De vises sten

by Johannes Anker Larsen

I sin fortælling om hvad det vil sige, og hvad det indebærer, at være et spirituelt søgende menneske, er J. Anker Larsens roman De vises sten fra 1923 forbløffende aktuel. I både dramatiske og også bevægende beskrivelser følger vi romanpersonernes åndelige søgen efter sandheden om det Guddommelige og livets store mening. Det er tydeligt, at mystikeren Anker Larsen skriver ud fra sine egne spirituelle erfaringer, hvilket giver romanen et ligefremt og autentisk udtryk; som når han fortæller om børnenes spontane tilgang til spirituel åbenhed i deres omgang med naturen – en tilstand som romanens hovedperson længes efter at komme tilbage til. I sin stræben efter dette, møder han det okkulte, den katolske mystik, studerer teologi , teosofi og indiske træningsøvelser.
De vises sten nærmer sig med sine dybe og alsidige beskrivelser af menneskets sind, psyke og ånd et niveau på linje med Dostojevskij.
Romanen vandt førsteprisen i Gyldendals store romankonkurrence og er oversat til flere sprog.

Genres: Fiction

485 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

Reviews

[Torben Husum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trist at kun få vil læse den og færre forstå den. For den er et mesterværk.

[Reijo Oksanen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read this book some 20 years ago, and now in 2022, I must confess that I have got much more from this on the 2nd reading than on the first. Meanwhile, I am re-reading some of Johannes Anker-Larsen's books, and discovering new ones. In this process he has become my favourite writer.
The Philosopher's Stone is a translation of the original Danish book De Vises Sten, which came out in 1923.
It is worth noting that most of Anker-Larsen's books, which were all written and published in Danish, were also published in three other Nordic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish), and in English and German. This means that one can find many of his books in these languages in the libraries. Some of them have also been retranslated and published after 50 and more years after his death.
This book is often named to be the main work by J. Anker-Larsen, but it can be a rather big surprise to find that the other books are more interesting, at least this happened to me. There is nothing wrong with Philosopher's Stone, which tells a story of two young men, from the rural place where they were born in Denmark through their youth, studies in Copenhagen.
The other was a longer time in America, and this had a great, and positive, influence on his character. Both were looking for help, mainly from theosophy, although theosophy is not the theme of the story, although some critics have said that the book is theosophical - it is much more than that, based on Anker-Larsen's deep understanding of the 'present of the now' and the 'present of eternity', ideas that repeat in his books with different characters and meanings.

[Russell Stamets · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of those cases where it wasn't what I thought it was, but it hooked me anyway.