Aloysius Pendergast

Aloysius Pendergast
First appearance Relic
Last appearance The Obsidian Chamber
Created by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Information
Gender Male
Occupation Special agent with FBI
Title Dual Doctor of Philosophy (Classics and Philosophy)
Spouse(s) Helen Pendergast
Children Tristram Pendergast, Alban Pendergast
Relatives See The Pendergast family

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast[1] is a fictional character appearing in novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, Relic, and in its sequel Reliquary, before assuming the protagonist role in The Cabinet of Curiosities.

Pendergast is a special agent with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He works out of the New Orleans, Louisiana branch of the FBI, but frequently travels out of state to investigate cases which interest him, often those appearing to be the work of serial killers.

Background

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast was born circa 1960 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pendergast retains his Southern manners and mellifluous Deep Southern accent. He studied Anthropology at Harvard University (graduating summa cum laude) and received a dual Doctor of Philosophy degree in Classics and Philosophy from Baliol College, part of Oxford University in England .

Pendergast once served with the U.S. Special Forces in the elite "Ghost Company", a spiritual successor to the "Blue Light" detachment (now Delta Force) with Michael Decker and Howard Longstreet, his superiors at the FBI, and Proctor, his bodyguard and chauffeur. The symbol for this company was "a ghost on a blue field, decorated with a star throwing a thunderbolt at a cat's eye with the number nine as its pupil, symbolizing the nine lives [its] members [...] were alleged to have..." The motto was "Fidelitas usque ad mortem" (Loyalty unto death). Most of his military records are classified and unknown.

A number of years before the series began, Pendergast was married to Helen Esterhazy Pendergast. She was presumed killed in a hunting accident while in Africa (mauled by a lion), but reappears in the so-called Helen Trilogy.

Pendergast is generally described as being stoically aloof and eccentric, though his ineffable politeness and unerring intellect imbue him with an irresistible charm or enigmatic sense of danger if the occasion should call for it. Well-learned in many subjects, he converses easily with doctors, scientists, intellectuals, vagabonds, highly specialized masters of specific disciplines, and people of a wide variety of language and culture alike. He is a master of psychological manipulation, disguise, and improvisation.

Pendergast appreciates the finer things in life, including expensive cuisine and wines. Food and drink he enjoys include Château Pétrus wine, antipasto, green tea of only the purest and most spiritual kind, gelato, and steak tartare. He has a great distaste for opera. His interests encompass a wide variety of vastly differing walks of life, yet all focus on the enlightenment of the human mind, body, and soul. He spent a year in Tibet studying the deep meditative art of Chongg Ran, taught to him by the monks of the Gsalrig Chongg monastery.

Pendergast is polyglot, demonstrating mastery of French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Portuguese and Cantonese, and appears semi-fluent in Mandarin. He also has some knowledge of Japanese.

Appearance

Pendergast is always described as being tall and slender. He is fit, graceful in movement and physically powerful despite his slight frame. His skin is very pale and many people refer to him as "corpse-like" or as an "albino". He has platinum blond hair and ice-blue eyes that often look grey depending on the lighting. Pendergast religiously dresses in a black, hand-tailored suit made of a special blend of wool made only in the 1950s, thus he is often described as looking like an undertaker.

In many cases, Pendergast's normal appearance is irrelevant. A master of disguises, he has fooled even close acquaintances on several occasions.

Accoutrements

Pendergast owns a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (he used to have two but sold one). His chauffeur and personal assistant is a mysterious man named Proctor. All of Pendergast's suits are custom-made in Italy, and his shoes hand-made by John Lobb of London.

Pendergast's personal sidearm is usually a customized .45 Caliber Les Baer Government Model M1911 pistol. In Relic he carried a .45 Colt Anaconda double-action revolver. He owns a Signature Grade Colt 1911 .45ACP tuned by pistolsmith Hilton Yam (now owner of 10-8 Consulting).

Pendergast maintains an apartment at The Dakota in New York City, and later inherits an internally renovated Beaux Arts mansion near Harlem from his great-granduncle in The Cabinet of Curiosities. In his apartment there is a fully furnished zen garden where Pendergast likes to take time to meditate before a new challenge.

Though he is a scrupulously scientific man, he wears a talisman or amulet on a chain, that consists of his own modified version of the Pendergast family crest: a lidless eye over two moons, one new and one full, with a phoenix (the original version featured a lion).

Pendergast carries a variety of hidden tools, such as lock picks, flashlights of various sizes, test tubes, syringes, and forensic chemicals.

Friends and relations

The Pendergast family

Officially, the Pendergast's family wealth came from pharmaceuticals, and the family became sufficiently old and established in New Orleans to conduct themselves as aristocracy. However, there are hints that the fortune actually came from patent medicine ("snake oil"), and that some of the family's customers suffered permanent injury or even death from its effects.

Pendergast also confides, to his shame, that a streak of insanity has afflicted his family for generations, such that many of them have been convicted of horrible crimes, and ended their lives in asylums.

Chronicles

Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast appears in several stand-alone novels and stars in two trilogies. All of these books have been jointly written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Stand-alone novels

The Diogenes trilogy

The Helen trilogy

Short stories

Television adaptation

On February 1, 2016, authors Preston and Child confirmed that producer Gale Anne Hurd would be heading a television adaptation of the novels Relic and Cabinet of Curiosities. The adaptation, simply titled Pendergast, will air on Spike TV. The first season will focus on "Pendergast investigating a present-day crime mimicking a century-old mystery — that links to his own family's dark past."[2]

References

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