The laws of alchemy dictate that the philosophers' stone contains the power to turn invaluable metals into gold and to grant its bearer immortality. Its possessor is guaranteed endless and ageless life unless they fall victim to two of the paradigm's four primary elements; fire or water, by either burning or drowning. In the case of Charles Dickens's novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, characters use the occult powers of alchemy and animal magnetism in attempt to obtain the philosophers' stone, also known as the elixir vitae. This stone is reputedly the only object that contains the power to permanently align one's being with heaven, granting eternal and euphoric life. When all occult methods fail to produce the elixir of immortality, the individual is left weakened by defeat, and must consume a secretly conjured elixir to restore energy as well as the depletion of vital forces. These more easily obtainable but less potent elixirs can be made from hashish, opium, and other narcotics and enable the temporary transmutation of the soul. The consumer experiences fleeting elation due to the opportunity that the elixir provides for their souls to transcend the materialism of Earth, by shedding their bodies and entering a heaven-like sphere.

Spearheaded by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, nineteenth century Great Britain was characterized by societal disorder. The Act effectually disbanded the institution of slavery throughout most of Great Britain with the exception of the Territories possessed by The East India Company, which included the islands of Ceylon and Saint Helena, Dickens's inspiration for forming the identities of twin characters Helena and Neville Landless. The public turned to the emerging prophets and re-surging occultism for guidance and authority. Occult ideals and brotherhoods experienced a rapid growth in popularity as charismatic charlatans such as Franz Anton Mesmer and Paschal Beverly Randolph exploited the novelty of its doctrines, taking advantage of the naive public's limited understanding of science and medicine, masking their own egotistical desires with illegitimate benevolence.

Many, including author Nathaniel Hawthorne, feared the power that occult practices allowed men to exert over women. Secret and exclusive Brotherhoods such as the Rosicrucian fraternity sought to achieve emancipation of the soul from the body largely by way of the agency of trances through passive female mediums, or in reality, the mental and emotional enslavement of women. In an 1841 letter, Hawthorne warns his wife, Sophia Peabody,

Take no part, I beseech you, in these magnetic miracles. I am unwilling that a power should be exercised on you of which we know neither the origin nor consequence...Supposing that the power arises from the transfusion of one spirit into another, it seems to me that the sacredness of an individual is violated by it; there would be an intruder into the holy of holies...I have no faith whatever that people are raised to the seventh heaven, or to any heaven at all, or that they gain any insight into the mysteries of life beyond death, by means of this strange science. (Hawthorne, xxi)

Hawthorne's letter reveals his fear of the phallic penetration by occult practices such as animal magnetism and mesmerism. Charles Dickens further investigates the dangers of occultism in Edwin Drood through the characterization of John Jasper. Jasper uses his occult powers to influence Rosa Bud against her will, as if by magnetic force. He is motivated by the desire to alleviate the pain caused by the mundane mediocrity of his life, a pain he must continually suppress by smoking opium, one that he wishes to permanently extinguish by obtaining the philosophers' stone. The pain inflicted by Jasper's meager moral existence becomes so unbearable that he selfishly exercises the invented powers of Rosicrucian master, Paschal Beverly Randalph, which include “sexual magic” (Deveny), alchemy, and animal magnetism to manipulate others in order to achieve self fulfillment and earthly transcendence.

In his novel, Svengali's Web, Daniel Pick argues that George Du Maurier's character, Svengali, depicts the original, archetypical, charlatan enchanter. Du Maurier's novel, Trilby, was not in fact the first publication to introduce the potential evils and dangers associated with the powers of animal magnetism and mesmerism, however, it was the most successful in terms of public reception. Pick attributes the novel's success to the public's wavering view of magnetism.

He claims, “Hypnotism itself was on the cusp between tawdy theatre, mysticism and the medical curriculum; between erotic enchantment, spiritual mystery and salubrious scientific pursuit” (Pick, 19). Du Maurier exploits the public's varying grasp on the pseudo-scientifically based medical procedure just as Edgar Allan Poe did forty years prior with his publication of The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Both of these fictional tales warranted extreme public reactions, as readers experienced difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. This ambiguity led to fear of a similar instance materializing within society. Pick describes this sensation as “the meeting point of fear and fascination” (4). The public became fascinated with the “erotic dangers” associated with the pseudo-science, with “inter-personal force” and “the role of others in shaping the self” (5). Svengali characters appear in literature immediately following the waxing popularity of animal magnetism.

