Review: 'Goose of Hermogenes' by Ithell Colquhoun

Sometimes you read a story that is at once very clear in its vision and yet feels like something of a fever dream. Ithell Colquhoun's Goose of Hermogenes, brimming with surrealist imagery and psychoanalytical thought, was one of those stories for me. I don't know if I can make full sense of it, but I did have a good time with it. Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 05/08/2025
Publisher: Pushkin Press

In this modern fairy tale inspired by alchemy, a nameless narrator is determined to protect the precious jewels in her possession from her uncle, the Prospero-like ruler of an island stronghold. Locked in a battle of wills, her uncle is equally determined to steal the jewels and use their power in his attempts to conquer death by magic.

Trapped in his house, she must use guile, strength, and the knowledge unlocked by a series of dreamlike encounters to escape without becoming herself a victim of his dark rituals. By the end of the novel, she has passed through numerous stages of transformation, discovered sexual ecstasy, spoken with the dead, and returned to where she began—her family home.

Enchanted islands, journeys across water, myth, magic and mystery define this narrative of twists and turns. The Goose of Hermogenes, which is another name for the philosopher’s stone, can transmute base metals into gold and confer eternal life. Structured around the process of alchemical transformation, rife with symbolic imagery, hallucinatory trances and cries from the unconscious, Colquhoun's novel is a feminist fable and its creator's supreme artistic vision.

Ithell Colquhoun was a painter, poet, and author who was affiliated with the Surrealist movement. Surrealism, as an art form but also a literary form, wants to give expression to the unconscious mind, meaning that the works that emerge are intended to show the process of thinking, rather than be something of their own. In Goose of Hermogenes (first published in 1961), then, I think we are meant to witness how the protagonist's thoughts and being move and develop, how her thoughts are free-ranging and yet deeply embedded in tradition. Because of this, the story is difficult to follow in a logical sense. Mark Morrison also states that the story was written largely through automatic processes, or psychography, meaning that she wrote the words unconsciously, without focusing on the process. So don't expect straightforward plot or consistent characterisation here! However, there is an intuitive logic to Goose of Hermogenes which, if you let it flow, makes a lot of sense. Colquhoun joined the British Surrealist Group in the late 1930s, but was expelled shortly after for refusing to relinquish her other group affiliations, especially to occult groups. Her openness to different thoughts, ideas, and symbolisms comes through in the novella as well, which is a very rich text. While I read it in one furious go, I can imagine that the novella would also be very rewarding in short bursts, where you can let all the pictures and ideas raised simmer and percolate slowly.

In Goose of Hermogenes our unnamed protagonist must make her way to her uncle, who lives on an island that may or may not hold a volcano and other oddities. The journey itself is full of strange monks and other trials, but once she arrives at the house, the true challenge begins. Her uncle wants something from her, perhaps her jewels which might hold some power. In coming to understand the threat posed by her uncle, our protagonist goes through various stages of evolution and transformation, which seem aligned with alchemical processes. A clue for this is not just in the little headings of various sections, but also the novella's title, which is another term for the Philosopher's Stone, which is meant to grant eternal life. Will this journey end in her becoming part of her uncle's process, or will she find a strength of her own? I can definitely see why the blurb brings Prospero, and thereby Shakespeare's The Tempest into it, because a young woman, an odd servant, and an old sorcerer with mysterious books definitely speaks to the play. The play itself is also the originator of two great, and very different, film adaptations, Forbidden Planet (1956) and Prospero's Books (1991). However, Goose of Hermogenes is much more focused on the female perspective than either of these are and in this way Colquhoun really produces something very intriguing. Again, it is not necessarily straightforward or logical, but there is something intuitive about the gentle monstrosity of everything in this book. 

Ithell Colquhoun wrote a number of things, but this is my first time encountering her. I am quite fond of certain Surrealist art, the way that it is so open to interpretation and yet there are endless clues that can lead you down mythological, symbolic, psychoanalytical, and/or occult pathways of interpretation. Still, I struggled getting into Goose of Hermogenes initially, my brain doggedly looking for a structure. It wasn't until I let all of that go, coincidentally while flying, itself an unnatural act for humans, that I began to sink into the unconscious logic of the story. The writing is dreamlike, which means it also holds nightmarish stuff. There is horror, weird body stuff, sexual themes that cross some borders, fantastical feats of ability, and all of that is covered in the haze of "I just woke up and can only half remember my dreams". It is worth noting that the final "chapter" of the book is more like a separate short story which shares elements of the same world but devolves into an absurdist list of cruelties small and large. There is something to this last story which is very intriguing and makes me want to read more by Colquhoun.

I give this novella...

4 Universes!

Goose of Hermogenes is an intriguing read, full of beautiful images and horrible oddities. For those who are happy to let go of any expectations of narrative logic, this will be a very rewarding read!