Its Walls are lined with marble Statues, hundreds upon hundreds of them, Tier upon Tier, rising into the distant heights. The Ninth Vestibule is remarkable for the three great Staircases it contains. In Piranesi’s journals capitalisations occur with unusual frequency in a system of his own invention:

She plays with language to serve the story best, masterfully using the format of the journals as a kind of geographical log to map the physical and metaphysical elements of the vast regions of the house. That being said, her signature voice remains stoic and prosaic. Instead, references are woven into the story itself or embedded in the text. With Piranesi the author has broken with the literary devices of her earlier work no more lengthy footnotes running half the length of a page, fewer ironic cross-references. In most Regions of the House the expressions of the Statues are joyful or tranquil or possessed of a distant calm but here the Faces were distorted in screams of rage or anguish… From what I could see, these depicted human or demi-human figures, all two or three times my own stature and all in the throes of violent action: men fighting, women and men being carried off by centaurs or satyrs, octopuses tearing people apart. It did not seem an impossible distance I was more concerned about the Statues. The Hall immediately to my rear was approximately 200 metres in length and 120 metres wide and so the chances were good that the Hall before me was the same.

He inhabits a vast ephemeral landscape called the House, a labyrinthine world of grand sweeping staircases that flow through halls colonised by birds, mysterious skeletons, and statues that – to his eyes – are not merely sculptures, but figures instilled with life:Īdjoining Halls usually share some characteristics. Written as a series of journal entries, the story is narrated by a male aged between 30 and 35 who describes himself as a scientist and explorer. Piranesi is a transcendental mystery set in a harsh yet wondrous fantasy world that raises challenging questions about the nature of reality, identity, and belonging. Fans of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will not be disappointed by her latest offering.

Piranesi susanna clarke review