Books of the Art

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Books of the Art or The Art Trilogy
The Great and Secret Show
Everville
Author Clive Barker
LanguageEnglish
Published1989 – current
Media typePrint, e-book

Books of the Art or The Art Trilogy is a planned trilogy of novels by British writer Clive Barker, currently consisting of The Great and Secret Show (1989) and Everville (1994). As of 2024 the untitled third novel in the series, which Barker claims will be "a big book when it comes" and that will be written with "as much feeling as possible" has no scheduled release date. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

The trilogy has been cited as an example of Barker's use of magic as a motif to "comment upon the work of the creator of art" and Barker himself has used the term to describe transformative magic that is used as "windows through which to glimpse the miraculous". [3] [5] The series thus far has been compared to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings . [6]

Synopsis

The Great and Secret Show

The Great and Secret Show follows Fletcher and Jaffe, two humans that have transcended reality to become super-human. The two initially worked together but became adversaries when it became clear that Jaffe was intent on gaining control of Quiddity, a dream sea that humans can access only three times in their lives. The two men end up siring children by raping four teenage girls with the intention that they will continue their battles, only for two of their children to fall in love.

Everville

Everville delves deeper into the mythology of the cosm (essentially, Earth) and the metacosm (another plane of existence containing the dream sea Quiddity). The character Harry D'Amour appears in the novel as a main character and some of the characters from the previous novel also make appearances.

Untitled third novel

Concerning the main themes of the third novel, Barker stated in 2012:

I think what the third book will concern itself with is what the very origins of Quiddity, what the connection between humanity's origin and the origin of the conscience—the dream consciousness—that is there in the Sea of Quiddity, what that connection is. I've always believed in the idea of a collective unconscious, and Quiddity is really that. It's the sea we enter, as the mythology goes, where we enter once on the night when we are born, once on the night when we first kiss, and fall in love with the world, and once at the time we die. At the most serious and profound moments in our lives, we are given a moment to enter this place of pure dreaming, and that's fascinating, my fascination with dreaming. My dreams are mirrors of my soul. I'm hoping that will all be reflected in the third and final book. [4]

In 2014 he confirmed via Facebook that the book would be written and that he has "figured out" how he would write the ending. [7] Barker also stated in 2015 that he will not write the third Art book until he has finished the last novel in The Books of Abarat series, which he said could take years and would also be dependent on whether or not he will write the sequel to Galilee first. [8]

Reception

Critical reception for the trilogy to date has been mixed. [9] [10] Common elements of criticism tend to center around the number of characters and subplots, which caused an Everville reviewer[ who? ] to write that "when you weed out the subplots, you find there is no main plot". [11] [12] Author David Foster Wallace was critical of The Great and Secret Show and wrote that while the book was "not without some cool sections" it was also overly pretentious. [13] Publishers Weekly panned the first novel but praised the second, [14] which they felt "confirms the author's position not only as one of horror's most potent and fertile minds but also as one of modern fiction's premier metaphysicians". [15]

Comic book series

Between March 2006 and May 2007 IDW Publishing released a 12-part comic book adaptation of The Great and Secret Show. [16] A complete collection of the comics was released in 2007. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

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<i>The Great and Secret Show</i> Novel by Clive Barker

The Great and Secret Show is a fantasy novel by British author Clive Barker. It was released in 1989 and it is the first "Book of the Art" in a trilogy, known as "The Art Trilogy" by fans.

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Lord of Illusions is a 1995 American neo-noir supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his own short story The Last Illusion published in 1985 in the anthology Books of Blood Volume 6. The same story introduced Barker's occult detective Harry D'Amour, who later appeared in several prose stories and comic books. Lord of Illusions is D'Amour's first onscreen appearance, with the character portrayed by actor Scott Bakula. Other actors appearing in the film include Kevin J. O'Connor, Famke Janssen and Daniel von Bargen. The story features D'Amour, who has had several experiences with the supernatural, embarking on an investigation involving a stage illusionist named Swann and a cult led by a sorcerer named Nix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry D'Amour</span> Fictional character

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In scholastic philosophy, "quiddity" was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness" or "what it is".

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References

  1. ↑ Joshi, S.T. (2001). The Modern Weird Tale. McFarland. p. 128. ISBN   9780786409860 . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Current Book Projects". Clive Barker. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 Joshi, S. T. (2006). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, V2. Greenwood. p. 587. ISBN   9780313337826 . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  4. 1 2 Savory, Brett. "The Clive Barker Interview". The Internet Review of Science Fiction. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Hamilton, Geoff; Jones, Brian (2009). Encyclopedia of American Popular Fiction. Facts on File. p. 21. ISBN   9781438116945 . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  6. ↑ Winter, Douglas E. (2002). Clive Barker: the dark fantastic. Harper Collins. pp. 316, 383. ISBN   000715092X . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "BREAKING: Clive "figured it out" regarding ending of Art Trilogy". Clive Barker Podcast. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  8. ↑ "FAQ". Clive Barker. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "Everville (review)". Booklist. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Budrys, Algis (4 February 1990). "In summary, this wasn't a bad idea". Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Mabe, Chauncey. "Barker's 'Everville' Is Nowhereville". Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  12. ↑ Tucker, Ken. "ONE UNIVERSE AT A TIME PLEASE". New York Times. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  13. ↑ Foster Wallace, David (19 February 1990). "The Horror of Pretentiousness". Washington Post (subscription required). Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  14. ↑ "The Great and Secret Show: The First Book of the Art (review)". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "Everville: The Second Book of the Art (review)". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  16. ↑ "AICN COMICS REVIEWS BATMAN! ULTIMATES! CLIVE BARKER'S THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW! AND MUCH MORE!!!". AICN. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  17. ↑ "IDW RELEASES CLIVE BARKER'S "THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW" IN DECEMBER". IDW/CBR. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  18. ↑ Royer, Dan. "Comic Review: The Complete Clive Barker's Great And Secret Show". HorrorNews.net. Retrieved 12 May 2015.

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