soon enough, like sea winds, the invisible heralds of the horizon reminded him of his inner nature as a voyager. Through the small window, he looked up at the sky and saw the first stars appearing. The solution on which he was working was now almost totally crystallized. Later he would have to melt it down again in his iron cauldron.

"As if this substance were a great soul," he thought, "it manifests thousands of crystallizations of itself; then they are united and fused into the primary substance and so the process continues, until all that remains is a single liquid, transparent and pure..."

The soporific singing of the cauldrons lost its importance for him, and he stood up and left the instruments, the furnace and the retorts. He took off his heavy leather apron and his slate-colored shirt.

The foul air of the subterranean laboratory fled from his lungs as soon as he came out into the chill night, and the whole of his being felt suddenly cleansed... (pg.15)

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Alchemist
Publisher: New Acropolis Cultural Assn
Binding: PAPERBACK
Book Condition: Very Good