The Voyage of the Short Serpent - Hardcover

Bernard Du Boucheron

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585679208 ISBN 13: 9781585679201

Publisher: Overlook Press, 2008

Synopsis

Sent on an evangelical mission to discern the spiritual fates of the members of an Iceland colony who have severed communications with Europe, the abbot Montanus and his crew are horrified to discover that the colony's residents have embraced what appear to be primitive lives of depravity and excess.

About this title

About the Author:

Bernard du Boucheron was born in 1928 in Paris. A major figure in French and international industry, du Boucheron won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'AcadÂŽmie Franciase for The Voyage of the Short Serpent.

From Publishers Weekly:

A first-time novelist at 76, du Boucheron caused a literary sensation in France with this tale of a bishop's attempted reclamation of a medieval Scandinavian colony in Iceland. As the novel opens, Einar Sokkason, cardinal of Nidaros, learns that the Christian colony of New Thule has turned pagan. He dispatches Inquisitor Ordinary Bishop Insulomontanus to exorcise the colony with the aid of the stake, the wheel, the head vise, drawing and quartering, the slow hanging, and suspension from the feet or carnal parts. The bishop sets off peaceably in the company of the captain and crew of the Short Serpent, but as the Northern Sea freezes over, frostbite necessitates a few impromptu amputations. This turns out to be a prelude for what will come as the Serpent finally wends its way up the coast of the fjord, and the bishop is greeted by the curious colony of cannibals. Despite a competent translation, the cardinal and bishop's grave dictums are stilted, and the blood and gore titillate less than they bore. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1585679208
• ISBN 13: 9781585679201
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206