Author Description

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.