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Paul Ferguson Member 
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"... the author relates August Strindberg’s attempts at alchemy, and destroys the urban legend that tin plague caused the disintegration of tin buttons on the trousers of Napoleon’s Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow in 1812, supposedly causing a collapse of morale (if not of the trousers)." http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/04/last-alchemist-paris-lars-ohrstrom |
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Tom Willard Member 
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I like Strindberg, and a Swedish chemist's thoughts about his diary seem interesting, but the title of this book is quite a stretch. There were no alchemists in Paris in the last 105 years? Really? |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Tom Willard wrote:I like Strindberg, and a Swedish chemist's thoughts about his diary seem interesting, but the title of this book is quite a stretch. There were no alchemists in Paris in the last 105 years? Really? Academic chemists might be surprised to learn that there were any. Anyway, it's a catchier title than "The disintegration of tin buttons on the trousers of Napoleon’s Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow in 1812 and other essays." Anyway, here's an on-line article about Strindberg's occult activities: http://www.forteantimes.com/features/profiles/167/august_strindberg.html Last edited on Fri May 2nd, 2014 01:25 am by Paul Ferguson |
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Tom Willard Member
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Thanks for the link, Paul. I suppose a greater stretch would be the book from ten years ago that called Cagliostro, who died a century before Strindberg began his occult diary, "The Last Alchemist": http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Alchemist-Cagliostro-Master/dp/0060006919 |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Tom Willard wrote:Thanks for the link, Paul. Pip Faulks' and Robert Cooper's book about Cagliostro is also worth a look: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Masonic-Magician-Cagliostro-Egyptian/dp/1905857829 Also available in Italian (free???): http://www.ebay.it/itm/LIBRO-CAGLIOSTRO-IL-MAGO-MASSONE-PHILIPPA-FAULKS-ROBERT-L-D-COOPER-/271418122677 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZSBWo_rMdI http://castroller.com/podcasts/MasonicCentral/2500180 |
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