The response of a reader upon first encountering a novel by John Cowper Powys is likely to be confused. Certainly my own was compounded of many contradictory but powerfully felt elements. This thesis has its origin in this divided response, which seemed to me to raise important questions not only about the nature and quality of Powys's own work but about the proper scope and character of the novel as a genre, about why we read novels, and how they enlarge our understanding.