Ardath

Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self by Marie Corelli

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We had three things in common: We would try to fit them all in but not necessarily in that order. The hero, in love with a supernal angel but not yet worthy of union with her, travels back in time 7, years to a sweepingly fantastic world, undergoing transformative adventures. It was immediately compared to Vathek, a keystone of arabesque fantasy. Bentley said he thought it might have been above the heads of the public. And the chapter ends in the library with: In what way can Heliobas, who is dead to the world, serve one for whom surely as yet the world is everything?

And then before he can get well and truly underway, he collapses and appears to have died. He had entered in the Field of Ardath. And then the book takes off. But this indeed remains a favourite book of mine, perhaps to be reread when I have another decent hardcover.

Corelli was indeed a very unusual writer but I loved this book. My only complaint is that it is far too long with pages. Also I had someone lost my original copy I think that I lent it to someone but I cannot remember who and could only replace it at the time with a dreadful copy by Kessinger Publishing in the USA. She would boat on the Avon in a gondola, complete with a gondolier that she had brought over from Venice. View all 7 comments. May 06, Dave rated it really liked it Shelves: Many of the weaknesses of her first three books are still evident in this one.

There are the almost endless paragraphs which carry on for pages; the long speeches by characters voicing, quite often, the views of Corelli on society and religion; the characters who are flawlessly good, though admittedly there are fewer of them evident in this novel and very few of their opposites who are without some positive characteristics. Alwyn has spent his life chasing fame and seeks, and finds in the very first chapter the renowned Heliobas, whom he believes can help him gain fame and fortune.

As a result Heliobas tries to refuse, but is surprised when Alwyn has such power within him to force it to happen. When Alwyn returns, he writes a poem in a trance like state before gaining full consciousness. However, even before Alwyn sets out to find the field of Ardath where his Angel has told him to come, his faith has started to fade to his long-time skepticism.

By the time Alwyn gets to Ardath, he is very skeptical of all, including his fair Edris when he meets her in human form and his lack of faith drives her away. When he realizes what he has done, he falls to the ground among the flowers of Ardath. Alwyn awakes in a field outside a great city, with very little of his memory available, though able to speak the language of those who live there. He is forced to enter the city, and there he becomes a great friend to Sah-luma, the greatest poet of Al-Kyris and one who saves his life from a crowd who is about to kill him for disrespecting their priestess.

Through the course of this section, the largest of the book, the reader clues into Alwyn having been transported back in time around 7, years. The reader will often be ahead of the story, but that is not an issue because it is an enjoyable ride. Where Corelli hinted at fantasy in her previous works, this section it comes into full bloom, along with the occult and her Christian beliefs. This section also includes at the end another meeting between Alwyn and Edris, and this time it is a much more harmonious reunion. Fame has come to Alwyn in his absence, but he is not interested in it, and when society tries to demand his attention, he sets it on its ear with his open declarations of faith.

There does not seem to be much purpose to this section of the book, other than to pontificate a bit, though there is a story-line about Alwyn not wanting to ask Edris to become mortal and share his life on Earth. So Alwyn is determined to perform as best he can in trying to enlighten people and liberate them from the confines of the organized religions while looking forward to his departure after his life is over.

Once again the reader is well ahead of the story, and so it is no surprise how the book ends. While the first book is about on par with her other writings, and the last book I could have done without, overall the meat of this novel is in the second book and because of that it is easy to rate this novel above the others she wrote previously.

The strong fantasy and occult elements work well and it is easy to see why Marie Corelli considered this as one of her best works. Jan 26, Ron Grunberg rated it it was amazing Shelves: This guy, a pretty famous writer in England, at the turn of the last century, was pretty uninspired. He wasn't a religious man--far from it--but he ended up at an isolated monastery, where he was a guest during some rough weather for a night. He stood by and watched vespers. He ended up talking with the senior authority in the place, one of the monks, an austere yet cheerful man, a man very wise, who counseled this non-believing poet.

The poet, while eloquently arguing against the supremacy, or This guy, a pretty famous writer in England, at the turn of the last century, was pretty uninspired. The poet, while eloquently arguing against the supremacy, or even existence, of a God, nevertheless had heard of the senior monk's reputation as a mesmerizer, as someone who had long studied and could prompt some pretty severe changes of consciousness in people.

He begged him for some help, while dismissing the monk's very avowal of his source of power. Nevertheless, the protagonist had a pretty mesmerizing transformative experience, wrote during his stay the poem of his life--but still thirsted for more. It ended up he would get more than he bargained for. In a vision he was sent to the fields of Ardath, which is referred to in the bible as a pretty desolate stretch of land in a part of what is now Iraq in which, while things seemed drab and uninteresting, to spend the night there would open one up to earth-shattering changes.

