The Focus of Life

About this book

A strange face stares from the page. The body dissolves into a tangle of symbols. Austin Osman Spare combines aphorisms and disturbing drawings in an attempt to describe consciousness beyond familiar categories.

The Focus of Life continues the private magical philosophy he developed around desire, belief and the self. Its surviving illustrations are central to the experience, giving visual form to ideas that remain deliberately difficult to pin down. It is one of his most personal books, at once intimate, confrontational and resistant to tidy explanation.

Cite this edition

Austin Osman Spare. The Focus of Life. Undated illustrated digital transcription of Austin Osman Spare’s 1921 text, The Focus of Life: The Mutterings of Aaos; three aphorisms and fourteen illustrations. Historical publisher preliminaries and the separate editorial introduction are not included. Supplied custom author cover. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/books/the-focus-of-life-spare

About this edition

Recorded edition: Undated illustrated digital transcription of Austin Osman Spare’s 1921 text, The Focus of Life: The Mutterings of Aaos; three aphorisms and fourteen illustrations. Historical publisher preliminaries and the separate editorial introduction are not included. Supplied custom author cover.