Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Oxford University Press (1997), Mass Market Paperback, 267 pages
Description
Young Englishwoman Kore Arabin has inherited a remote Greek island from her father. The superstitious islanders blame Kore for every mishap and natural disaster. Sir Edward Leithen and Vernon Milburne must save her before the islanders sacrifice her as a witch in the sacred ground called The Dancing Floor.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I found this an enjoyable novel though it is far from Buchan’s finest. Once again the principal character is Sir Edward Leithen (perhaps of all his characters the one who most closely resembled Buchan himself) who, having made his name and fortune as an accomplished barrister, became an MP,
The novel takes the form of reminiscences from Leithen recounted over glasses of port across several evenings in his gentleman’s club, and tell of the strange adventures that befell Vernon Milburne, a young companion of his who had been orphaned at a young age and subsequently gone on to became a renowned classicist.
Every spring Milburne found himself having the same dream, full of alarming yet unspecified presentiment. In the dream he found himself sleeping in a strange large house, aware of some threatening presence that was searching for him. Each year the presence came a bit nearer, coming one room closer in the large labyrinthine house. Milburne becomes convinced that the eventual arrival in his own room of this phantom presence will unleash dramatic forces within his real life.
Life moves on, and Milburne continues to have the dream each year, and the presence continues to come one room closer each time. Even the intervention of World War One, in which both Leithen and Milburne serve with credit, each being invalided out, fails to break the sequence of dreams. However, in the meantime both Leithen and Milburne separately encounter the bizarre and exotic Kore Arabin, only child or the dissolute and rakish Shelley Arabin. Kore has inherited her father’s estate in Greece but now finds herself beset with local disputes that owe more to the darker side of Greek mythology than twentieth century life.
This is one of Buchan’s more fanciful (and, to my mind, less successful) novels, owing more than a little to J G Frasier’s then recently-published “The Golden Bough” which awoke hitherto unrecognised affinities with primordial legend across British society. Still, even if it doesn’t pass muster alongside such glorious works as “John Macnab”, this book is as beautifully written as ever, with Buchan’s trademark pellucid prose and simple yet immensely plausible characterisation. Perhaps this time, though, the sense of yearning for a better, more idealistic age leaves the reader with a slightly stronger sense of melancholy than is the case with Buchan’s more boisterous books.
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serving as Attorney general.The novel takes the form of reminiscences from Leithen recounted over glasses of port across several evenings in his gentleman’s club, and tell of the strange adventures that befell Vernon Milburne, a young companion of his who had been orphaned at a young age and subsequently gone on to became a renowned classicist.
Every spring Milburne found himself having the same dream, full of alarming yet unspecified presentiment. In the dream he found himself sleeping in a strange large house, aware of some threatening presence that was searching for him. Each year the presence came a bit nearer, coming one room closer in the large labyrinthine house. Milburne becomes convinced that the eventual arrival in his own room of this phantom presence will unleash dramatic forces within his real life.
Life moves on, and Milburne continues to have the dream each year, and the presence continues to come one room closer each time. Even the intervention of World War One, in which both Leithen and Milburne serve with credit, each being invalided out, fails to break the sequence of dreams. However, in the meantime both Leithen and Milburne separately encounter the bizarre and exotic Kore Arabin, only child or the dissolute and rakish Shelley Arabin. Kore has inherited her father’s estate in Greece but now finds herself beset with local disputes that owe more to the darker side of Greek mythology than twentieth century life.
This is one of Buchan’s more fanciful (and, to my mind, less successful) novels, owing more than a little to J G Frasier’s then recently-published “The Golden Bough” which awoke hitherto unrecognised affinities with primordial legend across British society. Still, even if it doesn’t pass muster alongside such glorious works as “John Macnab”, this book is as beautifully written as ever, with Buchan’s trademark pellucid prose and simple yet immensely plausible characterisation. Perhaps this time, though, the sense of yearning for a better, more idealistic age leaves the reader with a slightly stronger sense of melancholy than is the case with Buchan’s more boisterous books.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
This is the 3rd book in the Sir Edward Leithen series by John Buchan and the one I liked the least so far. I liked the setting but there was too much 'touch of the mystical' for me about both Vernon & the plot in general.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
2023 reread: Yup, the paranormal aspects are just too much for me. There are some paranormal or mystical touches in some of Buchan's other books (in Greenmantle for example) but not as prominent as in this book.
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2018 review:
This is the 3rd book in the Sir Edward Leithen series by John Buchan
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2018 review:
This is the 3rd book in the Sir Edward Leithen series by John Buchan
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and the one I liked the least so far. I liked the setting but there was too much 'touch of the mystical' for me about both Vernon & the plot in general. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1926
Physical description
267 p.; 7.17 inches
ISBN
0192832875 / 9780192832870