He ended up awaking in a very strange place, Al-Kyris, and in short order attaching himself to the Poet Laureate of this strange land, Sah-luma. Theos, our protaganist, ends up a "visitor" in a society at least years old. He's there as if in a dream, able to use his mental facilities to the fullest, but unaware of any details of a past, except that there was one. But he's never brought to think about these things except to note, in a flurry of events, how much he does not know and cannot remember, and he finds the strangest similarities--indeed, some uncanny resemblances--regarding his new poet-friend.

In fact the poems Sah-luma rattles off at various official functions are the very stanzas--word-for-word--Theos himself had written--including the great one at the monastery. There's an extraordinarily alluring High Priestess of Al-Kyris, Lysia, who, adorned with bejeweled snakes and precious armbands, and lording over her palace full of dedicated and strange servants, is, at turns devastatingly tempting and bitterly cruel, using all her charms to try to, on the one hand, seduce Theos, and on the other,to get him to kill her alleged love, Sah-luma.

The plot is building towards the prophesied destruction of the whole city, which is ringed with a river darkening in crimson each day. Dec 20, Alexis Chateau rated it it was ok Shelves: This book was utterly-unfinishable. I really did, but after the th page of bullshit I just couldn't go any further.

I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because the skeleton of the plot was actually not bad. I really hate it when an author decides to use their characters to blatantly push their own opinion through lengthy conversations, where there is no progression and no action taking place. The book This book was utterly-unfinishable. The book proposes to take a logical and scientific approach to inspecting atheism, but it spent the entire time proving its own incapability to take a logical and scientific look at itself. This book was full of more inconsistencies than the Bible, and more emotional melodrama than a psychiatric session.

One primary inconsistency that bothered me was centered around the poem "Nourhalma" which the author never bothered to show in its entirety.

Ardath Watches

Sah-luma who originally wrote the poem in BC did not believe in life after death and was an atheist himself. When Theos returned to the s AD, his friend, Villiers describes the poem as pagan in that it speaks of eternal life and resembles Christianity- a creed that Sah-luma not only rejected, but which he threatened Theos to shut up about before he was killed for it. How then could Sah-luma and Theos have both written that poem?

Another contention I have with this book is the actual writing style. It took me about a week to make it through the first 10 pages alone, because of the lengthy sentences that seemed to possess every decoration of punctuation but a period. It was annoying beyond comprehension.

My final criticism is for Theos himself. He is a woman inasmuch as the author was. She was completely incapable of injecting some manhood into him, because of how much of a mirror of herself she had made him. The flashbacks he had were more annoying than the ones in the Bourne Identity, which is saying a lot.

Also, Theos was so humble as an atheist. The second he affirmed his faith, he became an ungrateful little self-righteous bastard. Funny enough, in the author's eyes, he was the exemplary model of a Christian. I don't doubt that there are people out there who will enjoy this, but not I. I end my self-induced torture here.

Nov 09, Ericavee rated it really liked it. This book is like every crazy late-nineteenth-century symbolist trope thrown into a blender and set on high. It's essentially a high-concept Orientalist fantasy smothered in the author's own blend of artist-as-priest Christian mysticism. An important note about the religious stuff—the version of Christ This book is like every crazy late-nineteenth-century symbolist trope thrown into a blender and set on high.

An important note about the religious stuff—the version of Christianity this book peddles is the mystic, occult variety that was very fashionable during Corelli's time, and I can see how it could simultaneously discomfit both devoutly religious readers and atheist readers allergic to any kind of sermonizing. I strongly advise not giving that much of a crap either way. It will serve you well. Overall, this book is best approached as a fascinating specimen.

It's an enthrallingly bizarre product of its time period, not to be taken too seriously but also pretty charming in its own right. For all of Corelli's indulgences, the book really does have a beautiful, dreamlike quality to it, though it only holds as long as you're willing to buy into her particular brand of weirdness for the duration.

And it's interesting to remember while reading that Corelli was one the best-selling popular authors of her time, and also one of the most controversial—any charge you want to level at her work for being overly florid, preachy, and pretentious, was being leveled at her by yesterday's critics, too.

And of course, she has mostly faded into obscurity. Feb 09, A. Theos Alwyn, poet and lost man, travels to an isolated monastery searching for a man who can take away his soul. He finds him in Heliobas, a seer who gave up drawing room seances for the isolation and worship of god.

A night of reflection and talk leads to Alwyn free writing an epic poem that he packs up and sends off to his publisher. He also meets an angel named Edris who tells him to search for Ardath. In the morning he heads off to the possible location of the fields of Ardath. He finds it an Theos Alwyn, poet and lost man, travels to an isolated monastery searching for a man who can take away his soul. He finds it and then seems to transport back to a previous time, where he can speak the language, understands what people say to him, and is the double of the local famous poet, Sah-Luma who clearly loves himself.

I see naught that contents me more than my own Personality,—and with all my heart I admire the miracle and beauty of my own existence! There is nothing even in the completest fairness of womanhood that satisfies me so much as the contemplation of my own genius,— realizing as I do its wondrous power and perfect charm!

