100th Monkey Books

Vital Stories:
Allegory, Drama, Memoir, Novel


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About Blady: A Pattern Out of Time
Laurens van der Post (1991) 255pages

About Blady tells an affecting but simple story - of a horse rescued from farm labour to become a champion showjumper - which touches on many of the deepest human issues. Sir Laurens' own boyhood was enriched by a favorite foal, his wartime traumas eased by the African wilderness, so a sense of nature's healing capacity underlies his whole story. Along with a sombre account of tragedies among his family and friends, he knits together impassioned reflections on dreams, mythology, the primordial links between humans and horses, the innate role of the feminine, and the creative potential of suffering. The result is a book which confronts the lack of human spirituality in our time and conveys a message of hard-won but vibrant optimism; for confirmed admirers and the uninitiated alike, it will prove both a challenge and an inspiration. (Penguin Book)



The Anointed: A Kabbalistic Novel
Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi (1987) 239pages

There is a distinct parallel between our present day and the historical setting of this book: times of cultural friction and social change, enlightenment and repression, within which a newer, bigger reality, as yet invisible, is being born. Spain of 1492 was the home of three cultures: Christian, Islamic and Judaic. The story takes place in a remote Castilian town where a small inter-faith group meets secretly to study esoteric ideas in the house of Don Immanuel, a retired courtier. Their quiet conclave is however, betrayed to the Inquisition. Shattered by the event, the group is forced to practise what they have been taught, as their teacher becomes the spiritual pivot of his age, while his daughter falls in love with one of the Inquisition's soldiers. All the town is affected by Don Immanuel's ordeal, although the world beyond is oblivious to this crucial confrontation in history. The Anointed demonstrates in fiction the way in which basic esoteric principles unfold, even in the most testing of times, and how tolerance and understanding outshine prejudice and fear. (Gateway Books, 1992)



Feather Fall: An Anthology
Laurens van der Post, edited by Jean-Marc Pottiez (1994)269pages

Laurens van der Post has a unique capacity to inspire, to heighten awareness and fire the imagination. That, above all, is what I have tried to reflect in this anthology-not just in the passages I have chosen but in the manner of their arrangement; for, instinctive storyteller that he is, there is always a pattern in his writing, a flow and a continuity. My aim has been to convey this sense of movement and exploration, not so much as a chronological progression, but rather with a sense of how the many elements in Laurens van der post's life and imagination link up and lead on and together form a trail of their own...Gradually I have formed the impression, now a certainty, that Laurens van der Post is a member of a vast family which constitutes a community of spirit and heart that has existed throughout our history. Like those wells in the desert that are so difficult to find and so far apart, yet are linked beneath the ground and combine invisibly to quench one's thirst, this vast and ever-growing family of fellow travellers is the company in which, step by step, century after century, we can all join in the ultimate quest, following the flight of the great white bird of truth, ready in heart and mind for its eventual feather fall. - from the Introduction by Jean-Marc Pottiez (1993)



The Fifth Mountain
Paolo Coelho (1998) 245pages

The Fifth Mountain is Paolo Coelho's inspiring story of the Biblical prophet Elijah. In the ninth century B.C., the Phoenician princess Jezebel orders the execution of all the prophets who refuse to worship the pagan god Baal. Commanded by an angel of God to flee Israel, Elijah seeks safety in the land of Zarephath, where he unexpectedly finds true love with a young widow. But this newfound rapture is to be cut short, and Elijah sees all of his hopes and dreams irrevocably erased as he is swept into a whirlwind of events that threatens his very existence. In what is truly a literary milestone, Coelho gives a quietly moving account of a man touched by the hand of God who must triumph over his frustrations in a soul-shattering trial of faith. (HarperPerennial)



Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from Around the World
edited by Jane Yolen (1999) 233pages

Jane Yolen shines the light on strong, powerful, adventurous older people, in an original anthology of seven-five tales from around the world. Revisit forgotten favourites from Grimm and Aesop, and discover new gems from Africa, Asia, and Appalachia among the pithy parables and full-length myths. Yolen's graying heroes and heroines heartily prove that you're never too old to fall in love, fight a dragon, play a trick, save a king or kingdom, teach a lesson - or learn one yourself. They meet the enemy with courage , cunning, and compassion (especially when the youngsters around them have none). (Penguin)



