Free Books at Easter

Presented to you in association with the Easter Bunnyâ„¢: here is the sixth of my occasional free book giveaways. Take a look at the books listed below. If you’d like one of them, check the comments on this entry to see if it has been claimed by anyone yet. If not, then leave a comment stating which book you want: include your e-mail address in the comment. Next, send me your mailing address in an e-mail. I’ll decide who gets what (usually it’s first-come, first-served), and I’ll mail the books in a few days’ time. I’ll pay all postage costs. The offer is restricted to one book per recipient.

1. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I’ve been intrigued by the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili for years, so naturally I was curious when I read about this novel, a thriller of sorts whose plot revolves around two college students’ discovery of hidden meanings encoded in that mysterious book. I found the story passably entertaining, and quite impressively well-done considering that the two authors wrote most of the novel while still college students themselves. My copy is of the UK hardcover edition published by Century last year; 372pp; ISBN: 1844130053.

2. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, translated from the Spanish by Ruth L. C. Simms, with an introduction by Suzanne Jill Levine and a prologue by Jorge Luis Borges. I’d read only good things about Bioy Casares’s slim novel, but was not particularly impressed when I came to read it. Then again, what do I know, when Borges and Octavio Paz both reckoned it ‘perfect?’ My copy is the 112pp paperback published by NYRB Classics; ISBN: 1590170571.

3. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek, translated from the German by Joachim Neugroschel. In need of something to read on a train journey, I picked this book up at Malmö railway station just before Christmas. It’s the intense and rather cruel tale of Erica Kohut, the Viennese piano teacher of the title, whose love-hate relationship with her domineering mother is put under impossible stress when one of her students attempts to seduce her. This is a cheap-&-nasty UK paperback (288pp) edition published by Serpent’s Tail, released to tie in with the 2001 movie based on the novel. ISBN: 1852427507.

4. The Huanted Woman by David Lindsay, with an afterword by Douglas Anderson. This 1922 novel by the author of A Voyage to Arcturus is part haunted-house story, part symbolist romance: an unusual blend for an English novel. I found it moderately interesting, but was a little irritated by the book’s po-faced tone, and ended up disliking its protagonists. This is a hardcover edition published by the Tartarus Press, in a limited run of 300 copies (208pp). ISBN: 1872621821.

5. Viriconium by M. John Harrison. This volume collects Harrison’s four books set in that imaginary city: Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights. The former books are formulaic genre novels, albeit well-written ones with some striking twists. More interesting are the latter two, which offer a fascinating and multi-faceted view into a unique imaginary locale. This is a shoddily-made UK paperback, 562pp; ISBN: 1857989953.

6. The Seed, by Davide de Angelis. The blurb on the front cover reads: ‘De Angelis’s prose is as vital, weird and as devious as his image-making. Enthralling!’—David Bowie. Alas, after reading a couple of pages of prose like this: ‘Her grip tightened around my arms and the ground beneath our feet rippled with MindJadium’s anger. We stared into his lethal dynamics.’ I just felt a bit queasy, & could not go on. This is a UK paperback edition, courtesy of Creation books; 192pp; ISBN: 1840681144.

7. Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem. This is a comprehensive history of Kabbalah, written in a fairly dry, academic style: a useful reference for anyone interested in last year’s surprise religious fad. In this case the cover blurb is not at all misleading: ‘A definitive history of the evolution, ideas, leading figures and extraordinary influence of Jewish mysticism.’ This is a 494pp paperback edition; ISBN: 0452010071.

8. Fantasy-Pieces in Callot’s Manner: Pages from the Diary of a Travelling Romantic by E.T.A. Hoffmann, translated from the German, and with an introduction by Joseph M. Hayse. This was Hoffmann’s debut collection of tales, and this volume contains two pieces translated into English for the first time: ‘The Mesmerist’ and ‘A Report on the Latest Adventures of the Dog Berganza,’ as well as the more famous ‘The Golden Pot’ and several pieces of ‘Kreisleriana,’ etc. I found this collection only intermittently interesting, and was dismayed by the sour misogyny in a couple of the tales. This is a US hardcover, 350pp; ISBN: 0912756284.

9. A Citizen of the Country, by Sarah Smith. This novel is the third of Smith’s Vanished Child trilogy. I bought this volume not having read the others, but it works quite well as a stand-alone tale. It’s an elaborately-plotted story set in France and Belgium in 1911 in which Alexander Reisden is drawn into perilous intrigues revolving around his childhood friend André, a tortured soul who stages Grand Guignol theatre, and André’s wife Sabine, who is suspected of being a witch… this is a 480pp UK paperback edition; ISBN: 0099410826.

10. Orosz István: a catalogue of graphic works by the Hungarian graphic artist I wrote about here a half-dozen entries ago. I ordered what I thought were a couple of books about Orosz from a Danish gallery, without realising that they were the same book just with two different-colour covers. This volume includes more than fifty of Orosz’s works, with texts in English and Hungarian. It’s a paperback with 64pp. There is no ISBN.