Editions

Mr Fortune's Maggot

Mr Fortune's Maggot

RELEASED 25/02/2021

'Witty, poetic, clairvoyant' John Updike

The Reverend Timothy Fortune, ex-clerk of the Hornsey branch of Lloyds Bank, has found his vocation: to convert the inhabitants of the remote tropical island of Fanua to Christianity. Even when everyone except for a young boy called Lueli remains indifferent to his preaching, Mr Fortune's good spirits cannot be dampened - until one day his faith is put to a terrible test.

'This quizzical tale is so intensely moving' Gillian Beer, New Statesman

'Original, elegant and hypnotically strange' Miranda Seymour, The New York Times

'Sylvia Townsend Warner pursues the psychology of the story with beautiful accuracy' John Carey

Reviews

  • Original, elegant and hypnotically strange

    Miranda Seymour, The New York Times

  • At long last I pulled down from its place on the shelves Sylvia Townsend Warner's plump little novel impishly titled Mr. Fortune's Maggot and was once again amazed by what a witty, poetic, clairvoyant writer this English woman was

    John Updike

  • Mr. Fortune's Maggot is satire at its best. There are passages here - particularly those delightfully malicious ones, of which there are many - that still cause the reader to laugh out loud. There is so much truth here

    Anthony Slide

  • Sylvia Townsend Warner pursues the psychology of the story with beautiful accuracy

    John Carey

  • Her writing is full of melodic skills... Her sentences move like talk between intimates. Perhaps that is why this quizzical tale is so intensely moving

    Gillian Beer, New Statesman

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About the Author

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) grew up in rural Devonshire before moving to London and writing her debut novel, Lolly Willowes (1926). With her partner Valentine Ackland, she was active in the Communist Party and served in the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War. Her novels include Mr Fortune's Maggot, The True Heart, Summer Will Show, After the Death of Don Juan, The Corner That Held Them and The Flint Anchor.

Sylvia Townsend Warner

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