Earthly Powers (Vintage Classics) [Paperback]

`Readers on the lookout for a big, bold, ambitious and bawdy saga sustained by bravura ambition, ideas, facts and authorial cunning that is not written by James Joyce, need seek no further, the maverick genius Anthony Burgess has a field day in his epic race through the 20th century... Early Powers is a lively and likeable extravaganza about sin and spirituality, corruption and fear, told with vicious wit, intelligence and panache by a singular original we have never fully appreciated' --Irish Times

Rollicking, panoramic epic of 20th century by the author of 'A Clockwork Orange'

'Crowded, crammed, bursting with manic erudition, garlicky puns, omnilingual jokes... which meshes the real and personalised history of the twentieth century'

Martin Amis

Kenneth Toomey is an eminent novelist of dubious talent; Don Carlo Campanati is a man of God, a shrewd manipulator who rises through the Vatican to become the architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood. These two men are linked not only by family ties but by a common understanding of mankind's frailties. In this epic masterpiece, Anthony Burgess plumbs the depths of the essence of power and the lengths men will go for it.

(20030723)

'A hellfire tract thrown down by a novelist at the peak of his powers' The Times

Kenneth Toomey is an eminent novelist of dubious talent. Don Carlo Campanati is a man of God, who rises through the Vatican to become the architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood. These two men are linked not only by family ties but by a common understanding of mankind's frailties. In this epic masterpiece, Anthony Burgess plumbs the depths of the essence of power and the lengths men will go for it.

'Crowded, crammed, bursting with manic erudition, garlicky puns, omnilingual jokes...meshes the real and personalised history of the twentieth century'

Martin Amis

See also: The Malayan Trilogy

Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917. He served in the army from 1940 to 1954 before becoming a colonial education officer. It was while he held this post that doctors told him he would die, and he decided to try to live by writing. A prolific and respected author, Burgess died in 1993. (20030723)