The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee: book review

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Young Columbus and the Quest for a Universal Library (2018) is set in Spain and begins in 1539 with the death of Hernando, the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus.

Hernando Columbus (1488-1539), also known as Ferdinand, born in Argentina, collected books, and on his death he left his worldly possessions and wealth, not to a person, but to his library collection. The novel goes back to the beginning of Hernando’s life, to the age of five, and how he acquired his amazing collection of 15,000 books. It is his personal destiny.

He spent a year of his youth with his father, shipwrecked off Jamaica. He also travelled around Europe. But mostly he was in Seville where, with his printing press, he helped to create maps of the world, a dictionary, and a geographical encyclopaedia of Spain. Unlike his father who travelled the world, Hernando wanted to bring the world, and knowledge, to one place, in his library in Seville, Spain.

Hernando wrote a book called Life and Deeds of the Admiral, a biography of his father, from which modern historians learned of Christopher Columbus and his travels. He also inherited his father’s library.

No matter how many books a person has, ‘even fifty thousand books without order is not a library, any more than a crowd of thirty thousand undisciplined men is an army.’ So, around the turn of the 16^thcentury, Hernando set about cataloguing his books, meticulously. How does one order a library – chronologically? Is literature linear?

The house and his library of shipwrecked books, no longer exists. The Epilogue provides the reasons why.

This is a fascinating account of a dry subject – the establishment and ordering of a library – made interesting through the extensive travels, the biography of Christopher Columbus, and the love of literature.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

MARTINA NICOLLS

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog