Books within books...

[Kell]

There seem to be loads of books mentioned in novels and I was wondering how many people could recall from what they'd read.

 

Obviously, in books l like The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, Jane Austen's novels are continually referenced. However, Austen referenced other novels within her own too! In Northanger Abbey there is a list of Gothic novels that Catherine is entreated to read. They are now, apparently, collectively known as "The Northanger Horrid Novels" as they are all particularly gruesome (at least, they were considered so for the time):

 

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe

The Italian by Anne Radcliffe

Clermont by Regina Maria Roche

Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

Mysterious Warnings by Eliza Parsons

Necromancer of the Black Forest by Ludwig Flammenberg

Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom

Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath

Horrid Mysteries by Marquis de Grosse

 

Possibly the most famous "book within a book" is The Princess Bride by William Goldman, which continually makes reference to an "original" version that Goldman is supposedly translating (the punchline being that it is, in fact, as original novel by Goldman himself).

 

What others can you guys think of?

[~V~]

in the historian there's a touch of quoting too

[JudyB]

Isn't Beswick mentioned in Jane Eyre?

 

I'm sure there are others but can't recall them at the moment.

[angerball]

The only one I can recall off the top of my head is Watership Down getting a mention in Stephen King's The Stand.

[samgrosser]

I've just read The English Patient and there are lots of books mentioned in it, most memorably, Kipling's Kim, Herodotus' Histories, and The Odyssey. There are others too, but those are the ones that have stuck in my mind.

 

I think it's called 'intertextuality,' but you'll have to ask someone who's studied more recently (or with more attention) to find out more.

[Kell]

There are also fictional books mentioned within books during the course of the story. For example, throughout the Harry Potter series there are countless magic textbooks mentioned. There are so many mentioned that I'm not going to copy them all over to the thread, but you can see a full list HERE.

[Mbwun_Lily]

"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield is a book about books. The lead character owns a high end used book store in London.

 

It's one of the most fantastic reads I've had in quite some time.

[~V~]

"The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield is a book about books. The lead character owns a high end used book store in London.

 

It's one of the most fantastic reads I've had in quite some time.

 

i liked the sound of this so have requested it on RISI

[Weave]

There is a book of fairy tales mentioned in 'Weaveworld' by Clive Barker but I can not remember the title of the fairy tale book.

[Polka Dot Rock]

Isn't Beswick mentioned in Jane Eyre?

 

I'm sure there are others but can't recall them at the moment.

 

You're very right Judy! Jenny Uglow wrote a biography about him last year and I remember reading quite a few articles last year. Here's one: Small Wonders, and here's a bit about how Bewick ended up in Jane Eyre:

 

 

Bewick never soared to the visionary heights of Blake, but there was terror and loneliness in his art, as well as comedy and observation, and this, too, had a powerful appeal. A copy of A History of British Birds arrived in Haworth parsonage when Charlotte Bront

[Mbwun_Lily]

i liked the sound of this so have requested it on RISI

 

You can't go wrong with this book. Setterfield has an amazing command of the English language and the book has a "Dickensian" quality about it.

 

It's a quiet little gothic mystery, that is very reminiscent of the work of authors like Dickens, the Brontes, and Daphne DuMaurier.

[Polka Dot Rock]

It's a quiet little gothic mystery, that is very reminiscent of the work of authors like Dickens, the Brontes, and Daphne DuMaurier.

 

Right, that's me sold to that then!!

[JudyB]

Yes and me - a 'quiet little gothic mystery' sounds just what I like.

 

PDR: thanks for the info on Bewick - must dig out my OU stuff to see what it says in there - I think there may have been examples of his illustrations.

[wrathofkublakhan]

The only book within a book that I can think of right now is The Diamond Age.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age

 

The primary protagonist in the story is Nell, a street urchin who illicitly receives a copy of an interactive book (with the quaint title Young Lady's Illustrated Primer; a Propaedeutic Enchiridion in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, &c.[1]) originally intended for an aristocrat child in a Neo-Victorian tribe. The story follows Nell (and, to a lesser degree, two other girls who receive similar books) as she uses the primer to grow into a well-educated and independent woman in spite of her extremely disadvantaged initial circumstances.

