"Some years ago I attempted to outline the possibility of validating or proving the truths that may occupy certain twentieth century works of fiction that diverge, in peculiar degrees, from canons of realism. I sought such proof or validation by bringing the fictions I had in mind into parallel with profound myth that lies apparently eclipsed in largely forgotten so-called savage cultures.

The nature of such eclipse is a haunting dimension; and now across many years when I find I may read The Guyana Quartet as if it were written by another person, it is possible to conceive how the fiction validates itself through buried or hidden curiously live fossils of another age."

{ Wilson Harris, from the introduction to The Guyana Quartet, London: Faber, 1987 }