Lempriere's Dictionary: A Novel [Paperback]

Lawrence Norfolk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1993

"An important and inspiring novel."
VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
It is 18th-century London and John Lempriere, a young scholar, is writing a dictionary of classical mythology in an attempt to exorcise the demons raised by his father's violent and bizarre death. While tending to his father's business affairs, Lempriere discovers a 150-year old conspiracy that has kept his family from its share of the fabulously wealthy East India Company. But as John begins to untangle the years of mystery and deceit, people begin to die, in ways that mirror the very myths he is researching....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Few discerning readers will care to hack through this choked jungle of historical fiction, fantasy and myth, despite the obvious intelligence and erudition British first novelist Norfolk displays here. John Lempriere, an actual 18th-century classicist and mythographer, perceives the world through the lenses of Greek and Latin fables. When he sees his father mangled by hunting dogs, just after both have witnessed a naked girl--John's adored Juliette--bathing in a forest stream, this evocation of Actaeon and Diana goads Lempriere to "lay the ghosts to Antiquity" by compiling his famed Dictionary . In 19th-century London, ancient ghosts proliferate. Lampriere views Pork Club revelers as Circe's swine; a grotesquely murdered woman who was fed molten gold is perceived as Danae, seduced by Jove in a golden rain; a Juliette lookalike, slain in a goatskin, is a latter-day Iphigenia. Interlarded is a bloated subplot, delineating a scam enacted generations earlier by a party of East India traders, which in 1627 led to Richelieu's crushing siege of the French city of La Rochelle when Huguenots sided with the English. During an eerie trance (paralleling the underworld visits of heroes Ulysses and Aeneas) Lempriere learns of his ancestor's meddling in the traders' "Cabbala." It is the phantoms of history who drove him to authorship. Norfolk's superimposition of mythic patterns on urban life implies a model in James Joyce's Ulysses. While his scheme misfires, he is a writer of talent who may yet write a better novel.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

If Norfolk's first novel were indeed a dictionary, its first entries might well be accomplished, ambitious, and audacious. On one level this is a richly textured historical novel set at the end of the 18th century in London, Paris , and the Channel Islands. At the same time it subverts our expectations, revealing "history " as a vast conspiracy whose workings are both mysterious and inevitable. At its center is John Lempri ere, a (real) figure whose 1788 dictionary of mythology insists on springing to gruesome life. An army of cabalists and automatons, a virtual bureaucracy of the damned, plotting apocalypse, are ranged against him. Dauntingly elusive and allusive, but highly recommended for readers of Eco and Fowles. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/92.
- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 422 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 31, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345384237
• ISBN-13: 978-0345384232
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The English edition is far superior to the American edition., March 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lempriere's Dictionary: A Novel (Paperback)

I had heard that the American edition had been edited, so I read the English edition. I then looked through a copy of the American edition, looking for differences. The differences aresignificant; even a casual inspection turns up major differences in the ending of the novel. The true identities of at least two major characters (and one minor character) are not revealed in the American edition. (Surprisingly, the Kirkus review quoted above seems to refer to the English edition.) Furthermore, the ending of the American edition is extremely compressed, giving it a noticeably different tone from the rest of the novel. I don't understand why the Americanpublishers would make such changes. If they wanted to make the novel shorter or more accessible, they could have cut some of the descriptive passages; instead, they chose to alter the ending, which serves only to weaken the novel. I also wonder why there is no indication that the American edition has been edited. I thought there was a requirement to note that an edition has been abridged or otherwise revised, but apparently there isn't. If you want to read this book as the author intended, read the English edition. It's worth your while.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing epic novel of mystery and adventure., December 12, 1997

By 

Nicolas J. Hanauer (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lempriere's Dictionary: A Novel (Paperback)

I absolutlely loved the awesome inventiveness of this novel. And although it is tremendously complicated and difficult to read I found it very rewarding. The amazing thing that I found out only after I finished the book is that there really is a "Lempriere's dictionary"! I know absolutely nothing about the mythology that is so often referenced in the book and simply ignored it. I suspect that readers with a better classics background than mine would like it even more. Not recommended for those that need the pace of John Grisham or Tom Clancy to stay interested in a book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like lasagna, even better the second time, May 6, 2005

By 

eowyn279 "JHB" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lempriere's Dictionary (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book the first time, but in reading it the second time, it was even better. Ok, so the suspense wasn't quite the same, but a lot of the narrative/plot made more sense. Reviewers on this site have called it "drivel" and "boring", but they must be easily distracted, for I was fascinated by the oddness of Lempriere's obsessions, though I occasionally wanted to smack him for being naive. Read it. You may just like it. (And as for the Publisher's Weekly review, if they can't even spell the main character's name correctly, it would implicate that they don't know what the heck they're talking about.)