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The Poetic Enigma of Alfred de Vigny - The Rosetta Stone of Esoteric Literature

by Denise Bonhomme

502 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-1185; ISBN 1-55395-470-X; US$37.00, C$43.00, EUR30.50, £21.50

The Poetic Enigma of ALfred de Vigny is the companion book to What Voltaire Tries to Tell Us - The Esoteric Substance of Voltairian Thought

This book is devoted to the veiled message transmitted in the works of famous authors over a period of centuries. Esoteric literature is the massive body of Western and other writings containing a philosophical "contraband"-ever the same under a deceptive variety of surfaces or veils. In the words of Marcel Proust, "The great writers have never done but one work."

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts       catalogue info

About the Book This book is devoted to the veiled message transmitted in the works of famous authors over a period of centuries. Esoteric literature is the massive body of Western and other writings containing a philosophical "contraband"-ever the same under a deceptive variety of surfaces or veils. In the words of Marcel Proust, "the great writers have never done but one work." Alfred de Vigny- a nineteenth century poet, novelist and playwright- belongs to the literary brotherhood involved in the transmission of the concealed message. Rabelais, Voltiare, Anatole France, Ibsen and Proust are only a few of his fellow-smugglers. English and American literatures have their share of such writers. So does the literary heritage of other European nations and of Latin America. This book contains a glossary of major key-words of the verbal "algebra" used by esoteric writers. Sensitive readers are encouraged to read the biography and the glossary first and the poetry of Vigny next. This will enable some of them to discover by and for themselves the full beauty and depth of the texts. Extraordinary findings await the esoteric readers of the literary production of Vigny. There are hints of the greatness of Atlantis. There is a vast panorama of Time and Space. There are suggestions of a startling view of the inner structure of planet Earth, a view that is also reflected in the various utopias of classical authors. Last but not least, there is the generally unsuspected, radiant reality of the works and the life of Vigny. Please visit: www.degn.org/Bonhomme

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About the Author Denise BONHOMME. Born in 1926 in France. Her childhood and youth were spent in Normandy and Picardy. Baccalauréat (Philosophie), Académie de Lille. Classical studies at the Sorbonne for two years. Came to the US in 1947. Held various secretarial positions in Texas. Taught French language and literature in an Oregon College. M.A. degree, French Literature, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon USA. Ph.D candidate, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. She became aware of the veiled message of Alfred de Vigny in the summer of 1968. She re-examined the works of other writers with the esoteric possiblity in mind. The initial manuscript of The Esoteric Substance of Voltairian Thought was finished in 1969. Its first edition was published in 1974. A second edition entitled WHAT VOLTAIRE TRIES TO TELL US-The Esoteric Substance of Voltairian Thought was published in 2000. The Poetic Enigma of Alfred de Vigny- The Rosetta Stone of Esoteric Literature was first completed in manuscript form in 1993. Denise Bonhomme lives in California.

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Sample Excerpts

The purpose of the present work is twofold: (1) To introduce a major poetic production to the English-reading public- in other words, to translate; (2) To unveil the concealed message of a writer eminently relevant to our age.

"Every idea has its hour," says the author in the Preface to the Third Edition of his Ancient and Modern Poems. Vigny expected his legacy of secret lore to reach port in due course of time and to open the domain of esoteric literature to the general public. In this specialized task of posthumous enlightenment Vigny differs from other "smugglers" whose veiled message is the same as his own. The works of such writers require pre-existing esoteric insight if they are to be probed in depth. It is impossible, for instance, to perceive the concealed tenor of the Proustian Recherche du temps perdu without more than ordinary understanding of Voltaire, Vigny and others. It is likewise impossible to fully grasp- sometimes even to notice- the provocative allusions made to certain writers by esoteric colleagues. Unlike such authors, Vigny meant to be a "smuggler" of the most elementary degree. He wished to make the veiled core of his writings accessible to the non-initiate or novice esoteric student. His poetry was designed accordingly. Attentive readers may identify the word of his poetic enigma:

"The masses deserve the love and tender pity of poets; they do not have time,... to seek the word of our poetic enigma. The masses read only in lost moments, and they do not have any moments to lose, except at rare intervals when the earth is resting."(Diary, 1849)

The same attentive readers will understand Vigny's puzzling observation on printing:

"The ancients had over us the advantage of being unacquainted with the printing process. This will seem strange, but to my conviction is that that ignorance, which is unfavorable to the propagation of ideas and to their recognition, favored the purification of taste and of choice among masterpieces. Plato says somewhere that he copied five times in his own hand the orations of Dermosthenes. Thus a poet or a great writer had readers who were forced to be attentive and to apply themselves to know and meticulously observe the least details of the beauties of style." (Diary, 1839)

Were he living in our times, Vigny would have no use and no respect for the XXth Century invention known as "speed reading".

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Catalogue Information

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