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The Man Who Would Be King, by Brother Rudyard Kipling. A good story, later made into an excellent film, starring Michael Caine, Sean Connery, and Christopher Plummer. Its portrayal of Masonic history is quite fanciful, of course.
Murder by Decree, A Sherlock Holmes movie, concerning the Master Sleuth's hunt for Jack the Ripper. It does not portray Masonry in an honest, accurate, or favorable light. A good movie, but it is important to remember that no Mason would ever knowingly commit a crime for a Brother. Incidentally, Edward VII was actually a Mason. (The story is not one of Brother Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's).
The "Turmgesellschaft" in Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" novels is certainly of Masonic origin.
In Tolstoy's War and Peace, the Masonic initiation ritual of the
character Pierre Besouchoff is described in great detail.
There is also a modest body of Masonic poetry: Kipling's "The Palace" and "Mother Lodge," Burns's "Masonic Farewell," Goethe's "Mason Lodge," Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem," Carruth's "Each in His Own Tongue," Burns's "On the Apron," Meredith's "Ebony Staff of Solomon," Bowman's "Voice of America," Malloch's "Father's Lodge" and Nesbit's "I Sat in Lodge with You." (Carl H. Claudy) |