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Du Maurier masterfully blends sci-fi, the gothic atmosphere of Cornwall, and psychological drama – about addiction, escape from reality, identity, and the value of nostalgia. A tense and introspective novel, with an emphasis on how the past can be more da
Dick Young, a forty-year-old man in the throes of a midlife crisis, borrows Kilmarth House on the Cornish coast from his old friend, biochemistry professor Magnus Lane. Magnus, an eccentric genius, convinces Dick to be the guinea pig for his secret experimental drug - a compound that allows mental time travel, but not physical action in the past.
Dick agrees and soon finds himself in the 14th century, in the village of Tywardreath (whose name means "house on the shore" in Cornish). He becomes an invisible observer of the lives of medieval characters: intrigue, adultery, political intrigue, murder and the daily lives of nobles, peasants and monks. Each time he takes the drug, Dick becomes more and more immersed in this past - fascinated by its raw power, secrets and human passions.
In the present, Dick's life with his American wife Vita and their sons becomes increasingly boring and tense. He becomes addicted to travel: he takes higher doses, spends more and more time in the past, neglects his family and reality. The boundaries between the two worlds are erased - Dick begins to lose his sense of reality, experiences hallucinations and dangerous consequences.
The novel ends dramatically: Dick's last "jump" brings him to the time of the Black Death in 1349, and Magnus disappears under mysterious circumstances. Dick realizes the terrible price of escaping the present - the past can swallow a person if he becomes too attached to it.
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- Die Abdeckung fehlt
