Picador Books Series

Fourth in the series of novels called 'the only novels produced by an English writer that can be fairly compared with the fictions of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky' - George Steiner, The New Yorker Extravagant, exuberant and introspective, 'Maiden Castle' reveals characters that struggle with perplexities of love, desire and faith while the looming fortress of Maiden Castle exerts an otherworldy force that irrevocably determines the course of their lives. '[Powys] gives not warmth nor enlightenment, but enduring vision, enduring strength, enduring courage' - Henry Miller

The Brazen Head

by John Cowper Powys

Published July 1969

In this panoramic novel of Friar Roger Bacon, John Cowper Powys displays his genius at its most fecund. First published in 1956, this novel, set in thirteenth-century Wessex, is an amalgam of all the qualities that make John Cowper Powys unique.

The love-story of Lil-Umbra and Raymond de Laon, and the quest of the Mongolian giant, Peleg, for Ghosta, the girl seen, loved, and lost on the battlefield, are intermingled with the historical, theological and magical threads which form the brocade of this novel.

Dominating all is the mysterious creation of Roger Bacon one of the boldest as well as most intricate of Powys' world-changing inventions. Professor G. Wilson Knight called this 'A book of wisdom and wonders'.

Weymouth Sands

by John Cowper Powys

Published December 1979

Along with Wolf Solen,' 'A Glastonbury Romance,' and 'Maiden Castle,' this modern classic originally published in 1934, forms the quartet that 'are just about the only novels produced by an English writer that can be fairly compared with the fictions of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.' (George Steiner). 'To encounter Powys is to arrive at the very fount of creation.' - Henry Miller '...is one of the very few English novelists of the last fifty years of whom it could be said that they have not talent but genius.' - J B Priestley'

Autobiography

by John Cowper Powys

Published October 1967

This autobiography has been claimed as one of the great biographies of the English language. Controversy centres on Powys' stature as a writer. Some regard him as unjustly neglected, an arresting and major novelist, while others find his talent spurious. His novels include: "Wood and Stone"; "Rodmoor"; Ducdame"; "Wolf Solent"; "A Glastonbury Romance"; "Weymouth Sands"; "Jobber Skald"; "Maiden Castle"; "Morwyn"; and "The Inmates".

A Glastonbury Romance

by John Cowper Powys

Published 1 January 1920

First published in 1932, this is an epic novel of terrific force and lyrical intensity interweaving the ancient with the modern as it probes the mystical and spiritual ethos of Glastonbury and its association with the legend of the Grail. ... the only novel produced by an English writer that can fairly be compared with the fiction of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky...with an immensity to which only Blake could provide any parallel. Go out and acquire it. Almost everything else on your shelf will start looking thin.' - George Steiner'

Owen Glendower

by John Cowper Powys

Published 12 May 1978

After My Fashion

by John Cowper Powys

Published 6 June 1980

After My Fashion has an unusual publishing history. Although it was John Cowper Powys third novel written in 1920, it wasn't published until 1980. It seems that when his US publisher turned it down Powys made no effort to place it elsewhere. Indeed, when Powys had finished a book he tended to be oddly indifferent to its fate.

The novel has two other unusual features: its locations (Sussex and Greenwich Village) and Isadora Duncan being the inspiration for Elise, the dancer and mistress of the protagonist, Richard Storm (based quite largely on Powys himself).

As one would expect from Powys the writing is vivid, not least in the descriptions of the Sussex landscape and the bohemian milieu of Greenwich Village.