I can't say I enjoy AB's experimental novels as much as his others, though Nothing Like The Sun was fun. The one I regularly re-read is Earthly Powers. Strange how it has sunk without much trace, as if we are embarrassed by its popularity. It was no "airport novel," although it was a book that could be enjoyed by consumers of such. I think it's time to re-evaluate it. At the time I was miffed to see it squeezed out of the Booker by Rites of Passage (a book that only shows its worth when read as the whole trilogy), and thought Goldoing was being thrown a bone as he had not garnered many prizes and was getting old. He had not yet won the Nobel, and it was felt to be unfair at the time.
Earthly Powers remains one of Burgess's most popular novels. It's been continuously in print in the UK and Commonwealth since 1980, and was the subject of an article in The Times earlier this year. As well as being the first Penguin book ever to have been advertised on TV, it was awarded a major prize in France, where it is still in print. Since 2017 there have been new translations into Dutch, Arabic, Chinese and Turkish (forthcoming). So it's a novel which still has a wide international readership. Nothing Like the Sun -- another of our favourites -- will be re-released in a new edition by Galileo in the spring of 2025. We are correcting the proofs this week, and very much enjoying the task.
I can't say I enjoy AB's experimental novels as much as his others, though Nothing Like The Sun was fun. The one I regularly re-read is Earthly Powers. Strange how it has sunk without much trace, as if we are embarrassed by its popularity. It was no "airport novel," although it was a book that could be enjoyed by consumers of such. I think it's time to re-evaluate it. At the time I was miffed to see it squeezed out of the Booker by Rites of Passage (a book that only shows its worth when read as the whole trilogy), and thought Goldoing was being thrown a bone as he had not garnered many prizes and was getting old. He had not yet won the Nobel, and it was felt to be unfair at the time.
Earthly Powers remains one of Burgess's most popular novels. It's been continuously in print in the UK and Commonwealth since 1980, and was the subject of an article in The Times earlier this year. As well as being the first Penguin book ever to have been advertised on TV, it was awarded a major prize in France, where it is still in print. Since 2017 there have been new translations into Dutch, Arabic, Chinese and Turkish (forthcoming). So it's a novel which still has a wide international readership. Nothing Like the Sun -- another of our favourites -- will be re-released in a new edition by Galileo in the spring of 2025. We are correcting the proofs this week, and very much enjoying the task.