The most obviously related novel is The Last Gentleman, in which a younger, more confused Will is the central character. This Will Barrett has made a fortune as a lawyer in New York, has married into an even larger fortune, and has retired early. Percy's point is that Will's metaphysical problems are certainly not related to an inability to deal successfully with the world.

Also, even though The Second Coming is a more thorough consideration of the redemptive power of love and marriage, the optimism of this conclusion recalls a similar joyous conclusion to Love in the Ruins (1971): "To bed we go for a long winter's nap, twined about each other as the ivy twineth, not under a bush or in a car or on the floor or any such humbug as marked the past peculiar years of Christendom, but at home in bed where all...