The Centaur

On a cruise through the Greek islands, a man encounters a handsome father and his son. He is strangely drawn to his his fellow travellers, and discovers with some elation that they will all share a cabin aboard ship. Tricks of the light seem to join the pair into a single being when they walk ashore, and at times a third, much larger being appears to join them. Is the protagonist hallucinating, or is he experiencing repressed homosexual desires? Or is something darker and more ancient at work? Blackwood weaves a poetic, erotically charged tale against the exotic backdrop of the Greek islands.Algernon Blackwood was an occult researcher, a practising magician and a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He used this extensive esoteric knowledge to produce novels and short stories that do far more than merely entertain, but are replete with hidden themes and allegories concerning the nature of the supra-mundane world and the array of psychological and spiritual states that humanity may attain. The Centaur is one of Blackwood's most profound works, at once a celebration, and a warning, of the power of nature and her spiritual minions. A compelling book, whose author was praised by H.P. Lovecraft for penning "some of the finest spectral literature of this or any age."