Colin Wilson, The Magician from Siberia

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1988

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)
Novel

Resources

The Magician from Siberia (1988), Colin Wilson’s sixteenth novel, began as a commission from Reader’s Digest which was published as “A Novelization of Events in the Life and Death of Grigori Efimovich Rasputin” in Tales of the Uncanny (1983). That title, though awkward, does indicate the genre of the work; it is a “fictobiography”, a partly fictionalized life, written in the manner of a novel with dialogue and the representation of inward thoughts and experiences, of a real person, Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (1869-1916). [All spellings of Russian names in this entry are as in Wilson’s text.]

Variously lauded as saint, mystic, holy man and healer, and lambasted as sinner, charlatan, intriguer and sexual …

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1679 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Magician from Siberia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 March 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23996, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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