A few years ago, a friend of mine, returning from Scotland, gave me a copy of A Voyage to Arcturus. I can still remember the effect upon me of reading this book. Baffled and enraptured, I had the impression, not just of reading, but of participating in a game whose rules, instead of being given at the outset, would be revealed only to the reader who really scrutinised the theme. A Voyage to Arcturus was for me, at first, an enigma that had to be unravelled little by little.

David Lindsay's novels are often difficult, and confusing, for anyone not perceiving the author's intention. In bringing to light the richness of his books, and the task of symbolic elaboration to which the author dedicated himself, I hope to convince some readers, who see Lindsay as little more than a whimsical science-fiction author, that his work is more serious than it appears, and that it deserves to be known in its entirety. This view is supported by the increasingly favourable acclaim that is being accorded to him by the general reading public.

In my study, A Voyage to Arcturus takes pride of place, but only a comprehensive analysis of Lindsay's work was capable of illuminating his masterpiece, and of revealing the web of metaphors that underlie the novels. The complexity of ideas will be the more easily apparent the more one considers this work in its context.