
BETELGUESE - A TRIP THROUGH HELL
PREFACE
WHEN I AM GONE
BETELGUESE
A restless poet plunges into a feverish midnight marathon, crafting a sprawling vision that fuses the fury of scientific speculation with the wild cadence of lyrical myth. He invites listeners to follow his mind’s wandering as he maps an impossible Hell deep within the blazing heart of Betelgeuse, a rogue star‑like comet that drifts on the edge of known space. The opening sketches a universe where suns explode, dark comets race past Earth, and the very notion of an afterlife becomes a celestial geography to be charted.
The work unfolds as a haunting travelogue through strange, volcanic vistas and ethereal corridors, where ancient symbolism collides with early‑twentieth‑century astronomy. With vivid diction and an almost musical rhythm, the narrator paints a landscape that feels both alien and intimately human, urging listeners to ponder what lies beyond the visible sky. It is a daring, poetic expedition that leaves the destination open, promising a mesmerizing ride through imagination’s outer reaches.
Full title
Betelguese : A trip through hell A Trip Through Hell
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (73K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Meredith Bach, Stephanie Eason, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
Nov 1, 2009
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1879–1956
Best known for the curious 1908 book Betelguese: A Trip Through Hell, this early-20th-century poet wrote with a taste for the unusual and imaginative. His surviving work suggests a writer drawn to bold ideas, strange settings, and literary experimentation.
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