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C. Williams

The Greater Trumps Paperback – April 1, 2003

by Charles Williams (Author)

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Charles Williams had a genius for choosing strange and exciting themes for his novels and making them believable and profoundly suggestive of spiritual truths. The Tarot pack, the ancestor of all playing cards, is first mentioned in history in 1393; the origin of the deck is not known. Tradition has it that the gypsies brought the Tarot from Egypt and that the cards were used for fortune telling. This deck was conceived of as having magical properties, and the most powerful of all the cards were the Magic Arcana or Greater Trumps, twenty-two symbolic pictures whose mysteries have been interpreted and reinterpreted not only by occultists, but also by religious thinkers, psychoanalysts and literary anthropologists. Perhaps the most exquisite of these interpretations is the one contained in this extraordinary novel. In the universe evoked by Charles Williams, sorcery can still kill, and the supernatural must be fought with the supernatural. But beneath the brilliant and imaginative surface is concealed a meticulously thought-out Christian message. Charles Williams-novelist, poet, critic, dramatist and biographer-died in his native England in May, 1945. He had a lively and devoted following there and achieved a considerable reputation as a lecturer on the faculty of Oxford University. T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers and C.S. Lewis were among his distinguished friends and literary sponsors.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Regent College Publishing
Publication date

April 1, 2003
Dimensions

5 x 0.65 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

1573831115
ISBN-13

978-1573831116
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Williamsnovelist, poet, critic, dramatist and biographerdied in his native England in May, 1945. He had a lively and devoted following there and achieved a considerable reputation as a lecturer on the faculty of Oxford University. T. S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers and C. S. Lewis were among his distinguished friends and literary sponsors. He was also a member of the Inklings, a group of Christian writers that included J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings.

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Product details

Publisher : Regent College Publishing (April 1, 2003)
Language : English
Paperback : 288 pages
ISBN-10 : 1573831115
ISBN-13 : 978-1573831116
Item Weight : 11.4 ounces
Dimensions : 5 x 0.65 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,119,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65,313 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #66,689 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #77,184 in Religious Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
55 ratings

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L. T.

Tried, really tried to like this book

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2019

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Since I practice Tarot, this book intrigued me, especially given so many good reviews. Have to say, it was a HUGE struggled for me to get through the entire book. I guess I just don't 'get' Charles Williams' writing style - entire pages which consist of one very long paragraph that disjointly rambles on and on. No character building. No constructive relationship development. Misinformation about the actual cards and their meanings. It was more like a fairy tale consisting of lengthy paragraphs that many times didn't even relate to each other. Didn't see the Christianity facet and how it played with the 'evil' of the Tarot. Maybe if this book was a required reading for a college course, where it could be discussed page by page for an entire semester, it might be ok. Although I kept reading hoping that the story would get better, and every night I would put it away vowing not to pick it up the next day but did (I'm just one of those readers who will read a book to its end no matter what), unfortunately, for me (someone who reads, on average, 3 books a week (fiction and non-fiction)), I could only give this book one star.

5 people found this helpful

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Kilian85710

Best of the Inklings

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2016

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I don't have the vocabulary or the depth of intellect to analyze the attraction I feel for the novels of Charles Williams. I've each one at least four times, and I nurture the hope that if I keep reading them, eventually I will understand them.

Part of the problem is that his writing is deeply imbue with Christian theology, and yet he was a friend of the occult as well, a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and one of the Inklings, along with JRR Tolkien and C S Lewis. His understanding of Tarot is as deep as that of Christianity. In this book he merges the two, or rather reconciles what might appear to be contradictions and conflict between them.

All his books tantalize this way with the feeling that there is something in the subtext or just on the edge of understanding, that if we could fathom, all would be revealed.

Endlessly fascinating.

18 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

An unusual book

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2020

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This is a challenging book delving into life and it’s deep meanings. On the surface the book is a kind of mystery novel but there are many layers beneath the surface. There are hints of what’s happening along the way but it is not until the last chapter that things begin to come together and even then you are left wondering what did I just read.

4 people found this helpful

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Julie A. Fields

Reason for buying

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020

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Curiosity. The book was mentioned in another book about C.S. Lewis and his wife.

