Nothing exists outside of it except the sun and moon and stars that can be seen through the halls’ high windows. The House (which Piranesi always capitalizes, and which he thinks of as his benevolent parent and provider - he calls himself “the Beloved Child of the House”) is the world and the world is the House. Piranesi - who narrates his own story - lives (almost) alone in an immense house of vast, empty halls and huge, winding staircases, peopled only by numberless statues (an Angel caught on a rose bush, a Woman carrying a beehive, a King with a model of a walled city in one hand), numberless because the house is more than simply enormous, more than just immense - it is, in fact, infinite. ![]() Īs Piranesi is relatively new and is, for much of its length, a puzzle that the narrator and reader are working out together, I will try to be more careful than usual in my description of its plot, but I can’t promise not to reveal anything significant. Jonathan Strange is one of the greatest fantasy novels that I have ever read, and, within its smaller scope, the same is true of Piranesi. Chronic fatigue syndrome prevented her from completing that story, however (I fervently hope that it has only been temporarily set aside and not abandoned) and in its stead Clark produced Piranesi, a work a quarter the length of Jonathan Strange and very different in tone, but nevertheless bearing some strong affinities with the earlier work. Why the hell not?Ĭlarke had said that her new novel would be set in the same magical Regency England of Jonathan Strange and would be a prequel to her first book. I think I came reasonably close that I missed it by fifteen months I can always blame on COVID. I said then that when Clarke finished her next book, I would line up to read it the day it was published. In this I was merely keeping a promise I made a few years ago here on Black Gate when I rhapsodized about Clarke’s previous novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Nevertheless, while consistency is required of lesser beings, it need not be considered by monarchs, and so I decreed that the first book I read in 2022 would be Susanna Clarke’s fantasy Piranesi, which was published a little over a year ago, in September 2020. ![]() You alone can confer the Order of the Garter only you can shout, “Off with their heads!” One of the best things about reading, after all, is that it’s a kingdom over which you are an absolute sovereign. ![]() I stopped apologizing about preferring old books over new ones a long time ago. Piranesi (Bloomsbury paperback reprint, September 28, 2021)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |