The Caravan Library

Walter Pater’s Studies in the History of the Renaissance was one of the most talked about books in nineteenth-century Britain, and it remains a work of unusual importance to anyone interested in art history or English literature. Pater’s luxurious and finely wrought style inspired generations of writers, and his unique blend of scholarship, philosophy, and personal bias made his view of the quintessential ‘spirit of the renaissance’ a key subject for subsequent aesthetic debate.

In the train, even before St. John's was passed, a touch of inevitable reaction had set in, and Rogers asked himself why he was going. For a sentimental journey was hardly in his line, it seemed. But no satisfactory answer was forthcoming — none, at least, that a Board or a Shareholders' Meeting would have considered satisfactory. The old vicar spoke to him strangely. "We've not forgotten you as you've forgotten us," he said. "And the place, though empty now for years, has not forgotten you either, I'll be bound." Rogers brushed it off. Just silliness — that was all it was. But after St. John's the conductor shouted, "Take your seats Take your seats The Starlight Express is off to Fairyland Show your tickets Show your tickets " And then the forgotten mystery of his childhood came back to him. . .

It was an innocent enough advertisement but curious. "WANTED, by Retired Clergyman, Secretarial Assistant with courage and imagination. Tenor voice and some knowledge of Hebrew essential; single; unworldly. Apply Philip Skale . . . ' Robert Spinrobin applied. Later, struggling to keep pace with his new employer as they strode across the steep valleys around Skale's isolated house, he was swept up in the sheer enthusiasm and urgency of the man. But a thin trickle of fear warned him that he was embarking on the greatest adventure of his life. Was it possible that Philip Skale had discovered some hidden power of sound which held the entire universe in its pulses? Could it be that the uttering of a word, a name, the Name above all names, might suddenly unlock the secrets of life and death? No single voice was capable of it. Four voices were needed a human chord in perfect harmony. So Philip Skale had gathered the four of them together into his household Mrs. Mawle, the alto; Skale's niece Miriam, the soprano; Spinrobin; and Skale himself, whose rich bass would complete the chord. But suppose it didn't. Suppose, when the great hour came, something went wrong, and what was summoned was not God but the Devil, not a new creation but the destruction of all created things. Spinrobin, on the verge of finding unhoped-for happiness, seemed alone in realising the possibility of awesome danger.