The Quest of the Absolute (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

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Balthazar Claes (bahl-tah-ZAHR klehs), the head of an old and respected family in Flanders who devotes his life and fortune to an attempt to discover the philosopher’s stone, the substance believed to have the power of transmuting base metals into gold. When the story begins, he is roughly fifty years old but appears at least ten years older: His tall figure is stooped, his unkempt hair falls to his shoulders, his cheeks are hollow, and his face is pale and wrinkled. His eyes betray a keen intelligence and long days and nights of work in his home...

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