"romance" is also serves describes some of the characteristic elements of the romance: "the character or quality that makes something appeal strongly to the imagination, and sets it apart from the mundane; an air, feeling, or sense of wonder, mystery, and remoteness from everyday life; redolence or suggestion of, or association with, adventure, heroism, chivalry, etc.; mystique, glamour" (OED). This definition is associated with the Romantic movement, as well as to the medieval romance tradition. God-like omniscience In a letter written just after he had completed A Glastonbury Romance Powys describes how it differs from his previous novel,Wolf Solent, because it does not,"strain the whole business through one character ... but jumps about boldly and shamelessly from one person's thoughts to another's. David A. Cook calls this "an awesome authorial omniscience" that aspires "to the cosmic consciousness of God. The "author-god" enters the consciousness not only of an array of human characters but assigns "souls" to the sun, moon, and the earth. For example, "the thoughts of the earth mother throbbed with ... unappeasable jealousy". Powys also includes "the feelings of a tree" and "the secret life motion a louse". The lives of multiple characters and their individual perspectives are followed. The main stories involve, Philip Crow, John Crow, Sam Dekker, John Geard, and Owen Evans, with numerous critics describing them, other than Philip Crow, as "Powy-heroes", that is characters who reflect "a dominant psychological bias in the author". H. P. Collins describes John Crow as "a quite undisguised projection of John Cowper", while Sam Dekker embodies "John Cowper's suppressed evangelism". Jocelyn Brooke likewise sees Owen Evans as "a projection of Powys the self-confessed sadist; and "Johnny Geard, the methodist messiah ... is none other than the eccentric, 'dithyrambic' lecturer to American Women's Clubs". Three women are also especially significant, John Crow's wife Mary (née Crow), Evans's wife, Cordelia Geard, and Persephone Spear (née Crow)(see, W. J. Keith for Cordelia and Mary, and Glen Cavaliero for Persephone. Also important is Mad Bet's plot to murder John Crow. But this does not exhaust the list of individual stories and the novel offers different perspectives and "numerous political and religious views jostle for attention, with none being privileged over others"; and, there is also, a wide spectrum of social classes ... age groups ... and love relationships ... [including] "a remarkably varied array of homoerotic attractions and liaisons". There is in addition