Title: His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae: A Historical Thriller
Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Publisher: New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2015
A Man Booker Prize finalist, Burnet's second novel imagines a triple murder in a rural Scotland farming community through a series of documents, including an account by the 17 year old Roderick Macrae who's accused of the crimes.
Showing posts with label manuscripts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manuscripts. Show all posts
Monday, April 10, 2017
Friday, September 10, 2010
Heresy (2010) novel
S.J. Parris' 2010 novel Heresy
features the late 16th monk and early scientist-philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) and the time he spent in England. The plot involves secret and old, even by 16th century standards, manuscripts and books.
features the late 16th monk and early scientist-philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) and the time he spent in England. The plot involves secret and old, even by 16th century standards, manuscripts and books.Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Testament
Original novel title: The Testament.
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006 (hardcover), 2007 (paperback)
Thriller writer Van Lustbader tackles the New Testament of the Bible in what can only be described as yet another Da Vinci Code readalike. According to the dustjacket, "For more than eight hundred years, the Order [of Gnostic Observatines] has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christinaity to its foundations."
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: New York, NY: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006 (hardcover), 2007 (paperback)
Thriller writer Van Lustbader tackles the New Testament of the Bible in what can only be described as yet another Da Vinci Code readalike. According to the dustjacket, "For more than eight hundred years, the Order [of Gnostic Observatines] has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christinaity to its foundations."
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Book of Air and Shadows
Original title: The Book of Air and Shadows
Author: Gruber, Michael
Publisher: New York, NY: William Morrow, 2007 (hardcover)
This thriller features an intellectual property lawyer, a cache of 17th century letters and a previously unknown
literary work by William Shakespeare. This novel bears comparison with What Time Devours (2009), a thriller by A.J. Hartley.
Author: Gruber, Michael
Publisher: New York, NY: William Morrow, 2007 (hardcover)
This thriller features an intellectual property lawyer, a cache of 17th century letters and a previously unknown
literary work by William Shakespeare. This novel bears comparison with What Time Devours (2009), a thriller by A.J. Hartley.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Codex 632
Original title: Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus: A Novel
Author: Santos, José Rodrigues dos; translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin.
Publisher: New York: William Morrow, 2008.
First published in Portugal in 2005 as O Codex 632
, this novel references several archives and historical manuscripts, all of which the author assure us, exist, including Codex 632 of the title. The author attempts to solve the mystery of Christopher Columbus' true identity. Unfortunately, the book reads more like a journalistic expose than a novel. I only managed to finish it because I wanted to read all the references to archives.
Author: Santos, José Rodrigues dos; translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin.
Publisher: New York: William Morrow, 2008.
First published in Portugal in 2005 as O Codex 632
, this novel references several archives and historical manuscripts, all of which the author assure us, exist, including Codex 632 of the title. The author attempts to solve the mystery of Christopher Columbus' true identity. Unfortunately, the book reads more like a journalistic expose than a novel. I only managed to finish it because I wanted to read all the references to archives.Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Book Of God And Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
Original Title: The Book Of God And Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery
Author: Enrique Joven
Publisher: William Morrow, May 5, 2009 (hardcover)
Considered the world's most mysterious manuscript, the Voynich Manuscript, named after its discoverer, is the subject of at least three novels published early in the first decade of the 21st century. The manuscript is preserved in Yale University's Beinecke Library.
Author: Enrique Joven
Publisher: William Morrow, May 5, 2009 (hardcover)
Considered the world's most mysterious manuscript, the Voynich Manuscript, named after its discoverer, is the subject of at least three novels published early in the first decade of the 21st century. The manuscript is preserved in Yale University's Beinecke Library.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The Frankenstein Diaries
Original Novel Title: The Frankenstein Diaries
Author: Rev. Hubert Venables, trans. and ed.
Publisher: New York: Viking Press, 1980
A brilliant and faux presentation of a "tattered bundle of ancient, decaying papers" the translator and editor received from a Swiss colleague in 1970. In his foreword, the English Rev. Venables states "My subsequent researches in the archives in Germany and Switzerland have obliged me to revise my opinion, in that I have established beyond all personal doubt the authenticity of the diaries as a true historical record of fact." Of course the fact that Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is a complete fiction means that these alleged authentic diaries of Viktor Frankenstein must therefore also be fictitious. Conveniently, the editor, who translated the diaries from German, died in 1980.
Other similar works to this one include The Secret Laboratory Journals of Dr. Victor Frankenstein by Jeremy Kay (1996) and the Diary of Victor Frankenstein by illustrator Timothy Basil Ering (1997).
Author: Rev. Hubert Venables, trans. and ed.
Publisher: New York: Viking Press, 1980
A brilliant and faux presentation of a "tattered bundle of ancient, decaying papers" the translator and editor received from a Swiss colleague in 1970. In his foreword, the English Rev. Venables states "My subsequent researches in the archives in Germany and Switzerland have obliged me to revise my opinion, in that I have established beyond all personal doubt the authenticity of the diaries as a true historical record of fact." Of course the fact that Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is a complete fiction means that these alleged authentic diaries of Viktor Frankenstein must therefore also be fictitious. Conveniently, the editor, who translated the diaries from German, died in 1980.
