Roads to Consciousness

Sydney Mendel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040753828
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

First Published in 1974, Roads to Consciousness has for its protagonist the idealistic truth-seeking young man who sees that men are evil and righteously condemns the ways of this wicked world, but then falls into cynicism and despair when he discovers at last that he too is a man, and he too is evil. Through a discussion of works of literature ranging from Hamlet to Lady Chatterley's Lover, the author explores the arduous journey to Consciousness or maturity, which liberates the Hamletian hero from doubt and despair.

This strikingly original account of the evolution of the Hamletian hero is accomplished by means of a number of masterly interpretations of individual works of literature, but in the final analysis this book should perhaps be regarded as a novel kind of idealised spiritual autobiography under the guise of literary criticism. This book should appeal to those interested in literature in the universities and outside, and also to thoughtful people who are concerned with the spiritual maladies of our time.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I The Fall of Man
• Part II The Adolescent Hero
• Part III The Hero of Consciousness
• Reference Notes