The Greater Trumps

by Charles Williams

Book Overview

An old man was sitting alone in a small room. He was at a table facing the door; behind him was another door. The walls were bare of pictures: the table was a large one, and it was almost completely... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802816495
• ISBN13: 9780802816498
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Great but Confusing Read

I really enjoyed reading "The Greater Trumps." Not having any knowledge about the Tarot cards left me a little behind, but I belive that the morale to the story is to love, completely, without reserve, from a position of great personal self knowledge.

Notes On "The Greater Trumps"

This excerpt is taken from: "Charles WIlliams - Poet Of Theology" pp. 76-78 by Glen Cavaliero Just as heat is the pervading element in "The Place of the Lion", so the pervading element of "The Greater Trumps is cold". Much of the action takes place in an isolated country house during a raging snowstorm on Christmas Day, a microscopic drama dominated almost to breaking-point by its central symbol, the Tarot pack, most ancient and mysterious of playing cards. Williams draws on his knowledge of the Kaballa for his account of them, and, as with the Grail and the Stone, uses them as a symbol of the creative power of God. He relates them to a group of magical golden figures, similar to those portrayed on the greater trumps, figures whose perpetual motion corresponds to the ever-lasting dance which is the rhythm and pattern of the universe. When the original cards and the images are brought together, the fortunes of the world can be read, for the relation between them constitutes the true knowledge of reality. The fortuitous reassembling of cards and images provides the mainspring of the plot. The figures are hidden in the house of Aaron Lee, latest of a long line of gipsy guardians, now 'civilized'. His grandson, Henry, finds the cards in the possession of Mr Lothair Coningsby (a Warden in lunacy - both his name and occupation are pleasing but superfluous jokes), whose daughter Nancy he is engaged to marry. Through her, by using the spiritual energy of their mutual love, he plans to possess and rule the cards - the blasphemy against love degrading him to the level of the false magicians of the earlier books. The cards have magical properties controlling the four elements. Following their owner's refusal to part with them, Henry unleashes on him the forces of rain and wind, only to lose the cards in the storm, which as a result breaks out of his control. But Nancy, who loves without calculation, restores the remaining cards to the images and thus re-establishes the balance of nature. The novel is a drama of vain desire and the nature of the re-conciliation between such desire and its only possible fulfillment. The separation of the cards from the images symbolizes the separation between reason and knowledge, and provides yet another myth of that condition (also imaged in the stricken state of Israel, of the Fisher King, of Balder and of Osiris) described here as 'the mystical severance [which] had manifested in action the exile of the will from its end'. ("The Greater Trumps", p.154) It is an image of the Fall. The union between the human will and its destined and unavoidable end is indicated through the figures of Nancy and her aunt Sybil. The latter is Williams's most elaborate portrait of achieved sanctity: she lives in a condition of joyous calm, ironic, affectionate, secure, beholding 'the primal Nature' (the nature of co-inherent triune Godhead) 'revealed as a law to the creature'." Williams was always chary of using the name of God in hi

The Knowledge of the Fool & The Everlasting Dance

Over the years I have read and re-read this 1932 novel by Charles Williams many times - it continues to fascinate me, exerts a peculiar hold upon my mind and provides unfailing stimulus for thought and contemplation (it is undoubtedly the most readable and entertaining of his works of fiction). 'The Greater Trumps' is a very strange sort of novel, a mystical thriller if you like, featuring the prototypal deck of Tarot cards which has by odd chance fallen into the hands of the prosaic and unimaginative Mr.Coninsgby. His daughter Nancy is being wooed by a young lawyer of Gypsy descent, Henry Lee and when he sees the deck the spiritual drama begins and the Coningsby's are invited to spend Christmas at the lonely house of Henry Lee's grandfather Aaron Lee who guards the secret inheritance of the Romanies and has long sought the innermost mysteries of the Tarot. A conspiracy to ruthlessly obtain the Tarots at all costs is afoot and here we have a central theme of Charles Williams' novels - the intended profaning of a sacred Mystery by those who would abuse it for ego-aggrandizement and the quest for personal power. In 'The Greater Trumps' the classic tarot figure of 'The Falling Tower' is the symbol of the fate which invariably engulfs those who attempt to lay hold of the Holy Mysteries of Magic to satisfy the all-too-egoic thirst for power and ascendancy and this timeless message is as pertinent as ever in an age where debased occultism of questionable motivation is all too prevalent. Henry and Aaron Lee's dark quest to wrest the Tarots from Mr Coningsby and murder him unwittingly unleashes primal powers which are entirely beyond their ability to control - for the archetypal potencies of the Divine World cannot be controlled or manipulated by the unworthy for their own ends and the attempt to do so cannot be made with impunity: thus the novel builds up to a compelling denouement which is also a transfiguring and mystical meditation upon the all-prevailing power of pure love... The characterization in this novel is quite superb, from the romantic high spirits of Nancy, the faustian ambition of Henry Lee and the sublime equanimity of Aunt Sybil who amongst all the characters has truly attained to a high degree of spiritual freedom and thus plays a pivotal role: Sybil's selfless and calm wisdom contrasts strikingly with the hubristic greed of the magical 'adepts'. The dialogue is period 1930's and thus possess a charm all of it's own and the plot is superbly realised. But skilfully woven through this brilliant and cautionary tale of young love, unlawful lust for power, satires on conventional mindedness and supernatural high jinks is an extended esoteric meditation upon the emblems of the Tarot as timeless Mysteries of Power, Images, Divine Ideas, Virtues and eternal Platonic Forms which is uniquely insightful, penetrating and unparalleled in its profundity. The suggestive concepts concerning Tarot which Williams imparts through

A story of quietly enveloping spiritual enlightenment

It takes but a short time to realize that we are in an era when 'daily work' is not true for a large number of people of substance. Yet there are other things to fill their time. An estate shall be settled soon by the inclusion of a number of sets of antique tarot cards - something that a number of the protaginists have never heard of - others wonder if their 'gypsy feelings' towards same are no longer proper in their situation; and a father of one, who they shall visit, feels quite certain that the Original Deck MUST be among these. If so, how can it go to the museum, only to be catalogued and placed in some drawer. To me, there is a warm engulfing into the story - there is a feeling of tension and hope as certain characters begin, by recognizing more and more of all the symbols and interrelations that these make up, in quite a spiritual way, the Dance of Life and our/their place within. Their sharing is real. I freely say now that I have not totally finished this book. This is a special author. My copy is a first edition {1950}. The Saturday Review stated "Reading Charles Williams is an unforgettable experience." The NY Times stated "It is satire, rommance, thriller, morality, and glimpses of eternity all rolled into one." Whew.I gave this book a four because it does take a little 'work' to get in to. I feel clearly that Mr Williams was a deeply spiritual man. This book's language is to the reader as though we are entering the late 19th century - a different place for us to be going to. But, quite worth the effort. Thank you for your time. Enjoy.

The Mystical and the Mundane

How does one combine tarot cards, gypsies, Christianity and the most mundane creatures on God's earth -- the English! -- into a rich, complex story, that grabs the imagination? Beats me, or I'd write it myself! Charles Williams, an acquaintance of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, takes the mystic Christian tradition and the most ordinary of events of modern life and fuses them together. This fusion makes the modern reader feel almost cross-eyed while reading this "spiritual thriller". I find much of his writing very heavy to slog through, but this is the most accessible of his novellas. It gives a unique, yet orthodox view of Christianity. Reminds me of Charles de Lint, for some reason.