This book might be better entitled "Glastonbury Romances" because the romances of John and Mary, Sam and Nell, Philip and Persephone fill the first 300 pages of this large volume. John and Mary are cousins, both Crows, and their romance is the neurotic, on again off again type. Sam and Nell's romance is the single man and the lonely wife (her husband spend more time in Wookey Hole than in her, er, "presence"). Philip and Perse are both married, but not to each other. Perse's preference for sex with her tweed suit on tells us plenty about their relationship.
The central character is Mr. Geard who inherited Mr. Crow's fortune and properties and the plot turns on what he will do with his largesse. His plans are evolving into a Midsummer Festival on the grounds of the Glastonbury Abbey which contains many sacred artifacts, relics, buildings, and locations. These include St. John's, St. Mary's, Glastonbury Tor (the tower pictured on the cover), the tomb of St. Joseph of Arimethea (of the New Testament), the Holy Grail, the site of the Arthurian Legends (including Merlin), and ancient ritual arenas of the Druids, among other things.
Mixed into this melange of historical places and romantic couples is a group of ardent communists who push for Mr. Geard to turn the Crow factories into a worker run communist factory, even announcing it in advance of Geard's decision.
Geard for his part had one big scene in which he laid in bed with a pain-ridden woman with terminal cancer and gave her a good night's sleep without her usual morphine injections.
Colin Wilson praised this novel as a "New Age" work of fiction and it has certainly lived up to his billing. Powys writes with a depth of mystery and interconnection that is overpowering at times. He transfers the mundane into the timeless. For example, the simple act of stepping off the 5:20 train becomes a dance with the far reaches of the cosmos. He writes fiction as refreshing and enchanting as the New Age music of Andreas Vollenweider, Enya, and Paul Horn.
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