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Earthly Powers (Vintage Classics)
 
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Earthly Powers (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Anthony Burgess (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (6 May 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099468646
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099468646
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 87,586 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #9 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Burgess, Anthony

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Product Description

Martin Amis
Crowded, crammed, bursting with manic erudition, garlicky puns, omniligual jokes-which meshes the real and personalised history of the twentieth century

Product Description
Anthony Burgess' epic masterpiece follows the lives of two men who each represent different kinds of earthly power. Kenneth Toomey is an eminent novelist, world-famous homosexual, and a man who has outlived his contemporaries to survive into honoured, bitter, luxurious old age as a celebrity of dubious notoriety. Don Carlo Campanati is a man of God, who rises through the Vatican as a subtle negotiator and shrewd manipulator to become the controversial architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood. Through the lives of these two men, related to each other not only by family ties but also by sympathy, genius and a deep common understanding of mankind's frailties, Burgess explores the very essence of power.

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (13)
4 star:
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3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An offbeat masterwork, 9 Sep 2005
A lot of mythologising surrounds this novel; when it was first published, the critics snarled and disdained it, and in large part didn't understand it, which is forgiveable, because it is a huge, complex monster of a book. The plot (which is far from being the central point of the book) follows the richly colourful and sympathetic inner life of an ancient, eccentric author against the backdrop of twentieth-century history: this is merely a stage against which to set his relationship with an Italian priest of great character and complexity, destined to become Pope. This relationship is in itself a mere frame for an analysis of the nature of good and evil, and faith and free will, in an astonishingly subtle and labyrinthine way. The whole thrust of the book is to propose an idea, only revealed near the end, which is so philosophically shocking that the reader has to have some way of rejecting it, should they so wish. Suddenly the rest of the book is thrown into crystal relief - the vast complexity of the narrative is a web of deliberate errors of fact, logic and conclusion to allow this escape: the nature of human memory and thought itself is thrown into question. Beyond that, I leave you to argue it out amongst yourselves. This is a truly great book by one of Britain's most important C20 writers.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Epic Masterpiece, 19 Dec 2001
This review is from: Earthly Powers (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
I can't believe this isn't full of reviews, this book is one of the best books I've ever read. Anthony Burgess is one of the most inventive, original authors, making you believe everything because he entwines fiction with reality. This is a huge book, a review of the 20th century, deep, and extremly inteligent. By the end of the book Toomey (the main character) is a part of your life, I was so sad to let him go...
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Burgess's masterpiece, 28 April 2004
By Gregory Norminton (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Most writers scratch and fidget, gaze longingly at the telephone, developneurotic ticks, suffer fits of envy, fury, self-pity... and then get alittle writing done. Anthony Burgess, on the other hand, seems to havewritten a chapter before breakfast, knocked off a couple of book reviewsbefore lunch, written a symphony over crumpets and tea, and finallyrelaxed by reading THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY in Mandarin translation. Hisenergy must have provoked suspicion among his peers, who failed to giveEARTHLY POWERS the Booker Prize it so richly deserved. The novel may behis greatest achievement: charting eighty years in the life of KennethToomey as he crosses continents, meets artists and Nazis, Americancultists and a devil-bashing Pope. It is a picaresque comedy that looksinto some of the darkest recesses of the 20th Century. It is huge,rambunctious, and encyclopedic. And don't let that put you off: this(slow) reader finished it in four days. So chuck out that wretchedthriller. Make EARTHLY POWERS your holiday read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read
Don't be put off by Martin Anis's recommendation - it really is a good read and very funny. If you like farce, you'll like this. Read more
Published 6 months ago by I. Holton

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Novel
I remember picking this up and getting a feeling of joy bubbling through me when I read the first line and found that I already liked Kenneth Toomey as he explained his thinking... Read more
Published 9 months ago by D. M. Deeks

3.0 out of 5 stars garlicky
garlicky puns???omnilingual jokes!!! top hole old boy...

the best sleeping pill I have ever used...a great cure for insomnia.. Read more
Published 11 months ago by John Fitzgerald

5.0 out of 5 stars Religion/Power
4.7 or 4.8 stars. A remarkable parody of that greatest of cliches - the self-indulgent reflections of a writer. But this is happily more than a conceptual joke. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Pablo K

5.0 out of 5 stars Response from an Ordinary Person
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

A tour de force by an erudite and fluent author; he has structured a framework of individual lives and relationships within which he... Read more
Published 18 months ago by mesmh

5.0 out of 5 stars Burgess deserved far better
This book remains one of the key novels of the 20th century. Burgess was an extremely fine writer and this, in my view, is his best. Read more
Published 23 months ago by S. de Villiers

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite novels
Funny, dramatic, entertaining, informative,spine tingling, wonderfully readable. The camp novelist / autobiographical voice and the Italian Pope are fantastic. Read more
Published on 15 Dec 2006 by W. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!!
I bought this book by total chance a few years ago, for long enough i regretted paying the best part of a tenner for a book id never heard of before but then, one day recently i... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2005 by cherubinterrorist

4.0 out of 5 stars Wide-ranging and wonderful journey
This book is a wonderful journey through the life and adventures of Kenneth Toomey, the world-wearing and endearing protagonist. Read more
Published on 12 May 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary Powers, too.
My Amazon copy is my third, the previous editions having fallen apart from constant re-reading. Earthly Powers is simply my favourite novel (of the many I've read either in... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2002 by Plom de Nume

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