The Fictional World of
Archives, Art Galleries and MuseumsThe Fictional World of
Archives, Art Galleries and Museums
NOVELS AND THEIR AUTHORS
NOTE (FEBRUARY 2009): A NEW VERSION OF THE FICTIONAL WORLD OF ARCHIVES, ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT AT HTTP://FICTIONALARCHIVES.BLOGSPOT.COM
Compiled by David Mattison; © 1996-2008. Text submissions copyrighted by their respective authors. Search for updates by using the Find function of your Web browser. The date a new title or group of titles are entered is in this pattern: "Date added: 2004-10-17."
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Short stories and their authors are on a separate page.
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Fictional archives in written form extend back centuries to at least the Graeco-Roman era. Classicist Mary Lefkowitz in Not Out of Africa (1996) recounts a popular tradition among the Greek authors responsible for the "so-called Hermetica or discourses of Hermes" (Hermes Trismegistos or Trismegistus, meaning Hermes the Thrice-great):
... the Greek authors were following the standard conventions of a type of historical fiction that was popular in antiquity among both the Greeks and the Hebrews. In order to make their work seem more impressive, ancient writers concealed their real names and pretended to be famous historical figures and to have been living in earlier times. Often ancient writers of historical fiction claim to have found a hidden document, or to have translated a text from an ancient language. The story of the "discovery" of the discourses of Hermes follows that established pattern. In the fourth century Iamblichus [ca. 250-326 A.D.] explains that an otherwise unknown "prophet" Bitys had found Hermes' teaching inscribed in hieroglyphics in the inner sanctuary of the temple at Sais and translated (!) them for "king Ammon," by whom he meant the god Amun or Amun-Re. ... (p. 101)
Lefkowitz goes on to recount how the mid-18th century French novel Life of Sethos, based on imaginary Egyptian archives, came to influence the development of European and Caribbean Freemasonry.
Modern novels set in ancient Egypt, the period dating from between 3,100 B.C. to at least 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great conquered or was invited to rule Egypt, often feature a scribe, or the pharaoh's vizier, or some aspect of Egyptian recordkeeping that was at least if not more ubiquitous then that it is in today's world. Somewhat equivalent to a prime minister, the vizier also had charge of archival records. So today's novels set in Egypt may refer to scribes who are essentially records managers or archivists, as well as talk about the kind of work they do to help the ancient Egyptian bureaucracy lurch along.
Robert Ludlum is likely the author one thinks of in relation to plots turning on the archival record. Peter Gillis's 1979-80 essay on archives in espionage fiction uses several examples from Ludlum's novels. A more recent peer-reviewed scholarly analysis of fictional archivists is Arlene B. Schmuland's "The Archival Image in Fiction: An Analysis and Annotated Bibliography" (American Archivist) based on her M.A. thesis (August 1997). The titles listed in Schmuland's bibliography are incorporated into the title list on this site.
Short stories and their authors are on a separate page.
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Act of God by Charles Templeton (1977)All the Names by José
Saramago (2000); highly recommendedAngels and Demons by Dan Brown (2001). See also The Da Vinci Code (2003). The Apothecary's House by Adrian Mathews (2005)Archangel by Robert Harris
(1998)The Archivist by Martha Cooley
(1998) The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland (2007) features another Russian archivist, Pavel Dubrov, this time in 1939 Moscow.Area 51 by Robert Doherty (1997)
The Art of Deception by Sergio Kokis ; translated by W. Donald Wilson
(2002; originally published in French in 1997 under the title L'art du
maquillage). The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross (2004)
The Audubon Quartet by Ray Sipherd (1998), "a Jonathan Wilder
mystery"
Be Quiet by Margaret Hollingsworth (2004) is about the great Canadian
artist Emily Carr (1871-1945). Bear: A Novel by Marion Engel (1976)
Benjamin Franklin and a Case of Artful Murder: Further
Adventures of the American Agent in London by Robert Lee Hall (1994)
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (2003)The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier by Dave
Stern (1999)The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (2000)
The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson (2003)The
Body Artist by Don DeLillo (2001)
The Bone Vault by Linda Fairstein (2003)The British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge (1967) The Canterbury Papers: A Novel of Suspense by Judith Healey (2003)A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1960) is an apocalyptic science fiction novel set in a post-nuclear war United States and involves an order of monks who come to venerate some scraps of paper one of their members accidentally discovers. Chasing Cézanne by Peter Mayle (1997)
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003). This book, despite being hammered by critics for its writing, has attained a cult status with electronic and print pro-, anti- and guides to the Da Vinci Code. Lewis Perdue published a similarly titled novel in 1983, then a second one about Mary Magdalene in 2000. Brown's novel, as Perdue points out on his Ideaworx
site, bears some similarities in character and plot development to these two novels. Having read Perdue's highly forgettable The Da Vinci Legacy, I can't say I'm convinced Perdue's plagarism case would stand up in court. See also The Novels of Lewis Purdue and Angels and Demons. The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton (2005). Some excellent scenes in the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University. Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson (1998, hardcover; 1999, paperback), a science fiction novel, invokes a sentient galaxy that builds an Archive in order to preserve itself and its life forms, including those of an Earth whose salvage just before World War One causes irrevokable consequences.