A History of Reading
Alberto Manguel (1996) 372pages

A History of Reading is a brilliant reminder of why we cherish the act of reading - despite distractions through the ages, from the Inquisition to the lures of cyberspace. Alberto Manguel shows us what happens when we read; who we become; and how reading teaches us how to live. He reminds us that we live in books as well as among them - how we find our own stories in books, and traces of our lives. He shows us how our reading habits have developed over the centuries, and how, ever since humans first transcribed their thoughts and deeds on clay and papyrus, the act of reading is itself a part of being human.Alberto Manguel is a lover of reading, and he brings a lover's delight and enthusiasm to his history of reading. (Vintage Canada)



Illustrated Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dreams
Paulo Coehlo(1988) translated by Alan R. Clarke (1993) Paintings by Moebius (1995)198pages

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who travels in search of a worldly treasure. From his home in Spain, he journeys to the market of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way, teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's paths, and, above all, following our dreams. ( HarperFlamingo)



The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943) translated by Katherine Woods. 97pages

No story is more beloved by children and grownups alike than this wise, enchanting fable. One day, the author reminisces, when his plane was forced down in the Sahara a thousand miles from help, he encountered a most extraordinary small person. "If you please," said the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And thus begins the remarkable history of the Little Prince. The Little Prince lived alone on a tiny planet no larger than a house. He owned three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. He also owned a flower, unlike any flower in all the galaxy, of great beauty and of inordinate pride. It was this pride that ruined the serenity of the Little Prince's world and started him on the interplanetary travels that brought him to Earth, where he learned finally, from a fox, the secret of what is really important in life. (Harcourt Brace)



The Man Who Planted Trees
Jean Giono (1954) Wood Engravings by Michael McCurdy (1985) 52pages

We see from the opening sentence of the story how Giono interpreted the word "character," an individuality unforgettable if unselfish, generous beyond measure, leaving on earth its mark without thought of reward. Giono believed he left his mark on earth when he wrote Elzeard Bouffier's story because he gave it away for the good of others, heedless of payment: "It is one of my stories of which I am the proudest. It does not bring me in one single penny and that is why it has accomplished what it was written for." - from the Afterword by Norma L. Goodrich (Chelsea Green, 1985)



Peter Beagle's Immortal Unicorn, Vol. One
edited by Peter S. Beagle & Janet Berliner (1995) 398pages

Strangers still ask me whether I believe in unicorns, really. I don't, not at all, not in the way they usually mean. But I do believe - still, knowing so much better - in everything the unicorn has always represented to human beings: the vision of deep strength allied to deep wisdom, of pride dwelling side by side with patience and humility, of unspeakable beauty inseparable from the "pity beyond all telling" that Yeats said was hidden at the heart of love. Even in my worst moments, when I am most sickened by the truly limitless bone-bred cruelty and stupidity of the species I belong to, I know these things exist. I have seen them, and once or twice they have laid their heads in my lap. In their very different manners, the stories in this book - altogether different indeed from what we fancied - express this old, foolish, lovely dream of the unicorn. - from the Foreword by Peter S. Beagle

Taken He Cannot Be (Will Shetterley) * What the Eye Sees, What the Heart Feels (Robert Devereaus) * Old One-Antler (Michael Armstrong) * Stampede of Light (Marina Fitch) * Gilgamesh Recidivus (P.D. Cacek) * Big Dogs, Strange Days (Edward Bryant) * The Tenth Worthy (Susan Schwartz) * Daughter of the Tao (Lisa Mason) * The Devil on Mytle Ave. (Eric Lustbader) * Dame a la Licorne (Judith Tarr) * Convergence (Lucy Taylor) * The Day of Sounding of Josh M'bobwe (Janet Berliner) * The Trouble with Unicorns (Nancy Willard) * Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros (Peter S. Beagle) (HarperPrism)



The Portal of Initiation: A Rosicrucian Mystery Drama
Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily by Johann W. von Goethe
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) 271pages

In my mystery dramas, I myself tried to give what cannot be expressed in ideas about the nature of human beings...This leads us to enjoy, to seek out, to contemplate what one cannot possibly experience in thoughts, but in living figures, as they appear in dramatic pictures; then we let the figures of the drama really work upon us. ...Art must be added to what is abstractly known if true knowledge of the world is to be attained. Further, when such perception is attained and presses toward creative form, this experience penetrates so deeply into the human soul that this union of art with science produces a religious experience. - Rudolf Steiner