Earlier texts such as Edwin Drood rely on occultism as the subtext responsible for informing character motivation, interaction, and exploit. Randall Clack suggests, “many alchemists adopted the literary convention of allegory to encode their alchemical operations and hide what they believed to be the secrets of transmutation from the profane” (Clack, 2).

Similarly, Dickens, like his character Princess Puffer, presents an elixir-like story, that enables the reader to experience an earthly transcendence, without revealing the secret composition of his concoction. His subtle, often indiscernable implementation of magnetism, alchemy, and sexual magic, allows him to succeed in designing an eerily suspenseful tale that becomes the authentic template for Du Maurier's Trilby. Viewing the mysteriously unfinished, often tacit representation of the occult in Edwin Drood through the lens of much more explicit and exploitative occult narratives such as Trilby, and also Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician, will enhance apprehension and recognition of Dickens's intentions while also providing the missing pieces of the novel, allowing the reader to arrive at a tentative conclusion in correspondence with Dickens's original intentions.

Dickens relies on the Rosicrucian order of alchemy to provide the novel's subtext. Developed early in the 17th century, Rosicrucianism is the secret creed of an exclusive fraternity of occultists “built on esoteric truths of the ancient past...concealed from the average man...[providing] insight into nature, the physical universe and the spiritual realm”. Rosicrucians professed “an interest and mastery of Spiritual or Mental Alchemy, not to be confused with Physical Alchemy”. Their interest laid in transmuting the soul rather than base metals in order to ameliorate the quality of life upon earth. Although Dickens does not directly endorse Rosicrucianism, and never explicitly aligns himself with the fratnerity, he inextricably links Edwin Drood to the order by inserting otherwise obscure allusions throughout the text. Dickens names “the pet pupil of the Nuns' House” (24) Rosa Bud.

Her name alludes to Rosicrucian doctrine. The term Rosicrucian was derived from the Latin “rosae” and “crux”, translated to “rose cross”. The symbol of the Rosicrucian fraternity depicts a rosebud, consequently Rosa's pet-name, mounted on a golden cross. Gary L. Stewart points out that “'ros' is Latin for 'dew' and in alchemical terms, 'dew' is the purity of essence refined through transcendent processes of working the power of vitriol in its highest state. Ros is the perfect result of grosser existence”, or the equivalent to the elixir of life. After Rosa and Edwin mutually agree to end their engagement, the narrator notices “Rosa, laughing, with the dew-drops glistening in her bright eyes” (185). Dickens manipulates Rosicrucian discourse emphasizing both the eyes; essential to trance and mesmerism, and also dew, the concept essential to spiritual alchemy. If Rosa had married Edwin, her name would become Rosa Drood. By omitting the “d” in Drood, her name would then be Rosa Rood, a slight variation of “rose cross”. The engagement fails and therefore the transmutation of Rosa's name never happens. This failure symbolizes the inevitable failure to obtain the philosophers' stone and to achieve eternal transcendence and refinement prescribed by Rosicrucian doctrine. When discharging Rosa's mother's wedding ring to Drood, Grewgious tells him, “Your placing it on her finger will be the solemn seal upon your strict fidelity to the living and the dead” (154). Drood's tentative bestowal of the ring upon Rosa's finger would confirm the androgynous unification of their souls, “in which the polar and eternally co-existant halves of the soul must seek each other out in this world or in the next to achieve wholeness and completion” (Deveney, 12). Their marriage would resemble a microcosm of the union of the sun and the moon, of earth and heaven, and of the dead and the living; however, the two continue to repel rather than attract one another and therefore cannot commit to marriage. Rosa and Drood are deterred by the pressures of the living and the dead. They are satisfied with the materialism of their worldly existences and therefore have no desire to transcend.

