In Search of Lost Books: The Forgotten Stories of Eight Mythical Volumes

I selected ‘In Search of Lost Books’ from a library display, having fought my way into the central library during the Edinburgh Fringe. The entrance was nearly blocked by someone handing out flyers dressed in a huge brain costume. I kid you not. Anyway, I find this sort of book hard to resist and made little effort to do so. Like [b:Every Heart a Doorway|25526296|Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)|Seanan McGuire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431438555l/25526296._SX50_.jpg|45313140], I would have preferred it to be longer, but very much enjoyed what was there. Van Straten briefly recounts the tales of various lost books and their fates. The only one I was previously familiar with was show more Bryon’s famously burned memoir, truly a tragic decision. Indeed, the only loss here I couldn’t work up much sadness about was Hemingway’s early work, as I have little time for Hemingway. Perhaps most fascinating was the account of ‘In Ballast to the White Sea’, the lost thousand-page novel by Malcolm Lowry. Given the dense gloom and incredible beauty of [b:Under the Volcano|31072|Under the Volcano|Malcolm Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390014193l/31072._SY75_.jpg|1321805], a thousand page tome from him would be extraordinary and probably gruelling to read. Apparently a first draft of it from 1936 has now been published, but the final (or certainly later) version burned with his cabin in 1944. It seems that [b:Under the Volcano|31072|Under the Volcano|Malcolm Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390014193l/31072._SY75_.jpg|1321805], his other novel [b:Ultramarine|241398|Ultramarine|Malcolm Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358757143l/241398._SX50_.jpg|2861300], and the lost book were intended to form a trilogy analogous with [b:The Divine Comedy|6656|The Divine Comedy|Dante Alighieri|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390760180l/6656._SY75_.jpg|809248]. [b:Under the Volcano|31072|Under the Volcano|Malcolm Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390014193l/31072._SY75_.jpg|1321805] was the Inferno; the lost novel was to be Paradise.

Likewise of great interest is the vanishing of Walter Benjamin’s suitcase, containing a manuscript of completely unknown content. Benjamin suffered from extraordinary bad luck and tragically committed suicide after failing to escape France when the Nazis invaded. The suitcase disappeared during this failed flight. Potentially still existent in embargoed papers, however, is an unpublished novel by Sylvia Plath provisionally titled ‘Double Exposure’. In the chapter on Plath, Van Straten reflects on whether readers become ghoulish in their demands for posthumous writing, ready for publication or not, whatever their heirs may think. There is definitely a compromise to be found between burning everything and ignoring the writer’s wishes in order to expose all of their work to the world. Although it’s brief, this is a thoughtful-provoking and fascinating set of literary mysteries. It convinced me to read Gogol's [b:Dead Souls|28381|Dead Souls|Nikolai Gogol|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387201057l/28381._SY75_.jpg|1001298], unfortunately just in time for someone else to borrow it from my local library. show less

‘’Could it be the void itself which fascinates us, since it’s possible to fill it with the notion that what is missing might be something crucial, perfect, incomparable?’’

One of the most fascinating - and sometimes disappointing - ‘’what if’’ in the reading community has to do with the books that were once written but never saw the ‘’light’’ of publication. Books that were destroyed, lost, forgotten. The great tragedians wrote hundreds of plays and what actually survives of their work is a tiny minuscule portion. Imagine the potential plays of Shakespeare that didn’t survive. How richer and, dare I say, more beautiful reading experiences would have been ours had those creations survived…

Now, in this show more extremely interesting and excellently written book, Giorgio Van Straten presents the adventure of 8 books by authors who have sealed the course of World Literature. Books that were written under special circumstances and were lost soon after. ‘’Lost’’ may not be the proper verb, though. Works by writers such as Gogol, Plath, Hemingway, Byron. A book is destroyed to protect a marriage, another is thrown away to salvage the reputation of an influential man. A lost suitcase containing the juvenalia of one of the greatest writers causes discord between a husband and a wife. A poet is a potential suspect for his wife’s lost unfinished manuscript, two books become one of the millions of victims of the Nazi nightmare. A Russian Divine Comedy never comes to fruition, a writer succumbs to alcohol and causes a devastating fire. Human feelings become the motive for destruction, unfortunate coincidences, secrets, fear of the past and of the future, the need for perfection, the uncertainty of success in a melancholic literary journey from Florence to London, from Paris to Russia and from beautiful British Columbia to Prague.

Van Straten writes in a very direct, elegantly conversational style and often refers to his personal sources and to the views of writers contemporary to each respective author. He comes across as an extremely professional researcher, dedicated and fully respectful of the work and the life of 8 writers who have given us masterpieces. How much more some of them had to offer but fell victims to life’s troubling whims….

Many thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com show less

A short, lyrical meditation on eight lost books. Some of these tales I had read about before, but others were new to me, and were most interesting, and the whole thing is quite nicely written.

A good read and detailed view on eight lost manuscripts from writers both known and unknown to this reader and general audiences. Engaging, yet tightly written with almost no wasted padding or overlong details. A great read if you're like me--a fan of books about books, book history, and writers

This was a book pondering about "lost" volumes of literature or poems. The author selects eight works that were either mythical or are "missing" and hypothesizes as to what became of each work. Interesting reading. 122 pages

Acht vrij korte essays over acht verloren of vernietigde boeken en/of manuscripten - interessant met enkele weetjes en inzichten waar Van Straten voor zichzelf de ruimte creëert om iets boeiend te gaan vertellen, maar blijft al bij al vrij oppervlakkig. De titel is enigszins misleidend: van een zoektocht is weinig of geen sprake, en enkele van deze verhalen zijn allesbehalve 'vergeten'.

Un petit essai, intéressant mais sans plus.