Setting The World On Fire

Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: No markings

A richly layered work of literary fiction, Setting the World on Fire chronicles the lives of two brothers — the passionate, artistic Piers and the pragmatic, ambitious Tom — whose contrasting temperaments are tested against the grand backdrop of a crumbling English aristocratic estate. Angus Wilson constructs a sweeping narrative that spans decades, tracing how the brothers' divergent visions of life, beauty, and ambition collide as they grow from childhood into adulthood. With sharp psychological insight and a tone that balances elegiac melancholy with biting social observation, Wilson illustrates the tensions between aesthetic idealism and worldly compromise in post-war Britain. The ancestral home of Tothill House serves as a powerful symbol throughout, embodying the weight of history and the precariousness of inherited culture. Widely regarded as one of Wilson's most ambitious novels, it stands as a profound meditation on art, identity, and the cost of pursuing one's vision at all costs.