Piranesi (novel)

Piranesi is a fantasy novel by English author Susanna Clarke, published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2020. It is Clarke's second novel and her first since her debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), published sixteen years earlier.

Piranesi
Cover of first edition
AuthorSusanna Clarke
Audio read byChiwetel Ejiofor
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy
PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
Publication date
15 September 2020
Media typePrint (hardback), e-book, audio
Pages272
ISBN9781526622426 (hardback)
OCLC1157346980
823/.92
LC ClassPR6103.L375 P57 2020

Synopsis

The novel tells the story of Piranesi, who lives in a place called the House. The House is a collection of seemingly infinite halls and vestibules, filled with statues. These statues depict things that aren't present in the House. While the House only contains clouds, in the upper halls, and the sea, which fills the lower halls, as well as birds and fish in each, the statues depict everything from a beekeeper, to a man wreathed in snakes, to a gorilla. The House is occupied by only two living people, Piranesi and the Other, whom Piranesi refers to as such. Piranesi works with the Other in search for "A Great and Secret Knowledge" hidden within the House. Piranesi records his life and activities in detailed entries in his journals. Eventually, Piranesi begins to notice the Other's strange statement and words, as well as inconsistencies in his own journals, and proof of the existence of more people. These occurrences all call into question his understanding of the world in which he lives. As the 16th person Piranesi is aware of, whom he names 16, gets closer and closer to making contact with him a sinister truth is uncovered about the Other, which leads to Piranesi's eventual reconciling with the nature of his relationship to his world, and the one he originally inhabited.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Publication

Piranesi was published in hardback, e-book and audio format on 15 September 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The audiobook version is narrated by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.[7][8]

Reception

Piranesi received reviews of unanimous admiration.[6][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Sarah Ditum of The Times gave the novel a rave review, writing, "After all that time, she has produced a second novel that is close to perfect."[16]

Ron Charles of The Washington Post called it "infinitely clever" and praised Piranesi's acceptance of his imprisonment for unintentionally making the novel "resonate with a planet in quarantine" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]

Publishers Weekly called it an "inventive" novel, praising Clarke's subtlety in progressing the novel's storyline.[18]

Allusions

The title of the novel alludes to the 18th-century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who produced a series of sixteen prints entitled Imaginary Prisons which depict enormous subterranean vaults with stairs and mighty machines.[9]

Piranesi contains several references or allusions to C. S. Lewis's series The Chronicles of Narnia.

When describing the character Dr. Valentine Andrew Ketterley, the text notes that he is the son of a "Ranulph Andrew Ketterley" and that "the Ketterleys are an old Dorsetshire family." Both the names and the description of the family are evocative of Andrew Ketterley, a key figure in The Magician's Nephew who describes his family as "a very old family. An old Dorsetshire family." This connection is further strengthened by the quotation from The Magician's Nephew given at the front of the novel, which was also spoken in that book by Andrew Ketterley.[4]

In the "Statues" entry of Part I, the narrator of Piranesi notes that he dreamt of a faun "standing in a snowy forest and speaking to a female child," likely a reference to Lucy Pevensie meeting the faun Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.[19]

In addition, there are several similarities between the House of Piranesi and the so-called "Wood between the Worlds" of The Magician's Nephew.[5][11] Both are alternative worlds (distinct from our own) that must be reached through supernatural means, both contain life but of a less variegated nature than that in the characters' original worlds, and both induce a state of forgetfulness in newcomers that induces them to believe that they have always been in the new, supernatural, world.

The story of Piranesi has also been compared to the parable of the cave by Plato, who is an inspiration of Digory Kirke in Narnia.[20] In the story of Piranesi, Piranesi is unable to leave a world filled with nothing but statues, which represent a greater reality which he is simultaneously ignorant of. In Plato's Allegory of the cave a character, possessing no knowledge of the outside world, is imprisoned within a dark cave with nothing but shadows, reflections of the actual world, projected on the cave wall.

References
  1. "Book Deals: Week of September 30, 2019". Publishers Weekly. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  2. Flood, Alison (30 September 2019). "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell author to return after 16-year gap". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  3. Abrams, Rebecca (15 September 2020). "Piranesi by Susanna Clarke — tantalising, enigmatic and profound". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  4. Kelly, Hillary (14 September 2020). "The long-awaited followup to 'Jonathan Strange" is even more magically immersive". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  5. Miller, Laura (7 September 2020). "Susanna Clarke's Fantasy World of Interiors". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  6. Shapiro, Lila (1 September 2020). "Piranesi Will Wreck You: The novel establishes Susanna Clarke as one of our greatest living writers". Vulture. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  7. "Piranesi". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. Hackett, Tamsin (24 July 2020). "Chiwetel Ejiofor to narrate audiobook of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi". The Bookseller. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  9. O’Donnell, Paraic (17 September 2020). "Piranesi by Susanna Clarke review – an elegant study in solitude". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  10. "Susanna Clarke's Piranesi is a fantasy of exceptional beauty". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  11. Grady, Constance (16 September 2020). "Susanna Clarke's astonishing Piranesi proves she's one of the greatest novelists writing today". Vox. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  12. Livingstone, Josephine (10 September 2020). "Susanna Clarke's Piranesi Is a Hall of Wonders". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  13. Kois, Dan (10 September 2020). "Susanna Clarke's First Novel in 16 Years Is a Wonder". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  14. "Susanna Clarke Divines Magic In Long-Awaited Novel 'Piranesi'". NPR.org. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  15. Preston, Alex (4 October 2020). "Piranesi by Susanna Clarke review – byzantine and beguiling". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  16. Ditum, Sarah (3 September 2020). "Piranesi by Susanna Clarke review — the Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell author makes a triumphant return". The Times. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  17. Charles, Ron (8 September 2020). "Susanna Clarke's infinitely clever 'Piranesi' is enough to make you appreciate life in quarantine". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  18. "Fiction Book Review: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke". Publishers Weekly. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  19. Tranter, Kirsten (October 2020). "Prisons of the imagination: Susanna Clarke's surreal second novel". Australian Book Review. No. 425. p. 31. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  20. Krishnan, Nikhil (6 September 2020). "Piranesi by Susanna Clark, review: a head-spinning follow-up to 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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