A harrowing picture of Britain under the boot of an all-powerful religion that is resistant to change and intolerant of advancement of technology (what if the battle of the Spanish Armada had gone the other way...?) An episodic novel or collection of related stories that build upon each other. The first-American edition (Doubleday 1968) added "The White Boat" to the lineup of the 1968 British first-edition hardcover. Not for the faint-at-heart, but I strongly recommend this as Robert's best book - makes my "top 100" list.

From the flap-copy from the Doubleday 1968 hardcover:

In six stately measures PAVANE creates another time and another place within the borders of reality.

The place is Twentieth Century England - but a land untouched by the Industrial Revolution; a melancholy land of lumbering steam engines and feudal existence, enslaved by the Church of Rome. It is a time of fear, pervaded by ancient memories and forbidden tales of half-remembered wraiths called The Old Ones. The people are bound to the land in ignorance, governed by the simple rhythms of moon and sun, ploughing and reaping, birth and death.

Each of the six measures is a separate story, bnt each is linked to the others in a progression of patterns and inevitability until the Coda reveals a symmetry as logical as it is beautiful.

Contents:
Prologue
The Lady Margaret - (original title= "The Lady Anne")
The Signaller
The White Boat
Brother John
Lords and Ladies
Corfe Gate
Coda

All from 1966 - first appearances in Impulse for most (March through July - and not quite in the order listed above); "The White Boat" was in New Worlds. The "Prologue" was originally part of "The Lady Anne" and the "Coda" is heavily revised/extracted from portions of the magazine appearance of "Corfe Gate."