English People

Editors:
Tiffany Brooke Martin, PhD
John D. Rateliff

 
Owen Barfield began writing English People in August 1927 and completed it in October 1929.

The original manuscript is 550 pages long and is held in the Bodleian Library; the transcript copy manuscript is in the Marion E. Wade Center.

The novel is in four parts and the original chapter numbering has been maintained. Minor editorial changes include correcting some punctuation and spelling errors. Otherwise, the text adheres to the original, which incorporates additions and deletions that Barfield indicated on the manuscript.

Unfortunately, chapters 9 to 14 are missing; they were lent to an acquaintance (not a fellow Inkling) who lost them. But the absence of these pages does not prevent the comprehension of the rest of the novel.

Please note that chapters 73 and 74 are the Märchen of the novel. These pages are excluded because they are published separately as the novella
The Rose on the Ash-Heap ISBN: 978-0955958229.

I need your prayers just now. I have embarked on a really long and complicated novel.

— Letter from Owen Barfield to C.S. Lewis, August 1927

The Novel

English People – Part 1
English People – Part 2
English People – Part 3
English People – Part 4