Luke's (1904–1995) Jungian outlook permeates this posthumous collection of essays, which seek to explain the world and life in archetypal terms, mainly through literary works. For example, we learn that the "shadow" archetype is variously represented by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice,
by Gollum in The Lord of the Rings,
and by Alberich the dwarf in Wagner's Ring cycle. In these and a few other works, she meticulously picks out which characters represent ego, anima and so forth, and then retells the plots, showing how the archetypes come to life and play off each other. Luke's style is clear, personable and consistent: in fact, if anything, the worldview she presents is coherent to a fault. Those not sympathetic to the Jungian outlook will note that her approach reduces great works of art to nothing more than the formulaic ramblings of the collective unconscious. For this kind of reductive exercise, they might further object, readers hardly need a guide—especially one whose claims to authority can be tenuous and strange: "I have had considerable experience with the messages that come to us through dreams." Luke (Old Age: Journey into Simplicity) waxes philosophical with this and similar observations, delivered as if from a very great distance, in the concluding part of the book (entitled "Musings"). Luke's humaneness is evident throughout, despite the book's relatively narrow mission. Readers who yearn for a world made orderly by myth will discover what they seek here, although what they find is unlikely to surprise them. (June)