The Diamond Age is characterized by two intersecting, almost equally developed story lines: Nell's education through her independent work with the primer, and the social downfall of engineer and designer of the Primer, John Percival Hackworth. The text includes fully narrated educational tales from the primer, set apart through different (sans-serif) typeface, that map Nell's individual experience (e.g. her four toy friends) onto archetypal folk tales stored in the primer's database. Although The Diamond Age explores the role of technology and personal relationships in child development, its deeper and darker themes also probe the relative values and shortcomings in communication between cultures.

[Freewheeling Andy]

If I remember the structure of "At Swim Two Birds", the main character is an author. You get to read parts of his book, in which there is a character who is a storyteller. There are stories within the book within the book. I think even within the tertiary stories, there are anecdotes and things so you end up with an bizarre hierarchy of books, stories and tales. Even more bizarrely, characters from within one tale appear at the next level "up" the hierarchy escaping from the fiction into the reality.

 

But it's absolutely donkeys years since I read it, so I could be confused.

[~Andrea~]

I think Pilgrims Progress is mentioned in George Eliots The Mill on the Floss

[Mbwun_Lily]

Corrie, the lead female character in the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child book, "Still Life With Crows" is reading a book called "Beyond the Ice Limit" in the book. "The Ice Limit" is the name of a previous Preston/Child book, and is one of their books for which many people would like to see a sequel written.

 

Many of us are wondering if this wasn't some kind of harbinger of their intent to eventually write that sequel.

[wrathofkublakhan]

Kinda off topic / on topic ... there is a wonderful play by Tom Stoppard called

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead that is (why can't I make my text work right?) a wonderful "play within a play" based on two characters from Hamlet. I've seen the movie and the show, personally I'll take the show - but both are fun and lively, I recommend the experience.

[kitty_kitty]

I ended up buying Mysteries of Udolpho as it was mentioned so many times in Northanger Abbey and it is also in my 1001 books book too

[Kell]

I ended up buying Mysteries of Udolpho as it was mentioned so many times in Northanger Abbey and it is also in my 1001 books book too

You have it? Wow! It's on my wish list, so I hope to get it shortly myself - again, simply because it was mentioned so many times in NA, which I loved. I might try another few of the Northanger Horrid Books eventually...

[JudyB]

I ended up buying Mysteries of Udolpho as it was mentioned so many times in Northanger Abbey and it is also in my 1001 books book too

 

My curiosity was aroused when I read Northanger Abbey - was it easy to get hold of?

[samgrosser]

Kinda off topic / on topic ... there is a wonderful play by Tom Stoppard called

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead that is (why can't I make my text work right?) a wonderful "play within a play" based on two characters from Hamlet. I've seen the movie and the show, personally I'll take the show - but both are fun and lively, I recommend the experience.

 

I've loved Rosencrantz & Guildernstern are Dead since I saw it as a teenager and here's a little story about it you might like.

 

Many many years ago Tom Stoppard worked with my father as a news reporter in Bristol and I once wondered where Stoppard got the idea to turn Hamlet inside out. My father told me that Stoppard had been a useless reporter because whenever he got sent out on a story he would get completely distracted by some minor detail and write about that instead... Makes sense.

[kitty_kitty]

My curiosity was aroused when I read Northanger Abbey - was it easy to get hold of?

 

I got it from play.com they have it at Amazon too

[wrathofkublakhan]

I've loved Rosencrantz & Guildernstern are Dead since I saw it as a teenager and here's a little story about it you might like.

 

Many many years ago Tom Stoppard worked with my father as a news reporter in Bristol and I once wondered where Stoppard got the idea to turn Hamlet inside out. My father told me that Stoppard had been a useless reporter because whenever he got sent out on a story he would get completely distracted by some minor detail and write about that instead... Makes sense.

 

Indeed I do! That's a great story, thank you for sharing!

Of course, now I get to share it with all my theater friends..... we love a good gossip.

[Guest fireball]

You know there's a very great read from an equally great writer where a book within a book comes to life right before your eyes, in ways you NEVER thought

possible. And if perchance you've never read the "within" a book and you get the chance to, you'll never see that book in the same light again.!

 

First lets begin with the book PROPER,! it's the classic book by the real Grandfather of detective fiction and close friend to an equally great writer Charles Dickens, he is the one and only....Wilkie Collins born in January 1824 the 8th, I think, anyway he wrote some brilliant books in his time.

 

But the one thats more to do what THIS threads about is called " The Moonstone" (1868) originally in 3 volumes

 

It's sometimes subtitled "A love story" well its partly that! but it's anything but though.!

 

The plot.

