Describe About Books Earthly Powers
| Title | : | Earthly Powers |
| Author | : | Anthony Burgess |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 649 pages |
| Published | : | May 6th 2004 by Vintage Classics (first published 1980) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Literature. Novels |
Anthony Burgess
Paperback | Pages: 649 pages Rating: 4.16 | 2621 Users | 232 Reviews
Narrative Concering Books Earthly Powers
Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, is regarded as one of the most original and daring writers in the English language. His work is illuminated by a dazzling imagination, by a gift for character and plot, by a talent for surprise.In Earthly Powers Burgess created his masterpiece. At its center are two twentieth-century men who represent different kinds of power—Kenneth Toomey, eminent novelist, a man who has outlived his contemporaries to survive into honored, bitter, luxurious old age as a celebrity of dubious notoriety; and Don Carlo Campanati, a man of God, eventually beloved Pope, who rises through the Vatican as a shrewd manipulator to become the architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood.
Through the lives of these two modern men Burgess explores the very essence of power. As each pursues his career—one to sainthood, one to wealthy exile—their relationship becomes the heart of a narrative that incorporates almost everyone of fame and distinction in the social, literary, and political life of America and Europe. This astonishing company is joined together by the art of a great novelist into an explosive and entertaining tour de force that will captivate fans of sweeping historic fiction.
Specify Books During Earthly Powers
| Original Title: | Earthly Powers |
| ISBN: | 0099468646 (ISBN13: 9780099468646) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Kenneth Toomey, Don Carlo Campanati |
| Setting: | Vatican City(Italy) |
| Literary Awards: | Booker Prize Nominee (1980), Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger for Roman (1981) |
Rating About Books Earthly Powers
Ratings: 4.16 From 2621 Users | 232 ReviewsAssess About Books Earthly Powers
"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me." Earthly Powers is the linchpin of Anthony Burgess' novel-writing career. It is a massive work that compares favorably with similar tomes of twentieth century literature. What sets Burgess apart from other authors is his linguistic playfulness combined with an exceptional narrative style. Although this style is here somewhat less obviously experimentalHeritage album cover art 1. MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENThref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tZ_uwDlmPY"> Providence - GSYBE! 2. THE STORYWriter Kenneth Toomey, 81 y.o., is requested to write a biography on Carlo Campanati, that is, a relative, also the former pope. The background of this curious hagiography consists in the fate of family Toomey and family Campanati during the 20th century. Also, Ken Toomey is a homosexual with a knack for bonding with ill-suited partners. 3. EARTHLY POWERS?I am
I finally completed this monster of a book, this masterpiece of post-war literature, which to my great embarrassment, completely escaped me when it was published in 1980. I was maybe too much focused on Vladimir Nabobov at the time, who I believed was the best author of fiction of all times, but who is now, I should admit, surpassed by Anthony Burgess on my list. I so much enjoyed the witticisms and erudition of Burgess' writing, his multilingual jokes, the many, often warped, references to 20th
Can a man write as a woman? An adult as a child? Black as white? Or, as in this novel, straight as gay?Well, only partially successfully if this is anything to go by. But it doesn't matter.This is a tour de force. The account of 80 years of life, drawing heavily on the author's own, intersecting with the major events and some of the major characters of the twentieth century. The life of Kenneth M. Toomey. A man with a dicky heart - just one of the many jokes - a heart condition, and a heart that
Shooting for the moon, knowing it would fall back to earth, this is Burgess at the height of his considerable powers, spinning a lopsided globe with one hand and, well, trying not to laugh too hard. The impossibly lofty account of civilization's status, set in an inauspicious moment, at the end of the twentieth century. Haven't read since it was first published, but on the eve of a re-read -- an easy five stars.
That two-star rating might be a little unfair. I actually had fun reading large chunks of the book. If all you're looking for is something entertaining to read, and you enjoy British snark and bitchiness, then this is the ticket. As a work of literature, however, it fell far short. And since it purports to seriously discuss the problem of good and evil, I think that's a fair yardstick. This is not, at the end of the day, the novelistic equivalent of Monty Python. The novel follows the life of
I am a Burgess near-complete-ist, but haven't revisited him in over 10 years and... ~confession! Still haven't read the obvious clockworky one I know, I know~. ...and this blew my world away when I read it in the 90s, and it is sad that the AB oeuvre has very little academic activity to keep his name alive in the culture. Would love to re-read it with some peeps from round here though.
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