Hourmaster [Hardcover]

Christophe Bataille (Author), Richard Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

novel, tr Richard Howard, Prix du Premier Roman

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Christophe Bataille's first novel, the jewel-like Annam, won France's Prix du Premier Roman in 1993, when he was only 21. Hourmaster is his third novel, and he continues to deliver his exquisite prose in small doses, belying the brevity of his work with the depth of his imagination.

Sometime in the 17th century, Duke Gonzaga, who remains massively indifferent to the entropy that surrounds him, rules over an unnamed and decaying French port. The Duke tries to relieve his boredom by sleeping with his ladies-in-waiting and throwing decadent parties, but he only finds purpose when the 218 clocks that measure the slow passage of time in the palace begin to run down. More fable than novel, Hourmaster is a richly evocative work, echoing the Fisher King myth, the work of Edgar Allen Poe, and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, while retaining its own unique voice. Great things come in small packages.

From Booklist

Like his prizewinning Annam (1993; tr. 1996), Bataille's tiny third novel takes place during the eighteenth century; it is set in a single-city duchy not far from Versailles. The Realm, as it is called, has a port, which has fallen into disuse; indeed, the whole city is in a state of disintegration throughout the story, because the duke is chronically bored. All that reliably allays his boredom is the deflowering of maidens, though after his first and second hourmasters, maintainers of the clocks in the ducal palace, disappear, and a third arrives, he finds some respite in walking the man's nightly clock-keeping rounds with him. After the third hourmaster marries, and before he becomes father of a daughter, the duke has lost interest. Eventually, the third hourmaster vanishes, and the duke sinks further into lassitude broken only by occasional, lustful violence. Andrew Crumey's Pfitz resembles Hourmaster in general form, but the grim fancy of Poe's poem, "The City in the Sea," resembles it more. Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corp. (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811213579
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213578
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,468,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A Dark, Twisting and Pointless Story, September 7, 2000

By 

"kingsransom" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hourmaster (Hardcover)

A decaying duchy in 17th century France is the setting of this book. The duchy remains unnamed and is only referred to as "the City" or "the Realm" throughout the entire book. The duchy's sovereign, Duke Gonzaga, rules with a slack and indifferent hand, preferring the pursuit the City's young maidens than the restoration the City's former glory. Inside the Duke's palace, the passage of time is marked by the ticking of 218 clocks, maintained by the Duke's hourmaster.

After his first hourmaster vanishes and the second flees to escape an unspoken doom he senses in the City, Duke Gonzaga finally hires Arturo, better known as Gog. With the arrival of Gog, the City's atmosphere begins to change as if it has been given a second chance at glory. At the same time, Gog and Duke Gonzaga strike up an unlikely friendship. These events, however, are short lived and the events of the book take on a much more sinister tone.

The basic plot sounds very intriguing, but I was sorely disappointed by the time I finished the book. The plot is often confusing and the events the reader is writing about often seem to bear no relation at all to the book. I am not against subtle plots, but the pieces of the puzzle simply did not fit together. This led a disjointed story with foreign bits of information just thrown in.

I still had hope for the end, expecting a shocking secret or dramatic event to be played out. The end might be dramatic and significant, but again, I do not understand how it fits in with the rest of the story or why things happened the way they did. Unfortunately, readers are never privy to the motivations and thoughts of the characters.

The book's sole redeeming quality is that the author did do an excellent job of creating an atmospheric setting. You can almost feel a chill imaging the City's dark, damp winding streets. Although I applaud the author for this, it is not enough to save the sagging and pointless story.