Jasper, however, expresses extreme dissatisfaction with his occupation. He reveals to Drood in a self-sacrificial warning that, “The cramped monotony of my existence grinds me away by the grain” (16). He proceeds to explain, “even a poor monotonous chorister and grinder of music— in his niche — may be troubled with some stray sort of ambition, aspiration, restlessness, dissatisfaction, what shall we call it” (17). He admits to Drood after succumbing to an inward trance that he has “been taking opium for a pain — an agony — that sometime overcomes” (15) him. Opium provides for Jasper “comfort for the longings left unsatisfied by occultism” (Deveney, xxvi). Although Drood promises that his uncle's “confidence shall be sacredly preserved” (17), Jasper must withhold the more secretive details regarding his membership to the occult fraternity; his desire to uncover the “true secret of the philosophers' stone, and the mystic Elixir Vitae,...the all-omnipotent and resistless power of the Will...[which] may be cultivated by exercise” (Deveney 43). This will allow Jasper to achieve “complete liberation of the soul from the chains of materialism” (Deveney, 43).

Jasper, the master Rosicrucianist, obsessively worships Rosa, the novel's personified symbol of Rosicrucian refinement. Dickens wrote Edwin Drood twenty years before the publication of Du Maurier's Trilby, possibly conceiving Jasper as a caricature of the father of mesmerism, Franz Anton Mesmer. As Daniel Pick proposes, Du Maurier's original depiction of Svengali was portrayed as the conniving antagonist. This character was a mesmeriser, musician, and a Jew with “bold brilliant black eyes... [and] long heavy lids” (Pick, 1). Analogously, Dickens describes Jasper as

a dark man of some six-and-twenty, with thick, lustrous, well-arranged black hair and whiskers. He looks older than he is, as dark men often do. His voice is deep and good, his manner is a little sombre, and may have had its influence in forming his manner. It is mostly in shadow. Even when the sun shines brilliantly, it seldom touches the grand piano in the recess...(Dickens, 9).

While Jasper is not of Jewish affiliation, his name is of Semitic origin. Derived from the Hebrew, “yashepheh”, Jasper signifies “a kind of precious stone...an opaque cryptocrystalline variety of quartz, of various colours, usually red, yellow, or brown, due mostly to the admixture of iron oxide” (oed.com). Jasper's name represents the synthesis of magnetism and alchemy; the two powers that he most desires to master in order to achieve ultimate potency. The word “Jasper” signifies a precious stone, similar to the philosophers' stone, central to his alchemical quests. As the presence of iron enables the transmutation of color, subscribers of animal magnetism believed that iron wands could magnetically attract iron in the bloodstream and restore bodily harmony and equilibrium. Mesmer postulated that “sickness occurred where there was an obstacle to the flow of fluid through a system” (Pick, 46). In order to cure ailments such as “delirium, mania, blackouts and nausea” (46) among others, “Mesmer initially used metals...to bring the patient's magnetic fluids back into harmony” (46). This practice was soon replaced by “physical intervention [to] restore equilibrium in the sufferer” (46). Jasper's name implicitly connotes his potency, and links him with his prototype, Mesmer, who claimed proficiency in magnetism and alchemy (Pick, 45).

Like Jasper, Mesmer was deemed a “talented musician” (45), and was attracted to young female musicians. Pick discusses the theme of music and mesmerism in relation to the Tirlby tale. He outlines one of the “more notorious episodes” (46) in Mesmer's career; the case of Maria-Theresa Paradis, a “young pianist, sightless from early childhood” (46). Pick describes Mesmer as “a swooping emotional kidnapper” and Paradis as “the vulnerable musical proxy” (47). These prototypes recur in both Edwin Drood and Trilby suggesting that the factual biography of Mesmer should be attributed as inspiration for the tales. Superficially, Mesmer appears to be professionally motivated as “he promised to cure her blindness as well as the melancholy which reduced her at times to a state of delirium” (47). However, critics such as Pick argue that his intentions were “monstrous” (46) and that the history serves as “an advance copy of the narratives of suggestibility, sexuality, musical recovery and physical sequestration disseminated in later years” (47).

Illustrating Hawthorne's deepest concern, Jasper, like Mesmer and Svengali, penetrates his victim's life and mind, violating her private interactions, thoughts, and emotions; forcing her against her will to perform with him. His voyeuristic tendencies metaphorically represent sexual abuse, a rational explanation for Rosa's fainting spell, constant anxiety, and extreme fear of his presence. Members of the Rosicrucian fraternity commonly assumed cryptic pseudonyms to conceal their true identities. For instance, one member who felt compelled by “the overwhelming desire to realize the marvelous” (Deveney, xvii) assumed the name “sedir”, an anagram of desir that connoted an oriental sentiment. Perhaps Dickens followed this trend in creating a name for his voyeuristic occult master. Perhaps the name Jasper is an anagram of rape, signifying his mental and emotional penetration of Rosa. The Rosicrucians believed that “woman and sexuality are alternatively the cause of the imprisonment of the divine in matter and the path to redemption from matter” (Deveney, 227). Mutual orgasm, between man and woman, they believed would provide “the energy that connected the human soul with the power of the celestial spheres” (29).