Other similar works to this one include The Secret Laboratory Journals of Dr. Victor Frankenstein by Jeremy Kay (1996) and the Diary of Victor Frankenstein by illustrator Timothy Basil Ering (1997).
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Act of God
Original Novel Title: Act of God: A Novel
Author: Charles Templeton
Publisher: Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
Author: Charles Templeton
Publisher: Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
The Darwin Conspiracy
Original Novel Title: The Darwin Conspiracy
Author: John Darnton
Publisher: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, September 2005 (hardcover)
A murder mystery that flips between the present and the past and involves the 19th century English naturalist Charles Darwin, there are some excellent scenes in the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University. Part of the plot revolves around the discovery of a diary kept by Darwin's youngest daughter Lizzie.
Author: John Darnton
Publisher: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, September 2005 (hardcover)
A murder mystery that flips between the present and the past and involves the 19th century English naturalist Charles Darwin, there are some excellent scenes in the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University. Part of the plot revolves around the discovery of a diary kept by Darwin's youngest daughter Lizzie.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Secret Scroll
Original Novel Title: The Secret Scroll
Author: Ronald Cutler
Publisher: Beaufort Books, February 2008 (hardcover).
Professor of Archaeology Josh Cohan, on vacation in Israel, discovers an ancient scroll tied to Jesus Christ that he believes, along with others, could change the course of history and religious faith.
Author: Ronald Cutler
Publisher: Beaufort Books, February 2008 (hardcover).
Professor of Archaeology Josh Cohan, on vacation in Israel, discovers an ancient scroll tied to Jesus Christ that he believes, along with others, could change the course of history and religious faith.
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Archivist: A Novel
Original Novel Title: The Archivist
Author: Martha Cooley
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 1998.
Could this be a trend, two first novels, nearly a decade apart, with the same title? The similarities end there, as this novel, unlike its 1989 predecessor, is a contemporary romance featuring a librarian whose institution preserves letters of poet T.S. Eliot. The poet's life intersects not only with the librarian/archivist of the title, but also that of a woman poet who fervently hopes to see the sealed letters.
Terry Abraham, special Collections, University of Idaho, commented to the ARCHIVES mailing list: "I do not think this will be the book that will expand and improve the public's image of archivists."
Author: Martha Cooley
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 1998.
Could this be a trend, two first novels, nearly a decade apart, with the same title? The similarities end there, as this novel, unlike its 1989 predecessor, is a contemporary romance featuring a librarian whose institution preserves letters of poet T.S. Eliot. The poet's life intersects not only with the librarian/archivist of the title, but also that of a woman poet who fervently hopes to see the sealed letters.
Terry Abraham, special Collections, University of Idaho, commented to the ARCHIVES mailing list: "I do not think this will be the book that will expand and improve the public's image of archivists."
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Da Vinci Code
Original Novel Title: The Da Vinci Code
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: New York: Doubleday, 2003
Despite being hammered by critics for its writing, this novel has attained a cult status with electronic and print pro-, anti- and guides to the Da Vinci Code. Lewis Perdue published a similarly titled novel in 1983, then a second one about Mary Magdalene in 2000. Brown's novel, as Perdue points out on his Ideaworx site, bears some similarities in character and plot development to these two novels. Having read Perdue's highly forgettable The Da Vinci Legacy, I can't say I'm convinced Perdue's plagarism case would stand up in court. See also The Novels of Lewis Perdue and Angels and Demons
.
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: New York: Doubleday, 2003
Despite being hammered by critics for its writing, this novel has attained a cult status with electronic and print pro-, anti- and guides to the Da Vinci Code. Lewis Perdue published a similarly titled novel in 1983, then a second one about Mary Magdalene in 2000. Brown's novel, as Perdue points out on his Ideaworx site, bears some similarities in character and plot development to these two novels. Having read Perdue's highly forgettable The Da Vinci Legacy, I can't say I'm convinced Perdue's plagarism case would stand up in court. See also The Novels of Lewis Perdue and Angels and Demons
.Sunday, February 8, 2009
All the King's Men
Original Novel Title: All the King's Men
Author: Robert Penn Warren
Publisher: 1946 (hardcover)
This Pulitzer Prize winning novel was recounted (edited here) by Robert Shuster, Director of Archives, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Illinois:
The book is mainly about the rise and fall of Willie Stark, but the narrator, Jack Burden, takes about forty pages to talk about his historical research into the life of his ancestor Cass Mastern, reluctant slaveowner and Confederate soldier. This research is based on, "A large packet of letters, eight tattered, black bound account books, tied together with faded red tape, a photograph, about five by eight inches, mounted on cardboard and stained in its lower half by water and a plain gold ring, man-sized, with some engraving on it, on a loop of string." Burden is sent the material by a relative who wants to know if they could be sold to a historical library. Burden says he does not think so, because Mastern was not a "historical significant" figure, so the relative tells him to keep them for sentimental reasons and Burden tries to use them to write his doctor's dissertation.
