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Product Description
Michael Kerrigan, Scotsman
‘A dizzyingly complicated, dazzlingly allusive, breathlessly exciting novel of adventure and detection’
New Yorker
'Even a reader armed with a Latin dictionary and a copy of The Three Musketeers cannot anticipate the thrilling twists of this Escher-like mystery’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Five stars without hesitation. This is a true, break-neck speed, thriller somewhat in the flavour of The Thirty-Nine Steps. In fact, if you dig deep enough there are other parallels. Set in the scholastic and obsessive world of antique book collections, Perez-Reverte manages to infuse his writing, and his characters, with a infectious passion for the literary classics. In Lucas Corso we find a typically Perez-Revertine lead (a modest and withdrawn existential hero of curious yet fanatical habits - a man living in the past) struggling with familiar themes of murder, intregue, and especially, conspiracy. Naturally this is a conspiracy bound-up with at least one feme fatal. Here the plot surrounds Corso's expertese in authenticating collectable antique publications, one of which is an Alexandre Dumas manuscript. The other text is similarly old, similarly precious work - the demonic 'Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows', a text that cost it's author his life and possibly even his soul. It is these two strands that come together so potently in this book as members of the mysterious 'Dumas Club' and collectors of the occult become indistinguishable as Corso is pursued across Europe leaving a trail of corpses in their wake. Such pressure is always required to draw-out Perez-Revertes's characters' true natures - and here some of Corso's more dubious character traits emerge, leaving as ambiguous but believeable a human-being as you will find in modern fiction. However, it is the technique of the classic mystery/thriller that makes this such an extrodinary exciting read. Sadly it is one that is absent from the feature film - directed by Roman Polanski and staring Johnny Depp - The Nine Gates. So my advice is both to read this book, and to read it first: since, of the two strands of the novel, Polanski takes only the occult (cheerfully removing characters, rearranging plotlines) and shamefully makes Corso an American purely for the benefit of americans. The result is a rather formulaic occult-horror flick that co-stars his wife. Enjoy the book first and you'll find the film receives an added dimention as a result.
57 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book.
I am a fan of mystery and intrigue, and this book is nothing but! About the world of antique books and the lengths some will go to get their hands on them, it starts as a mystery and descends into devilry and murder.
It is the story of a man hired to find the only three known copies of a 16th century book on Satanism for which the author was burned alive. His client wants the books, he just wants his money. But as events unfold, things suddenly don’t seem as black and white as he first thought. More and more the puzzle points to the long dead author Alexander Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers. How is his work related? And what does it have to do with a well-known book collector, found hanged days earlier...
Quality stuff!
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel which features two intertwined story threads, one regarding a Dumas manuscript and the other the quest to authenticate a satanic text kept me guessing to the end. Perez-Reverte skillfully combines fact and fiction to create a convincing world where fabled books such as the Delomalenicon (like HP Lovecrafts' Necronomicon) are real and the boundaries of reality and fantasy become blurred. Buy it, you wont be able to put it down.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fiction within fiction
It is a neat idea. Take one well respected fiction classic and use it's theme and characters to generate a copycat tale set in the modern world, overlay a supposed fascination of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mick Read
Not my favourite Perez Reverte
I've been on a bit of a downward curve with Perez Reverte.
The first book I read of his was "The Fencing Master", which remains one of my favourite books of all... Read more
The first book I read of his was "The Fencing Master", which remains one of my favourite books of all... Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Saxby
The ninth gate book
Fist I have seen the dvd an excellent work of art
Then I read the book and enjoyed it a little less the the dvd but it was well worth reading. Read more
Then I read the book and enjoyed it a little less the the dvd but it was well worth reading. Read more
Published 10 months ago by jjp schrander
El Classico
This book is an amazing read. The author is an exquisite writer and only after reading this book do you truly appreciate how good this story is (i am referring to the film... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Aristotle
Disappointing
There was a coldness to it somehow, the characters never seemed to come to life. The premise was interesting but the execution was confusing, over-wrought and contrived. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2010 by Book Critic
The Dumas Club/The Ninth Gate
Much better than film as usual. I wish I'm more familiar with Duma's works.
Published on 11 July 2009 by A. Shirane
You're as dead as your books, Corso
"The Dumas Club" was first published in 1993, and was first translated into English in 1996. "The Ninth Gate", which was directed by Roman Polanski and starred Johnny Depp, was... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2008 by Craobh Rua
So who was the girl?
I suppose I should have learnt from having read The Flanders Panel. Perez-Revert is much better at weaving a complex, and in fairness, rather gripping mystery than he is at tying... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2006 by Graham R. Hill
The devil made me read it...
My first thought when setting out to write this review was, 'Hmmm, I wonder how many irrelevant and obscure titles I can work into the review, that may or may not shed some... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2005 by Kurt Messick
Great start but slows pace towards the end.
'The Dumas Club' and it's author first came to my attention after I watched the Roman Polanski film 'The Ninth Gate' starring Johnny Depp, which is based on this book. Read more
Published on 13 April 2004 by P Pony
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