Earthly Powers is a panoramic saga of the 20th century by Anthony Burgess first published in 1980. On one level it is a parody of a "blockbuster" novel, with the 81-year-old hero, Kenneth Toomey (allegedly based on British author W. Somerset Maugham[1]), telling the story of his life in 81 chapters. It "summed up the literary, social and moral history of the century with comic richness as well as encyclopedic knowingness", according to Malcolm Bradbury.
On his eighty-first birthday, the gay writer Kenneth Toomey is asked by the archbishop of Malta to assist in the process of canonization of Carlo Campanati, the late Pope Gregory XVII. Toomey subsequently works on his memoirs, which span the major part of the 20th century.
The fictional Carlo Campanati becomes Pope Gregory XVII. This name was allegedly the one to be adopted by Giuseppe Siri, who four times failed to be elected Pope in controversial circumstances. The dates of Carlo's papal election (1958) and death (June 3, 1963) correspond to those of Pope John XXIII, as does his general appearance. However, many of Campanati's achievements and attributes are shared by the real-life Pope Paul VI, who, like Carlo, was Archbishop of Milan before his election. Other concordances between Carlo and Paul VI include his dealings with Mussolini's government, his support for Jews escaping the Nazis, his arguments against contraception and priestly marriage, and his world travels during his papacy. Carlo's plan for an ecumenical reorganization of the church is reflected in both John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council, and in Paul VI, who opted to continue the council after John's death.
The Jonestown mass suicide of 1978 is presented in the form of a fictional group called the "Children of God" (not to be confused with the new religious movement of the same name). While the basic premise of the incident is retained in the novel (charismatic religious leader leads a group of disenfranchised followers to ritual suicide), many of the details are changed. In the novel, the mass suicide takes place in 1963, not 1978, in a compound located in the Mojave desert of California, not Guyana, and the congregation is given cyanide tablets, rather than the now-infamous poisoned Kool-Aid.
Opening
“
It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.
* Time for a Tiger, London, Heinemann (1956)
* The Enemy in the Blanket, London, Heinemann (1958)
* Beds in the East, London, Heinemann (1959)
* The Doctor is Sick, London, Heinemann (1960)
* The Right to an Answer, London, Heinemann (1960)
* One Hand Clapping (as Joseph Kell), London, Peter Davies (1961)
* Devil of a State, London, Heinemann (1961)
* The Worm and the Ring, London, Heinemann (1961)
* A Clockwork Orange, London, Heinemann (1962)
* The Wanting Seed, London, Heinemann (1962)
* Inside Mr. Enderby (as Joseph Kells), London, Heinemann (1963)
* Honey for the Bears, London, Heinemann (1963)
* The Eve of Saint Venus, Illustrated by Edward Pagram, London, Sidgwick & Jackson (1964)
* Malayan Trilogy (as John Burgess Wilson), London, Heinemann (1964); as The Long Day Wanes: A MalayanTrilogy, as Anthony Burgess, New York, Norton (1964). Comprises Time for a Tiger, The Enemy in the Blanket, and Beds in the East
* Nothing Like the Sun, London, Heinemann (1964)
* A Vision of Battlements, Illustrated by Edward Pagram, London, Sidgwick & Jackson (1965)
* A Tremor of Intent, London, Heinemann (1966) [subtitled 'An Eschatological Spy Story' in the US (New York, Norton, 1966)]
* Enderby Outside, London, Heinemann (1968)
* MF, London, Cape (1971)
* Napoleon Symphony, London, Cape (1974)
* A Clockwork Testament, or Enderby’s End London, Hart - Davies, MacGibbon (1974)
* Moses: A Narrative, London, Dempsey & Squires (1976)
* A Long Trip to Teatime, London, Dempsey & Squires (1976)
* Beard’s Roman Women: A Novel, New York, McGraw - Hill (1976), London, Hutchinson (1976)
* ABBA ABBA, London, Faber & Faber (1977)
* A Christmas Recipe, Illustrated by Fulvio Testa, Verona, Plain Wrapper Press (1977)
* Will and Testament: A Fragment of Biography, Screenprints by Joe Tilson, Verona, Plain Wrapper Press (1977)
* 1985, London Hutchinson (1978)
* The Land Where The Ice Cream Grows, Illustrated by Fulvio Testa, with text by Burgess, London, Benn (1979)
* Earthy Powers, London, Hutchinson (1980)
* On Going To Bed, London, Deutsch (1982)
* End of the World News: An Entertainment, London, Hutchinson (1982)
* Enderby’s Dark Lady or No End to Enderby, London, Hutchinson (1984)
* Kingdom of the Wicked, London, Hutchinson (1985)
* The Pianoplayer, London, Hutchinson (1986)
* A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music Based on His Novella of the Same Name, London, Hutchinson (1987)
* Any Old Iron, London, Hutchinson (1989)
* The Devil's Mode: Stories, London, Hutchinson (1989)
* A Clockwork Orange 2004, Anthony Burgess & Ron Daniels, London, Hutchinson (1990)
* Mozart and the Wolf Gang, London, Hutchinson (1991)
* A Dead Man in Deptford, London, Hutchinson (1993)
* Future Imperfect, [a compilation of The Wanting Seed and 1985 with new introductions by Burgess], London, Vintage (1994)
* Byrne: A Novel, London, Hutchinson (1995)
* The Complete Enderby [a compilation of the four Enderby novels: Inside Mr Enderby; Enderby Outside; A Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End; Enderby's Dark Lady, or, No End to Enderby] London, Penguin (1995) London, Vintage (2002)
* A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music3rd Edition, Including facsimiles of Burgess's music, London, Methuen (1998)
* Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems, Ed. Kevin Jackson, manchester, Caranet (2002)
