Earthly Powers (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Anthony Burgess
- First Published: 1980
- Type of Work: Satiric realism
- Time of Work: The 1970’s, with flashbacks from shortly before 1900 to the 1970’s
- Setting: Malta, Rome, the French Riviera, Malaya, Tangier, Hollywood, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, and Nazi Germany
- Principal Characters: Kenneth Marchal Toomey, Tom Toomey, Hortense Toomey, Geoffrey Entright, Domenico Campanati, Ann Campanati, John Campanati, Carlo Campanati
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Satire
- Subjects: 1970’s, United States or Americans, Tradition, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Authors or writers, Europe or Europeans, Religion, Alienation, Death or dying, Miracles, Saints or sainthood, Old age or elderly people, Priests, Isolation
- Locales: Europe, United States
The Novel
Earthly Powers is concerned on several levels with questions of good and evil. Kenneth Toomey, the protagonist, is a commercially successful, but not artistically outstanding, writer who views life cynically and pessimistically. His homosexuality early cut him off from his family, church, and country. Juxtaposed to him in the novel is Carlo Campanati, a priest who seeks reform, the adopted son of an affluent Italian family. He is as optimistic as Kenneth is pessimistic.
The novel opens on Kenneth Toomey’s eighty-first birthday. Toomey is in bed with a...
[The entire page is 2190 words long]
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