Miranda (novel)
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Miranda is a novel written by Antoni Lange in 1924. It is the last great work of Lange[citation needed] and his most famous book today. It is said that Miranda is an "occultic fiction"[1] and a "romance ranked to a philosophical treaty"[2]. The novel is also known as novelty writing which conciliates dystopia and utopia[3]. It is a matter to opinion to classify the novel to modernism or interwar period.
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[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
Title of the novel refers to person of Miranda from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Miranda is also full of allusions to many classics such as: Men Like Gods by Herbert George Wells; The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella; Lenore by Edgar Allan Poe,;Genezis z Ducha by Juliusz Słowacki; poems by Cyprian Kamil Norwid; writings of Friedrich Nietzsche (criticism of concept of the Übermensch); Arthur Schopenhauer and Plato and Sanskrit epics of ancient India.
[edit] Plot summary
The novel tells about ideal civilisation of brahmins which have invited paranormal skills like telepathy, levitation and mediumism. The brahmins value anarchy, freedom, peace, free love and anti-work. Their country is organized by Ministry of Love, Ministry of Power and Ministry of Wisdom, and they use a strange substance named Nivridium in order to their self-perfect idea. Main plot is the history of love of Polish emmigrant Jan Podobłoczny (Lange's own parte-parole) to the materialisation of ideal woman named Damayanti. Tragic end of their romance comes from clash between phisycal and spiritual side of human existence. In the last chapter of the novel Damayanti sacrifices her body in order to let her spirit fly to higher stage of consciousness.
Miranda is a Scottish spiritual medium, who lives in Warsaw. She can contact with the soul of Damayanti and materialize mysterious person of Lenore, who meet Jan Podobłoczny when he is close his dead. In the moment when Damayanti dies, Miranda disappears.
[edit] Existentional issues
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[edit] Publication history
The novel was translated into English (in 1968), French, Spanish and Italian.
