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'''''Four Encounters''''' is an unfinished work by the writer and philosopher [[Olaf Stapledon]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Four Encounters {{!}} ISBNdb |url=https://isbndb.com/book/9780575128699 |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=isbndb.com}}</ref> written in the late 1940s but only published by Bran's Head Books in 1976, 26 years after the author's death. This edition contained an introduction by [[Brian Aldiss]], a longtime champion of Stapledon's works. The text is also available in compilations of the author's writings.

The story is not [[science fiction]], the discipline in which the author made his name. Rather it takes place in contemporary (post [[World War II]]) [[United Kingdom|Britain]], and describes four meetings with various characters who are named for the spiritual quality that best defines them: a [[Christians|Christian]], a [[scientist]], a [[mysticism|mystic]] and a [[revolutionary]].

The encounters take place in everyday scenarios — at parties, in a garage, etc. The narrator assesses all these various types according to his own association with, and understanding of, "The Spirit" — a theme familiar to readers of Stapledon from his discourses on the matter in his best-known works.

There were originally to have been ten encounters, but Stapledon died before the project was completed.

== References ==
{{reflist}}{{Olaf Stapledon}}

[[Category:1940s short stories]]
[[Category:Works by Olaf Stapledon]]

{{1940s-story-stub}}

Four Encounters - Revision history

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