&sq=&lang=&file=File:Maiden_Castle_(novel).jpg) First edition (US) | |
| Author | John Cowper Powys |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Published | 1936 US, 1937 UK |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster (US) Cassell (UK) |
| Media type | |
| Preceded by | Weymouth Sands (1934), Autobiography (1934) |
| Followed by | Morwyn (1937) |
Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys was first published in 1936 and is the last of Powys so-called Wessex novels, following Wolf Solent (1929), A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Weymouth Sands (1934).[1] Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy, and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset, part of Hardy's mythical Wessex.[2] American scholar Richard Maxwell describes these four novels "as remarkably successful with the reading public of his time".[3] Maiden Castle is set in Dorchester, Dorset Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which Powys intended to be a "rival" to Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge.[4] Glen Cavaliero describes Dorchester as "vividly present throughout the book as a symbol of the continuity of civilization.[5] The title alludes to the Iron Age, hill fort Maiden Castle that stands near to Dorchester.
Powys, along with Phyllis Playter, returned permanently to England in June 1934 and, while staying near the village of Chaldon, Dorset, Powys began Maiden Castle in late August 1934,[6] In October 1934 they moved to Dorchester but then they moved again, to Corwen North Wales, in July 1935, where Maiden Castle was completed in February 1936.[7]
Until 1990 Maiden Castle was only available in an abridged version, because Powys original typescript of Maiden Castle had been reduced by about one-fifth of its original length for the previous editions. In 1990 the University of Wales Press published "the first full authoritative edition" under the editorship of Ian Hughes.[8]
- ^ Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys. (Bridgend, Wales: Seren, 1997), p. 94.
- ^ Powys's first novel Wood and Stone (1915) was dedicated to Thomas Hardy. It is set on the Dorset and Somerset border.
- ^ "Two Canons: On the Meaning of Powys's Relation to Scott and his Turn to Historical Fiction", Western Humanities Review, vol. LVII, no. 1, Spring 2003, p. 103.
- ^ Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007), p. 312.
- ^ Glen Cavaliero, John Cowper Powys: Novelist. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 94.
- ^ Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory, pp. 307, 303.
- ^ Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory. pp. 308, 323, 325
- ^ Ian Hughes, "Introduction" to Maiden Castle. (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1990), p. vii.