Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c. 1900]-[c. 1902] (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
Varying from 65 to 339 ff.
NLW MSS 23672-23675E : Re-bound at NLW.
NLW MS 23676E : Guarded and filed at NLW.
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Four notebooks and a series of disbound notebooks and loose leaves, [c. 1900]-[c. 1902], containing parts of a projected first novel by John Cowper Powys comprising substantial drafts of a romance set on the Sussex Downs; together with numerous, shorter fragments of narrative, mainly passages of prolix theological and philosophical discussion, and Rabelaisian fantasy, involving characters based on the author's friends. Also included are heavily worked drafts of unpublished poems (NLW MS 23672E, ff. 57-60 and ff. 135-137 verso, 138 verso, 139 verso-140, inverted text; NLW MS 23673E, ff. 146 recto-verso, 147 verso, 154 recto-verso, 155 verso, 156 verso-60 verso, 161 verso-162, inverted text; NLW MS 23676E, ii, ff. 250 verso-251, 253 verso-255, 259 verso, 260 verso, 261-262 verso, 263 verso, 264 verso-265 verso, 266 verso, 267 verso-268 verso, 269 verso, 270 verso, inverted text); and notes on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Macbeth, Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew (NLW MS 23673E, ff. 148-153 verso, inverted text), possibly for use in Powys's lecturing work.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
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Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
See John Cowper Powys, Autobiography (1934), p. 314, where he describes his 'unpublishable Work without a Name'.
Publication note
For an analysis of the texts see Penny Smith, 'Works without names: John Cowper Powys's early, unpublished fiction' in The Powys Review, 22 (1988), pp. 20-27, and 23 (1989), pp. 39-47.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Preferred citation: NLW MSS 23672-23676E.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Rabelais, François, ca. 1490-1553? (Subject)
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth (Subject)
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Richard III. (Subject)
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Tempest (Subject)
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Taming of the shrew. (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English