Five nuns confront nature—physical and human—in a remote Himalayan convent in the bestselling novel that inspired the new FX miniseries. Under the guidance of Sister Clodagh, the youngest Mother Superior in the history of their order, five European Sisters of the Servants of Mary leave their monastery in Darjeeling, India, and make their way to remote Mopu in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. There, in the opulent, abandoned palace where an Indian general housed his harem, the holy sisters hope to establish a school and a health clinic. Their aim is to help combat superstition, ignorance, and disease among the mistrusting natives in the village below, and to silence the doubts of their royal benefactor's agent, the hard-drinking and somewhat disreputable Mr. Dean. But all too soon, the isolation, the ghosts and lurid history, and the literally breathtaking beauty of this high, lonely place in the Asian mountains begin to take a serious toll on Sister Clodagh and her fellow nuns. And their burdens may prove too heavy to bear, exposing a vulnerable humanity that threatens to undermine the best intentions of the purest hearts. The basis for the Golden Globe and Academy Award–winning motion picture starring Deborah Kerr, as well as the new miniseries on FX starring Gemma Arterton, Black Narcissus has been universally praised for its poignancy, passion, and rich evocation of a time and place. An intensely human story of devotion, faith, and madness, this beloved novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of In This House of Brede stands among the finest fiction written in the twentieth century. "Bears comparison with A Passage to India." —Arthur Koestler This ebook features an illustrated biography of the author including rare images from the Rumer Godden Literary Estate.

ルーマー・ゴッデンが本作で描いたのは、信仰という鎧が剥き出しの自然と本能によって崩壊していく、美しくも残酷な心理劇です。ヒマラヤの峻厳さと元ハーレムという空間が持つ官能的な記憶が、修道女たちの禁欲を静かに侵食する様は、まさに文学的白眉と言えます。理性が情熱に屈する瞬間のヒリつくような緊張感は、読む者の魂を激しく揺さぶります。 映像版が圧倒的な色彩美で五感を刺激するのに対し、原作は揺れ動く心の軋みを緻密に言語化しています。映像が外的な狂気を映し出す一方、ゴッデンの筆致は聖と俗の葛藤をより内省的に抉り出します。両メディアを往復することで、極限状態で露わになる人間性の深淵を、より鮮烈かつ多層的に体感できるはずです。