Parzival is a masterly retelling of the thirteenth century original by Wolfram von Eschembach. It began life as a two-part radio drama commissioned by the BBC. 'During the course of writing it, I found myself possessed by the curious sensation of having embarked on a heavily-fictionalized form of autobiography. The more I progressed with it, the more strongly Ibegan to feel that wolfram wan't just telling my own story but also that of many of my contemporaries.
LINDSAY CLARKE'S novel The Chymical Wedding won the Whitbread Prize in 1989. He went on to write Alice's Masque (1994), The War at Troy (2004) and The Return from Troy (2005). His most recent novel is The Water Theatre (2010).
Godstow Press is delighted to be publishing a new edition of Parzival after the original (2001) went out of print. In a way, the alchemical, mythical and psychological themes which inform all Lindsay's work have their roots in this story of the knight who found the Grail.
The medieval poem carries meanings that transcend history as well as fashion, if only they can be made accessible. This Lindsay Clarke has done, not only by re-telling the story in a streamlined, vivid style which will grip readers of all ages, but also by adding an excellent and helpful Afterword which is as perceptive as it is challenging. Bel Mooney, The Times.
As soon as I began to read I was entranced ... In Clarke's Parzival action is compulsively cryptic and elliptical, as if the tale told itself. The reader's imagination is consumed by wonders. Stevie Davis, The Independent.