Ghosts (1993 novel)

Infobox Book |
name = The Book of Evidence
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of the original edition
author = John Banville
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Ireland
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Novel
publisher = Vintage Books at Random House
release_date = 1993
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 245 pp (paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-697-40519-4
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Ghosts" is a novel by Irish author John Banville. Published in 1993, it was the the first novel by the author since the publication of The Book of Evidence (1989), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and features many of the same characters. The novel recalls Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in many ways. [Lesser, Wendy, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DA143FF93BA15752C1A965958260&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%2fBook%20Reviews Violently Obsessed with Art] ," "The New York Times", Nov. 28, 1993]

Plot Summary

The novel is somewhat unconventional and non-linear in its construction. It begins with a group of travelers disembarking on a small island in the Irish Sea after their ship runs aground. There they stumble upon a house inhabited by Professor Kreutznaer, his assistant Licht, and an unnamed character who figures centrally in the novel and who is referred to only as "Little God." It is later revealed that Little God can be identified with the narrator of "The Books of Evidence," and much of the latter half of the book focuses on his account of his experiences after having been released from prison, his reflections on the crime (the murder of a young woman) he committed that landed him there, and his continuing struggle with the ghosts of his past and the nature of his perceptions. Kreutznaer's relationship to a painting entitled "The Golden World" by a fictional Dutch artist named Vaublin plays a central role in the novel, and it is revealed that he and one of the travellers--a man named Felix--are acquainted with one another, and that Felix had been involved in art forgery. The novel ends with the travelers reembarking and leaving the island and many of the central issues and tensions addressed in the novel are left unresolved.

References