The Club Dumas - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

#1 International Bestseller
Lucas Corso is a book detective, a mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found hanged, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named after a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris in pursuit of a sinister and seemingly omniscient killer.

Part mystery, part puzzle, part witty intertextual game, The Club Dumas is a wholly original intellectual thriller by the author of The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

The Devil and Alexander Dumas January 31, 2007
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

While many of the literary references were over my head, it was amazingly easy to follow the paper trail (pun intended). We have two trails: a document that appears to be part of The Three Musketeers, and a `demon book', "The Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows". The two don't seem to have much in common, but as Corso (a "book detective") continues his investigation of both the document and the book, disturbing similarities begin to appear.

What should be a simple case of authentication becomes a race against time, and a desperate attempt to stay alive. A girl with dubious intentions and origins joins Corso after many chance meetings, and her presence thickens the stew. Who is she? What is she? Why does she care about Corso?

The questions pile up, and answers aren't in abundance. Friends seem, at times, to be enemies, and enemies seem to be friendly. Corso's actions, as well as others around him, seem to mirror events from The Three Musketeers, and the characters seem to be playing their parts - Milady, Roquefort, and Richelieu. Everything seems tied in together, but how? The Three Musketeers and a "demon book"?

Three copies of the "Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows" exist, and Corso's charge is to find them all, compare them, and verify their authenticity - though his employer tells him that the copy he gives Corso is most certainly a forgery, although he will not tell Corso how he knows that. The content of the book is fascinating, and Corso's investigation into comparing the texts and the meaning behind everything within opens deadly doors - doors, perhaps, to Hell. Doors that could bring Satan himself into the material world. There is also reference to the "Delomelanicon", a book purportedly written by Lucifer himself, apparently a precursor, of sorts, to the "Book of the Nine Doors..."

The narrative structure of the story is ingenious. It starts in first person, and then switches to a seemingly odd third person telling. At first, you will wonder why the author chose that particular structure, but as with everything else, that question will be satisfactorily answered.

Some say this is Umberto Eco `light'. Probably. I have a difficult time getting through fiction that Eco has written since "The Name of the Rose". You could also call this Dan Brown for Intellectuals. Whichever. They're both compliments.

5 out of 5 stars

Dumas and Conan Doyle vs. The Devil February 3, 2007
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Lucas Corso deals in rare and antique books or to put in more aptly he is what amounts to a book mercenary. He operates in the shadows matching up books to collectors and collectors to books. He is the person a collector calls when they have a hole in their collection and need to find that certain book to fill that hole. He will find their book, one way or another, and the collector can expect to pay handsomely for the new addition to their collection. His high status among collectors is exactly what gets him into trouble in this wonderful story of intrigue, romance, mystery and skullduggery in the world of book collecting.

It all starts when his friend, book dealer Flavio La Ponte comes into possession of a handwritten manuscript of one chapter of Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers." La Ponte turns to his friend Corso to authenticate his recent acquisition at about the same time that one of Corso's client's calls on him to authenticate a book that he has recently purchased. For some unknown reason this client doesn't think that his book is the real thing and sends Corso off to prove or disprove the books authenticity. This book, "The Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows" was supposedly taken straight from a book written by the Devil himself and the author was burned at the stake for printing such a book. There are only three copies known to exist and Corso must examine the other two to make a determination about his client's copy. He immediately sets off on his dual missions and unexplainable events dog him from the start. Before it is all over he has almost been killed on several occasions and everywhere he goes he seems to leave a trail of dead bodies.

Without going into anymore detail and spoiling the book I can tell you that at times this reads like a Dumas novel and even features some characters from the "Musketeers." Along with the swashbuckling Dumas like adventure though there is also a much darker thread running through the story and even if you have watched the movie based on this book part of the ending will come as a complete surprise. There are in fact several major differences between the movie and the book and as is usually the case the book is much better than the movie. Amazingly the author even manages to work a little Sherlock Holmes into this story.

