The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
Towers at the Edge of a World by Virgil Burnett
‘Here are the annals of Montarnis from the Dark Ages to the present, told as a series of short stories, with that form’s characteristic twist -- novel, ironic, or terrifying -- at the end. Their style is decadent, both in their careful observation of literary artifice and the expression of a strange private sensibility.’ -- Thomas Pyne, The Los Angeles Times
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‘...it has something to say about husbands, wives, humour, places, and the various colours of sexuality.’
—Anatole Broyard, The New York Times
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‘Towers at the Edge of a World is a perverse mad dream of rebirth and renewal by a remarkably sensitive artist.’
—Joan Murray, Maclean’s
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‘... fifteen loosely interwoven tales centred on the ancient, walled town of Montarnis ... the stuff of which legends are made, simple human action embellished and distorted by passion and despair.’
—Alison Griffiths, Quill & Quire
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‘But the reader should beware ... Burnett has breathed life into his village of Montarnis, but poison runs in its veins; it is beautiful but pestilent.’
—Bernadette Ward, The South Bend Tribune
Unpublished endorsement
‘Virgil Burnett’s tales ... create a palpable ancientness, a continual unease, and build toward scenes of astonishing fantasy.’
—Richard Wilbur
Unpublished endorsement
‘Deceptively fast-paced, swift without ever becoming simple, the narrative carries one forward through scenes sometimes of barbaric splendour and horror to an often ironic and astonishing denouement...’
—Daryl Hine
Virgil Burnett is an author-illustrator whose work has been widely published on this continent and in Europe. His recent projects include illustrations for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (The Folio Society: London, England) and work on a third novel. He was a member of the Fine Arts faculty of the University of Waterloo, and now spends part of each year working and travelling abroad. Other illustrated fictions by Burnett include Skiamachia and Towers at the Edge of a World.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
