Stuart’s Reviews > The Great God Pan and The Hill of Dreams > Status Update

Oh lord, what a sad tale is The Hill of Dreams. A frustrating read, withholding relatively minor or predictable revelations with a morass of descriptive thought, especially the final chapter. Expected though it is, and cruelly brief as it turns out to be, the ending chills the heart. I can forgive the story its longueurs and I’m glad I read it but I don’t think I’d read it again.

And a delightful satirical tone at times. “He felt that he ought to ask himself some serious questions” (etc)

What a strange story

The aesthete, the dreamer in the lumpen world of philistines, seeing his surroundings so differently.

The Hill of Dreams is a real oddity. It feels somewhat autobiographical/meta, somewhat spiritual and somewhat cruel. Moments of sublime repose punctured by man’s inhumanity to man (and animals) both mental (social) and physical. Quite hard to maintain concentration at times but some rewarding moments. (Currently read chapters 1-3).