The Great and Secret Show is a fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. It was released in 1989 and it is the first "Book of the Art" in a trilogy, known as "The Art Trilogy" by fans. The novel is about the conflict between two highly evolved men – Randolph Jaffe and Richard Fletcher – over the mystical dream sea called Quiddity. Jaffe hopes to tap into Quiddity's power while Fletcher wants to prevent it from being tainted. The conflict between the two men spills into the real world in a decades-long feud, distorting reality and affecting the entire human race. Clive Barker has said in interviews that this novel was the hardest to write of all his books. Plot summary In 1969, while working in a dead letter office in Nebraska, disgruntled postal clerk Randolph Jaffe discovers hints to a mysterious society known as The Shoal, which ostensibly practises a form of magic only vaguely known as "The Art". Jaffe's search eventually brings him to a New Mexico town where he encounters Kissoon, who claims to be the last of the Shoal. Kissoon tells Jaffe of the mystical dream sea Quiddity and the islands within it known as the Ephemeris. Quiddity, as it turns out, is visible exactly three times to an ordinary human: The first time we ever sleep outside our mother's womb, the first time we sleep beside the one we truly love and the last time we ever sleep before we die. However, this simply is not enough for the megalomaniac Jaffe, who wishes to actually visit the dream sea in person and gain control of it. Jaffe flees when Kissoon tries to bargain for his body. Jaffe later teams up with a scientist named Fletcher to develop a liquid called Nuncio, which can theoretically allow a human to evolve to a state that would enable him to physically reach Quiddity. Fletcher realises that Jaffe will only use Nuncio for evil and destroys his laboratory. Jaffe arrives and both are exposed to the Nuncio. After the two battle each other for a year, their spirits arrive in California, where they rape and impregnate four teenage girls. One of the girls is infertile and fails to conceive while another kills herself and her child after giving birth. The third, Trudi Katz, moves away with her baby Howard, while the fourth, Joyce McGuire, gives birth to twins,