The School of Night [Paperback]

There are pivotal moments in Louis Bayard's glorious new novel, The School of Night, that hinge on the archaic, pitch-dark machinations of alchemy. No small wonder, I suppose, as Bayard is himself a bit of an alchemist (perhaps conjurer is a more suitable term), capable of transporting readers to foregone ages with an almost supernatural deftness.

I first became aware of Bayard's work with 2003's "Mr. Timothy", an incandescently beautiful (and heart-wrenching) book detailing the later-day exploits of Dickens' Tiny Tim. Bayard's next two books, stunning both, are The Pale Blue Eye (which follows a young Edgar Allen Poe solving an arcane and terrible mystery while attending West Point) and The Black Tower (in which Restoration era Paris is brought vividly to life as the fate of Marie-Antoinette and King Louis XVI's long-lost son is relentlessly pursued).

The School of Night employs a two-tier narrative: one thread takes place in modern times following a group of Elizabethan collectors and scholars as they try to piece together a mystery involving an invaluable long-lost letter, a hidden treasure and the legacy of a secret cabal of luminaries called the School of Night. The other plot line unspools in 1603 as one of the School's founding members, Thomas Harriot, a genius whose name has been almost forgotten in the mists of history, dabbles in matters both scientific and of the heart. Bayard does much to resurrect Harriot and his legacy, along the way providing a powerful love story that, through interweaving chapters, crashes headfirst into the story's modern-day plot lines.

To discuss more of the plot would be a terrible disservice. Best to let readers simply revel in one twist and turn after another. Know that Bayard handles the modern tale masterfully, believably and with a level of humor sadly missing from most thrillers. And what of Bayard's Elizabethan passages, the ones involving Harriot? They are, simply put, transcendent. Bayard displays not a single weakness as a writer, but if he has one strength that shines above the others (and just about any other modern writer I can think of) it is this: His ability to summon long-lost historical time periods with uncanny immediacy. From the pitch-perfect cadence of the dialogue to every sparkling flourish of sight, sound and smell, Bayard is able to almost corporally transport readers through the veils of time. You are there. You feel it.

Perhaps there is no better example than late in the book (after most of the plot threads have already been woven tightly together) when Bayard, by way of the lovelorn Harriot, leads us on a journey through a plague-choked London that is as harrowing as anything he has ever written. Grim, disturbing, and ultimately poignant, the scene -- like all of Bayard's output -- is a virtuosic performance.
The School of Night -- thrilling, funny, touching and sometimes heartbreaking -- firmly cements Bayard's status among our finest novelists.
Mr. Timothy: A Novel The Black Tower: A Novel (P.S.) The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel

I've been trying to figure out how to categorize this book. It's not exactly historical fiction, although there are parts of it that are. It's not exactly a thriller, although again, there are parts of it that are. It is a mystery on several levels, but that's not all that it is ...

The School of Night focuses mainly on Henry Cavendish and his attempts to follow through on the final affairs of his friend Alonzo Wax after his suicide. He is approached at Wax's funeral by a man named Bernard Styles, who claims that Alonzo stole a document from him and says that he wants Henry to find the document while he is going through Wax's effects. Joining Henry is the enigmatic Clarissa Dale, a beautiful and mysterious woman who Henry first saw at Wax's funeral. The book also gives us a story-line set in Elizabethan England, centering around a scientist named Thomas Harriot (who really existed and made many astonishing scientific discoveries well ahead of many other people, but never published them, so is virtually an unknown today) and his life.

In the modern day, Cavendish is eventually persuaded to join in a treasure hunt that takes him from his normal environs in D.C. to North Carolina and eventually England in his attempts to follow a map that is on the back of the missing document (of which Styles gave him a copy).

All in all, I found the book to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining read. While it isn't my usual fare, I found myself quite engaged in the plot. I would recommend this to any person who loves to read an entertaining book.

Add this to your list of conspiracy theories: Sir Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe, George Chapman and Thomas Harriot,17th century luminaries of literature and science, met secretively in order to discuss their shared philosophy of atheism, a topic impossible to speak of openly in Elizabethan era England. And they call themselves the "School of Night."

Did this group exist, did they all know each other, much less meet on a regular basis? No one knows for sure. There is no hard evidence for any of it but, like the Shakespeare authorship question, makes for interesting speculation.

Proponents of the theory believe there are hints written into the works of Shakespeare, barbed references to what would have been a subversive movement. The smoking gun is in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Scene III, "Black is the badge of hell / The hue of dungeons and the school of night." Not being an Elizabethan scholar, that seems like as weak as evidence gets.

Louis Bayard's The School of Night uses this Elizabethan mystery as the backdrop for his latest book, intertwining a modern day story of two book collectors eager to lay hands on proof the group existed with the 17th century story of scientist Thomas Harriot, a neglected scientist given no credit for having been way ahead of his time.

In the modern storyline a failed Elizabethan scholar, Henry Cavendish, friend of wealthy book collector Alonzo Wax, team up - along with a woman of indeterminate motivation, Clarissa Dale - in a game of cat and mouse with another collector, Bernard Styles, and his Scandinavian tough man, Halldor. Their goal? To decipher a mysterious letter that seems to point toward a hidden cache of Elizabethan treasure, uniting the half of the letter they know exists with the other, which promises to reveal all. And, wherever they travel, people have the inconvenient habit of dying.

Meanwhile, in the 17th century Thomas Harriot works in his laboratory, doing what it is scientists do. And devising a method to hide a vast fortune? Well, we don't know that yet, now, do we.

Bayard, unlike many historical novelists, uses a generous sprinkling of humor in his prose. When I first encountered it I was startled, expecting a much more serious tone based on the cover blurb. I wasn't sure I liked it, feeling alienated as Bayard's tongue-in-cheek humor kept pulling me out of the story. I can't say at what point that changed, but I'm glad it did. Once the characters were well-established the humor fit each quite well, and I came to not only appreciate but also anticipate it.

This was a book I enjoyed picking up after having left off, though not one I was impatient about resuming. In the interest of full disclosure, historical fiction really isn't my main reading interest. The uncertainty as to what's real and what's fiction bothers me too much to know how to process these novels. Normally, suspending disbelief is not a problem, but in this case it is.

The School of Night held my interest and kept me reading. After the initial problem assimilating the humor, I got into the story with much better attention. I grew to like the characters, though the plot remained a stumbling block 'til the end.

Speaking of the end... Ack. I realize it's hard tying up loose ends, clipping off the excess, making a tidy package of not just one but two complex plots. But. How do I put this. It's the author's job. In this case, one not done particularly well. Too much unnecessary information, too over the top. After having grown to enjoy the book, along comes an incredibly disappointing, even ridiculous ending.

Question: Where was the editor? Ack.

Would I recommend the book? Obviously, my feelings are mixed. On the one hand, if you love historical fiction, especially the 17th century, there's some of that here. Perhaps not as much as the reader would like, considering the plot pops backward and forward in time repeatedly. Characterization was strong, as was the quality of the prose. The plot... Well, it was there, but the strong characters easily dominated.

Definitely not my strongest recommendation. In fact, I can't guarantee devotees of literary fiction could make it through to the end. Nor, once there, that they don't feel like chasing me down with torches in order to inflict harm on my person for not outright declaring it a wretched read. Well, it's not wretched, but let's just say if I had it to read over again... I wouldn't.

- Lisa Guidarini, NBCC