The Carnival Trilogy: Carnival, the Infinite Rehearsal, and the Four Banks of the River of Space

The Carnival Trilogy #1-3

by Wilson Harris

This volume, introduced by the author, brings together three novels first published separately.

'The trilogy comprises Carnival (1985), The Infinite Rehearsal (1987) and The Four Banks of the River of Space (1990), novels linked by metaphors borrowed from theatre, traditional carnival itself and literary mythology. The characters make Odyssean voyages through time and space, witnessing and re-enacting the calamitous history of mankind, sometimes assuming sacrificial roles in an attempt to save modern civilisation from self-destruction.' Independent on Sunday

' The Four Banks of the River of Space is a kind of quantum Odyssey ... in which the association of ideas is not logical but... a 'magical imponderable dreaming'. The dreamer is Anselm, another of Harris's alter egos, like Everyman Masters in Carnival and Robin Redbreast Glass in The Infinite Rehearsal ... Together, they represent one of the most remarkable fictional achievements in the modern canon.' Listener

Genres: Fiction, Classics

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Born in Guyana in 1921 and based in England since 1959, Wilson Harris is one of the most original novelists and critics of the twentieth century. His writings, which include poems, numerous essays and twenty-four novels, provide a passionate and unique defense of the notion of cross-culturalism as well as a visionary exploration of the interdependence between history, landscape and humanity. In 2010 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The motley pageant of literary personages is a cosmic carnival… Virgil, Faust and Ulysses tirelessly stride in the very first row…
Virgil is a metaphor of creativity:

Was he my phantom guide, my spirit-parent, or was I his divine clerk, his fiction-parent. Had I been nursed into becoming a writer through contact with him or had I nursed him into becoming an incalculable guide into being?

Faust symbolizes the impossibility of an ultimate dream:

The values of a civilization – the hope for a universally just society, for the attainment of the mind and heart of love, the genius of care – are an impossible dream…

And Ulysses stands for time and space:

History is a book of dreams. And it’s time we scanned the pages afresh and woke up to patterns of Sleep in which we stumble upon each other in the masks of many existences. When we fight one another – whom do we fight? When we love or hate one another – whom do we love or hate?

Somewhere, far away in the ethereal distance, there is an ideal isle and the entire human life is a long homecoming through ugliness and beauty, through reality and dreams, through time and space.

[Manuel Abreu · Rating 5 out of 5]

utterly unique and a zenith for harris' long project. there is so much beauty and music to the prose here. also i would say this trilogy has some of his strongest and fullest woman characters. the temporary transvaluation of hegemonic values represented by caribbean carnival sets the stage for the linguistic fireworks here.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really need to reread this. Certainly one of a kind in writing as well as difficulty