The Owl, The Duck and – Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe! by John Cowper Powys
I hate to have to confess this, but there are books on my TBR which have been there for literally decades… And in many cases, I really don’t want to get rid of them because I’ve come across absolute gems when I’ve finally got round to reading some of those pending books. A case in point is “The Mandarins” by Simone de Beauvoir, which I bought in the 1980s and finally read in the 2000s: it turned out to be a most wonderful book, which I love and would never part with. Hence, I suppose, my difficulty in getting rid of the things… ;D
Anyway, one particularly large pile is my collection of John Cowper Powys books – here they are:
Yes, it’s a very large pile of very chunky books. Yes, I have two copies of “Wolf Solent” (the most recent edition came home with me because of the larger type). Yes, the little red book on top is his monograph about Dostoevsky. Yes, I really *should* get on with reading one of these books soon (I did get well into “Wolf Solent ” some years ago, pre-blog, but got distracted). I’m afraid I have to admit that, in typical fashion, I *have* read a John Cowper Powys book recently, but it wasn’t any of these. Instead, I spent some very happy book time with this lovely edition of an early and obscure and hard-to-get story by Powys: “The Owl, The Duck and – Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe!“, which has just been reissued by Michael Walmer – and what a treat it turned out to be!
“Owl…” was first published in 1930 in a limited edition of 250 copies (and I think it’s been quite hard to get hold of since). It’s a short, quirky and extremely individual story; and bearing in mind it was published a year after “Wolf..” it’s probably not what his readers might have been expecting. The story is set in a small flat in 1920s New York, a place which is occupied by an old couple; retired circus performers, they live in fear of “the Authories” who seem determined to put them in a home. However, the old couple are not the only inhabitants of the flat; there are a number of inanimate objects who appear to have an existence, from a wise stuffed owl through an amorous china duck, a rude glass fish, some Eastern Gods, an emotionally charged doll and a crumbling wooden horse. All of these objects have their own opinions on life, the universe and everything, and are happy to voice them to each other. However, there is another layer of occupation which involves a pair of partially created characters from an unfinished novel of a long-gone tenant, and the filmy ghost of the kind old lady who lived in the flat before the old couple arrived.
They were not elves, or ghosts, or elementals, these Two Beings. They were not sylphs or salamanders or undines. That they should have existed in the Known World at all only proved that the philosophy of the Owl was correct when he made it clear to the Duck by irrefutable logic that at every known point in space thousands of unknown dimensions meet and overlap.
All of these different beings maintain a fragile co-existence on their different planes; however, the Authorities are imminent and the objects are incapable of preventing cataclysmic change. Is there anyone amongst them who can save the old couple from the horrors of a home?
The plot really does sound outlandish, but it actually is quite brilliant, and in 60 pages Powys manages to pack in humour, pathos and moments of real emotion. The writing is quirky and if you haven’t got the turn of mind which can accept the unlikely or impossible you may find the oddness a bridge too far. I, however, absolutely loved it; I was utterly gripped, whether listening to the objects debating their philosophies or sympathising with the poor doll’s desire for romance or empathising with the couple’s desire to simply be left along. It’s a fantastic tale, yes, but has roots in something deeper; it considers existence in all its different forms, concluding I think that people should be left alone to resolve their own lives.
But in the great clanging, marbly, brassy City, littered with sordid lives, strewn with wind-tost debris and bitter dust, exhaling mephitic stenches and corpse-chills, one resource, one issue, one last escape is left…
The end solution is signalled fairly early on, and is desperately moving; the book ends on a slight note of ambiguity, which is entirely suitable; and as soon as I’d finished reading I felt like going back and reading again to see if I’d missed any nuances. It’s unusual, perhaps, for such a short and idiosyncratic work to have such an effect; but “Owl…” really got under my skin, and as I’d finished it during my lunch-hour I felt completely unsuited for work for the rest of the day!
Mike Walmer’s Zephyr imprint is a series of classic short works in hardback and I reviewed the first, by Gautier, back in 2017 (I have the second waiting to be read!) I think they’re an excellent collection so far, works that really deserve to be available, and there’s an added bonus in that they’re also very pretty! I absolutely loved “The Owl, The Duck and – Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe!”, and you never know – this might spur me on to actually *read* some of those Powys chunksters lurking on Mount TBR! 😀
(Review copy kind provided by Mike Walmer, for which many thanks!)
ETA: Helen has also read and loved this book, so do pop over to see her thoughts. We agree it’s a fab book to read but possibly difficult to write about without spoilers! 😀
Jonathan
Dec 12, 2019 @ 08:33:07
I have quite a stack of JCP as well; a lot of them are available on kindle or even free from places such as Internet Archive. I read WS last year (didn’t post) and loved it. I’m planning to read several chunky books next year which will no doubt include AGR. I also have The Brazen Head which looks great. I would like to re-read WS but probably won’t.