Jasper, however, unable to obtain Rosa's consent, must forcefully penetrate her mind, using his powers to inflict a mutual enchantment, or earthly transcendence parallel to that of an orgasm. The omniscient narrator observes a scene in which Jasper flaunts Rosa's musical talent. He describes the scene,

Mr. Jasper was seated at the piano as they came into his drawing-room, and was accompanying Miss Rosebud while she sang. It was a consequence of his playing the accompaniment without notes, and of her being a heedless little creature, very apt to go wrong, that he followed her lips most attentively, with his eyes as well as his hand; carefully and softly hinting the key-note from time to time (Dickens, 75).

This observation emphasizes both the attentive nature of a strict and detail-obsessed instructor, and also his unquenchable desire to exploit her for his own temporary sexual satisfaction. Not only does he follow her moving lips with his eyes, but also with his hands. Although it is apparent that on one level, Dickens implies that Jasper's hands select appropriate tones, to mimic her voice, as they touch the keys of the piano; it also connotes the unrequited sexual feelings that he possesses for Rosa. Rosa's reaction to Jasper's intensity reflects the latter implication. The narrator observes,

The song went on. It was a sorrowful strain of parting, and the fresh young voice was very plaintive and tender. As Jasper watched the pretty lips, and ever and again hinted the one note, as though it were a low whisper from himself, the voice became less steady, until all at once the singer broke into a burst of tears, and shrieked out, with her hands over her eyes: 'I can't bear this! I am frightened! Take me away!'” (Dickens, 75).

Moments later, Rosa faints from the unbearable combination of fear and excitement. Drood tries to justify her condition, blaming Jasper for his conscientious and demanding practices as Helena Landless monitors Rosa's condition, and restores her to health. Rosa responds to Jasper's intimate advances and psychological enslavement of her with overwhelming fear. The intensity of his penetration traumatizes Rosa, as it would any girl “in the first bloom of womanhood” (oed.com) as her name suggests. Rosa is drawn to the confidence and courage of Helena Landless, who assures her that she wouldn't fear Jasper “under any circumstances” (Dickens, 76). The two form an extraordinary bond that transcends the cohesiveness of any other bond seen throughout the novel.

Competing with Jasper for ultimate supernatural potency are the telepathic twins, Neville and Helena Landless,. Dickens connotes their occult power through obscure allusions as well.

The twins hail from Ceylon which is reputed for having “the best rubies in the world—sapphires, topazes, amethysts, and other gems” (Kerr, 382) and is therefore also known as “the gem island” (Finlay, 237). Explorer Marco Polo recounts his experience on Ceylon, and the prominence of valuable gemstones. He states,

the king is said to have the very finest ruby that was ever seen, as long as one's hand, and as big as a man's arm, without spot, shining like a fire, not to be bought for money. Cublai-khan sent and offered the value of a city for it; but the king answered he would not give it for the treasures of the world, nor part with it, because it had been his ancestors (Kerr, 382).

The history of the Landless twins' obscure, oriental origin alludes to their alchemical affinity. They come from a society that values gemstones, and their primary goal in Cloisterham is to obtain the one of greatest value; the philosophers' stone. In addition to the economic nature of Ceylon, its social composition further links the twins to alchemy. Randall Clack explicates in his novel, The Marriage of Heaven and Earth, that alchemy originated in Egypt. He writes,

“According to hermetic legend, Hermes Trismegistus, the father of alchemy and the author of the sacred alchemical text Tabula Smaragdina (Emerald Tablet), was said to have imparted the secret of transmutation to the Egyptians” (Clack, 1).

The art, rumored to have caused the Egyptian influx of wealth, spread throughout Greece and the Middle East. Clack claims, “Although the early Christian Church attempted to suppress... alchemy... hermetic science was preserved by the Arabs” (Clack, 2). Ceylon was originally populated by Arab gem-merchants, therefore it is possible that Helena and Neville Landless represent Arab youths, fluent in the art of alchemy.

