Page 292 "..What Revenant had remembered was a portion of A Glastonbury Romance"

From page 292 of the book:  "...What Revenant had remembered was a portion of A Glastonbury Romance, from which I had described a short scene toward the end, but the essence of which had occurred all throughout that great novel. It was a scene where an evil momentary wish of one character had left the Corporeal and entered the Ethereal. Then it lingered above the heads of the other characters and, given the nature of John Powys' mythology or pantheology, the thought had enjoyed a life of its own. It had, by the end of the scene, transmuted itself into a physical act which had wreaked havoc on the characters in a brutal crime. When I told Revenant of the book he was interested in hearing more...."


Various covers for A Glastonbury Romance--



 Views of the Glastonbury countryside, the tower (Tor), and Glastonbury Abbey (the ruins).

The Tor



Another view of the Tor





A portion of Glastonbury Abbey





Glastonbury Abbey





On the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey



Page 288 "Yes, there was anguish, Oh Lord, the anguish."

From page 288 of the book:  "What was it like?" Ebert asked out of the blue.
"What?" said Revenant.
"You know," Ebert urged.
"You mean hearing his confession?" replied the priest.
"Yes."
"It was like listening to music," Revenant said. "It was like listening to Haydn. I went a good distance with it."
"Anguish?" asked Ebert.
"Yes, there was anguish, Oh Lord, the anguish; it was like one of those string instruments rubbing against my...what gland was it you told me about last winter? The one in the brain, the size of a cherry, the one that makes me sweat when I'm hot and shiver when I'm cold?"
"The hypothalamus," answered Ebert.
"Yes, yes, the hypothalamus," echoed Revenant. "The wonderful hypothalamus. Yes, I remember now, it tells me when I'm hungry and converts nerves into hormones."

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Page 280 "...I began to imitate well-known American movie personalities..."

From page 280 of the book:  "...To humor him, I began to imitate well-known American movie personalities, poor renditions they were but sufficient enough to keep an audience of ten drunkards laughing while liquor was purchased for me instead of by me. After my imitation of Jimmy Stewart in "The Philadelphia Story," Gerard insisted that I do Noel Coward, as he had, just the night before, watched "Sink the Bismarck" on television...."







You can't marry that guyyyyy.



The moon is also a goddess.

C.K. Dexter Haven you have unsuspected depth.

[Author's note:  Walter was thinking of Noel Coward's line "Shoot!" in the movie "In Which We Serve" not from "Sink the Bismarck" because as we all know, Noel Coward was not in "Sink the Bismarck"]

Noel Coward

Page 278 "...It was a late harvest."

From page 278 of the book:  "It was a late harvest," began Mme Mirès in French. "The Blessed Virgin sent us a thunderstorm in October and Botrytis cinerea the following week."
"The noble rot," Ebert nudged Owen.
"Then, we had more than enough warm air left over from summer," she continued. "Voila! The mold! We harvested at 29 degrees Brix, and cold fermented to nine and a half percent alcohol and 14% residual sugar."
"Parfait!"
"Jesus sipped," Owen said.*

Botrytis cinerea

Botrytis cinerea, the "noble rot"

[(*) Owen references here the shortest sentence in the Bible from John 11:35, "Jesus wept."]

Harvesting at 25.5 degrees Brix

cold fermented to 9.5% alcohol

[In the Botrytis infection known as "noble rot" (pourriture noble in French, or Edelfäule in German), the fungus removes water from the grapes, leaving behind a higher percent of solids, such as sugars, fruit acids and minerals. This results in a more intense, concentrated final product. The wine is often said to have an aroma of honeysuckle and a bitter finish on the palate.] (Courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Page 244 "It was Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but less excessive..."

From page 244 of the book:  "...Everyone, it seemed, was there for the festival, so that a shared carnality filtered from table to table, from street to street, and throughout the neighborhood. It was mardi gras in New Orleans but less excessive, it was the Feast of St. John the Baptist in Quebec but not as loud; it was Cinco de Mayo, it was the Fourth of July."

Mardi Gras, New Orleans

Feast of St. John the Baptist, Quebec

Cinco de Mayo, Mexico

Fourth of July, U.S.A.