The rest of the chapter is the story of Mastern, as told by the documents and supplemented by other records Burden turns up. The purpose, I think, is to provide some counterpoint in the conflict between Cass and brother to the realtionship between Stark and Burden in the main part of the novel. The documents are brought in to represent the burden, specially the Southern burden, of history. They apparently never make it to an archives or repsoitory, but perhaps they deserve an honorable mention.
The film of the novel won the 1949 Academy Award for best picture.
Submitted by Robert Shuster, 1997.01.07.
Author: Robert Penn Warren
Publisher: 1946 (hardcover)
This Pulitzer Prize winning novel was recounted (edited here) by Robert Shuster, Director of Archives, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Illinois:
The book is mainly about the rise and fall of Willie Stark, but the narrator, Jack Burden, takes about forty pages to talk about his historical research into the life of his ancestor Cass Mastern, reluctant slaveowner and Confederate soldier. This research is based on, "A large packet of letters, eight tattered, black bound account books, tied together with faded red tape, a photograph, about five by eight inches, mounted on cardboard and stained in its lower half by water and a plain gold ring, man-sized, with some engraving on it, on a loop of string." Burden is sent the material by a relative who wants to know if they could be sold to a historical library. Burden says he does not think so, because Mastern was not a "historical significant" figure, so the relative tells him to keep them for sentimental reasons and Burden tries to use them to write his doctor's dissertation.
The rest of the chapter is the story of Mastern, as told by the documents and supplemented by other records Burden turns up. The purpose, I think, is to provide some counterpoint in the conflict between Cass and brother to the realtionship between Stark and Burden in the main part of the novel. The documents are brought in to represent the burden, specially the Southern burden, of history. They apparently never make it to an archives or repsoitory, but perhaps they deserve an honorable mention.
The film of the novel won the 1949 Academy Award for best picture.
Submitted by Robert Shuster, 1997.01.07.
After Many a Summer
Original Novel Title: After Many a Summer
Alternate Title: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
Author: Aldous Huxley
Publisher: London: Chatto and Windus, 1939 (hardcover); New York. Harper & Brothers, 1939 (hardcover).
According to archivist John Sanford, this novel about the search for immortality by the author of Brave New World is
Submitted by John Sanford, 2000.09.18.
Alternate Title: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
Author: Aldous Huxley
Publisher: London: Chatto and Windus, 1939 (hardcover); New York. Harper & Brothers, 1939 (hardcover).
According to archivist John Sanford, this novel about the search for immortality by the author of Brave New World is
about life and death, rather than Archives, but the principal character, Jeremy Pordage is rather clearly an archivist/manuscript scholar imported from London to LA to catalog a collection of British aristocratic manuscripts. It has perhaps the most accurate distillation of the inoffensive yet purposeless existence that is archivist.
Submitted by John Sanford, 2000.09.18.
Life of Sethos
Original Novel Title (English translation): Life of Sethos
, Taken from Private Memoirs of the Ancient Egyptians
Author: Abbé Jean Terrasson
Publisher: Paris: 1731; London: J. Walthoe, 1732.
Digital reprint: Google Books from Princeton University (view online or download as Adobe Acrobat PDF)
A three-volume novel, which, according to classicist Mary Lefkowitz
, Taken from Private Memoirs of the Ancient EgyptiansAuthor: Abbé Jean Terrasson
Publisher: Paris: 1731; London: J. Walthoe, 1732.
Digital reprint: Google Books from Princeton University (view online or download as Adobe Acrobat PDF)
A three-volume novel, which, according to classicist Mary Lefkowitz
purports to be a translation of an ancient manuscript found in the library of an unnamed foreign nation that is "extremely jealous of this sort of treasure." The author is said to have been an anonymous Greek in the second century A.D. Here Terrasson is following the conventions of ancient writers of historical fictions, such as the author of the Hermetica, who pretend that their works are translations of ancient writings that no one but themselves has seen. But Terrasson is careful not to deceive his readers completely: he assures them that the work he has "translated" for them is a fiction; .... He assures them that although fictional, the story keeps close to ancient sources, which, for the reader's convenience, he cites throughout the text. But he also says that "it is natural to suppose" that his author had access to original sources (now lost), such as memoirs available in the sacred archives of Egypt, written by unknown priests who accompanied Sethos on his travels. The sophisticated reader would be amused by the notion that the anonymous author had consulted these otherwise unknown documents, but Terrasson gives no warning to less well-educated readers that there is in fact no reason to "suppose" that these documents ever existed. (Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrist Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History, New York, BasicBooks, 1996, p. 111-12)What is even more remarkable about this novel, besides serving as the inspiration for Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, is that it formed the basis for Freemasonry's rituals and ceremonies, including those practiced by Masons of African descent in the Caribbean and the United States (Lefkowitz, p. 120-21).
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