Dick Sullivan

Undertones: Mild Mysticism in an Age of Umber Dick Sullivan

Undertones adds something new and original to a subject already widely written about and of world wide interest. Books on mysticism have a ready readership, but Undertones broadens its appeal: it explores the idea that moments of mild mysticism can be, and are, experienced by millions of people. These moments are invariably life enhancing yet are almost always mistaken for something else. Knowing what they are is, in itself, a life changing experience. The theme is explored mainly through the lives and works of 19th century artists, writers and composers - because that, astonishingly, was the most mystical age in all English history. This in itself is a major revelation. Undertones began as a series of essays for an Ivy League website - Brown University's www.victorianweb.org. It grew gradually as the mystical tendencies of people such as Wordsworth and Tennyson, Chesterton and Vaughan Williams, Hopkins and Cardinal Newman were uncovered.