Death of an Old Master: A Lord Francis Powerscourt Mystery by David Dickinson (2004) The Dickinson Papers: A Funny and Tender Love Story by Mark Ragg (2006) The Dracula Archives by Raymond Rudorff (1971) The Dragonriders of Pern series (Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, 1968, volume 1; Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, 2007, in which some critical activity occurs in an archives)The Einstein Papers by Craig Dirgo (1999) The Empress Letters by Linda Rogers (2007) is volume 1 of a projected trilogy set in Victoria, BC, Canada, and is written in the form of letters. Date added: 2008-02-01 Eragon by Christopher Paolini (2004) was made into a movie The Expedition by Clayton Bailey (2003)The File on Arthur Moss by Douglas Fetherling (1994)Flesh Tones by M.J. Rose (2002)For Art's Sake: A Novel by W.O. Mitchell (1992) The Foundation Novels and stories by Isaac Asimov and
Friends Gerard Keegan's Famine Diary: Journey to a New World by James J. Mangan (1991; reprint of The Voyage of the Naparima by James J. Mangan, 1982, Quebec, Carraig Books; originally published as Gleaner Tales, Volume 2: Summer of Sorrow, Abner's Device and Other Stories by Robert Sellar, Huntingdon, Quebec, 1895)The Glace Bay Miners' Museum by Sheldon Currie (1979) on
which the movie Margaret's Museum is based and the stage play of the
same nameThe Glace Bay Miners' Museum: A Play Based on the Novel by
Sheldon Currie by Wendy Lill (1996) Gospel Truths by J.G. Sandom (1992). Date added: 2008-02-01 The Hatbox Letters: A Novel by Beth Powning (2004) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005). The Honeywood File: An Adventure in Building by H.B. Creswell (1929; reprint, 2000) The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff (1939) The Icon by Neil Olson (2005) In the
Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches (2002) The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert (2004)Joshua Then & Now: A Novel by Mordecai Richler
(1980) Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future by Olaf Stapledon (1930); science fiction in which stone tablet records play a role. Read the Project Gutenberg of Australia transcript. Leonardo's Swans: A Novel by Karen Essex (2006) depicts the time Leonardo da Vinci spent under the patronage of the Duke of Milan, Italy
The Leto Bundle by Marina Warner (2001) Liars
& Thieves by Stephen Coonts (2004) The 'Lomokome' Papers by Herman Wouk (1968) The Lost Earth Saga (Series) by James Axler (1999-) The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred
Eng by Thomas Orton (1999) Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse (1969; translation of Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) by Richard and Clara Winston) The Mask of Atreus by A. J. Hartley (2006). Date added: 2008-02-01 Miss Garnet's Angel by Sally Vickers (2001). Date added: 2004-10-17. Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain's Wife by Marele Day (2002) looks at Elizabeth (Mrs. James) Cook's world through objects and letters she received from her famous oceangoing husband. An appendix, "Where Are They Now?", describes the present locations of the objects described in the various chapters.
