Wise Virgin

by A.N. Wilson

This mordantly witty and profoundly entertaining novel explores the twin destinies of Giles Fox, a lecherous, twice-widowed medievalist who has lost his sight during eighteen years devoted to the transcription and translation of the thirteenth-century Treatise of Heavenly Love, and of his daughter, Tibba, a lovely, stammering seventeen-year-old whose daydreams are full of characters out of Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1982

About the author

Andrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail and former columnist for the London Evening Standard, and has been an occasional contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Wilson novel I’ve read, but it ranks with the work of Waugh and Kingsley Amis. And though his subject is the painfulness of the human comedy, Wilson is less cynical than Tom Sharpe or early Banville. In particular, chapter 6--in which the blind, egocentric scholar Giles Fox is ambushed by a mood of tough soul-searching--is particularly memorable.

”It had never occurred to Giles that there was something perfectly sensible about wishing to hold on to innocence. He had always gone in for the idea that since we only pass this way once, experience counts for everything.”

[Halli Villegas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another A.N. Wilson book that I do not feel quite clever enough to read, but seems to not have much in it for me to care too much. I started on this A.N. Wilson kick because I had read his book about Iris Murdoch as well as a lot of the controversy around that bio. I am also interested in all of the subjects he writes about, with the exception of the biblical - which is a big hole if you want to read him fully. Its like not knowing both French and Russian when reading Nabokov - but at least Nabokov is still fantastic on the superficial level. Despite knowing a bit about Bloomsbury, I did not get the wise virgin reference as it applies to the book by Leonard Woolf - though Virginia is the idol of Tibba, the protagonist's daughter in the book. There Are also a lot of Milton nods, and I have never been that keen on Milton. The book sounded so interesting on the back cover, but just didn't have enough to make the story sing without all the little in references. It is the kind of book you need to have someone to talk to about, someone who knows all the little ins and outs and the context. In other words - no one I know, or am ever likely to.

[Gwenyth Crabtree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comedy of depression - ends with hope of redemption. People living harder lives than anyone I know. Makes much of obscure literary references and pretentious language. A horrid little story. It demonstrates (as its main focus) how people misinterpret events and causes of others' attitudes to suit our own perception of who they are. Perhaps it suggests we aren't all so different from each other as we'd like to think.

[Kilian Metcalf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A.N. Wilson is better known for his biographies and works of popular history, but he also wrote novels. Among them is this amusing tale of Giles Fox, a medieval scholar who has lost his eyesight during his long career devoted to the transcription and translation of The Treastise of Heavenly Love, a nod to the 13th century Ancrene Wisse. Along the way, has has managed to marry and survive two wives and has a third woman on the string, much to the dismay of his seventeen-year-old daughter, Tibba.

Although not to everyone's taste, I found this mordantly funny story very amusing.

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[Stephen Bywater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Touching ending with Tibba, Peverill, the lonely Capt de Courcy and the final scene in Hermit Street. Pity the action's blunted by theology.