This is the first modern paperback edition of "the only novel produced by an English writer that can fairly be compared with the fictions of Tolstoy and Dostoyevski." - George Steiner, "The New Yorker". John Cowper Powys has been acclaimed by some of the greatest minds of this century, from Henry Miller ("my first living idol") to George Steiner ("supreme in English fiction after Hardy") to Robertson Davies ("a great writer"). "A Glastonbury Romance", first published in 1932, is his masterwork, an epic novel of terrific cumulative force and lyrical intensity. In it, he probes the mystical and spiritual ethos of the small English village of Glastonbury, and the effect upon its inhabitants of a mythical tradition from the remotest past of human history - the legend of the Grail. Powys's rich iconography interweaves the ancient with the modern, the historical with the legendary, and the imaginative within man with the natural world outside him to create a book of astonishing scope and beauty.
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £1.45
Trade in A Glastonbury Romance for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.45, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"To encounter [Powys]... is to arrive at the very fount of creation. He makes us witnessof the consuming fire which rages throughout the universe entire and which gives not warmth nor enlightenment, but enduring vision, enduring strength, and enduring courage." -Henry Miller "This is a... great novel. It stands as a gigantic rebuke to a time of minimum-risk writers and readers, and I hope that many among them will be encouraged to attempt it." -The Chicago Tribune"
About the Author
John Cowper Powys is the author of ten novels, including Weymouth Sands and Wolf Solent, as well as many works of criticism and philosophy. Born in Derbyshire, England, he was the son of a vicar, and the descendant of the poets Donne and Cowper.
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In some ways this is the most amazing novel I have ever encountered. Its imaginative range, its gorgeous language, and its mesmeric power lift it far above almost anything else. Some of the characters and images - Geard, the mayor and founder of a new religion; Evans, the tortured antiquary; the haunting vision of the Grail-Aquarium; and the invisible naturalists studying the town's population all come to mind - are unforgettably original. The book is by turns sinister, astonishing, mystical and comic. Think of a kind of Dickens meets Hardy meets Lawrence meets Blake, and you'll have some idea of what to expect.
The last two names point also, unfortunately, to the book's flaws. Like Lawrence, Powys can be embarrassingly gushing, and like Blake he can bore or bewilder when he isn't firing on all cylinders. His mystical flights occasionally spill over into bathos! and his style moves from the sublime to the downright infuriating! In particular, I really wish he had vowed never to use another exclamation mark before beginning this book! More broadly, the text is very long indeed and needs some determination in places.
But these are trivial complaints. Powys is a truly unique writer in the whole history of English literature, and his intricate, minutely-detailed yet cosmic vision is one you'll never forget. Not light reading, but the rewards along the way dwarf those of most other twentieth-century works.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In some ways this is the most amazing novel I have ever encountered. Its imaginative range, its gorgeous language, and its mesmeric power lift it far above almost anything else. Some of the characters and images - Geard, the mayor and founder of a new religion; Evans, the tortured antiquary; the haunting vision of the Grail-Aquarium; and the invisible naturalists studying the town's population all come to mind - are unforgettably original. The book is by turns sinister, astonishing, mystical and comic. Think of a kind of Dickens meets Hardy meets Lawrence meets Blake, and you'll have some idea of what to expect.
The last two names point also, unfortunately, to the book's flaws. Like Lawrence, Powys can be embarrassingly gushing, and like Blake he can bore or bewilder when he isn't firing on all cylinders. His mystical flights occasionally spill over into bathos! and his style moves from the sublime to the downright infuriating! In particular, I really wish he had taken some sort of vow never to use another exclamation mark before beginning this book! More broadly, the text is very long indeed and needs some determination in places.
But these are trivial complaints. Powys is a truly unique writer in the whole history of English literature, and his intricate, minutely-detailed yet cosmic vision is one you'll never forget. Not light reading, but the rewards along the way dwarf virtually any other twentieth-century work.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By R. Sindelar
Format:Paperback
25 years ago I bought this book, more on account of the beautiful cover than on the content, and on the somewhat cryptic summary that this would be the Lord of the Rings for a new generation. As noticed by others it was difficult to get through the first pages and I laid aside my brand new edition for a while - 25 years. After some maturation I've picked it up again this year and I'm surprised how complex and intriguing this Fellowship of Glastonbury inhabitants actually is. A mixture of pagan, druidic, christian and arthurian believes with a large portion of greek mythology and the most complex of mental states, namely being in love, makes this book a stunning adventure and more up to date in a world that contemplates these issues more intensly than ever. It's also fascinating that all these thoughts were concentrated in the mind of one writer and that this mind could focus them within the environment of some old ruins coming to life through these eternal questions that his characters are possesed by. Through the increasing strength of TV-satellites and IT websites many of these different and dispersed believes of our world come together today, but they will not get a much better setting than the one of John Cowper Powys' Glastonbury. Highly recommended!!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 16 reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Marmite
Like the reviewer above, I was finally prompted into trying John Cowper Powys by the article in Slightly Foxed. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mary Queen
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Glastonbury Romance
This book came to my notice through the delightful little magazine called 'Slightly Foxed. A strong case was made for John Cowper Powys as an author and of the novels suggested I... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. J. N. Plant
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh God please deliver me from this
Having exhausted my holiday book bag all too quickly I bought this - correctly surmising that it would slow me down. Read more
Published on 31 July 2009 by Dr Enoch
3.0 out of 5 stars
Written from a very unusual perspective
'A Glastonbury Romance' is set in inter-war Britain. It follows the lives of the inhabitants of Glastonbury over the course of a few eventful years in that town's history, and... Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2003 by Depressaholic
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique
Powys must be one of the strangest authors ever to have written in the English language. Like Dickens, he revels in character, but unlike Dickens, his baroque, time-slowed flights... Read more
Published on 1 May 2003 by Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prose that lifts you into a sensuous world!
In 'A Glastonbury Romance' John Cowper Powys has given us one of England's greatest epic novels. Examining how a pagan myth that has become overlaid with Christian symbolism... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2000
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
