Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202232  Introduction to the Study of English Fiction

T. F. Powys, "Lie Thee Down, Oddity"

Notes

heath:

• an area of land that is not farmed, where grass and other small plants grow, but where there are few trees or bushes (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

• 1 a: a tract of wasteland b: an extensive area of rather level open uncultivated land usually with poor coarse soil, inferior drainage, and a surface rich in peat or peaty humus (Merriam-Webster Online)

Sample Student Reading Responses to T. F. Powys's "Lie Thee Down, Oddity"

1: 

Review Sheet

Characters

Mr. Cronch

George Bullman

Jane Cronch - Mr. Cronch's wife

Robert - Mr. Bullman's under-gardener

Mrs. Tibby

John Tibby

police officer

Places

Green Gate House

Stonebridge

London

Plot

Discussion

Study Guide for T. F. Powys's "Lie Thee Down, Oddity"

Other topics that you can think about:

• being a servant, obedience
• landscape
• modernity
• imagery
• allegory
• symbol
• personification
• setting
• theme
• nature
• freedom
• fear

Oddity: How is Oddity personified in the story?  What rules does Oddity obey and what not?  When does Oddity become aggressive and when is he dormant?

The Wind: Follow the image of the wind throughout the story.  What does it do?  When does it appear?  How is it described at different points?  What sense can you make of the role of the wind in "Lie Thee Down, Oddity"?

Key Terms to Date

setting

imagery

irony

symbolism

point of view

plot

story

conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, clash of actions, clash of ideas, clash of desires, clash of wills

• man v. self

• man v. man

• man v. society

• man v. nature

protagonist

antagonist

suspense

mystery

dilemma

surprise

ending

• happy ending

• unhappy ending

• indeterminate ending

artistic unity

time sequence

exposition

complication

rising action

crisis

climax

conclusion

resolution

denouement

flashback

foreshadowing

character

direct presentation of character

indirect presentation of character

show v. tell

consistency in character behavior

motivation

plausibility of character

flat character

round character

static character

developing character

Links

• The Most Talented Family since the Brontes

• The Powys Society (see also their Links page)

• The Powys Society Newsletter

• Powys Notes (website of now discontinued literary journal)

Primary Works

1923  Black Bryony
1923  The Left Leg
1924  Mark Only
1924  Mr Tasker's Gods
1926  Innocent Birds
1927  Mr Weston's Good Wine

1929  Fables (collection of short stories)
1931  Unclay 

T. F. Powys's Other Writings

Powys, Theodore Francis.  “The Mullet and the Swans. A fable.”  The New Coterie 1. November 1925. pp. 67-70.

Powys, Theodore Francis. “A Stubborn Tree.”  The New Coterie 2. Spring 1926. pp. 57-62. (First published as a limited edition in January 1926 by E. Archer, the publisher of The New Coterie.)

Powys, Theodore Francis. “Feed My Swine.”  The New Coterie 3. Summer 1926. pp. 69-77. (First published as a limited edition in May 1926 by E. Archer, the publisher of The New Coterie, and was later included in The white paternoster, 1930.)

Powys, Theodore Francis. “The Bride.”  The New Coterie 4. Autumn 1926. pp. 79-82. (The frontispiece is a portrait of T.F.Powys by William Roberts.)

Powys, Theodore Francis. “Mr. Toller’s New Clothes.”  The Bermondsey Book 5.4  September, October, November, 1928. pp. 72-77.

Powys, Theodore Francis. “Jane Mollet’s.” The Bookman. Christmas Number Vol. LXXXV, No. 507, December 1933. pp. 177-179.

Powys, Theodore Francis. “Another Godiva.”  Argosy 5.1.  February, 1944. pp. 25-29.

Reference and Further Reading

Binding, Paul. “Revaluation: Leavis, Lawrence and the Reverence for Life.”  The Times Literary Supplement, No. 5219, 11th April, 2003. p. 14-15. ( Mentions Leavis’s opinion that T. F. Powys was an important writer. Unfortunately, the author describes T. F. Powys as a rural Anglican clergyman, which is incorrect.)

Cavaliero, Glen. The Rural Tradition in the English Novel, 1900-1939.  Macmillan, 1977.

Coggrave, John. “Letters to the editor.”  The Times Literary Supplement, No. 5220, 18th April. p. 17. ( Responding to Paul Binding’s article in TLS, 11th April, 2003, saying that “T. F. Powys was certainly rural but never an Anglican clergyman.”)

Coward, David. Powysland. The Times Literary Supplement. No. 4827, 6th October, 1995. p. 26. ( A review of Mock’s curse by T.F. Powys.)

Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Novelists, 1890-1929, Volume 36, Gale, 1985

Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Short-Fiction Writers, 1915-1945, Volume 136, Gale, 1996.

“Elf-light.”  [The Times Literary Supplement?], [1960?]. p. 354. (A review of T. F. Powys by H. Coombes. Press cutting.)

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century.  3rd ed.  St. James Press, 1999.

Hopkins, Kenneth. The Powys Brothers: A Biographical Appreciation.  Phoenix House, 1967.

Humphrey, Belinda, ed.  Recollections of the Powys Brothers: Llewelyn, Theodore, and John Cowper.  1980.

Hutchinson, Cecil G.  “T.F.Powys.”  The Bookman. Vol. LXXXIII, No. 496. January, 1933. pp. 396-397. (Note: A check-list of Powys’s work is on p. 416.)

“Literary Criticism in Brief.”  The Times Literary Supplement No. 4947. 23rd January, 1998. p. 27. ( A review of The sixpenny strumpet by T.F. Powys, published by Brynmill Press.)

Powys, Francis. “Hermit of `The House in the Pasture.’”  Everybody’s Weekly. 2 January 1954. p. 31.

St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers.  St. James Press, 1996.

Sewall, Father Brocard, ed.  Theodore: Essays on T. F. Powys.  Saint Albert Press, 1964.

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Last updated August 6, 2007