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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

The Club Dumas

04:54 / 24.01.03

I've recently read it and I, personally, liked it but I want to know what other people think of it.

And any possible annotations will also be appreciated.

09:42 / 24.01.03

Well, who's it by? Is it the one by Arturo Perez-Reverte? (I think that's his name at any rate? I haven't read it, but I have seen it around... why did you like it?

14:01 / 24.01.03

My brother read this and frequently spoke of it in an enthusiastic manner.

But then, he's really into Dumas and so forth..

19:07 / 24.01.03

Read this a few years ago, coincidently just before the movie adaptation, the Ninth Gate, came out. Bascially, a fun book but, using faint praise, it's Umberto Eco-lite. Or Borges-lite for that matter. It seems to be a book with hidden historical depth and complexity but it's all very transparent. There are some very lovely passages and the plates are wonderful story aides, which add some atmosphere, but I personally didn't feel like it broke new ground. I was entertained by it, so I wasn't bad, but I definitely had some preconceived notions that the story and history was to be handled in a magical hand. Instead, he was pretty straight forward.

Don't see the movie unless you want a good laugh because it was awful. Plus, it screws with the end in the book for no discernable reason.

19:10 / 24.01.03

Actually, a better story about eerie books is TLON, UQBAR, ORBIS TERTIUS by JorgeLuis Borges. It's a short story found in the collection - Labyrinths. I'm guessing most people around here have read it, but, if you haven't, do search it out.

19:24 / 24.01.03

I saw the movie version, director by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp. It's called the Ninth Gate. Intermittantly compelling and ultimately a little baffling.