John the Pupil: A Novel, by David Flusfeder
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John the Pupil: A Novel, by David Flusfeder
Free Ebook John the Pupil: A Novel, by David Flusfeder
Set in thirteenth-century Europe, against the backdrop of a medieval world where beauty and violence, science and mysticism, carnality and faith, exist side by side, this is a masterful, mystery-laden novel from the author of The Gift, in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Barry Unsworth, and Michel Faber.
Since he was a young boy, John has studied at the Franciscan monastery outside Oxford, under the tutelage of friar and magus Roger Bacon, an inventor, scientist, and polymath. In 1267, Bacon arranges for his young pupil to embark on a journey of penitence to Italy. But the pilgrimage is a guise to deliver scientific instruments and Bacon’s great opus to His Holiness, Pope Clement IV. Two companions will accompany John, both Franciscan friars: the handsome, sweet-tempered Brother Andrew, with whom everyone falls in love; and the more brutish Brother Bernard, with his secret compulsion for drawing imaginary monsters. Neither knows the true purpose of their expedition.
John the Pupil is a medieval road movie, recounting the journey taken from Oxford to Viterbo in 1267 by John and his two companions. Modeling themselves after Saint Francis, the trio treks by foot through Europe, preaching the gospel and begging for sustenance. In addition to fighting off ambushes from thieves hungry for the thing of power they are carrying, the holy trio are tried and tempted by all sorts of sins: ambition, pride, lust—and by the sheer hell and heaven of medieval life.
Erudite and earthy, horrifying, comic, humane, David Flusfeder’s extraordinary novel reveals to the reader a world very different and all too like the one we live in now.
John the Pupil: A Novel, by David Flusfeder- Amazon Sales Rank: #1521090 in Books
- Brand: Flusfeder, David
- Published on: 2015-03-03
- Released on: 2015-03-03
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .85" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 240 pages
Review “Intriguing…a skillful, sensitive exploration… reminiscent of the classic Nabokovian unreliable narrator.” (Rain Taxi Review of Books)“There is never a dull moment on this trip…The vicissitudes of John’s journey are a delight to follow…The result is a vividly atmospheric sense of period and, in the character of John, a richly comical and engaging hero…Learned, funny and strikingly original, this is a hugely enjoyable read.” (The Times (London))“It is certainly a lively tale and will appeal to anyone who is a fan of Umberto Eco’s THE NAME OF THE ROSE.” (Financial Times (London))“A superbly written and intellectually stimulating novel.” (The Independent (London))“A multilayered historical novel… capturing the violence, superstition, and spirituality characteristic of the Middle Ages.” (Publishers Weekly)“John’s both limited and brilliant point of view is astonishing, especially when he describes the intricacies of an illuminated manuscript with entirely fresh eyes. The reader will move from amazement at how dark the Dark Ages were to recognizing the darkness and the hope in our own time.” (Booklist (starred review))“Well-written…Flusfeder’s novel is transporting - it’s set in the 1200s, and it aims to immerse us there.” (New York Times)“Poignant.” (Kirkus)“Some passages are as beautiful as an illustrated manuscript…inventive…Flusfeder has that essential quality of the true novelist: the ability to look at the world in a new and surprising light.” (Allan Massie, Scotsman)“Original, unusual, intriguing: Flusfeder just keeps getting better and better.” (Mail on Sunday, Novel of the Week)“David Flusfeder writes impressively measured prose, provides a convincing look inside the medieval mind, and provokes some interesting ideas.” (Daily Mail (London))
From the Back Cover
“A superbly written and intellectually stimulating novel.”—The Independent (London)
Since he was a young boy, John has studied at the Franciscan monastery outside Oxford, under the tutelage of friar and magus Roger Bacon, an inventor, scientist, and polymath. In 1267 Bacon arranges for his young pupil to embark on a journey of penitence to Italy. But the pilgrimage is a guise to deliver scientific instruments and Bacon’s great opus to His Holiness, Pope Clement IV. Two companions will accompany John, both Franciscan novices: the handsome, sweet-tempered Brother Andrew; and the brutish Brother Bernard.
John the Pupil is a road movie, recounting the journey taken from Oxford to Viterbo by John and his two companions. Modeling themselves after Saint Francis, the men trek by foot through Europe, preaching the gospel and begging for sustenance. In addition to fighting off ambushes from thieves hungry for the thing of power they are carrying, the holy trio is tried and tempted by all sorts of sins: ambition, pride, lust—and by the sheer hell and heaven of medieval life.
