was published in 1980, and marked a new stage in Burgess’s work. His major novels of the 1970s had been characterised by experimentation: from

to

to

, the impulse throughout the decade had been towards relatively brief novels with complex structures, often based on external sources: in

, the work of Lévi-Strauss on Native American myth; in

on Beethoven’s

symphony; and on an imagined meeting between Keats and Belli in

. These novels were the most obviously experimental of this phase of Burgess’s career, and they contrast sharply with the relatively conventional

, which ranks second only to

in the amount of attention it has received. This novel too, uses external sources,…

3219 words

Citation: Spence, Rob. "Earthly Powers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5471, accessed 26 November 2024.]