The life of a poet such as I am is a perpetual marvel! Yes,—I adore my own Identity! As they left the garden the night fell, or appeared to fall, with almost startling suddenness, and at the same time, in swift defiance of the darkness, Sah-luma's palace was illuminated from end to end by thousands of colored lamps, all apparently lit at once by a single flash of electricity. They go to meet the king and the poet sings, but Theos freaks - it is his song.

He wrote it in his youth. This to me, is more evidence that this is some kind of dream.

A man Khosrul, is brought before the king. He says the king will kill Sah-Luma and makes a few other prophecies. They all laugh at him, but Theos is unnerved. In a rage, the king goes to slaughter him himself, but the lights go out and when they come back up Khosrul is gone. The two men attend a late night bacchanalia of the goddess Lysia. Lysia hands him a poisoned goblet. His body is weighted and tossed out into the lake. Then Lysia tries to seduce Theos and encourages him to kill Sah-Luma. Everyone wants this guy dead… he refuses of course, and throws the dagger out into the lake.

She threatens to kill Theos and he says he is dead already. Sah-Luma is his double as well. Is he another version of Theos? He carries another poem, four stanzas that Theos knows he wrote years ago and never published. But dragging his drunk friend home, he thinks he sees the King. Sah-Luma runs off and Theos ends up in a weird temple underground with skeleton warriors. Hidden by Zuriel, he sees two tortured people. For the unlawful communion of love between a vestal virgin and an anointed priest cannot be too utterly abhorred and condemned,—and these twain, who thus did foully violate their vows, have perished far too easily.

The sanctity of the Temple has been outraged,. Lysia will not be satisfied,… Ooh… she slaughters lovers? But then he notices that the man Zuriel, wears a simple Christian cross. He is so pleased to see it, he voices all the blessings, and Zuriel tells him it is a faith that will exist in 5, years time. Zuriel also tells him the city of Al-Kyris is twelve thousand years old.

That is how the 'liberty, equality, fraternity' system always begins—first among street- boys who think they ought to be gentlemen,—then among shopkeepers who persuade themselves that they deserve to be peers,—then comes a time of topsey-turveydom and fierce contention and by and by everything gets shaken together again in the form of a Republic, wherein the street-boys and shopkeepers are not a whit better off than they were under a monarchy—they become neither peers nor gentlemen, but stay exactly in their original places, with the disadvantage of finding their trade decidedly damaged by the change that has occurred in the national economy!

Bwahaha view spoiler [He finds Sah-Luma home and recovered from his night with no memory of seeing the king. They argue and Sah-Luma tells him the old prophecy that if the King consorts with the priestess of the temple, the city will fall. Something the sculptor at the party referred to and was killed for even saying.

And he was enraged when Khosrul called Lysia an "unvirgined virgin and Queen- Courtesan. A disturbance in the square has everyone there. Sah-Luma leaves the poem unfinished. Theos, overcome, professes his faith and says the son did arrive but years ago. Sah-Luma tries to cover for him but Khosrul accuses him of squandering his muse. Theos takes this to heart. But then the king rides into the crowd on his chariot, kills people, and demands that Khosrul is arrested.

Khosrul rails at the king, who beheads him - but not before he tells the king he will die tonight - and then the obelisk at the centre of the square splits in two and falls onto the crowd. Theos tries to convince Sah-Luma to go away with him but he refuses. Lysia is worshipped as the representation of her snake god by everyone in the city.

Theos refuses to bow and she notices. In front of the god Nagaya, no less.

I swear Lysia has engineered this. When the girl is asked what she wants, Theos thinks she is hypnotised; her answers make no sense. Theos accuses Lysia of drugging her but the ceremony continues. The king and Sah-Luma choose this moment to fight over Lysia. She just laughs, tells him she always hated him and begs the King to kill him.

Ardath (Holiday home), Cairnryan (UK) deals

But the King believes Sah-Luma as well. He accuses Lysia of having a thousand lovers. In the chaos, the panicked python winds itself around its mistress and kills her. The Ardath is Swiss made and the back of the stainless-steel casing boasts an unbreakable mainspring. The band is genuine lizard and in new condition--it doesn't seem like the watch was ever used.

Not complete, missing color bands. The bezels do not lock in place, I believe the band is suppose to hold the watch in place as not to. The watch works, can be worn as a necklace with pendant no chai Automatic, Wind Up, or Quartz?.

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Case Width w Crown: Weight including band if any: You are buying a vintage New Ardath 17 jewels Swiss Made ladies wind-up wristwatch for parts or repair not in working condition. There is no watchband. The stem is stuck and does not wind up possib Stamped on back Waterproof Incabloc Automatic Pat.

Leather band has age wear. This Ardath has a round two tone stainless steel display. This watch has an analog display with middle eastern script on one the left side and simple lines on the right. This piece is Swiss made and i I think this was part of a set with interchangeable bezels. I only have the one pictured.

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