They Have Bodies, by Barney Allen

Published in 1929, and almostinstantly censored by the Toronto City Police, They Have Bodies has beencompletely overlooked by generations of scholars and writers interested in theCanadian avant-garde. It is not just the novel’sextreme formal innovation that is immediately startling about They Have Bodies .There is also its close attention to the depraved, licentious behaviour ofToronto’s elite, its revelation of moral hypocrisy, and its exposure of themeans by which aristocratic and church power