"Arts and Wonders" spans a glorious canvas, peopled by werewolves, thieves, emperors, travelling players and a forger dwarf who takes a lifetime to learn the danger of illusions. Tomasso Grilli, a dwarf gifted with an extraordinary capacity for artistic forgery (and flexible morals) recounts the story of his life, from his base beginnings in Florence, through his apprenticeship to the painter Arcimboldo, to his life of crime in Prague and subsequent banishment, to the gilded fame he finds as 'librarian' and collector to the court of an impoverished, ignorant ruler in the German Dukedom of Felsungrunde. Grilli's ambition and dubious skills take him to the pinnacle of success only for it to collapse beneath him like the illusion it always was. Betrayed and reviled he leaves Felsungrunde, is forced to join a group of travelling players, and finally learns the value of friendship. loyalty and honesty. The extraordinary cast of characters (some based on real historical figures) includes werewolves, an occult alchemist, a bear, a dodo, a lion and a maker of mechanical dolls.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'In rich, ripe, robust prose that never cloys, Gregory Norminton's second novel is a panorama of court and corruption to stand comparison with Michael Moorcock's GLORIANA or even the TITUS books of Mervyn Peake. Norminton shares their gift for conveying unease, the hairline crack that will eventually shatter the finest marble ... Sardonic, carnal, intellectual, violent, urbane, ARTS AND WONDERS delves straight back to the origins of the novel ... classic picaresque.' -- Guardian 'Although this book takes you through a dazzling hoop-la of European cities and curious historical characters, it is the language that is most impressive and rich. Sentences are ribbed with astonishing metaphor. Research is lost in poetry and colour. Above all, Norminton had fun writing this book, expressing himself with great flamboyance and feeling for his characters and the worlds they inhabit ... It is the kind of book you walk into a bookshop to find and so often don't - it is artistic and wondrous.' -- Monique Roffey, Zembla 'Bulging with oddity and sharp wit' -- The Times
About the Author
Gregory Norminton was born in 1976. He studied at Oxford and trained as an actor. His first novel, THE SHIP OF FOOLS, was published by Sceptre in 2002 to great critical acclaim.
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