Book description
When the giants fell, old bones revived - there is the rubric for Eric
Linklater's new story. There may be no historical foundation for his
tale of a fantastic war, in the First century A. D., between the giant
Furbister and the abominable Od McGammon, his neighbour in the
south-west of Scotland; but their quarrel - which provides a background
to the engaging love-story of the willful poet Albyn and the delightful
Princess Liss - has a real enough interest and no small significance in
our equally strange world of today. Would love cure all our troubles?
Love indeed has a power that is almost infinite. But man (especially if
he is a willful poet) has the habit of dissatisfaction, an eye that
looks critically at love itself. And here, in this tale of some very
modern primitives, love makes the running but fails to win the race. A
new departure for Linklater? Well, he often makes new departures, and
here, though he is serious at bottom, his seriousness is nicely
garnished with wit, and sometimes at the mercy of humour. The
fascination of the story carries its outlandishness as lightly as a
feather. When the giants fell, old bones revived - there is the rubric
for Eric Linklater's new story. There may be no historical foundation
for his tale of a fantastic war, in the First century A. D., between the
giant Furbister and the abominable Od McGammon, his neighbour in the
south-west of Scotland; but their quarrel - which provides a background
to the engaging love-story of the willful poet Albyn and the delightful
Princess Liss - has a real enough interest and no small significance in
our equally strange world of today. Would love cure all our troubles?
Love indeed has a power that is almost infinite. But man (especially if
he is a willful poet) has the habit of dissatisfaction, an eye that
looks critically at love itself. And here, in this tale of some very
modern primitives, love makes the running but fails to win the race. A
new departure for Linklater? Well, he often makes new departures, and
here, though he is serious at bottom, his seriousness is nicely
garnished with wit, and sometimes at the mercy of humour. The
fascination of the story carries its outlandishness as lightly as a
feather.
