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The Taverner Novels: Armed with Madness and Death of Felicity Taverner

These two novels, Armed with Madness and Death of Felicity Taverner-out of print since originally published in 1928 and 1932-form what is almost certainly her masterpiece, a mythic yet contemporary tale of struggle against spiritual alienation.

On the remote southwestern coast along the English Channel, a group of young bohemians have gathered, in retreat from the psychological cataclysm of World War and in search of a moral value on which to base their lives. Armed with Madness begins by invoking an ancient enchantment, a numinous vision of coincident reality, where love can also lead to insanity. Scylla Taverner, her brother Felix, her soon-to-be lover Picus, and their closely knit circle of English, Russian and American friends, retrieve an ancient chalice, which may be the Sanc-Grail. Together they enter upon a psychological and sexual exploration fraught with exhilarating possibility and violent consequence.

Five years later, in Death of Felicity Taverner the quest is renewed, this time to discover a buried truth. Was Felicity's death accidental? A suicide? Or a murder? As the mystery unravels, Felicity's opportunistic widower unveils a plan with a vacation-home development, inciting a drama played out between conscience and evil.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 374
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780929701189
  • Genres
  • fiction, classics
  • Release date
  • 1992