A Glastonbury Romance
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| Author | John Cowper Powys |
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| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster (US); The Bodley Head (UK) |
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Publication date
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6 March 1932 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 1174 (1932, New York) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 76798317 |
| 823.912 | |
| LC Class | PR6031.O867 |
| Preceded by | Wolf Solent |
| Followed by | Weymouth Sands |
A Glastonbury Romance (1932) is the second of John Cowper Powys's (1873–1963) Wessex novels, along with Wolf Solent (1929), Weymouth Sands (1934) and Maiden Castle (1936). Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset parts of Hardy's mythical Wessex. The first two chapters of A Glastonbury Romance takes place in Norfolk, where the late Canon William Crow's will is read, and the Crow family learn that his secretary-valet John Geard has inherited his wealth. Also in Norfolk a romance begins between cousins John and Mary Crow. But after an important scene at the ancient monument of Stonehenge the rest of the action takes place in or near the Somerset town of Glastonbury. This is a few miles north of the village of Montacute, where Powys's father was a clergyman, and where Powys lived for much of his youth. The action occurs over roughly a year. The grail legends associated with the town of Glastonbury are of major importance in this novel.
In Powys's words this novel's "heroine is the Grail", and its central concern is with the various myths and legends along with history associated with Glastonbury. It is also possible to see most of the main characters, John Geard, Sam Dekker, John Crow, and Owen Evans as undertaking a Grail quest. Not only is A Glastonbury Romance concerned with the legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail, a vessel containing the blood of Christ, to the town, but the further tradition that King Arthur was buried there. In addition one of the novels main characters, the Welshman Owen Evans, introduces the idea that the Grail has a Welsh (Celtic), pagan pre-Christian origin. The main sources for Powys's ideas on mythology and the Grail legend are Sir John Rhys's Studies in the Arthurian Legend, R. S. Loomis's Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, and the works of Jessie L. Weston, including From Ritual to Romance.T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land is another probable influence. A central aspect of A Glastonbury Romance is the attempt by John Geard, ex-minister now the mayor of Glastonbury, to restore Glastonbury to its medieval glory as a place of religious pilgrimage. On the other hand, the Glastonbury industrialist Philip Crow, along with John and Mary Crow, and Tom Barter, who are like him are from Norfolk, view the myths and legends of the town with contempt. Philip's vision is of a future with more mines and more factories. John Crow, however, as he is penniless, takes on the task of organizing a pageant for Geard. At the same time an alliance of Anarchists, Marxists, and Jacobins try to turn Glastonbury into a commune.
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