About this Edition
The weird of the wanderer by Frederick Rolfe and C. H. C. Pirie-Gordon is a novel written in the early 20th century. Framed as “papyrus records” discovered in a rock-tomb, it blends occult fantasy with classical and archaeological intrigue, following Nicholas Crabbe—presented as the reincarnation of Odysseus—whose magical rites propel him back into antiquity to live as King Balthazar. Expect a heady mix of time-slip, reincarnation, and esoteric ritual, all mediated by scholarly notes and letters that heighten the tale’s found-manuscript verisimilitude. The opening of The weird of the wanderer presents a prologue of letters describing an Armenian rock-tomb unearthed with startling anachronisms—a modern revolver and watch beside a perfectly preserved youth—along with papyri for scholarly translation. The translated “papyri” then begin in the first person: Crabbe, also Odysseus and King Balthazar, swears a solemn oath and recounts his occult training, a Nile voyage for ritual tools, and a moonlit ceremony at Korte where he endures a scorching-staff ordeal to summon Amenemhat, a priest of Tanis, as his familiar. Guided to Thebes’s hidden subterranean halls, he crosses an underground river to a radiant white temple, dismisses a ragged ghost-warden, and repeats the ordeal to invoke a greater power. Near death, he experiences a visionary unmooring of his senses and a backward rush through time’s “rolling wheels,” hears a voice granting him multiple lives, and witnesses the gods of E
Subjects & Topics
Fantasy fictionTime travel -- Fiction
Themes & Literary Context
As an enduring classic of Fantasy fiction, The weird of the wanderer: Being the papyrus records of some incidents in one of the previous lives of Mr. Nicholas Crabbe explores core human themes of fantasy fiction, time travel. This verified public domain edition preserves the complete original text with in-browser privacy and full offline access.
Estimated Length
approx. 65,000 words
Est. Reading Time
5 hours
