Maiden Castle (novel)
Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys was first published in 1936 and is the last of Powys so-called Wessex novels, following Wolf Solent (1929), A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Weymouth Sands (1934).[1] Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy, and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset, part of Hardy's mythical Wessex.[2] American scholar Richard Maxwell describes these four novels "as remarkably successful with the reading public of his time".[3] Maiden Castle is set in Dorchester, Dorset Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which Powys intended to be a "rival" to Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge.[4] Glen Cavaliero describes Dorchester as "vividly present throughout the book as a symbol of the continuity of civilization.[5] The title alludes to the Iron Age, hill fort Maiden Castle that stands near to Dorchester.
Author | John Cowper Powys |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Published | 1936 US, 1937 UK |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Media type | |
Preceded by | Weymouth Sands (1934), Autobiography (1934) |
Followed by | Morwyn (1937) |
Powys, along with Phyllis Playter, returned permanently to England in June 1934 and, while staying near the village of Chaldon, Dorset, Powys began Maiden Castle in late August 1934,[6] In October 1934 they moved to Dorchester but then they moved again, to Corwen North Wales, in July 1935, where Maiden Castle was completed in February 1936.[7]
Until 1990 Maiden Castle was only available in an abridged version, because Powys original typescript of Maiden Castle had been reduced by about one-fifth of its original length for the previous editions. In 1990 the University of Wales Press published "the first full authoritative edition" under the editorship of Ian Hughes.[8]
Plot
Maiden Castle is about "the difficult relationship of a historical novelist [Dud No-Man] [...] and a young circus acrobat [Wizzie Raveleston]. Another major character, the novelist's father [Uryen Quirm] believes that he is "the incarnation of a Welsh god".[9] Uryen tries "to reawake the old gods once worshipped" at Maiden Castle,[10] but he fails in this, just as his son fails in his relationship with Wizzie.[11]
Critical response
When the novel appeared in Britain in 1937 Geoffrey H. Wells, in a review in the Times Literary Supplement, wrote: The total effect is rather that of a celestial –or demonic – Punch and Judy show. All the characters are, by ordinary standards, grotesques, eccentric physically and mentally".[12] More recently, Morine Krissdottir, in her biography of Powys, describes the plot of Maiden Castle as "absurd" and "the characters over-the-top", while "the dialogue is often unintentionally comic". However, she still finds that the novel "sticks in the mind".[13] Glen Cavaliero also recognises that much of this novel is "implausible", but he suggests that "it takes on a hypnotic reality in the encounters between its leading characters", and he also comments, that though Uryen's "mad quest may have its ludicrous side", he "remains an impressive haunting figure".[14] Cavaliero also describes it as "perhaps the most Powysian of all the novels".[15]
Bibliography
- Cavaliero, Glen. John Cowper Powys, Novelist. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973, pp. 93–102
- Christensen, Peter G. The "Dark Gods" and Modern Society: Maiden Castle and The Plumed Serpent, in In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays, ed. Denis Lane. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990, pp. 157–179.
- Humfrey, Belinda, ed.The Powys Review. Index to critical articles and other material (including articles by Ian Hughes in nos, 12 and 15):
- Keith, W. J. "Three personal readings of Maiden Castle"
- Knight, G. Wilson. The Saturnian Quest. London: Methuen,1964, pp. 47–55, 77–80.
- Krissdottir, Morine. Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007, pp. 312–321
- Lock, Charles, ed. The Powys Journal. Another source for critical articles.
- Moran, Margaret. "Animated Fictions in Maiden Castle", in In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays, ed. Denis Lane. (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1990), pp. 180–192.
- Nodius, Janina. "I Am Myself Alone": Solitude and Transcendence in John Cowper Powys. Goteborg, Sweden, University of Goteborg, 1997, pp. 135–170.
References
- Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys. (Bridgend, Wales: Seren, 1997), p. 94.
- Powys's first novel Wood and Stone (1915) was dedicated to Thomas Hardy. It is set on the Dorset and Somerset border.
- "Two Canons: On the Meaning of Powys's Relation to Scott and his Turn to Historical Fiction", Western Humanities Review, vol. LVII, no. 1, Spring 2003, p. 103.
- Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007), p. 312.
- Glen Cavaliero, John Cowper Powys: Novelist. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 94.
- Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory, pp. 307, 303.
- Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory. pp. 308, 323, 325
- Ian Hughes, "Introduction" to Maiden Castle. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1990), p. vii.
- Information on the inside of the cover of Maiden Castle (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1990).
- C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. (Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1982), p. 132.
- C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape, p. 132.
- TLS, 27 March 1937, p. 239.
- Morine Krissdottir, "Descents of Memory, p. 313.
- Glen Cavaliero, John Cowper Powys: Novelist, pp, 101-2, 100..
- Glen Cavaliero, John Cowper Powys: Novelist, p. 93.