PIRANESI SUSANNA CLARKE ART SERIES

This heady 800-page period fantasy tale of rivalling magicians set in sumptuously detailed 19th-century England won the 2005 Hugo Award, among other prizes, and sold more than four million copies worldwide. In an interview with The New Yorker, she said that she would imagine herself in a place with “endless buildings but silent - I found that very calming”.Ĭlarke became a literary sensation with her 2004 debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. For the past 15 years, the British author has been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, among other conditions, which has at times impeded her writing and caused her to withdraw from the world. One can draw parallels of his solitary existence with Clarke’s own experience of finding solace in confinement. Aside from biweekly visits from a figure called simply The Other - who is on a quest to uncover “a Great and Secret Knowledge hidden somewhere in the World” and needs his help - Piranesi lives a contented life of solitude. Piranesi subsists on fish, seaweed and molluscs, and tends to the 13 skeletons in the House. Piranesi's deceptively simple form of bite-sized journal entries belies the story’s complexity and inventiveness (Photo: Bloomsbury) He records every happening in his notebooks, be it tidal patterns or the behaviour of the rooks that come to nest, and catalogues the thousands of Statues. Piranesi believes he is between 30 and 35 years old, and considers himself “a scientist and an explorer” who is determined to explore as much of the House as he can in his lifetime. He regards the House with reverence and childlike wonder, and considers himself a “Beloved Child of the House”. We know this from the journal entries of the novel’s titular character, Piranesi, although he tells us that is not his name. Outside, there is only the sun, moon and stars, and nothing else.

Statues of varying sizes and composition inhabit every nook and cranny of this labyrinthine House. The tides inhabit the Lower Halls, the Upper Halls are the “Domain of the Clouds”, whereas the Middle Halls are the “Domain of birds and of men”.

PIRANESI SUSANNA CLARKE ART SERIES

This World is a decaying House with an innumerable number of marble halls like “an infinite series of classical buildings knitted together” and divided into three levels. But his art must have served as inspiration for the British author, for in her novel we enter a dreamlike World that is at once beguiling and bewildering, haunting and enigmatic - much like the Italian master’s exquisite artworks. It is not, as the title might suggest, a novel about the 18th century Italian architectural artist famed for his etchings of Rome and atmospheric imaginary prisons. “It will be an honour to open the doors to the House, and show its beauty to the world.Susanna Clarke’s new novel, Piranesi, is a mystery. “But when I followed Piranesi into his watery Halls, I discovered Susanna’s wit, strangeness and sorrow made new and beautiful in ways I could not have imagined,” she said. “Susanna hinted she may be writing again after such a long hiatus, but I never really believed a fully imagined world, a perfectly constructed novel, would just be sitting there,” said Geller.Ĭlarke’s UK editor, Alexandra Pringle, said that she had thought that Jonathan Strange, which “appeared from the ether like an apparition … couldn’t be equalled”. Since then, the British author has published only a collection of short stories set in the same universe, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, telling interviewers that persistent ill-health had slowed her down.Ĭlarke’s agent, Jonny Geller, said that there are “a few moments in an agent’s life when something so unexpected and so wonderful pops up in your inbox, you can’t quite believe it”. Published in 2004, it took the world by storm, selling more than 4m copies, winning prizes including the Hugo and World Fantasy awards, and was adapted by the BBC in 2015. Running to more than 1,000 pages, it is set in an alternative version of 19th-century England, where magic has almost – but not quite – faded into the past.

Clarke’s debut, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, took her more than 10 years to write.

Piranesi susanna clarke art