Product DescriptionAn exploration of the very essence of power centers on two men who represent different types of earthly power--one an eminent novelist and well-known homosexual, the other a man of God who rises through the Vatican hierarchyFrom Publishers WeeklyBurgess's ambitious study of 20th-century history centers on the stormy relationship between an effete, popular novelist and a Faustian priest.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.Review"Crowded, crammed, bursting with manic erudition, garlicky puns, omnilingual jokes... which meshes the real and personalised history of the twentieth century" -- Martin Amis "Burgess is the great postmodern storehouse of British writing-an important experimentalist; an encyclopaedic amasser, but also a maker of form; a playful comic, with a dark gloom" -- Malcolm Bradbury "Enormous imagination and vitality - a huge book in every way" * Sunday Times * "A hellfire tract thrown down by a novelist at the peak of his powers" * The Times * "In all ways, a remarkable book" -- Paul TherouxAbout the AuthorAnthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917. He served in the army from 1940 to 1954 before becoming a colonial education officer. It was while he held this post that doctors told him he would die, and he decided to try to live by writing. A prolific and respected author, Burgess died in 1993.