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Earthly Powers (Burgess, Anthony) (Paperback)

by Anthony Burgess (Author) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: Don Carlo, New York, United States (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Burgess's ambitious study of 20th-century history centers on the stormy relationship between an effete, popular novelist and a Faustian priest.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Book jacket/from back: Anthony Burgess has long been regarded as one of the most original and daring writers of our time. In Earthly Powers, Burgess has writtena book rich with astonishing powers and surprising events.

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Product Details

Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Carroll & Graf (November 18, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786700262
ISBN-13: 978-0786700264
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 2.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #886,406 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#38 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Burgess, Anthony

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
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. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Don Carlo, New York, United States, Carlo Campanati, Jesus Christ, Val Wrigley, Los Angeles, Jakob Strehler, Monsignor Campanati, Vern Clapp, H�tel de Paris, Kuala Kangsar, Major de la Warr, Children of God, Norman Douglas, God Manning, Horst Wessel, Kuala Lumpur, Saint Nicholas, Sir Arnold, Uncle Ken, Gold Flake, Jim Joyce, Prime Minister, Cardinal Gasparri

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 10 books:

The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells on page 449, and page 452
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Walt Disney on page 378, and page 379
On the Beach by Nevil Shute on page 527, and page 528
Rhapsody in Blue (Original) (Belwin Edition) by George Gershwin on page 186
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall on page 286

See all 10 books this book cites

45 books cite this book:

A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction (Concise Companions to Literature and Culture) by James F. English on page 158, and page 169
The Life and Work of Gunter Grass: Literature, History, Politics by Julian Preece on page 133, and Back Matter
Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity by Paul S. Fiddes on page 294, and page 304
We, Me, Them & It by John Simmons on page 29, and Back Matter
Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850-1950 by John F. Pollard on page 111, and Back Matter

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	78% buy the item featured on this page: Earthly Powers (Burgess, Anthony) 4.7 out of 5 stars (31)
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Customer Reviews

31 Reviews

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unjustly neglected masterwork, May 28, 2000

By	Randall Ivey "Randall" (USA) - See all my reviews

Burgess's 1980 EARTHLY POWERS, like Styron's SOPHIE'S CHOICE(published around the same time), hearkens back to the grand 19th century novels of Dickens, Balzac, and Galdos. It is a novel the reader enters and inhabits, a world of its own.

Kenneth Toomey, supposedly modeled on Somerset Maugham, is a middling range popular novelist who finds himself in the midst of some of the great literary and social maelstroms of the twentieth century. He knows everyone - Churchill, James Joyce, John Maynard Keynes; you name them, Toomey has sipped tea with them - and gets involved with everything - censorship trials and ancient voodoo, for instance; he even has a brush with the Jim Jones cult through one of his nieces.

Critics carped at the book for its lack of focus, but it has a definite focus: the twentieth century. Toomey's not a great artist, but he is a great observer, and through him Burgess gives us the full sweep of the twentieth century, its follies and its glories (but more folly than glory). In the past, English literature has had an Age of Shakespeare and an Age of Johnson. In the future critics and historians will judge the late twentieth century as the Age of Burgess. EARTHLY POWERS will help solidify that certainty.

Read it.

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith, duty, home, May 9, 2001

By A Customer

I rate this Burgess' best novel, having bought it at least three times! It's a big, heavy book, so I take it to the beach it, read it, and bin it before leaving, to save luggage weight. Then I realise I need to reread it...

Burgess' narrator namedrops his way shamelessly through the twentieth century as he tells the story of his own life and the intertwined fortunes of his brother-in-law, Carlo Campanati, a Catholic priest whose dearest ambition is to "make Pope". It's a huge sweep of history and human times to cover, but Burgess centres it around faith, duty, and home, and makes it look easy.

One warning: he is *very* erudite, so you'll need a dictionary at times. I reckon I have a good vocabulary, but I had no idea what a "venerean strabismus" was. It's up there with "Brideshead Revisited" as a "foodie" book too. One of the beaches I read this on was in Goa, and I was gagging for the Italian meatballs and "cold, black wine" which I couldn't get over there!

Stylistically it's self-conscious; the narrator intervenes frequently to remind you he's writing his autobiography. It's not a major problem, and in fact it's necessary. The first time you notice this is the absolutely show-stopping opening paragraph involving archbishops and catamites (reach for your dictionary if you don't know)...!

Did I mention this book is frequently very, very funny? I cried laughing at the later scenes featuring the shoplifting bisexual Nazi.

Warmly recommended; just don't expect Clockwork Orange!

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anthony Burgess' Neglected Epic, July 20, 2001

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This novel, Earthly Powers, by Anthony Burgess from 1980 strips bare the twentienth century and turns its skeleton into a wonderful narrative stream inhabited by two beautifully realized characters, Kenneth Toomey, novelist, and Don Carlo, eventually the Pope. Everyone and everything of importance in the last century becomes a part of the mix without ever clogging the story, which remains clearly focused with the clever use of the fictional creations. This book is an epic that truly deserves that title and it will give the reader many hours to reading pleasure. A wonderful reading experience.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars great story, but have multiple dictionaries handy
'Earthly Powers' is quite a read, both good and bad. It's overall story, the memoirs of a gay British novelist, is quite interesting. Read more

Published 6 months ago by lazza

5.0 out of 5 stars Confabulations
This book, like much of Burgesss's output, is sui-generis. Yes, our narrator, Toomey, by Burgess's own admission, is based on Somerset Maugham, but he is also based on Burgess... Read more

Published 21 months ago by Daniel Myers

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
The only knowledge I'd had of Burgess was through his novel "A Clockwork Orange," which I loved, so when I saw "Earthly Powers" at the bookstore over twenty years ago, I bought... Read more

Published 22 months ago by C. Huddleston

4.0 out of 5 stars The 20th century as seen by Burgess
I chose Earthly Powers as my introduction to Anthony Burgess only because I found this novel on my parent's bookshelf. Read more

Published on March 1, 2007 by Brian Darvell

3.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable overeach
Ijust finished EARTHLY POWERS and I enjoyed it.It's intelligent and very readible.Burgess displays a sophistication coupled with eruidition that is a pleasure to encounter. Read more

Published on June 2, 2006 by JAK

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious comedy
Burgess's best novel. Food for the gods: watch as Toomey's memory exfoliates in hideous comedy through the demented twentieth century. Read more

Published on March 2, 2006 by Steven R. Valliere

5.0 out of 5 stars Mexico, Winter 1984-85 - Burgess or Garcia Marquez?
Just after graduating with my degree in English, I traveled to southern Baja with 16 cents in my pocket. I camped for three months on an isolated beach with a few friends. Read more

Published on December 12, 2005 by Helen Wheels

5.0 out of 5 stars a global monument of a novel
Some of my fellow amateur reviewers are missing the point about this great, monumental, complex but very readable novel. Read more

Published on August 31, 2005 by Will De Vere

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force of 20th century power, earthly and otherwise
It simply astounds me that, while much of Burgess remains in print, this novel, which together with A Clockwork Orange is his very best, is out of print, and downright difficult... Read more

Published on September 7, 2004 by Gary C. Marfin

3.0 out of 5 stars One of the best first lines ever
It has been almost twenty years since I first read this novel. Two things stand out. One, the story emblazoned in my mind the power of the principle of unintended outcomes,... Read more

Published on May 14, 2003 by San Francisco Jung Institute

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