Piranesi is an epistolary novel from the start, being framed as the main character’s diary, but the format later expands to include journal articles that he finds and reads. If his scientific viewpoint fetters him, his artistic leanings to something to liberate him. Little by little it is diminished, Innocence that is worn down or eroded.”) The child represents the quality of innocence. For all of his ignorance, he is clearly familiar with Greek mythology, being able to identify statues of centaurs, satyrs and minotaurs and for all of his imaginative shortcomings he is able to glean symbolic meanings from various sculptures (“ A child and mice. He has a child’s limited experience, but none of a child’s ability to imagine a wider world Although he is open to the possibility that there are more people (either living or dead) out there, he requires solid evidence before fully accepting this notion. When the Other mentions a long-dead individual by name, Piranesi excitedly asks which of the 13 skeletons this name belongs to. Having found 13 human skeletons in the House, his conclusion is that the human species must have had at least fifteen people (counting himself and the Other) throughout its history. Yet his capacity for theory is clearly limited. For example, after breaking his spectacles he repairs one arm with fish-leather and the other with seaweed to see which method works best. He possesses a scientist’s refusal to draw conclusions without evidence and navigates the House in a series of tests and experiments. Despite his ignorance of the outside world, Piranesi is far from a blank slate: he is a multi-faceted character full of quirks and contradictions. Even if we leave aside the matter of timeliness, however, the novel has a truly inspired protagonist. It would perhaps be overly obvious to attribute part of Piranesi’s success to the fact that it came out in the lockdown era, when readers would naturally be receptive to a story of a person trapped in a building. Given that the mainstream literary awards have a shaky relationship with fantasy, this is quite an accomplishment. Then came Piranesi, a novel that was not only honoured by the major SF/F awards (as well as being up for a Hugo, it was a finalist at the Nebulas and World Fantasy Awards) it succeeded in winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She made a superstar debut back in 2004 with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which remained her sole novel for sixteen years. Outside of his occasional meetings with the Other - who is not particularly forthcoming with information - his chief means of discovery is through exploring the House and uncovering its myriad secrets.Īlthough fantasy literature may be popularly associated with long-running series comprising doorstopper after doorstopper, Susanna Clarke is living proof of the power that quality holds over quantity. Piranesi has no idea of where he came from, or how he arrived at the building indeed, he has no conception of a world beyond the confines of the House (as he terms it). This bewilders him, as he does not identify with that name - at least, not until he adopts it for an occasion in which he finds no other name suitable. His sole companion is a man he refers to as the Other in return, the Other refers to him as Piranesi. A man inhabits a vast building containing reams of hallways and innumerable statues depicting various mythological figures.
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