2 people found this helpful

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Melissa I. Mckinney

like C.S. Lewis

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2018

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Everyone should read Charles Williams, especially Christians.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017

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Great read. Very mysterious and the writing creates a unique mood. Williams is a master craftsman. It's hard to believe thiswas written so long ago,

5 people found this helpful

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Gil Gilliam

An excellent rendering of an age-old pursuit

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2015

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Can the answer to life's questions be found in the Trumps? Williams says you must enter the dance to find out. An excellent tale with an ancient set of Tarot cards at the center. Not an occult tale, for Williams uses objects like them to tell a Greater story.

4 people found this helpful

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Michael Huggins

Doesn't quite add up

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2003

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Basically a "spiritual thriller" about supernatural powers breaking in on everyday life when they are summoned for selfish purposes, this story is very interesting in places but fails to convince the reader that what is happening is really very important.
In the 1920s or '30s, in England, a young woman, Nancy Coningsby, the daughter of a minor civil servant, is engaged to a young man from the Roma (Gypsy) people. Nancy's father, a rather dim, pompous sort, owns a very rare, old set of Tarot cards bequeathed to him by a deceased friend, and it is his intention to turn the cards over to a museum upon his own death. Nancy's fiance, Henry, realizes that this particular Tarot deck is the only "true" deck in existence--that is, a deck that is so accurately rendered that it can truly summon and command occult powers, as opposed to other sets that lack any real power.
Henry's grandfather, Aaron, occupies a 17th century house where there is a table in a secret room, and on the table, there is a collection of miniature figures in a perpetual dance that is supposed to represent the "Great Dance," which is said to be the foundation of the universe. If the deck of cards can come into the possession of the owner of the table and the miniature figures, then the owner will achieve consummate power and be able to command the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire.
Henry contrives to lure Nancy, her father, Mr. Coningsby, and Nancy's unmarried aunt, Sybil, who lives with them, to Aaron's house for Christmas, in the hope of getting the cards away from Coningsby. Since he cannot use direct violence, he uses the occult power of the cards to create a blinding snowstorm when Coningsby goes out for a walk on Christmas afternoon, in the hopes that the man will die in the storm.
Two elements disrupt this plan: one is Sybil, Nancy's aunt, who is so spiritually advanced that she lives in a perpetual atmosphere of deep, loving calm, and can apparently perceive things that others cannot and remain unhurt in circumstances that would injure others; the other disruptive element is Henry's own great-aunt, Aaron's sister, Joanna, a half-demented old woman who believes her own deceased child was the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Horus and has spent years wandering the back roads looking for a way to bring him back to life; Joanna inconveniently shows up Christmas afternoon, after being estranged from her brother for years.
The premise is very interesting, and there is even some comedy at the expense of the pompous Coningsby, and Nancy's aunt Sibyl is at times a fascinating figure--rather like a female Christ or Buddha figure come to life. However, the author finally fails to make one believe that what is happening is important enough to care deeply about.
Something goes awry with the snow storm, which spirals out of control, and we are assured by Henry and Aaron that the elements will now destroy the world. If that, or something like it, truly happened, as in the climax of Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," it might be compelling tragedy, but it seems we are only being teased, since a different outcome occurs. At various times on Christmas afternoon, Nancy both discovers her fiance's treachery toward her father (intending to use the storm to murder him and obtain the cards) and is nearly made a human sacrifice by the half-demented old aunt Joanna who is searching for Horus, but by the end of the afternoon, everyone is cozily reconciled, and the young pair are even persisting in their plans to be married! Nobility and compassion are one thing, but fatuity is another. None of this seems very realistic.
I started out reading all this with some eagerness, but in the end, was left feeling that I had read a story that was at times quite silly and trivial, and weighted down with a great deal of overblown language about mystical themes that the events of the story simply wouldn't bear. This was the fifth Williams novel I had read, over a period of some years, and I would recommend "Many Dimensions" or "All Hallows Eve" instead of this book.