As a great fan of Dumas I would naturally love this book and being a lover of books in general added to my enjoyment of this superb story. I am quite sure however that anyone would enjoy this book almost as much as I did even if you don't drool as the author describes the great book collections that become part of this tale. As I read of poor old Victor Fargas who's heart broke each time he had to sell a book in order to survive my heart almost broke, which is evidence of both my love for books and this author's writing ability. It has been a while since I have read any Dumas but I think that I will soon return to that old master for another dose of his storytelling ability. A master in whose footsteps this author is ably following.

4 out of 5 stars

Something New Under the Sun January 7, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

At the time I first reviewed this book I only dabbled in mysteries because I found that all too often they were either too transparent or too dark. Of course, the dark side of anything seems to be that which draws us into the story--where's the conflict when everything is working well? Mysteries require death and darkness. How many characters have been sacrificed on the altar of fictionary expediency? But dabbling is often rewarded; I am glad that I found The Club Dumas and was pleased to find a uniquely interesting take on bibliomania easily analogized to any of the many interests that can imprison the willing.

This work is a great piece of misdirection. Frankly any commentary on the story risks betraying the device used with such skill by Mr. Perez-Reverte and which I believe sets this book apart as a great read. And given the reverence of the characters for the works of Dumas, I suspect that I'll have to go start reading The Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo.

There is a great truth taught in this work. Unsavory characters have unsatisfactory lives. Further, why do we tend to embrace that which has no power to enrich? Take the character of Fargas, the last member of a great family who has retreated into himself. Fargas lives in his decaying family mansion, which is literally falling apart all around him, spending his time with his only friends--his books. Not just books, but fantastically rare and valuable works. Every year or so Fargas selects one of the treasures every now and again to "sacrifice" for the good of the others. Yet despite the surpassing wealth represented by the pile of rare editions, Fargas can't seem to part with the books and restore his family's fortune. Our protagonist, Corso, likewise has so retreated into himself that he questions the value of everything about him--yet he encounters a group that seems to find joy and meaning in the very books that Corso sees only as money.

Regrettably, our author has doubts about the power of his language to portray the interpersonal relationships--if only he, as could Dumas, could have avoided the explicit descriptions of that which needs no description, the work would have easily secured a fifth star.

5 out of 5 stars

Bibliophile Fun House! January 25, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book was a real treasure house for me, like taking a literaure class without all the academia. This book lead me on to other works and authors that I missed in my evidently not-so-rounded education, including Eugene Sue, The Devil in Love, Rafael Sabatini, and prompted re-readings of Dumas. The storyline is full of history and literary background that puts Dumas and the adventure serial into context. The mystery is a fun puzzle, and made me feel intelligent (I also now own a Latin dictionary). Kudos also to Sonia Soto, who was able to translate puns and poetic meter without a hitch. This is a great story as a mystery novel, but I think it will be most enjoyed by those who find magic in the staying power of literature.

5 out of 5 stars

Since this is a delighted rave review January 28, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

I will be as brief as I can. Yes, it is an erudite and cerebral entertainment. Yes it is an involving mystery. Yes it is very very funny. What is truly amazing is that even in translation it can be so emotionally involving and powerful at the same time. Sometimes it can be all of these things at once in the same sentence. I am assuming that Arturo Perez-Reverte has all these virtues in the original Spanish. If not, Sonia Soto should quit translating and write her own novels. Her English version is simply beautiful. Disciplined, chiselled prose, sparing in imagery (which would be from her author), but what images there are are precisely on target for emotional impact and placed for maximum effect in English. And the attention she pays to prose rhythms is very rare indeed in translation. Rapid, natural and propulsive. She immediately takes her place in my own small personal pantheon of great translators with the Winstons in German and W. S. Kuniczak in Polish.
This is my first acquaintance with Perez-Reverte's work and it was an impulse buy. Under the circumstances that best of all surprises, a GREAT read. I can't wait to read more by this author.

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