Murder
in the Museum by Simon Brett (2003). Series: The
Fethering Mysteries. Murder
in the Place of Anubis by Lynda S. Robinson (1994)The Museum Guard by Howard Norman (1998)Museums
and Women by John Updike (short stories, 1972)Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc (1993; reprint, 2006) is the children's novel that inspired the 2006 movie of the same name.North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames by John Wilson (1999) Rendezvous with Rama, 1973, contains a scene in which the human explorers cut into a "Temple of Glass" that they perceive to be a museum of Raman objects that can be replicated on demand; The Songs of Distant Earth, 1986) The Novels of Barbara Hodgson (The Tattooed Map, 1995; The Sensualist: A Mystery, 1998;
Hippolyte's Island: An Illustrated Novel, 2001; The Lives of Shadows: An Illustrated Novel, 2004)The Novels of Carol Shields (Small Ceremonies, 1976; The
Stone Diaries, 1995; Swann: A Mystery, 1987)
Rattle His Bones: A Daisy Dalrymple
Mystery, 2000 [set in the Natural History Museum, London, in 1923]; Styx
and Stones: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery, 1999 [poison pen letters]). The Gabriel Allon novels all feature an Israeli art restorer-secret agent: The Kill Artist, 2000; The English Assassin, 2002; The Confessor, 2003; A Death in Vienna, 2004; Prince of Fire, 2005; The Messenger, 2006; The Secret Servant, 2007)
Relic, 1995, set in the New York Museum of Natural History;
Reliquary, 1997, also set in the New York Museum of Natural History; Thunderhead, 1999;
The Ice Limit, 2000; The
Cabinet of Curiosities, 2002; Brimstone, 2004, featuring FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, with a brief scene in the family and business archives of an Italian pensione housed in a former palazzo, p. 346; The Book of the Dead, 2006, with FBI Special Agent Pendergast and the New York Museum of Natural History and its
archives) Childe Cycle/Dorsai that feature the Final Encyclopedia, an orbiting repository of all human knowledge, including an archives that is actually a museum: The Final Encyclopedia, 1984; The Chantry Guild, 1988) . See also The End of Eternity, 1955; Nightall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, 1990, is based on the former's 1941 short story of the same title). See also The Foundation Novels and stories by Isaac Asimov and
Friends. Time and Again, 1970; From Time to Time, 1995) : The Death Artist,
2002; Color Blind, 2004) The Scrapbooking Mysteries Series (Keepsake Crimes, May 2003; Photo Finished, January 2004; Bound for Murder, November 2004). The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, 2005; The Masque of the Black Tulip, 2005; The Deception of the Emerald Ring, 2006). Her three novels published between 2005-2006 feature an American history graduate student Eloise Kelly who uncovers various historical mysteries by working with archival records. Thanks to Georgen Gilliam Charnes, Nantucket Historical Association, for pointing these out.
The
Da Vinci Legacy, 1983, reprint, 2004;
Daughter
of God, 2000; The
Linz Testament, 1988 [reproduction ed.])The Novels of Lyn Hamilton (Archaeological Mystery series:
The Magyar Venus, 2004) Murder at the FBI, 1992 [reissue];
Murder at the Library of Congress, 1999;
Murder at the National Gallery, 1996;
Murder in the Smithsonian, 1990 [reissue]) the novels listed here use simulated police and other kinds of recreated official records, private papers and photographs: The Breaker, 1998 ; The Shape of Snakes , 2000; Fox Evil, 2002; The Devil's Feather, 2005)The Novels of Nick Bantock (Capolan: Travels of a Vagabond Country, 1997;
The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, 1994;
The Venetian's Wife: A Strangely Sensual Tale of a Renaissance Explorer, a Computer, and a Metamorphosis, 1996;
The Forgetting Room: A Fiction, 1997;
The Museum at Purgatory, 1999;
The Gryphon, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin &
Sabine Is Rediscovered, 2001;
Alexandria, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Unfolds,
2002;
The Morning Star, In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin &
Sabine Is Illuminated, 2003) Michelangelo's Notebook, 2005; The Lucifer Gospel, 2006; Rembrandt's
Ghost, 2007; these novels feature a female archaeologist named Finn Ryan). Date updated: 2008-02-02. The Novels of Ralph M. McInerny (The
Mysteries at the University of Notre Dame Series; highly recommended for
depictions of a university archives) The Novels of Robert LudlumThe Novels of Robertson Davies (The Lyre of Orpheus, 1988;
Murther and Walking Spirits, 1991; The Papers of Samuel
Marchbanks, 1986; The Rebel Angels, 1981) The Novels of Steve Berry (The Third Secret, 2005, about the Fatima vision, takes us into the Vatican's Riserva, "the special archive open only to popes"; The Templar Legacy, 2006, revolves around a search for the lost archives of the Knights Templar; The Alexandria Link, 2007, is about a search for the key to the location of the remanants of the ancient Library at Alexandria, Egypt; The Venetian Betrayal, 2007, involves European museums being destroyed by fire)
The Novels of Susan Vreeland (The
Forest Lover, 2004, is about the great Canadian artist Emily Carr
(1871-1945); Girl in Hyacinth Blue, 1999, set in the United States, is about a previously unknown Vermeer painting;
The Passion of Artemisia,
2002, is about the post-Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi).
