Tuesday, May 24, 2011

General Fiction – Arthur Edward Waite, Mary Webb, Marianne Wiggins, Charles Williams, Wu Ch’eng-En & W B Yeats

A mishmash of styles and genres seems to be the case for this post. which is also the last for the time being in the General Fiction category.


To start, a curious fiction by Tarot Card designer (Rider-Waite Pack) and occultist, Arthur Edward Waite called The Quest of the Golden Stairs published by Newcastle in 1974, though it was not part of their Forgotten Fantasy series.


waite_goldenstairs


Mary Webb’s Precious Bane is a classic rural countryside novel. It is an extraordinarily moody novel, as bleak and lonesome as the landscape in which it is set. Actually, I have always had a fondness for this book, in the same way I appreciate sad songs.


webb_preciousbane


Marianne Wiggins is the ex wife of Salman Rushdie, but is also a fine writer in her own right. Probably her best known novel is John Dollar a female version of Lord of the Flies. I do have a copy of John Dollar somewhere, but the three below are others of her work in my possession, written in the 1980s and ‘90s.


wiggins_evelesseden






wiggins_herselfinlove wiggins_separatechecks



To continue with my Charles Williams collection, here are three more published by Eerdmans 1974, 1979 & 1980, the latter two having surrealistic covers by Jim Lamb.






williams_warinheaven_eermans_edition williams_descentintohell_eerdmans_edition


williams_allhallowseve_eerdmans_edition


Monkey or Journey to the West by Wu Ch’eng En is a classic of Chinese Buddhist Literature. The definitive translation is by Arthur Waley. I remember being addicted to the TV series of it back in 1970s, which is no doubt why I have a copy of the book.


wu_chen_en_monkey


And finally Mythologies by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, studies of the supernatural based on Irish country folklore. This edition published by Collier Books in 1974.


yeats_mythologies


Coming up next – Penguin Crime

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