Sue Prideaux

Roger Scruton’s swan song: salvation through Parsifal

In his final book, the philosopher makes sense of his life while examining Wagner’s own sublime last opera

The flower maidens attempt to seduce Parsifal. Credit: Alamy

This is Roger Scruton’s final book. Parsifal was Wagner’s final opera. Both works are intended to be taken as Last Words: testaments of belief at the end of a long spiritual journey. In the introduction, Scruton identifies the enduring problem in his life, and ours, as: ‘How to live in right relation with others, even if there is no God.’

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