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In this classic tale of spirituality, morality, and the occult, a dark plot to murder an unsuspecting Englishman who possesses the world's rarest tarot deck unleashes uncontrollable elemental forces The original and most mystical of all playing-card decks, the tarot has seduced seekers of otherworldly knowledge for centuries--and of all its cards, the most potent are the twenty-two symbolic images that comprise the Greater Trumps. By a strange twist of fate, the very first tarot deck, dating back centuries, has come into the possession of Lothair Coningsby, a uniquely unimaginative Englishman. Though he has no intention of relinquishing his treasure, there are others who covet the tarot's power. Henry Lee, for one--fiancé of Coningsby's beautiful daughter, Nancy--is driven by an obligation even deeper than his devotion to his beloved. Henry is of Gipsy blood, and the Romany believe that they alone are the true guardians of the mystical tarot. Invited to spend the holidays at the out-of-the-way home of Aaron Lee, Henry's grandfather, the unsuspecting Coningsbys are blind to the chilling conspiracy taking shape around them. For on this stormy Christmas Day, their hosts are preparing to commit foul murder to gain possession of the coveted occult deck, unleashing devastating primal forces that no human could possibly contain. The brilliant fiction of Charles Williams, who was a member of the Inklings alongside fellow Oxfordians C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, is considered to be among the most provocative, imaginative, and intelligent explorations of spirituality and the supernatural produced during the twentieth century. The proof lies in his magnificent classic The Greater Trumps, a many-layered tale of hubris and faith that is arguably one of the greatest mystical thrillers of all time.… (more)
User reviews
Williams is said to have been an initiate of the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, a Christian magical order descended from A.E. Waite's Golden Dawn schism. It was a little surprising to me that the tarot symbolism in his book departs so far from the system of correspondences developed in the Golden Dawn. There is no use of Tetragrammaton as a key to the minor suits, and the element of Fire is attributed to Swords, while Air is assigned to Wands, in the manner of Gardnerian Witchcraft. The particular "Greater Trumps" of the novel are the usual array, but numbered in an unaccustomed sequence: Empress before High Priestess, and Emperor before Hierophant; Hermit numbered VIII, Temperance IX, Fortitude X, Fortune XII, and Death XIV.
This edition of The Greater Trumps carries a foreword by American writer William Lindsay Gresham, who lionizes Waite as THE great authority on tarot. While one might (I would) dispute such an award, it is fitting in reflections on the work of Williams, for whom Waite was certainly more important and useful than any of the competing figures of modern occultism.
I confess I was a little disappointed. Williams is a good writer with incisive things to say about his characters, but I didn't find the plot of this novel very convincing or enthralling. It all centers around a pack of Tarot cards that have "doll" counterparts of the cards' painted characters. When the cards and images are brought together, they become an elemental force that (naturally) is beyond human control. An ordinary family, the Coningsbys, are invited to spend Christmas with the daughter Nancy's boyfriend Henry and his father Aaron. Henry and Aaron have Gypsy blood and they possess the images, while Mr. Coningsby recently inherited the fateful Tarot cards. Nancy's aunt Sybil, her stuffy, unimaginative father Lothair, and her brother Ralph are caught up in a raging battle between elemental evil and the power of divine love. "Rise to adore the mystery of love..."
It reminded me a bit of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising; it was like That Hideous Strength, but far less gripping; it lost itself in obscurity and tried to come back unsuccessfully. Characters like Joanna might have made sense to someone well versed in ancient Egyptian mythology, but she left me cold and made no sense. I found beautiful prose scattered throughout, lyrical and sweeping, but it never meshed well with the weak plot. I did like how most of the characters were written. Nancy's awakening is lovely to see, though ambiguous on some levels. I couldn't decide if I liked Sybil or not. She was infuriatingly vague and sometimes "cutesy." Lothair Coningsby was a great character study.
The idea of having hands, and how important they are to one's relationship with the divine, was fascinating. I liked how Williams involves animals in the strange elemental power of the Tarots; it was like the animals at the end of That Hideous Strength.
Part of my problem with this book could be my level of comfort with the occult. As a Christian, I'm trying to find the line, my personal demarcation of Christian liberty, with occultic practices and ideas in fiction. I don't know much about Williams, but I do believe he was a Christian and may have even had a hand in Lewis' conversion. I do know that Tolkien didn't like all the spiritually dark things Williams used in his books, and abhorred Williams' creative influence on Lewis. I think I need to read another Williams book to see if they are all like that or if I just started with the wrong one.
I can't recommend this highly.
I was ever so excited. My love, Tarot, was about to meet my other love, reading novels, and dance together to the sounds of life going by...
But it was a boring dance; the musician did not perform well. The sentences towards the end of the book seemed to repeat each other over and
I am looking forward to find a GREAT Tarot+novel book!
Victoria Evangelina Belyavskaya