The Novels of Thomas Swan (The Da Vinci Deception, 1990;
The Cezanne Chase, 1997; The Final Faberge: A Novel of Suspense,
1999) The Novels of Veronica Stallwood (Oxord Exit, 1994; Oxford Shadows, 2000) The Novels of William J. Palmer (The Detective and Mr. Dickens:
Being an Account of the MacBeth Murders and the Strange Events Surrounding
Them, 1990; The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens: An Account of the Strange
Events of the Medusa Murders, 1992; The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens: The
Strange Affair of the Feminist Phantom, 1997; The Dons and Mr. Dickens:
The Strange Case of the Oxford Christmas Plot, 2000); mysteries and
thrillers all based on secret (and just as fictional) journals attributed to
Charles Dickens' real-life friend
Wilkie Collins. Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll (1992; June 2005 paperback reprint) Pack Up the Moon by Richard Teleky (2001) features Karl Moran, a university archivist working in the United States, who helps solve a "cold case"
murder of an old friend. The Pegasus Secret by Gregg Loomis (2005) People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (2008) The People of the Ruins by Edward Shanks (1920; Project Gutenberg e-text) is an apocalyptic novel tha tmentions the British Museum and its library, along with the importance of salvaging records and books Pfitz by Andrew Crumey (1997) is a fantasy involving a Museum, a Library and Schenck the cartographer of the imaginary city Rreinnstadt created by an 18th century prince. Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt (1990) The Prisoner by Thomas M. Disch (1967) is based on the TV series of the same name.
Quattrocento by James McKean (August 2002) Quest for the Future by A.E. van Vogt (1970) is a science fiction novel about the Arlay Film Library with references to archival files
Rembrandt's Whore by Sylvie Mattison, translated by Tamsin Black (2002) Retribution:
A Lew Fonesca Novel by Stuart M. Kaminsky (2001) The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips (2007) involves American graduate student Claire Donovan and a British historian Andrew Kent with diametrically opposed views regarding the Venetian courtesan Alessandra Rossetti.
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason (2004). Date added: 2004-10-11.
The Seventh Unicorn by Kelly Jones (2005) Ship
of Fools by Richard Paul Russo (2001) is a science fiction novel about a colony starship The Sidewalk Artist by Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk (2006) Sign of the Cross by Chris Kuzneski (2006). Date added: 2008-02-02
Significant Things by Helen McLean (2003)Sisters of Grass by Theresa
Kishkan (2000) Space Mail edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph Olander (1980) and Space Mail, volume II edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh (1982) contain science fiction stories that utilize fictional documentsStar Trek Avenger by William Shatner (1997)A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James de
Mille (1888);
online edition via Early Canadiana Online. Ten Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler (2006)The Tetramachus Collection by Philippe van Rjndt (1976)Thief of Light by David Ramus (1995) The 13th Apostle by Richard F. Heller and Rachael F. Heller (2007). Date added: 2008-02-01 The
True Account: Concerning a Vermont Gentleman's Race to the Pacific Against
and Exploration of the Western American Continent Coincident to the Expedition
of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark by Howard Frank Mosher
(2003)The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart (1997)
The Van Gogh Conspiracy: A Novel by J. Madison Davis (2005). Date added: 2006-01-22. Voices in Time by Hugh MacLennan (1980)
Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (1994) War and War by László Krasznahorkai (2006; translation by George Szirtes of Háború és háború [1999]) The Wars by Timothy Findley (1977)
What Casanova Told Me (Canadian edition) by Susan Swan (2004); U.S. edition June 2005 Widows of Hamilton House by Christina Penner (2008) A Wild People by Hugh Leonard (2001) features T.J. Quilll, a film critic turned archivist With Axe and Flask: The History of Persephone Township from Pre-Cambrian Times to the Present by Dan Needles (with excerpts from the pioneering work of D.J. Goulding, M.D.) (2002)A portion of the proceeds from these click-through online stores is donated towards the recovery of Tulane University in New Orleans.
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The Fictional World of
Archives, Art Galleries & Museums