Page 113 "...by so much the more I fear thy fall..."

From page 113 of the book:  The two men gazed upon the perspective of green leaves filling the tall trees and yellow leaves providing a carpet beneath them.
 "'By how much the more I love the high climbing of thy capacity,'" Revenant recited, "'by so much the more I fear thy fall.'"
 He looked at Owen.
 "John Lily," said Owen.
 "Thank you," said Revenant.  "You are a scholar?" he asked.
 "Are you?" Owen replied.
 "Makes you hungry!" stated the priest.
 "Why don't you have lunch with me and my girlfriend?" Owen asked the priest.

John Lyly, John Lyly (Lilly or Lylie)(1553-1606), English writer, best known for his books "Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit" and "Euphues and His England." Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.



["Alas, Euphues, by how much the more I love the high climbing of thy capacity, by so much the more I fear thy fall.  The fine crystal is sooner crazed than the hard marble; the greenest beech burneth faster than the driest oak; the fairest silk is soonest soiled; and the sweetest wine turneth to the sharpest vinegar."]
From "Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit" by John Lyly, 1578

Page 238 "...a reproduction of a painting by Schiele hung..."

Photo of the artist, Egon Schiele

"The Embrace," painting by Schiele, 1917

From page 238 of the book:  "...I plopped down on Sarah's bed and looked up to the wall where a reproduction of a painting by Schiele hung.  I then turned my attention to a a book which lay on her end table and opened it to the title page: The Life of St. Theresa."


[The bodily distortions, explicit eroticism and anguish which made Egon Schiele’s artworks unpopular during his lifetime are the same features which make them so mesmerizing today. Schiele (1890 – 1918) was an exceptionally prolific Austrian Expressionist who was a protégé of Gustav Klimt, and whose formidable talents were fully matured when he was a teenager. He created emotionally charged self-portraits and allegories, but was best-known for his nude or semi-nude drawings of women, portraying them in awkwardly contracted poses to convey distress. Arrested for immorality and seduction, he created numerous watercolors and drawings during his two-week imprisonment. Dying prematurely from the Spanish flu, Schiele left a legacy of almost 3,500 compelling artworks.] Text copyright http://www.art.com/

"Self-portrait" by Schiele

Title page, series on the Life of Saint Teresa, Antwerp, 1613, by Adriaen Collaert

St. Theresa at left conversing with St. John of the Cross and Antony of Jesus, by A. Collaert and Cornelis Galle, 1613

Page 235 "...our Chelsea neighborhood."

Subway entrance

Images of the Chelsea district in Manhattan.  Chelsea's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District (between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue) to the east, and the Hudson River and West Street to the west. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Chelsea neighborhood



Chelsea



23rd Street station, E Train (8th Avenue Line)

The kind of neighborhood where Owen & Sarah, and Walter live.

From page 235 of the book:  "...These buildings had managed to blend somehow into the facades of corner delicatessens opposite corner bars and drugstores and the various entrances to the Eighth Avenue subway line. There was a restaurant that served Chinese and Spanish food, a clothing store for the weekend athlete, and still more lofts and co-ops."

Page 233 "My family were fellahin, villagers from Oran..."

Egyptian Fellahin

A side street in Oran, Algeria

Oran in 1940

A fellahin

Modern day Oran

Fellahin people of Egypt

From page 233 of the book:  "..."My family were fellahin, villagers from Oran, and were westernized for decades. I knew what I was getting myself into. I couldn't turn back. How could I? So I accepted the sacraments and here I am. Only my wife and son are Muslim.""

Page 231 "A hundred-thousand Muslims died...and we were the barbarians."

From page 231 of the book:  "..."Well, for the sake of Monsieur Owen, I will say that it all began in '61.  We were fighting for independence from France.  You know the history, Owen.  We were under the rule of France for over a hundred years; enough was enough.  A hundred-thousand Muslims died; ten-thousand French; and we were the barbarians....."
 

The following are photographs of the Algerian War of Independence, 1954-1962:

Burning Algerian flag





Women's Unit of the Army of National Liberation

Movie poster for "The Battle of Algiers"