- Arts & Humanities
- Online Resources
- Grove Art Online
- Grove Music Online
- Oxford Islamic Studies Online
- Oxford Scholarly Editions Online - Medieval Poetry
- View All
- Resources
- Close
- Dictionaries & Reference
-
- Geographical Reference
- Bilingual Dictionaries
- Encyclopedias
- English Dictionaries
- Language Reference
- Public Speaking Guides
- Quotations
- Thesauri
- Online Resources
- Resources
- Close
-
- Law
-
- Antitrust Law
- Arbitration
- Civil Law
- Comparative Law
- Constitutional & Administrative Law
- Construction Law
- Contract Law
- Corporate Law
- Criminal Law
- Employment & Labor Law
- Environment & Energy Law
- European Union Law
- Family Law
- Financial Law
- History of Law
- Human Rights & Immigration
- Intellectual Property Law
- International Law
- IT & Communications Law
- Jurisprudence & Philosophy of Law
- Law & Politics
- Law & Society
- Legal System & Practice
- Medical & Healthcare Law
- Philosophy of Law
- Policing
- Property Law
- Study & Revision
- Terrorism & National Security Law
- Tort Law
- Online Resources
- Investment Claims
- Oxford International Organizations
- Oxford Legal Research Library
- Oxford Reports on International Law
- View All
- Resources
- Close
-
- Medicine & Health
-
- Allied Health Professions
- Anesthesiology
- Clinical Medicine
- Clinical Neuroscience
- Critical Care
- Dentistry
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Practice
- Forensic Medicine
- Hematology
- History of Medicine
- Medical Dentistry
- Medical Ethics
- Medical Skills
- Online Resources
- ESC CardioMed
- Oxford Medicine Online
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public Health
- Oxford Student Room
- View All
- Resources
- Close
-
- Science & Mathematics
-
- Biological Sciences
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Computing
- Earth Sciences & Geography
- Engineering & Technology
- Environmental Science
- History of Science & Technology
- Materials Science
- Mathematics
- Neuroscience
- Physics
- Psychology
- Online Resources
- Oxford Clinical Psychology
- Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Physics
- Oxford Scholarship Online
- Very Short Introductions
- View All
- Resources
- Close
-
- Social Sciences
- Online Resources
- Encyclopedia of Social Work
- Oxford Handbooks Online: Political Science
- Oxford Scholarship Online
- Very Short Introductions
- View All
- Resources
- Close
The House of Percy
Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family
Bertram Wyatt-Brown
Although the novels of Walker Percy represent some of the most prominent work in twentieth-century Southern fiction, the Percy family itself has a history that is arguably as compelling as anything he could have created. Behind Percy's prose lurks a legacy of wealth, literary accomplishment, political leadership, depression, and suicide that spans two centuries. In The House of Percy, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, a leading scholar of the South, skillfully combines intensive research and telling insights to produce the unforgettable story of this gifted family. The history begins with their first prominent ancestor, "Don Carlos" Percy, an eighteenth-century soldier of fortune who amassed a large estate only to fall victim to mental disorder and suicide, and concludes with poet and war hero Will Percy who shared his home with Walker and his brothers after the suicidal death of their father and their mother's drowning. In between, the author recovers the tragic lives and literary achievements of several Percy-related women, and chronicles the fiery life of Senator LeRoy Percy who defied the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
Throughout his biography of this powerful dynasty, Wyatt-Brown draws out the twin themes of an inherited inclination to despondency and an abiding sense of honor. The House of Percy reveals the surprising possibility that melancholy itself may lead to inspiring and artistically creative results.