The Chymical Wedding

In Lindsay Clarke's second novel, which won a Whitbread Prize in 1989, alchemy infuses the language and imagery of a tale that unfolds as two separate stories. In the first sequence, a poet named Alex Darken falls into an abusive, yet obsessive triangle with an alcoholic elderly poet and a beautiful, troubled psychic. Together they pursue the alchemical and personal secrets of the spirited Louisa Agnew, the central character of the second story. Louisa is a woman devoted to a self-centered father whose fascination with the hermetic arts forces her to confront her own dark side and her feelings for a tormented minister. As the characters struggle for wholeness of spirit, they each uncover their hidden potential for passion and violence.