Volume 41, Number 8 · April 21, 1994
The Magic of W.B. Yeats
By Denis Donoghue
Yeats's 'Vision' Papers, Volume 1: The Automatic Script: 5 November 1917–18 June 1918
General editor: George Mills Harper, edited by Steve L. Adams, by Barbara J. Frieling, by Sandra L. Sprayberry
University of Iowa Press, 565 pp., Three-volume set $135.00
Yeats's 'Vision' Papers, Volume 2: The Automatic Script: 25 June 1918–29 March 1920
General editor: George Mills Harper, edited by Steve L. Adams, by Barbara J. Frieling, by Sandra L. Sprayberry
University of Iowa Press, 596 pp., Three-volume set $135.00
Yeats's 'Vision' Papers, Volume 3: Sleep and Dream Notebooks, 'Vision' Notebooks 1 and 2, Card File
General editor: George Mills Harper, edited by Robert Anthony Martinich, by Margaret Mills Harper
University of Iowa Press, 444 pp., Three-volume set $135.00
The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893–1938
edited by Anna MacBride White, by A. Norman Jeffares
Norton, 544 pp., $35.00
Running to Paradise: Yeats's Poetic Art
by M.L. Rosenthal
Oxford University Press, 362 pp., $30.00
Yeats and Artistic Power
by Phillip L. Marcus
New York University Press, 263 pp., $40.00
One afternoon in May 1911 W.B. Yeats, visiting his friend and former lover Olivia Shakespear in London, was introduced to an English girl named Bertha Georgiana Hyde-Lees. He was nearly forty-six years old, 'George' a few months over eighteen. A friendship soon developed, enthusiastic on her part, warier on his. They had much in common, including an interest in esoteric philosophy, astrology, the Tarot, and magic. They attended seances together. In 1914 George was admitted, with Yeats as sponsor, to the Stella Matutina Section of the Golden Dawn, a secret society devoted to occult science and magic. By November 1915 the question of marriage had arisen, but there were difficulties. Yeats was still enchanted with Maud Gonne, although she had desecrated their love in 1903 by marrying Major John MacBride:
Review, 6861 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |