Return of the Sphinx (Laurentian Library 10)

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Revolutionary violence in Quebec--and indeed in many other parts of the world as well--has demonstrated in a terrifying way the prophetic quality of Return of the Sphinx. The title refers to the Oedipus legend of the sphinx which made cities sick, tore families assunder, and set sons against fathers and daughters against mothers--a description that seems only too apt for our society today.

Set in Montreal and Ottawa, Return of the Sphinx illuminates the conflict between Alan Ainslie, idealist, patriot, intellectuel, and his son Daniel, a young revolutionary Quebec separatist. It is combined with the tender love affair between young Chantal Ainslie and Gabriel Fleury, friend and contemporary of her father.

Hugh MacLennan has chosen great themes--revolution, the conflict of generations, the love of father for son, of man for woman--and has handled them magnificently.

McGill-Queen's University Press is pleased to announce the reprinting of five classic works by Hugh MacLennan - Each Man's Son, Return of the Sphinx, Two Solitudes, The Watch That Ends the Night, and Voices in Time - in a trade paper format and student mass-market edition. Alan Ainslie is an able and dedicated man high in the government. Daniel Ainslie, his son, is a member of an explosive movement impelled by the naive rebelliousness of the New left. Hugh MacLennan weaves a complex and succinct story of two generations in conflict.