Wolf Solent

John Cowper Powys built this 1929 novel around a man who quits London and returns to the Dorset countryside of his childhood, taking a post that involves helping a local squire compile a scandalous chronicle of the district. Wolf Solent lives most intensely inside his own head, retreating into a private ritual he calls his ‘mythology,’ a way of drawing strength from the earth and from solitude. His marriage to the earthy Gerda and his pull toward the ethereal Christie set flesh against spirit, while the buried secrets of the parish keep pressing in. Powys renders landscape and inner sensation with an almost hypnotic patience, making ordinary lives feel enormous. A free PDF and EPUB edition are available to download.