“Astonishing.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Strikingly original . . . a hugely enjoyable read.”—The Times (London)
About the Author
David Flusfeder is the author of six previous novels, including The Gift. He has been a television critic for the London Times, a poker columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, and has contributed features to many other publications, including GQ, Esquire, the Observer, Guardian, New Statesman, and Financial Times. He is the director of creative writing at the University of Kent, and lives in South London with his family.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. extremely complex but rewarding medieval coming of age fable By A Customer John The PupilDavid FlusfederHarper, Mar 3 2015, $24.99ISBN 9780062339188In 1267 in a Franciscan Monastery near Oxford, Friar Roger Bacon assigns his most trustworthy student young John on a pilgrimage; accompanied by two Franciscan Brothers Bernard and Andrew. While the two novices are unaware of the true nature of the task, John’s actual mission is to deliver his Master’s Opus Majus and several scientific inventions to Pope Clement IV in Viterbo, Italy.Keeping a chronicle of their trek, John the Pupil and his companions hike to the first leg of the journey Canterbury; there the travelers encounter Simeon the Palmer, a scoundrel thief. Sailing the Channel into France, the trio reaches Paris, Reims and other stops in the kingdom. Crossing into Italy they take a respite at Cavalcanti’s palace in Bellosguardo where sirens tempt them. By the time they reach their final destination, John has experienced the holy devout, the pragmatic common and the downfallen sinful.John The Pupil is an intriguing historical fiction that ironically mocks and challenges the subgenre to raise the accuracy. The storyline is filled with real persona (the footnotes are worth reading to learn more about the cast) and a profound timely look at the relationship between science and religion just prior to the former (and Bacon) becoming heresy. The protagonist’s chronicles of the pilgrimage contains plenty of action and is loaded with insight into the legends of the Saints; as John tries to emulate his hero Saint Francis. Subgenre readers will appreciate this extremely complex but rewarding medieval coming of age fable.Harriet Klausner
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. got boring in his telling of the tale and experiences By Doctor Strong I did not read the novel as quickly as perhaps others have done because I did not find it particularly compelling. Rather than chapters, the author chose to separate sections or days by heading them with a saint's day, and some of these saints are long forgotten. Saint Swithin's Day reminded me of Shakespeare's HENRY V's victory at Agincourt a little less than 200 years in the future. John's conversation with Pope Clement was intriguing but not particularly believable. I found the writing awkward and the style somewhat stifling, and John's faith, while commendable, got boring in his telling of the tale and experiences. What the author did was to put his narration in the way a pilgrim/brother/friar might have spoken, and that just got tiresome. A review of this novel in the TIMES grabbed my attention; I bought the book, sat on it for a while, read it, and was disappointed. It never became a best seller, nor appeared on that list in the NYT that I know of and seems to have "disappeared." I think I might have obtained a better idea about medieval life by purchasing a historical account written by a historian.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Interesting exercise in imagining the medieval mind By Alan A. Elsner This novel purports to be an account by a young Englishman of his journey on foot to Italy in the mid-13th century. John is the pupil of the renown Roger Bacon and his mission is to carry a copy of the master's great work , his Opus Majus, to Pope Clement. The young John has been taken from his family and educated solely by Bacon, who is one of the great minds of his age but has been placed under confinement in a monastery. John takes two companions with him -- the strong but inarticulate Bernard and the beauteous Andrew. They have many adventures on the way and discover true brotherhood. But one is left questioning at the end what it was all for.The author tries very hard to get into the mind of someone from the era, trying to see the world as John would. The dates of the journal John keeps are marked by saints days and each entry is preceded by an account of the life and martyrdom of the saint. These do get a bit tiresome.There is a disjointed character to the narrative, supposedly mimicking the fact that the account is not complete and that fragments or whole sections have been lost. Some of the episodes take on an almost dreamlike or magic realism quality. In general, the book is very interesting but I would not say it is gripping. The characters do seem other worldly and we therefore do not become very invested in their fate.The book successfully does illustrate the vast gulf in the way John and his peers see the world -- a world governed by unknowables where the Devil lurks at every corner. It is a world of sincere religious faith which offers the only certainty amid the dangers and threats that accompany life. But that very gulf makes the characters somehow inaccessible to us despite the author's best efforts.
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