I hadn’t heard of this one. Sounds like my cup of tea.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 12, 2019 @ 11:21:46
It’s brilliant, and I do recommend it. Short but with plenty of punch. I would love to sink into one of these longer works, but life is so busy it’s really eating into my reading time lately – which makes me cross. I may have to reshuffle life in the new year! 😀
mikewalmer
Dec 12, 2019 @ 09:18:01
John CP’s short works are amazing, aren’t they? – I plan to republish a few more of them if it is possible – there are 5 or 6 others before the Three Fantasies volume in the pile in your photo – all from late in his life, unlike this one. So pleased his eccentricity inspired you, Karen – sends a current of refreshment through the brain, I think!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 12, 2019 @ 11:20:33
Just wonderful Mike – I loved this as you can probably tell, and I do hope you reprint more of his short works. I really do want to start exploring more of his writing!
heavenali
Dec 12, 2019 @ 13:41:09
I think I remember you mentioning John Cowper Powys before, but apart from that he’s totally passed me by. Some of those tbr books do look quite chunky. This new little edition as well as looking good sounds brilliantly quirky if not slightly bizarre.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 12, 2019 @ 14:45:59
It certainly is bizarre, but all the more appealing for that! I do like quirky! 😀
WordsAndPeace
Dec 13, 2019 @ 03:08:53
You got me, I’m going to look into this more closely. Thanks for sharing the state of your TBR. It’s reassuring I’m not the only one with books waiting forever to be read on my shelves…
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 13, 2019 @ 10:39:25
LOL. I have them hanging around for decades sometimes (which makes me feel very old). But they often turn out to be gems when I finally read them. Definitely need to read more JCP!
cirtnecce
Dec 14, 2019 @ 05:16:57
I have not read anything by JCP (hang my head in shame!) but this seems like a really good place to start with, only if I find a copy in my part of the world! Thank You so much for a great introduction!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 14, 2019 @ 09:35:10
Yeah, I think his shorter pieces would certainly be a good place to start. Happy hunting!
Liz Dexter
Dec 14, 2019 @ 18:08:35
I really really need to read some JCP as he was one of Iris Murdoch’s favourite authors and characters in her last two novels are reading his books! But it’s the chunksters she mentions … and they are so big!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 15, 2019 @ 11:20:15
Oh, that’s interesting! Some of his works really are ginormous but the pedant in me wants to read them in order which means I think starting with Wolf Solent. As I said, I did get quite a bit into it once, but that was a long time ago, pre blog. Maybe I need to approach him again in the new year!
Emma
Dec 15, 2019 @ 13:27:23
I have never heard of this author, so, thanks for the introduction!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 15, 2019 @ 20:31:27
Welcome! This was such fun!
helen
Dec 20, 2019 @ 10:16:32
I’ve just read and written about this! What an amazing story, it’s wild and there is SO much in it, it’s actually quite hard to write about (or so I found). Like you, I hadn’t read any JCP before and am now full of good intentions. I don’t actually have any of his other works so am not being guilted by a big TBR pile like you, but I have had my eye on A Glastonbury Romance on and off over the past few decades.
Anyway, after I wrote my review I read yours and put a link in mine to it, I hope that’s OK with you – let me know if not!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 20, 2019 @ 14:46:58
It’s fab, isn’t it? And I agree – hard to write about. I was conscious that if I started delving too deep I would give away too much of the plot and I didn’t want to spoil it for anyone! 😀
Oddly, the first JCP I owned was A Glastonbury Romance – and that was back in my late teens!! Really *should* get round to reading it.
And thank you for the link – no probs, and I shall link back to you too if that’s ok!
helen
Dec 21, 2019 @ 12:01:38
That’s fine by me!
Yes – I think that part of the ending is clear from the very beginning but the rest should definitely not be spoilt, I enjoyed the feeling of not really knowing where it could be going.
I think the Arthurian overtones of AGR make it immediately appealing for me. It’s just there is SO much to read. I have a small study and I can’t really get from one side of it to the other unless I leap from the doorway because there are so many heaps of unread books – I am a martyr to greed…
kaggsysbookishramblings
Dec 21, 2019 @ 15:58:05
Agreed – the end is most definitely signalled but not the way things happened. A powerful ending, really.
And it was the Arthurian elements that drew me to want to read AGR too; I had visited the Tor too and loved the legends. Really should read the book, but like you I am threatened from all sides by heaps of books, and still I keep on buying more…
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