The Man with Six Senses

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Description

When Hilda, a beautiful young member of England's cynical postwar generation, meets Michael, a hapless mutant capable of perceiving the molecular composition of objects and the ever-shifting patterns of electromagnetic fields, she becomes his apostle. However, her efforts to convince others of the prodigy's unique importance end disastrously; and Michael himself is slowly destroyed - mentally and physically - by his uncanny gift. In the end, Hilda must decide whether she is willing and able to make a supreme sacrifice for the sake of humankind's future. This early and brilliant effort to export the topic of extra-sensory perception out of folklore and occult romances and import it into science fiction was first published in 1927 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press.

Reviews

"The first attempt to extrapolate the hypothesis [of ESP] carefully and painstakingly -- and to conclude that it might better be reckoned a curse than a blessing." -- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Author Bio

Muriel Jaeger (1892-1969) was a British historian and social critic, and the author of Before Victoria. Her science fiction books include The Question Mark, an ambiguous utopia that likely influenced Aldous Huxley; Hermes Speaks; and Retreat From Armageddon. Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is author or co-author of 17 books of political, cultural, and aesthetic theory, including Better Living, The World We Want, Concrete Reveries, and Glenn Gould. Kingwell's most recent book, Unruly Voices, is a collection of essays on politics. He lives in Toronto.