Introduction

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.

Critical Reception

Independent on Sunday described The Four Banks of the River of Space as "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