Zanoni

Before Orlando, before The Highlander, before the Elves in Lord of the Rings, before any and all fictional immortals, there was Zanoni. Through magical alchemical elixirs and the mysterious rites of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, Zanoni has been gifted with immortal life; he chooses to sacrifice this gift for the love of a beautiful and gifted young woman, and the family he wishes to have. Along with other works of Edward Bulwer Lytton, such as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, Zanoni's deep archetypal and symbolic story has such a ring of Truth, that it influenced the New Thought and Theosophy movements of it's time, and in turn, has set the stage for the modern New Age movement, and resurgance of interest in the subjects of alchemy and physical immortality. At Naples, in the latter half of the last century, a worthy artist named Gaetano Pisani lived and flourished. He was a musician of great genius, but not of popular reputation; there was in all his compositions something capricious and fantastic which did not please the taste of the Dilettanti of Naples