The Club Dumas (original 1993; edição 1996)

History, sex, demonology, old Europe, murder, and most importantly book are blended together by Pérex-Reverte into a seemlessly rollicking and engaging story. Our protagonist, Lucas Corso, a shameless and conniving book dealer (though his true profession is nothing as simple as that) is an everyman character - wandering down a path at the behest of another "greater" person - until the final chapters. Taking both narratives in hand as the reality of the situation becomes clear Corso breaks his own patterns, even as it seems as if other are doing it for him. His monickers (the rabbit and the wolf) muddle some of his lead in the story, as he never quite reaches the heights of one nor the simplicity of the other, but it is this lack of clarity that lends Corso true humanity and separates him from the stoniness of his travelling companion "Irene Adler." The girl is clearly not all she seems, yet I am not truely convinced (as Corso seems to be) about her Luciferian nature. If she is in fact a fallen angel she adds a certain something to the Miltonian themes of this novel, and if not she at least embodies the trouvled and surprisingly humanity persona quite well. If she truely is Lucifer incarnate, she has certainly proven the point that redemption/deliverance/damnation/enlightenment is given to those who seek it not. ( )

¿Puede un libro ser investigado policialmente como si de un crimen se tratara, utilizando como pistas sus páginas, papel, grabados y marcas de impresión, en un apasionante recorrido de tres siglos?

Lucas Corso, mercenario de la bibliofilia, cazador de libros por cuenta ajena, debe encontrar respuesta a esa pregunta cuando recibe un doble encargo de sus clientes: autentificar un manuscrito deLos tres mosqueteros y descifrar el enigma de un extraño libro, quemado en 1667 con el hombre que lo imprimió.

La indagación arrastra a Corso -y con él, irremediablemente, al lector- a una peligrosa búsqueda que lo llevará de los archivos del Santo Oficio a los libros condenados, de las polvorientas librerías de viejo a las más selectas bibliotecas de los coleccionistas internacionales.

Construida con excepcional talento narrativo,El club Dumas sitúa pieza a pieza una trama excitante, minuciosa y compleja, donde se dan cita los ingredientes de la novela clásica por entregas, los relatos policíacos y de misterio, los juegos de adivinación y las técnicas del folletín de aventuras.

What a fun read that was going to be a five star book until the expedient and simplistic denouement. I admit having seen the film first, with an amazing performance by Johnny Depp (and directed by the pedophile rapist Roman Polanski) but as always, the book exceeded the film in almost every aspect.

While reading, I wrote that this was 'a book that makes me proud to have an education' and 'a book that makes me mourn the advent of the eBook'. To touch a real book, smell it and feel its contours in my hands, what glory! I wonder what will become of book collectors in the age of Kindles, iBooks and such things? I loved the insider knowledge the book deals in, from the linguistic to the analytical. I highlighted "But we all share a conspiratorial wink when we talk about certain magical authors and books. Those that made us discover literature without weighing us down with dogmas and teaching us rules." ( )

> ROMANS D'ÉTÉ — Si vous avez aimé Le roman de la rose de Umberto Eco, vous aimerez sans doute Club Dumas de Arturo Pé-rez-Reverte, autre enquête sur l’énigme d’un étrange livre qui nous conduit, à travers les dédales de l'histoire et de la fiction, à nous interroger sur la fonction même de la lecture (éd. Lattes). --Nouvelles Clés

See my blog note on it:

http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/2005/05/booknote-el-club-dumas-1992.html ( )