29 people found this helpful

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Nigel Jackson

The Knowledge of the Fool & the Everlasting Dance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2008

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Over the years I have read and re-read this 1932 novel by Charles Williams many times - it continues to fascinate me, exerts a peculiar hold upon my mind and provides unfailing stimulus for thought and contemplation (it is undoubtedly the most readable and entertaining of his works of fiction). 'The Greater Trumps' is a very strange sort of novel, a mystical thriller if you like, featuring the prototypal deck of Tarot cards which has by odd chance fallen into the hands of the prosaic and unimaginative Mr.Coninsgby. His daughter Nancy is being wooed by a young lawyer of Gypsy descent, Henry Lee and when he sees the deck the spiritual drama begins and the Coningsby's are invited to spend Christmas at the lonely house of Henry Lee's grandfather Aaron Lee who guards the secret inheritance of the Romanies and has long sought the innermost mysteries of the Tarot. A conspiracy to ruthlessly obtain the Tarots at all costs is afoot and here we have a central theme of Charles Williams' novels - the intended profaning of a sacred Mystery by those who would abuse it for ego-aggrandizement and the quest for personal power. In 'The Greater Trumps' the classic tarot figure of 'The Falling Tower' is the symbol of the fate which invariably engulfs those who attempt to lay hold of the Holy Mysteries of Magic to satisfy the all-too-egoic thirst for power and ascendancy and this timeless message is as pertinent as ever in an age where debased occultism of questionable motivation is all too prevalent. Henry and Aaron Lee's dark quest to wrest the Tarots from Mr Coningsby and murder him unwittingly unleashes primal powers which are entirely beyond their ability to control - for the archetypal potencies of the Divine World cannot be controlled or manipulated by the unworthy for their own ends and the attempt to do so cannot be made with impunity: thus the novel builds up to a compelling denouement which is also a transfiguring and mystical meditation upon the all-prevailing power of pure love...
The characterization in this novel is quite superb, from the romantic high spirits of Nancy, the faustian ambition of Henry Lee and the sublime equanimity of Aunt Sybil who amongst all the characters has truly attained to a high degree of spiritual freedom and thus plays a pivotal role: Sybil's selfless and calm wisdom contrasts strikingly with the hubristic greed of the magical 'adepts'. The dialogue is period 1930's and thus possess a charm all of it's own and the plot is superbly realised.
But skilfully woven through this brilliant and cautionary tale of young love, unlawful lust for power, satires on conventional mindedness and supernatural high jinks is an extended esoteric meditation upon the emblems of the Tarot as timeless Mysteries of Power, Images, Divine Ideas, Virtues and eternal Platonic Forms which is uniquely insightful, penetrating and unparalleled in its profundity. The suggestive concepts concerning Tarot which Williams imparts throughout are truly extraordinary. This beautifully-written novel conveys an exciting narrative which is at the same time a penetrating moral exploration of man's spiritual motivations and inner relation to the sacred. I consider 'The Greater Trumps' to be Charles Williams' little-known fictional masterpiece, an occult novel of rare brilliance. Williams' allusive, dense and poetic prose, curious gift for expressing extremely subtle shifts of perception and consciousness and the profoundly mystical Anglo-Catholicism which pervades his work means that he remains something of a coterie obsession and not everybody is able to appreciate his work. But Williams' reputation as a truly significant novelist, poet and theologian of genius is increasing and this novel provides a great introduction to CW's unique fictional and poetic oeuvre.

20 people found this helpful

Pillowtail

Tarot Thriller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2010

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Based on the Tarot, the story quietly winds it's way through an imaginary Southern England, that perhaps existed in an Edwardian gentlemen's club. The book is not flawless, the prose is occasionally quite taxing, but the basic premiss of the story is never dull. That the tarots have their own living images in a Jacobean house, that these images are released by the use of the original tarot deck, that ordinary human beings are playing out ordinary lives under extra-ordinary conditions, coping as well or as badly as they may; all this is contained within the story of Nancy and her immediate family, brother, father, fiancee and maiden aunt, the aptly named Sybil, who remains seemingly oblivious of being one step ahead of the action. I do not wish to reveal the plot of what is a type of mystical thriller - there is no da Vinci posturing here of secret brotherhoods, but a deeper and more frightening mystery because of its supernatural contest of good and evil clad in greys and shades, rather than all good or all bad. Be warned, it is heavy going, but if you can cope with heavy prose, it is worth the effort.

3 people found this helpful

Dodwell

Rambling tale of Tarot skullduggery.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2018

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this is not too bad, but it does ramble on too much; perhaps that reflects the era it was written in though. There is also the annoying and irritating Kindle formatting error of running two words together, quite frequently.

annem

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018

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Magnificent thrilling story.

Corvus

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2017

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Excellent

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