Dickens's characterization of the twins also alludes to their mastery of occult arts. Crisparkle intimates, after observing them upon their arrival, “An unusually handsome lithe young fellow, and an unusually handsome lithe girl; much alike; both very dark, and very rich in colour; she of almost the gipsy type; something untamed about them both; a certain air upon them of hunter and huntress...” (Dickens, 65). Crisparkle again makes note of Helena's “lustrous gipsy-face” (80) after Rosa's fainting spell. His comparison of Helena to a gipsy alludes to her occult powers. Not only do gipsies possess the skill of reading alchemical tarot cards, but as Rosicrucianist Andrew Jackson Davis suggests, “The people entrusted with the transmission of occult doctrines from the earliest ages were the Bohemian or Gypsy race” (Davis, 8).

Neville and Helena's identity as twins also bears strong relevance to their relationship to alchemy. In her novel, Alchemy: The Great Secret, Andrea Aromatico claims that in addition to the quest for the philosophers' stone,

The principal goal of the Great Work of alchemy is the union of opposites, the harmonious resolution of antinomic pairs into a third thing that both partakes of their original natures and is something new. The adepts called this entity Rebis, the double: material that is at once twofold and unified. The Rebis...is often represented as a hermaphroditic figure, a new being created by the conjunction of art and spirit (Aromatico, 29).

Neville and Helena represent the Rebis. Prior to birth, they shared one womb and formed an inextricable bond which persists during their stay in Cloisterham, and reveals itself through their ability to communicate telepathically. Although Neville and Helena are two distinct characters, their minds are so interdependent that it seems as if they are really one. Upon making acquaintance with Mr. Crisparkle, Neville reveals his ability to read his sister's mind. He says,

You don't know, sir, yet, what a complete understanding can exist between my sister and me, though no spoken word—perhaps hardly as much as a look—may have passed between us. She not only feels as I have described, but she very well knows that I am taking this opportunity of speaking to you, both for her and for myself (Dickens, 74).

Crisparkle observes this phenomenon later when the twins reunite in his presence. As he observes Helena, he sees, or thinks he sees, “an instantaneous recognition” (Dickens, 75) between the siblings. Unlike Jasper's forced penetration of Rosa, the twins willingly admit each other into their minds by means of telepathy. This consensual penetration and joining of the souls represents the mutual orgasm that Jasper incessantly pursues but fails to attain.

Similar to the magnetic connection that Helena shares with her brother, she attracts Rosa at first encounter. Unlike that of Jasper, this attraction is also mutual. Rosa is attracted to Helena's fearlessness, and Helena is attracted to the “fascination” (77) in Rosa, one that Rosa wishes that Edwin could feel. Rosa admits to Helena that she and Edwin are “a ridiculous couple” (78). They repel one another and when they are forced to be together under the conditions established by their deceased parents, they constantly quarrel. Rosa and Helena, unlike she and Edwin, are attracted to one another as if by magnetic force. Helena exercises animal magnetism to draw Rosa in, as a friend and confidant. The narrator observes, “Helena's masterful look was intent upon her face for a few moments, and then she impulsively put out both her hands and said: 'You will be my friend and help me?'” (78). Helena calls upon Rosa's “will,” the “true secret of the philosophers' stone, and the mystic elixir vitae” (Deveney, 43).

Helena's question and Rosa's answer confirms the unity of their souls through the power of will. Similar to the magnetic hold that Jasper uses to influence Rosa, musically, Helena uses magnetism to gain Rosa's confidence and to inquire about Jasper. She takes hold of Rosa and inquires about the mesmerist, his intentions, and her feelings toward him. Rosa responds, “He terrifies me. He haunts my thought, like a dreadful ghost. I feel that I am never safe from him. I feel as if he could pass in through the wall when he is spoken of” (79). Helena continues to pry until Rosa reveals all. She confides in Helena secrets that she previously kept to herself. She alleges,

He has made a slave of me with his looks. He has forced me to understand him, without saying a word; and he has forced me to keep silence without his uttering a threat. When I play, he never moves his eyes from my hands. When I sing, he never moves his eyes from my lips. When he corrects me, and strikes a note, or a chord, or plays a passage, he himself is in the sounds, whispering that he pursues me as a lover, and commanding me to keep his secret. I avoid his eyes, but he forces me to see them without looking at them. Even when a glaze comes over them (which is sometimes the case), and he seems to wander into a frightful sort of dream in which he threatens most, he obliges me to know it, and to know that he is sitting close at my side, more terrible to me than ever” (79-80)

In order to emancipate himself, Jasper must enslave Rosa. Rosa recognizes his heightened power during trance state, those moments when “a strange film” replaces the clarity of his eyes.

