''Ghosts'' is a

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

novel by

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...

. It was his first novel since 1989's ''

The Book of Evidence ''The Book of Evidence'' is a 1989 novel by John Banville. The book is narrated by Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old scientist, who murders a servant girl during an attempt to steal a painting from a neighbour. Freddie is an aimless drifter, and t ...

'', which was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

. The second in what Banville described as a " triptych", to make "an investigation of the way in which the imagination works." This novel features many of the same characters and relates to events of the previous novel.

Plot summary

The novel is somewhat unconventional and non-linear in its construction. It begins with a group of travelers disembarking on a small island in the Irish Sea after their ship runs aground. There they stumble upon a house inhabited by Professor Kreutznaer,"Kreutznaer" is the historic family name of

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

's ship-wrecked hero, Robinson Crusoe. his assistant Licht, and an unnamed character who figures centrally in the novel and who is referred to only as "Little God." It is later revealed that Little God can be identified with Freddie Montgomery, the narrator of ''The Book of Evidence.'' Much of the latter half of the book focuses on Montgomery's account of his experiences after having been released from prison, his reflections on the crime (the murder of a young woman) he committed, and his continuing struggle with the ghosts of his past and the nature of his perceptions. Kreutznaer's relationship to a painting entitled ''The Golden World'' by a fictional Dutch artist named Vaublin plays a central role in the novel. The fictional painting is based to a large extent on

The Embarkation for Cythera ''The Embarkation for Cythera'' ("L'embarquement pour Cythère") is a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. It is also known as ''Voyage to Cythera'' and ''Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera''. Watteau submitted this work to the ...

by Watteau. The narrator mentions "Cythera" several times and, to a certain degree, the characters are modelled on those in the painting. It is revealed that Kreutznaer and one of the travellers—a man named Felix—are acquainted with one another, and that Felix had been involved in art forgery. The novel ends with the travellers re-embarking and leaving the island, with many of the central issues and tensions left unresolved.

Reception

Wendy Lesser in ''The New York Times'' described the novel as "violently obsessed with art", and an example of Banville's interest in "humankind's strange mixture of passions for the beautiful and the violent, especially in combination," similar to that of the film director Peter Greenaway.Lesser, Wendy
"Violently Obsessed with Art"
''The New York Times'', Nov. 28, 1993. She notes that it recalls Shakespeare's play, ''The Tempest'', beginning with a group of travellers cast up on an island together and meeting its inhabitants. Montgomery, known as "little god", sees himself as master of the cast, like Prospero. But Lesser notes the book is not about plot but about language, and she found it more satisfying and well done than ''The Book of Evidence''. Banville described this as the second novel in a "triptych", saying he wanted to focus and reveal characters in language, as figures in a triptych are revealed in paint.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghosts (1993 Novel) 1993 Irish novels Novels by John Banville Picador (imprint) books Secker & Warburg books Nonlinear narrative novels