Steiner spoke repeatedly about the importance of Goethe's Fairy Tale, not only in relation to the spiritual striving of our time in a general sense, but in his first Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation, he drew upon many of the basic themes of the Fairy Tale. Steiner also indicated that the way the pictures in Goethe's Fairy Tale "unfold themselves" shows that they possess the power "to transform the human soul" which opens itself to them. He also once characterized Goethe's Fairy Tale as the "archetypal seed" which offers the possibility of a new order of social life amongst humanity as a whole, and described it as the foundation upon which he based his teaching concerning the modern Science of Spirit, Anthroposophy. (Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1981)



The Power of Stories Workshop: Illuminating Your Life's Meaning through Stories (audio)
Sam Keen (1990) 2 cassettes

Through interactive exercises, you will learn how stories can serve as powerful instruments for self-understanding that help uncover the hidden potentials in your life. Keen teaches that each story element - the beautiful and the disturbing - must be integrated into consciousness if the story is to reveal a picture of your future. Additional contents: the loss of stories in our lives; the three types of myths; importance of new stories and myths; recovering your family story (exercise); the seven layers of your autobiography (exercise); psychotherapy flaws; question-and answer sessions with audience; and others. (Sounds True)



Read for Your Life: Literature as A Life Support System
Joseph Gold (1990) 380pages

This book is for everyone who likes to read and everyone who wants to like to read. It is a book about the value of reading fiction, about the importance of story to your personal life, your coping skills, your mental health and your relations with other people...There is a direct link between what you feel about stories and what you feel about everything else, especially about yourself...Fiction can reflect for you, like a magic mirror, the veiled parts of your self and your life...Fiction can help you to reorganize thinking, resolve problems, remember the past when you need to review it and see it differently...Fiction helps you to restory yourself. - from the author's Introduction: Reading for Your Self (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)



The Sacred Art of Shakespeare: To Take Upon Us the Mystery of Things
Martin Lings (1984/98) 4th edition revised and expanded,206pages

Shakespeare's greatness as an artist lies above all in the total impact that each of his best plays makes upon us when acted. But being a synthesis, this impact is not easily put into words; and once the curtain is down and we have left the theater, what is said or written tends to do little justice to what we have experienced, and seems unable to account for it. This book is much concerned with the mystery of the total impact, to which the subtitle, paraphrased from King Lear, is closely related; and this question is not without bearing on Shakespeare's greatness as a man - a greatness that, we maintain, is unmistakably visible through the semi-transparent veil of his plays. - from the author's Preface (Inner Traditions)



Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
C.S. Lewis (1956) 234pages

This reinterpretation of an old story (of Cupid and Psyche) has lived in the author's mind, thickening and hardening with the years, ever since he was an undergraduate. That way, he could be said to have worked at it most of his life. Recently, what seemed to be the right form presented itself and themes suddenly interlocked: the straight tale of barbarism, the mind of an ugly woman, dark idolatry and pale enlightenment at war with each other and with vision, and the havoc which a vocation, or even a faith, works on human life. - C.S. Lewis (Fount Paperbacks)



Ultimate Voyage: A Book of Five Mariners
William Gilkerson (1998) 314pages

Bound by friendship and trained from boyhood in seamanship, five friends and shipmates build a worthy small vessel, Alembic, and embark on an exploratory voyage into uncharted seas. On the voyage they discover not just the uncharted regions of the world and themselves, but an insight into magic. William Gilkerson blends his expert knowledge of sailing ships and sea history with his skill as a storyteller and an artist to create a provocative, alchemical exploration of humanity in all of its fundamental manifestations. (Shambhala)



Voice of the Thunder
Laurens van der Post ( ) pages



Ways of the Lonely Ones: Stories from Beyond the Veil
Manly P. Hall (1962) illustrated by J. Augustus Knapp 127pages

A collection of eight mystical allegories presenting the heartside of the philosophic life which appeals directly to the intuitive part of human nature.

To that band of Silent workers- known in this world as the Lords of Compassion and the Brothers of the Shining Robe, - who labor eternally with the Children of Men in the name of the Great Father, this volume is dedicated by the author, that it may bear witness to the spiritual truths which they serve. - from the author's Dedication (Philosophical Research Society, 1990)



Your Mythic Journey: Finding Meaning in Your Life Through Writing and Storytelling
Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox (1973/1989) 129pages

To be a person is to have a story to tell. We become grounded in the present when we color in the outlines of the past and the future. Mythology can add perspective and encouragement to your life. Within each of us there is a tribe with a complete cycle of legends and dances, songs to be sung. We were all born into rich mythical lives: we need only claim the stories that are our birthright. - form Chapter One: To Tell a Story (Jeremy P. Tarcher)


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