Pilgrim (Findley Novel)
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''Pilgrim'' is a novel by Timothy Findley, first published by HarperFlamingo in Canada in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. The first US edition was published by
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
in
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
. The novel is typical of Findley's interest in Jungian psychology; in fact,
Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
himself is a major character. The novel's protagonist is Pilgrim, an immortal who is brought to Jung's clinic in
Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
after his latest
suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an attempt to die by suicide that results in survival. It may be referred to as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, though these terms are discouraged by mental health professionals for implying that a suicide res ...
. Pilgrim has lived through the ages, moving from one life to another, and claims to be tired of living. Jung takes it upon himself to cure what he sees as a delusion and to restore Pilgrim's will to live. ''Pilgrim'' was nominated for the 1999
Giller Prize The Giller Prize (sponsored as the Scotiabank Giller Prize), is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried competition be ...
. ''Pilgrim'' is the inspiration for a contemporary opera, ''The Dream Healer'', composed by Lloyd Burritt, with libretto by Christopher Allan and Don Mowatt. The premiere was March 2008 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the
University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
. It featured star mezzo-soprano
Judith Forst Judith Doris Forst (''née'' Lumb) (born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian mezzo-soprano. Born in New Westminster, British Columbia, she received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia in 1964. She is the sister-in-law of lon ...
as Lady Sybil Quartermaine, John Avey as Carl Jung, and Roelof Oostwould as Pilgrim.


References

1999 Canadian novels Novels by Timothy Findley Novels set in Switzerland Cultural depictions of Carl Jung Culture of Zürich HarperCollins books {{Canada-novel-stub