In The Key of the Field, T. F. Powys weaves a haunting, allegorical tale of innocence, envy, and divine mercy set in the village of Madder.
Uncle Tiddy is a simple, honest man who finds himself the favored tenant of the mysterious Squire Jar, a figure “older than Orion or the Pleiades” who rules Madder Hall. Tiddy is granted the literal and symbolic key of the field—twelve acres of the richest pastureland on earth, carved from the Squire’s own private pleasure garden to bring happiness to his tenants.
But Tiddy’s peace is short-lived. The Trott family, driven by bitter envy and “thieving management,” conspires to ruin him.
A profound exploration of human suffering and the “harmless wish” to die, The Key of the Field culminates in a powerful encounter between a broken man and a Squire who redefines justice. As Sylvia Townsend Warner notes in the foreword, the story portrays a God who overrides human conceptions of morality to offer a final, quiet absolution to the weary