 

:

The Moonstone is a magnificent yellow diamond 'large as a plover's egg'. It was looted at the siege of Seringapatam in southern India in 1799 by Colonel John Herncastle, who seized it from the forehead of a Hindu god. On his return to England he was ostracised by his family and society, and in revenge for a slight he leaves the diamond, said to carry a curse, to his niece Rachel Verinder. Rachel's cousin, Franklin Blake, is to deliver the diamond to the Verinder house near Frizinghall on the Yorkshire coast.

 

 

The Moonstone is presented to Rachel at a dinner party for her eighteenth birthday. The guests include Godfrey *Ablewhite, another cousin; Mr Candy, the family doctor; Mr Murthwaite, a celebrated traveller in India; and Drusilla Clack, an interfering evangelist. The party goes badly. Rachel and Franklin Blake have become fond of each other while decorating her sitting room door and Rachel had earlier refused a marriage proposal from Ablewhite. In addition, Blake quarrels with Mr Candy about the competence of doctors. Blake had been followed in London and Murthwaite identifies three Indians seen near the house as high caste Brahmins. Rachel places the diamond in her bedroom cabinet but the next morning it is missing.

 

 

The local police superintendent, Seegrave, is a bungling incompetent so Blake calls in the celebrated Sergeant Cuff of the detective police. He rules out the suspicious Indians but realises the importance of smeared paint on Rachel's sitting room door. The smear has been made by an article of dress, whose owner is almost certainly the thief. Rachel behaves inexplicably, obstructing the investigation and refusing to have anything more to do with Franklin Blake. Cuff concludes that she has stolen her own diamond assisted by Rosanna Spearman, a deformed housemaid fascinated by the local quicksand. Rosanna is a reformed thief who is acquainted with a dubious London moneylender, Septimus Luker. She is also in love with Franklin Blake and after acting strangely drowns herself in the Shivering Sand. Cuff is dismissed from the case by Lady Verinder but correctly predicts future developments.

 

 

In London, both Ablewhite and Luker are attacked and searched, Luker losing a receipt for a great valuable. Lady Verinder dies of a heart condition and Rachel reluctantly agrees to marry Ablewhite whose father has become her guardian. They move to Brighton where they are visited by Mr Bruff, the family solicitor. The engagement is broken off when he reveals that Ablewhite is in debt and is marrying Rachel for her money.

Blake returns from travels abroad but Rachel refuses to see him. Determined to restore her good opinion, he revisits Yorkshire where Rosanna Spearman's only friend, Limping Lucy, gives him a letter from the dead housemaid. This leads him to the Shivering Sand where Rosanna has hidden his nightgown, smeared with paint, with a confession that she concealed the nightgown and killed herself out of love. The confused Blake returns to London and contrives a meeting with Rachel at Mr Bruff's house in Hampstead. There she tells him that she knows he had financial problems and with her own eyes saw him take the diamond. Her own actions have been to protect his reputation.

Blake meets Mr Candy's assistant, Ezra Jennings, who saved Candy's life from a fever caught after the birthday dinner. Jennings had recorded Candy's delirium which revealed that Candy had secretly given Blake opium to prove his point in their argument. Blake therefore unknowingly 'stole' the diamond under the influence of the drug, in order to keep it safe. Jennings explains to Blake that if he takes opium again under similar conditions he may repeat his actions of the previous year and reveal where he placed the diamond. Blake agrees and the experiment is conducted with Mr Bruff as an observer. Blake takes a substitute gem but fails to reveal the Moonstone's hiding place. Rachel, really in love with him, is also present and has already forgiven him.

 

 

Bruff in the meantime has Luker's bank watched. The moneylender is observed passing the diamond to a sailor who is followed to a dockside inn. Later the same night he is murdered. Cuff, brought out of retirement by Blake, discovers that the sailor is Godfrey Ablewhite in disguise. He was the real thief and stole the gem to save himself from financial ruin. He has been killed by the Indians who have now recovered the diamond. In a religious ceremony witnessed in India by Murthwaite, the Brahmins return the diamond to the god of the moon.

some 'love' story eh?

 

Now what, you may well ask, is all that got to do a book within a book.?

 

QUITE a lot...really, quite.

 

Now take a look yonder at This book by Daniel Defoe Called : Robinson Crusoe (1719). Which in turn is based on a true story (didn't know that did you.!?)

It is based, in fact, upon the experiences of Alexander Selkirk who had run away to sea in 1704 and requested to be left on an uninhabited island to be rescued five years later.