The project we supported to publish hardback, collectors editions of the novels of Charles Williams is now complete – all seven of Williams fascinating ‘metaphysical thrillers’ are now available for purchase. This project was begun with the goal to produce quality copies of Williams – suitable for collecting and sharing. Thanks to your support; we’ve completed the last two in the series, and they are all available now.
You can buy the full set at a 20% discount, or find each title individually:
Now available and added to The Charles Williams Library: All Hallows’ Eve.
A woman who might be dead, a painter who might be a master, and a prophet who might be a monster.
This is one of the novels that earned Williams the reputation of someone who could blend the supernatural and the everyday convincingly. The story flips back and forth across the worlds of the living and the dead, and as it turns out – they’re not very separate at all.
—
The Williams Library editions are hardbound, with cloth covers and foil stamping on the covers.
Inside, you’ll find modern typography in the best bookmaking tradition. Printed in pure black with bright spot colors.
They’re sized right in the sweet spot: easy in the hand but a respectable presence on the bookshelf.
AND! All proceeds from sales go directly to printing costs for the next books in the series – and so on, until we’ve republished all seven novels.
Now available and added to The Charles Williams Library: Many Dimensions.
Many Dimensions is one of the most enjoyable of Williams’ novels. It’s got magic, drama, time travel, commerce, a romp through an English village, and of course, Serious People discussing the Concept of Justice.
The plot moves quickly: nasty rich collector Giles Tumulty has somehow acquired the Stone of Suleimon and brought it to London, where he discovers that it allows one to travel through space and time. His brother-in-law Lord Chief Justice Arglay and Arglay’s secretary Chloe Burnett get involved, and then so does everybody else, and that’s just in the first few chapters.
The Williams Library editions are hardbound, with cloth covers and foil stamping on the covers. Inside, you’ll find modern typography in the best bookmaking tradition. Printed in pure black with bright spot colors. They’re sized right in the sweet spot: easy in the hand but a respectable presence on the bookshelf.
AND! All proceeds from sales go directly to printing costs for the next books in the series – and so on, until we’ve republished all seven novels.
This one, like the others, is available at The Charles Williams Library.
Now available and added to The Charles Williams Library: Descent Into Hell.
Descent Into Hell is probably the best novel by Williams – it’s the fullest statement of his ideas about substitution and exchange in the Christian life, and also brings together more than a few of his obsessions. Plus, it’s a spooky page-turner!
In this one, there’s an amateur play being produced in a newly-built suburb. One of the actresses is haunted by her doppelgänger, a military historian is seduced by a succubus of his own creation, a nice old lady just might be an ageless witch, and a construction worker who committed suicide when the suburb was being built is haunting the neighborhood. There’s also… TIME TRAVEL. In the meantime, the play must go on.
This one, like the others, is available at The Charles Williams Library.
War in Heaven was just added to the Charles Williams Library, a project publishing collectors editions of Williams novels. It’s available now at cwlibrary.com
IN January 1940, Charles Williams gave a lecture in Oxford on John Milton. C.S. Lewis wrote about it enthusiastically, saying it was “nominally on Comus but really on Chastity. Simply as criticism it was superb because here was a man who really started from the same point of view as Milton and really cared with every fibre of his being about the sage and serious doctrine of virginity which would never occur to the ordinary modern critic to take seriously,†and added, “I have at last, if only for once, seen a university doing what it was founded to do: teaching wisdom.â€
The Greystones Press (directed by the Society’s own Stephen Barber) will be bringing out a new volume of Charles Williams essays on 6 April, called The Celian Moment and other essays.
These essays have been gathered from books, pamphlets and periodicals all long out of print and none of them has previously been collected. They cover nearly all his literary interests and the final one shows his sympathy for left-wing political ideas arising from his own poverty-ridden childhood. The title essay develops Williams’s theory of poetry but is also a covert homage to the woman who was his second and unacknowledged love.
‘As interest in Charles Williams as critic and poet continues to grow, the publication of these essays is a landmark. They will contribute very significantly to the current positive reassessment of so much of his writing on literary questions, and should be enthusiastically welcomed.’
– Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and President of the Charles Williams Society.
The essays have been edited and annotated by Stephen Barber, who has written numerous articles on Williams and was Treasurer of the Charles Williams Society for fifteen years.
Greystones is in discussion about publication in the USA, but in the meantime, US readers can order the book from the UK branch of Amazon.
For too long, Williams’s work has been out of print or only available in budget-level paperbacks. We’re rectifying this with high-quality, hardbound editions of his work, something suitable for collections and gifts.
Finally: modern, hardback editions of Williams’ most compelling, accessible writing – in handsome editions that are worth collecting and sharing. They’re available now for order: http://cwlibrary.com
They have been designed and printed with care: The Williams Library editions are hardbound, with cloth covers and foil stamping and debossing on the covers. Inside, you’ll find modern typography in the best bookmaking tradition. Printed in pure black with bright spot colors, on pure white paper. They’re sized right in the sweet spot: easy in the hand but a respectable presence on the bookshelf. We’ve included generous margins for a comfortable reading experience, and room for exclamations, scribbles and arguments.
I’m really pleased with these: they are the printings of Williams that I always wanted to exist, that I wanted to give to others. And now they’re real!
The first one, The Place of the Lion is available now, and War in Heaven is available to pre-order.
Williams’ novels are currently published in the United States or Canada (and should be available in other countries as well). Australian readers may find the full text of his novels at Project Gutenberg Australia.
War In Heaven1930The first of his novels to be published (in 1930), begins as a detective story (and indeed the investigation of the original murder is going on all through the book). But there turns out to be far more involved than murder – the discovery of the Holy Grail in a country church, a Black Mass, and the complete disappearance of a London chemist’s shop; and the solution of the murder is helped on by Prester John… |
Many Dimensions1931also involves the reappearance of a long-lost talisman, this time the Stone of Solomon, which turns out to have extraordinary powers over space and time (but using the latter has unexpected results!), as well as powers of healing. The book’s climax is a kind of judicial hearing by the Lord Chief Justice on what should be done with this thing; justice and law are prominent themes in the book – which is also both a thriller and at times a satire, as various parties try to get their hands on the Stone. |
Descent Into Hell1937is perhaps the most difficult of Williams’s novels; through it run themes dear to Williams’s heart, like poetry and the “Doctrine of Exchange” – as well as the self-destruction of a human soul. |
All Hallows Eve1945the last novel Williams ever wrote, opens with what must be one of the creepiest openings of any book, with a young woman wandering alone through the streets of London, and making a discovery which takes even the reader aback. |
Shadows of Ecstasy1933the first novel to be written (though not published till 1933) deals with an invasion of Europe from Africa and a kind of superman who denies that he is Antichrist, but who looks uncommonly like him. |
The Greater Trumps1932has the original set of Tarot cards coming into the possession of an English legal official, with devastating results, of which the threat of a universal snowstorm is only one. Williams’s use of symbolism is close to its highest here. |
The Place of the Lion1931was instrumental in bringing about the friendship between Williams and C. S. Lewis. It starts with the escape of a lioness from captivity and her mysterious disappearance… It also embodies Williams’s teachings about the affirming and denying of images. |
Here’s a special treat – Ulf Bjorklund, a professional voice actor – has recorded Williams’ short ghost story ‘Et in Sempiternum Pereant’, and it sharing it with us! You can listen below.
Mr. Bjorklund has recorded lots of other audio as well: find his work on amazon.com and audible
