He seeks to transform his art — novelty in the novel, some path untried, rejuvenation and resurrection. He strives to the uttermost boundaries of the tradition of writing, coming hard against a wall set at the limit of creative possibility itself; and there he stalls and vainly flounders. Until at last in his despair he finds himself groping toward a sinister power beyond his reckoning, one which might succor him, granting him the power to make the next step that he unaided is incapable of making — but only at the greatest of all possible prices.

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