Death and the Maiden

Начало книги

‘But howsoever it be (gentle reader), I pray thee take it in good part, considering that for thee I have taken this pain, to the intent that thou mayst read the same with pleasure’ William Adlington—To the Reader of the Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius

*

and to the

RIVER ITCHEN

‘From all diseases that arise,

From all disposed crudities;

From too much study, too much pain,

From laziness and from a strain;

From any humour doing harm,

Be it dry, or moist, or cold, or warm.

Then come to me, whate’er you feel,

Within, without, from head to heel.’

Anonymous (Early 17th century)—from the later editions of SIR THOMAS OVERBURY’S MISCELLANY

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell – or ‘The Great Gladys’ as Philip Larkin described her – was born in 1901, in Cowley in Oxfordshire. She graduated in history from University College London and in 1921 began her long career as a teacher. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and attributed her interest in witchcraft to the influence of her friend, the detective novelist Helen Simpson.

Читать дальше →