During my readings, I met, rubbed shoulders with, loved many English writers, famous or not, living or dead. I wanted to resurrect their presence, the aura that surrounded them, the invisible to the naked eye: the secret that long association and affinities sometimes allow us to sense. Over time, walking across the moor with Emily Brontë or Kathleen Raine, crossing the squares of London's Bloomsbury alongside Virginia Woolf, visiting David Gascoyne on the Isle of Wight or laughing with Saki, I tried to bring to light these mysterious relationships which are established between beings, forming a sort of community of spirit. Thus we perceive, over the years and the bonds formed, that a secret force underlies and guides our various adventures: it is the “golden thread” that Kathleen Raine spoke of, drawing inspiration from William Blake, that of our life.
Basically, this is a hymn not only to deep England, but to friendship and reading.
Christine Jordis continues her very personal study of English literature, after Varied little hells (Femina prize for the essay), Landscape and Love, People of the Thames (Medici Essay Prize), An eccentric passion (Valery-Larbaud prize). Joining the Femina jury in 1996, she has been a teacher, responsible for literary meetings at the British Council, critic at World of Booksmember of the Gallimard reading committee. His work includes travel stories in Asia, portraits of great figures of spirituality, intimate or romantic writings.
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You can read an article on this work on en-attendant-nadeau.fr:
“A new Argonaut”, by Marc Porée (online December 24, 2024).
Under a title, The Golden Thread, which instantly lends itself to dreams, the essayist, novelist and traveler in distant countries that is Christine Jordis sets out in search of what, within English literature, is both close and exotic, nourishes a quest for ideals, imagination and revolt of the soul. A quest not only personal but also specific to an extended family of spirit, bringing together the Brontë sisters, Virginia Woolf, the English surrealist poet David Gascoyne and the poet Kathleen Raine. And Jordis delivers, in the manner of Coleridge, a Biographia literaria for his time.
