Reading “Will-O-the-Wisp” by Thomas Burnett Swann

Thomas Burnett Swann’s Will-O-the-Wisp (1976) is the author's tenth novel and is set in seventeenth-century Devon. It is a critique of Puritan moralizing against love, sexuality, and the body, and is surprisingly good!

Reading “The Tournament of Thorns” by Thomas Burnett Swann

Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Tournament of Thorns (1976) is a compelling medievalist fantasy that mixes in folk horror and offers a sharp critique of Christianity in the time of crusades.

Reading “Lady of the Bees” by Thomas Burnett Swann

Thomas Burnett Swann’s Lady of the Bees (1976) offers a direct political and ethical response to modernity by way of its inventive fantasy retelling of the mythological founding of Rome, casting that key moment in “Western civilization” as a tragedy.