Ghosts (1993 novel)

Ghosts is a novel by Irish author John Banville. Published in 1993, it was the first novel by the author since the publication of The Book of Evidence (1989), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and features many of the same characters. The novel recalls Shakespeare's The Tempest in many ways.^[1]

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^[2], 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, and much of the latter half of the book focuses on his account of his experiences after having been released from prison, his reflections on the crime (the murder of a young woman) he committed that landed him there, 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, and it is revealed that he 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 travelers reembarking and leaving the island and many of the central issues and tensions addressed in the novel are left unresolved.

References

1. ^ Lesser, Wendy, "Violently Obsessed with Art," The New York Times, Nov. 28, 1993
2. ^ "Kreutznaer" is the historic family name of Daniel Defoe's ship-wrecked hero, Robinson Crusoe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe