SOURCE: "The Effectual Angel in Death of Felicity Taverner," in A Sacred Quest: The Life and Writings of Mary Butts, edited by Christopher Wagstaff, McPherson & Company, 1995, pp. 224-42.

In the following essay, Wagstaff contends that in Death of Felicity Taverner Butts confronted her personal demons and attempted to create the possibility for reconciliation and liberation of one's "ideal self. "

With the publication of Death of Felicity Taverner in 1932, Mary Butts's trilogy of novels was complete. This book brings together Boris Polteratsky and the unnamed letter writer of Imaginary Letters (dated 1924, first published in 1928) and Scylla, Felix and Picus of Armed with Madness (1928). Before this third volume opens, Felicity Taverner, the cousin of Scylla, Felix and Picus, has died mysteriously in an automobile accident; and whether it was an accident, suicide, or murder, her death, her cousins are convinced, was caused by the hatred of her mother, brother and...