Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Flint Anchor and Modernism

Abstract

Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Flint Anchor (1954) has received surprisingly little critical attention; it is discussed here in relation to modernism. Approaching The Flint Anchor through the understanding of modernity and space operating in Warner’s late collection Kingdoms of Elfin (1977), and in particular the story ‘Visitors to a Castle’, the article addresses how the Victorian patriarch John Barnard is remembered and the claims of sodomy made with respect to Barnard’s son-in-law, Thomas. The Flint Anchor is shown to question whether the novel form, as a product of an earlier economic and social formation, is up to the task of exploring new times.