Manfred Von Pentz

The crimson Goddess Manfred Von Pentz

"I wish to surrender myself with some circumstance!" These are Gemma's words when she finally gives in to a tempestuous courtship set against the looming Spanish Civil War, a monumental fratricide that nearly smothers the two lovers on the eve of its eruption. The drama has some magical ingredients: a tiny traveling circus, its spirited director, a shaggy big bear, ponies, a somewhat quixotic young knight, the aforementioned mysterious and ravishing redhead who dances on a high wire, plus occasions that reach from the hilarious to the hideous. It is also a chilling reminder of what can happen when two segments of a society refuse to reach out over an ever widening abyss. .............................................................................................. 1936 - a year of dark omen. Laurin O'Leary, a young Irishman from County Kildare, has landed himself in a massive emotional calamity and is persuaded to absolve his obligatory Grand Tour as the most convenient means of escape. He roams across the Continent, arrives in Italy and boards a steamer to Republican Spain, there to visit distant relatives and to see the country's fabled treasures. He makes landfall in Barcelona and lodges in the house of an old classmate, son of the US consul, who accompanies him during an exploration of the vibrant city. Rather unexpectedly he gets embroiled in two erotic adventures, one bizarre, the other melancholic in essence, and both disappointing, since he finds himself still a virgin at their conclusion. On the eve of his departure for Madrid a hideous incident sets in motion the novel's underlying theme, namely a relentless deterioration of his placid bourgeois attitudes, brought about by events that will lead him through never imagined heights and depths of emotion. In other words, his Grand Tour is not only a sensual excursion, but also a spiritual quest that will take him eventually to the out-most confines of human perception.