Карен Армстронг – The Spiral Staircase (страница 1)
THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE
KAREN ARMSTRONG
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollins
This edition published by Harper
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Copyright © Karen Armstrong 2004
Karen Armstrong asserts the moral right to be
identified as the author of this work
PS Section copyright © Georgina Laycock 2005
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Estate of
T. S. Eliot and Faber & Faber Ltd, for permission to reprint an excerpt
from the poem ‘Ash-Wednesday’, from
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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HarperCollins
Source ISBN: 9780007122295
Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN 9780007372720
Version: 2017-03-23
From the reviews of
‘A book full of riches’
MICHÈLE ROBERTS,
‘Unputdownable – absorbing, moving and hopeful’
‘Her prose is admirably lucid … She writes with great insight and clarity about shifting states of mind and of feeling and about the evolution of thought, and she gives a more exact and vivid account of the pleasures of writing than any I have come across in a literary biography’
LUCY HUGHES-HALLETT,
‘Open, accessible, writing without jargon or denominational loyalty, Armstrong manages to put into words something that most of us cannot express … She tells a good tale at her own expense. She recounts the challenges she faced on her journey with amusement, a good ear for dialogue and an absence of self-pity or piety’
‘This terrifically readable book … is a fine testament to how the effort to escape self-pity and sustain the spirit in adversity is itself richly creative and can reward’
SALLEY VICKERS,
‘Written with enormous charm and elegance … If you are mystified as to why religion, which you thought was all but dead and buried, has bounced back with such alarming impact on to the human scene, then Karen Armstrong is probably your best guide’
Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again
Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice
And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget