JOHN COWPER POWYS

Ducdame was John Cowper Powys fourth novel published in 1925. It is set in Dorset. The protagonist, Rook Ashover (a wonderfully Powysian name) is an introverted young squire with a dilemma: to go on loving his mistress, Netta Page, or, make a respectable marriage and produce an heir.Of his early novels (pre- Wolf Solent) this one is often considered to be the most carefully constructed and best organized. Like them all it contains a gallery of rich, complex characters and glorious writing.

Published in 1954, John Cowper Powys called this novel, a long romance about Odysseus in his extreme old age, hoisting sail once more from Ithaca. As usual there is a large cast of human characters but Powys also gives life and speech to inanimates such as a stone pillar, a wooden club,and an olive shoot. The descent to the drowned world of Atlantis towards the end of the novel is memorably described, indeed, Powys himself called it the best part of the book.Many of Powyss themes, such as the benefits of matriarchy, the wickedness of priests and the evils of modern science which condones vivisection are given full rein in this odd but compelling work.

Wood and Stone was John Cowper Powys first novel published in 1915. It is no prentice-work however - the author was already in his forties. The novel is set in the area of south Somerset that John Cowper Powys grew up in. The village of Nevilton is based on Montacute where his father was vicar for many years. When he wrote it Powys was living in the USA and it is perhaps this absence that accounts for the heightened vividness of the descriptive writing. Powys deploys a large and wonderfully delineated cast of characters. They are loosely divided between the well-constituted and the ill-constituted. Characteristically Powys favours the latter.

Rodmoor is, unusually for a John Cowper Powys novel, set in East Anglia, Rodmoor itself being a coastal village.The protagonist, Adrian Sorio, is a typically Powys-like hero, highly-strung with only precarious mental stability. He is in love with two women - Nance Herrick and the more unconventional Phillipa Renshaw. This was Powys second novel, published in 1916. It deploys a rich and memorable cast of characters.

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.

Tout etre humain se trouve seul au cur du mental. A la naissance, nous crions ; et ce cri est le cri de la solitude. Ainsi des enfants. Ainsi des adolescents. Et plus nous avançons en age, plus notre solitude saccroit. Le conseil le plus avise quune ame puisse proposer a une autre ame est daccepter cette loi de la nature. Oui, nous devons laccepter ; et non seulement laccepter, mais y trouver notre unique et singuliere felicite. Uniment, fermement et obstinement nous devons rapporter tous les processus mentaux de notre age, toutes nos reactions secretes devant lunivers, toutes les habitudes furtives que nous accumulons dans notre nature interieure, a cette austere et solennelle verite. Si nous sommes seuls, inexorablement, lorsque nous retournons au sol primitif, la plus sage des existences est une existence assemblee a tenon et a mortaise sur la solitude .

Tout etre humain se trouve seul au cur du mental. A la naissance, nous crions ; et ce cri est le cri de la solitude. Ainsi des enfants. Ainsi des adolescents. Et plus nous avançons en age, plus notre solitude saccroit. Le conseil le plus avise quune ame puisse proposer a une autre ame est daccepter cette loi de la nature. Oui, nous devons laccepter ; et non seulement laccepter, mais y trouver notre unique et singuliere felicite. Uniment, fermement et obstinement nous devons rapporter tous les processus mentaux de notre age, toutes nos reactions secretes devant lunivers, toutes les habitudes furtives que nous accumulons dans notre nature interieure, a cette austere et solennelle verite. Si nous sommes seuls, inexorablement, lorsque nous retournons au sol primitif, la plus sage des existences est une existence assemblee a tenon et a mortaise sur la solitude .

John Cowper Powys se défie de l’affliction autant que de la sérénité. Le philosophe avance, en funambule, sur un fil tendu au-dessus du gouffre de la solitude. Dans une approche présentée comme « lib

Ce court essai critique le radicalisme de la religion et de la science pour sengager sur la voie instable du scepticisme. Le monde des forts et des puissants est celui de la vérité, de la certitude et dune foi renouvelee. Le monde des faibles est celui du doute, de lobservation et de la joie profonde du lien a la nature. John Cowper Powys nous apprend dans cet essai a faire partie des "faibles". "Car le secret universel de la reussite consiste a presumer que tout ce qui est efficace, pratique et exploitable represente ce quil est convenu dappeler la verite."John Cowper Powys (1872-1963) est un auteur anglo-gallois. Professeur, ecrivain, critique et poete, il est aussi un excellent orateur. Il publie des 1915 de la poesie, puis des nouvelles et des essais litteraires et de philosophie, mais cest en 1929 quil connait le succes critique et public avec Wolf Solent (traduction française chez Gallimard) et la suite de ses romans du Wessex . On le considere volontiers, pour son uvre fictionnelle, comme un heritier de Thomas Hardy.

John Cowper Powys se défie de l’affliction autant que de la sérénité. Le philosophe avance, en funambule, sur un fil tendu au-dessus du gouffre de la solitude. Dans une approche présentée comme « lib

A short self portrait of Powys’ beliefs, temperament and peculiarities which prefigures his later, greater Autobiography.

Wolf Solent e il primo dei quattro romanzi del ciclo del Wessex di John Cowper Powys, ambientato in unInghilterra sud-occidentale immaginaria sul modello di quella di Thomas Hardy. Il protagonista, che da il titolo al romanzo, dopo un esaurimento nervoso perde il lavoro e si trasferisce nella piccola citta di Ramsgard per svolgere un incarico letterario presso uno squire locale (un proprietario terriero). Li si trova coinvolto con due donne: Gerda, semplice e in sintonia con la natura, e Christie, piu complessa e intellettuale.Il romanzo e fortemente introspettivo. Assistiamo ai pensieri interiori di Wolf mentre cerca di dare un senso alla sua segreta "mitologia" o "illusione di vita", basata sullidea di una battaglia interiore tra il bene e il male. Quando emergono vari segreti sepolti alcuni legati alla sua stessa famiglia Wolf cerca di orientarsi nelle sue relazioni e di mettere in discussione i propri impulsi, sentendo che la sopravvivenza della sua "illusione di vita" e in pericolo.Il romanzo fu accolto con grande favore al momento della pubblicazione ed e considerato un capolavoro letterario, nonostante la sua curiosa mancanza di notorieta. Lo scrittore Simon Heffer lo ha definito "il miglior romanzo scritto da un inglese nel XX secolo."