After Drood's disappearance, Jasper confronts Rosa, and further expresses his intentions.

He reveals his love for her, claiming that he has forever loved her “madly” (272) in reclusive secrecy. Although Jasper's power enables him to force Rosa to sit and listen to his testimony, he cannot control her reaction. Rosa blames Jasper for the demise of her engagement to Drood, and for Drood's disappearance. Jasper resumes, “I don't ask you for your love; give me yourself and your hatred; give me yourself and that pretty rage; give me yourself and that enchanting scorn; it will be enough for me” (273). It isn't Rosa's love that he desires, it is the ability to unite his soul with hers and achieve ultimate transcendence. His uninvited and unrequited desire is met by Rosa's desire to flee his company. Her face becomes “inflamed” as she attempts to leave. Jasper threatens, “I told you, you rare charmer, you sweet witch, that you must stay and hear me, or do more harm than can ever be undone. You asked me what harm. Stay, and I will tell you. Go, and I will do it!” (274). Jasper's ultimatum enchants Rosa. The narrator observes, “A film comes over the eyes she raises for an instant, as though he had turned her to faint” (274). Jasper proceeds to reveal his plan to trap Neville Landless in a Svengali-type web by framing him for the disappearance and murder of Drood. He explains to Rosa, “I determined to discuss the mystery with no one until I should hold the clew in which to entangle the murderer as in a net. I have since worked patiently to wind and wind it round him; and it is slowly winding as I speak” (274).

Jasper's scheme to remove Neville will effectually reduce the alchemical power of Helena and diminish the magnetic influence that she exercises to attract Rosa. In doing so, the success of Jasper's plan will foil the alchemical powers of the twins, allowing him to have sole influence over Rosa.

Although it is difficult to speculate Dickens's exact intentions for the novel's ending, astounding evidence links Jasper to the murder of Edwin Drood. As Jasper admits to Rosa, Edwin obstructs his path to obtaining her soul. With him in the way, Jasper must counterfeit support and spuriously assume the role of chaperone in order to get close enough to Rosa to pursue his true desires. The role of chaperone enables Jasper to idolize Rosa's portrait, stalk her in public, and act as her music master. These actions would appear unorthodox if it weren't for his connection to Edwin and his seemingly genuine emotional investment in their engagement.

Jasper's challenge increases exponentially when the twins arrive in Cloisterham, and when Helena and Rosa form such a cohesive bond. Jasper must eliminate both Edwin and the twins in order to obtain Rosa. In order to do so, he plots to frame Neville for Drood's murder. This will allow him to eliminate Drood and Neville. Helena will be guilty by association to Neville as they are one in the same, and therefore will be forced out of Rosa's life as well leaving her soul vacant for Jasper to penetrate.

Although Jasper succeeds in eliminating Drood, it seems from the details that Dickens provides, that he will not succeed in the novel's end. Princess Puffer's current condition foreshadows Jasper's future fate. When she encounters Drood, she tells him that she was originally from London but, “came here, looking for a needle in a haystack, and I ain't found it” (201). Like Jasper, her quest for the philosophers' stone brought her to Cloisterham. Plagued by disheartening failure, she smokes opium for the same reason as Jasper; to achieve temporary transcendence from the material world.

Edwin Drood serves as a social warning. Just as Hawthorne warns his wife of the dangers associated with the occult powers, Dickens uses the novel as a medium by which he transmits his concerns for women and society in the face of occultism. Edwin Drood succeeds in proving that transcendence can be achieved without drugs, trance, or acquisition of the philosophers' stone. He proposes that novels such as this one can serve as portals allowing readers to escape the world and its materialism and to enter into unfamiliar realms. Novels provide the opportunity for readers to assume roles as voyeurs to penetrate the minds and inner consciousnesses of characters without their knowledge. Unlike opium use, mesmerism, or magnetism, this practice is destructive to neither character nor reader, yet it also enables the reader to experience a temporary relief from the mundanity and monotony of everyday life.

Original: Academia.edu