Derived from a large collection of correspondences written between 2005 and 2008, this fascinating volume of meditations, maxims, and anecdotes follows the melancholic and eccentric young author through the comparatively sanguine period immediately following his marriage, to the point of its gruesome and heartrending implosion. Written in the incomparable prose of a self-proclaimed antiquarian and iconoclast, readers of this volume will often be tempted to believe that it was written a hundred or more years ago, by some affected and tragic-minded Oxford scholar. This is, however, neither purely a memoir, nor purely a work of philosophy, nor purely a book of letters assembled for the sake of historical curiosity. This is a tale of deep personal tragedy and an allegory of human folly, told with extraordinary subtlety, pathos, and intelligence, in the precise words of the man whose destruction is being recorded. Within its pages, one will find compelling ruminations on everything from religion, to government, to art, to love, to death—each ingeniously adding its own dimension of meaning to the author’s lamentable but inevitable fate. Whether one reads it for its beauty, its brilliance, or its bitterness, When the Hand of Death Seeks You in Youth is a fast but consuming literary experience that one will return to often, and find more ravishing with every reading.
