The Rose on the Ash-Heap

The Rose on the Ash-Heap is the epilogue from 'English People' - Barfield's ambitious unpublished novel of English life between the First and Second World Wars. At once fairy tale, societal critique, romance and apocalyptic vision, it discloses the redemptive powers of love and imagination. Sultan, Lord of all the Asias, falls passionately in love with a beautiful and elusive temple dancer. He pursues her across continents, all the way to Albion, where the Lord of Albion - guardian of all that is good in the English spirit - confronts the overwhelming threat of Abdol and the forces of materialism. Written in the late 1920s, a time of widespread societal and economic instability, The Rose on the Ash-Heap also addresses the deepest concerns and hopes of the twenty-first century. Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and philosophers. A member of the Inklings, the Oxford literary group which included C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, Barfield's ideas and literary artistry influenced both Lewis and Tolkien, and won praise from many of the foremost literary figures of the century. Praise for Owen Barfield: "A prolific and interesting thinker" - Times Literary Supplement "The wisest and best of my unofficial teachers."- C. S. Lewis "A masterpiece ... of prophetic value" - T. S. Eliot "..possibly the clearest and most searching thinker of the present time" - Howard Nemerov