The King in the Tree: Three Novellas [Hardcover]

Steven Millhauser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2003

From the author of Edwin Mullhouse and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Martin Dressler: three dazzling novellas about the many shapes of love.

“Revenge” is a tour de force about erotic love and betrayal, told through the voice of a woman showing her home to a stranger with a disturbing secret. As the once-happy wife moves from living room to bedroom, she insinuates herself into her guest’s (and the reader’s) mind—and we witness the gradual unfolding of a carefully meditated scheme of revenge.

“An Adventure of Don Juan” and the title novella transform classic fables into immediate, wholly original tales of romance. The first puts the famous lover on a country estate in England, where he attempts to perpetrate a brilliant seduction only to discover something surprising about the human heart. In the mesmerizing “The King in the Tree,” Millhauser explores devotion and denial, casting the tragedy of Tristan and Ysolt as an engrossing tale of a king’s infatuation with his beautiful wife—and the agony of her betrayal with his own nephew.

Full of passion, trysting, and fatal pleasures, these three brilliant novellas are rich with the many gifts of our most persistently imaginative romancer.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In The King in the Tree, Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Millhauser's brilliant collection of three novellas, there's one human constant: deception. The lovers in these three long stories range from a contemporary American housewife to the legendary Don Juan to Tristan and Ysolt, but the love affairs recounted here never add up to a simple geometry of two. In "Revenge," a frightening monologue, a widow gives a tour of her house to her dead husband's mistress. In "An Adventure of Don Juan," that hot-blooded Spaniard heads to the cooler climes of England and unwittingly turns a love triangle into more of a love square. This tale is set in a country manor and has the lapidary beauty of a Gainsborough painting. If the first two stories are exquisitely done, the retelling of Tristan and Ysolt is a small masterpiece. The story of the lovers is recorded by Thomas of Cornwall, advisor to the king and reluctant protector of illicit love. He closes the book with these words, which could be a description of Millhauser himself: "I, Thomas of Cornwall, prince of parchment, lord of black ink, king of all space, summoner of souls, guardian of ghosts, friend of the pear tree and the silence of waves, companion to all those who watch in the night." This book joins Jane Stevenson's Several Deceptions and John Fowles's The Ebony Tower on the short shelf of magical novella collections. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

There is nothing lighthearted about love, implies Millhauser, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Martin Dressler, in these three dark and feverishly rich novellas. While he stops short of cynicism, Millhauser's take on romance is a dark one. An excitable widow leads the reader on a tour of her house-apparently being offered for sale-in the harrowing "Revenge." As she moves from room to room, the story of her husband's extramarital affair unfolds, and it gradually becomes clear that the widow's monologue is addressed to her husband's lover-for whom she has a sinister surprise in store. "An Adventure of Don Juan" finds the famous philanderer, bored with a lifetime of easy conquests, leaving the Continent for a change of scenery on his friend's English estate, where he will experience unrequited desire for the first time. Millhauser retells the tragedy of Tristan and Isolde in the title story. Narrator Thomas of Cornwall, counselor to Isolde's cuckolded husband, King Mark, looks on in silent disapproval as Isolde and Tristan blithely carry on their affair, causing the king to suffer a storm of competing, paralyzing emotions. Millhauser's portrayal of fools and self-made victims is unblinking and unsentimental. He is particularly attuned to the ways that people fall out of love. The narrator of "Revenge" describes the moment when she realized her marriage was in trouble: "I asked myself, am I happy? And I felt a little pause." Millhauser is at his best dramatizing these moments of ambivalent hesitation and the disastrous effect they have on the "fellowships of two." Though he covers time-honored territory, Millhauser's precision, coupled with his brave imagination, makes these stories as smart and fresh as they are grim.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375415408
• ISBN-13: 978-0375415401
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,579,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, December 24, 2003

By 

Patrick O'Brien - See all my reviews

This review is from: The King in the Tree: Three Novellas (Hardcover)

The three novellas contained in this book are perhaps the most exquisite I've ever read and it pains me to see this beautiful book with but three reviews previous to mine. Anyone who hasn't read "The King in the Tree" is really missing something extraordinarily special.

The first novella, "Revenge" was simply not to my taste but it is perfectly crafted and oozing in irony and sarcasm. Your taste might be very different from mine and this could well end up being your favorite among the three. It is the least "flowery" and the one told in the most spare, but perfect, prose.

"An Adventure of Don Juan" was my favorite because of its overriding sense of melancholia, something I like in a book. In this novella, Don Juan's adventure at an English manor house is quite different from his adventures in Spain or other parts of continental Europe. I loved every word of this novella, from the first to the last.

The title novella, "The King in the Tree" is a heartbreaking retelling of the story of Tristan and Isolde told from the viewpoint of Oliver Cromwell. As the Amazon editorial review says, this novella is a small masterpiece. While I preferred the second novella just a little more, I do have to say that I finished reading this one with a sense of awe. If Millhauser can write something this crystalline in its perfection, this moving, this absolutely beautiful, then I feel the man can surely write anything at all. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I have ever been fortunate enough to read. This is what every "would be" writer should aspire to.

If you love good fiction and you haven't read "The King in the Tree" you are really cheating yourself. Buy or borrow a copy today. This is probably the most beautiful book and the most perfectly crafted book I've ever read. I feel so lucky to own a copy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly gorgeous, August 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The King in the Tree: Three Novellas (Hardcover)

This dazzling collection should be of interest to all lovers of Interstitial Fiction, for Millhauser is a master at blending different genres -- myth, fantasy, surrealism, historical fiction and Romance, contemporary realism, horror -- into elegant, innovative, and utterly gripping stories. He is, quite simply, one of the best writers of our day -- and this collection of three stunning novellas is not to be missed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading this is an elevating experience., August 12, 2007

By 

Sarah Young (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The King in the Tree: Three Novellas (Hardcover)

All the over the top praise the other reviewers have given this work is justified. One can't help but to gush over it. Liked all the stories - each one got increasingly better. Extraordinary use of the famous Millhauser love triangles (sometimes quadrangles) - every story utilizes this technique. The best thing about Millhauser is that he understands this about the nature of love (and lust and hate): it is rarely a neat and tidy relationship between two people. Rather, it is almost always a complex web of interactions, contextualized between the lover and the object of the lover's desire, who usually only obtains that status when compared against another love or lover! Deep stuff, huh? Deep stuff that Millhauser portrays perfectly in this collection. Not to mention the beautiful, fluid langauge. Not to mention the lush imagry. Not to mention the interesting pacing ..... It could go on and on. Anyway, get this book, because after you read it you'll feel glad to be alive simply for the experience of discovering a fine work such as this one.