Preview of Novelty Summary:

Published two years after the critically well-received novel Aegypt (1987), Crowley's collection of short fiction, Novelty, explores the relationship between time and creation in four stories which have widely divergent settings.

The first story, "The Nightingale Sings at Night," retells the creation and fall of mankind. In Crowley's version, Eden is presided over by Dame Kind, a figure whose name can be directly traced to the medieval allegorical tradition from which the modern character Mother Nature is drawn. The fall of the first man and woman is precipitated by the Moon, whose changing phases lead Man and Woman to discover time, and thereby, death.

The second piece, "Great Work of Time," is the most ambitious story in the collection. Set during the last days of the British Empire, this short novel investigates the possibility of time travel and how it might be used to create...