Snake's Hands: The Fiction of John CrowleyAlice K. Turner, Michael Andre-Druissi Brilliant, poetic, a master of fantastic symbolism and emotional portraiture, John Crowley is one of the finest contemporary American novelists. As Harold Bloom writes in his Preface to this book, "Crowley writes so magnificently that only a handful of living writers can equal him as a stylist . . . Of novelists, only Philip Roth consistently writes on Crowley's level." Engine Summer; Little, Big; Aegypt; Great Work of Time; The Translator: these are only the highlights of a twenty-five year literary career of extraordinary depth and eloquence. Yet Crowley has not been the subject of a full-length critical study until now; Snake's-Hands remedies this lack, in full. In Snake's-Hands, Alice K. Turner and Michael Andre-Driussi assemble a host of brilliant essays on the fiction of John Crowley, by such eminent writers and critics as John Clute, Thomas M. Disch, James Hynes, Brian Attebery, and Bill Sheehan. Explore with them Crowley's fantasticated retellings of the Hundred Years' War and of innumerable beast fables; his subtle rendering of the bucolic decline of Earth; his astonishing, multi-leveled vision of the fairylands deep within mundane reality; his British Empire upon which the sun, heartbreakingly, never can set; his glowing, brooding trio of Hermetic masterpieces; his tale of poetry at war with nuclear annihilation. Wonders of artistry, the artistry of wonder: Crowley is a genius, and Snake's-Hands demonstrates this alluringly, in a potent mosaic of insights. Snake's-Hands: The Fiction of John Crowley is the essential guide to the work of a great writer, and a landmark of criticism in its own right. |
Contents
9 | |
15 | |
25 | |
35 | |
43 | |
A Poetic Novel by Thomas M Disch | 55 |
Little Belaire the List and the Riven World | 67 |
The Great Knot Unraveled Or Not by Michael AndreDriussi | 85 |
Antiquities and Four More Tales by Alice K Turner | 263 |
Genre Trouble or John Crowleys Unfinished Symphony by James Hynes | 273 |
The Ægypt Series by John Clute | 289 |
Astrology and Thematic Structure in the Ægypt Novels of John Crowley by Don Riggs | 299 |
Apuleian and Brunonian Themes in John Crow leys Dæmonomania by Sondra Ford Swift | 309 |
Loves Labours Lost in Ægypt by Matthew S S Davis | 323 |
Blackbury Jambs and Other Misunderstandings by Graham Sleight | 339 |
Time in Ægypt by Alice K Turner | 347 |
Many Lives Synopsis of a Proposed Novel by John Crowley | 109 |
The First Engine Summer by Adam Stepha | 121 |
Best and Biggest by Thomas M Disch | 159 |
The Influence of the Alice Books and Other Works | 165 |
Little Big for Little Folk by Alice K Turner | 205 |
The Novelty of Egypt by Michael AndreDriussi | 217 |
Timelines for Great Work of Time by Michael AndreDriussi | 229 |
Technology and the Art | 243 |
John Crowley on the Ægypt Series an Interview by Alice K Turner | 351 |
THE TRANSLATOR | 364 |
Notes on John Crowleys The Translator by Bill Shee | 369 |
A Bibliography by Graham Sleight | 385 |
Screenwriting by John Crowley by Matthew S S Davis | 391 |
Reviews and Articles by Mat thew S S Davis | 397 |
Contributors | 403 |
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Common terms and phrases
A'azheuras act-field Ægypt series angel Art of Memory Auberon Bantam beast epic Beasts Beau become Blackbury Blackbury Jambs Boots Chapter characters City Crowley's crystal Dæmonomania Daily Alice dark and light Drinkwater Edgewood Engine Summer fairies Falin fantasy Fellowes Kraft Folder Giordano Bruno girl Gnostic Handwritten manuscript Hare host human John Crowley Papers John Dee Knot Learning to Live Lewis Carroll List Little Belaire Long League Looking-Glass Loren Love & Sleep Love's Labour's Lost magic Meric Mongolfier narrative narrator never novel Novelty Once a Day Painted Red Painter passage past Pierce Moffett Pierce's Plunkett Post Book World reader Renaissance Reynard Rose Ryder Rosie Rush's saint says scene Science Fiction secrets seems Seven Hands Smoky sphere story Sylvie and Bruno tells Rush things tion truthful speakers typescript warren Washington Post Washington Post Book Wonderland writing Yates York