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Introduction
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.
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 Aspern Papers" by Henry James (The Aspern Papers,
1888)
The Assassini by Thomas Gifford (1990)
Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (1993)
The Audubon Quartet by Ray Sipherd (1998), "a Jonathan Wilder
mystery"
"Bartleby
the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" by Herman Melville (1853)
Be Quiet by Margaret Hollingsworth (2004) is about the great Canadian
artist Emily Carr (1871-1945).
The Crown of Columbus by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris
(1981)
Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell (1993)
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 Dancing Men by Duncan Kyle (1985)
The Dark Clue by James Wilson (2001)
The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton (2005). Some excellent scenes in the Manuscripts Room of Cambridge University.
Estate of Mind: A Den of Antiquity Mystery by Tamar Myers
(1999)
Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and
Cover-ups by Robert Anton Wilson, with Miriam Joan Hill (1998) is a work of
non-fiction documenting conspiracies, many of which bear the hallmark of
overworked and underpaid imaginations.
The Flashman Novels by George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman and the
Dragon, 1986; Flashman and the Mountain of Light, 1991; Flashman
and the Redskins, 1982)
Flesh Tones by M.J. Rose (2002)
Flights of Love: Stories by Bernhard Schlink (2001)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (1967)
The General In His Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez; translated
from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (1990) contains a memorable character,
Manuela Sáenz (Mrs. James Thorne), one of the many lovers of General José
de San Martín, whom he "named her curator of his archives in order
to keep her near him." (p. 151)
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)
Invitation to a Funeral by Molly Brown (1995) features the 17th
century English female author Aphra Behn as a detective and a dangerous,
secret document she discovers.
Malice in Miniature: A Dorothy Martin Mystery by Jeanne M.
Dams (1998) features the Doll House Museum in the fictional Brocklesby Hall,
Sherebury, England.
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 at Monticello, or, Old Sins by Rita Mae Brown (1994)
The Novels of Bill Napier (Revelation, 2000; Shattered Icon, 2003).
The Novels of Carol Shields (Small Ceremonies, 1976; The
Stone Diaries, 1995; Swann: A Mystery, 1987)
The Novels of Carola Dunn (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 Novels of Carole Nelson Douglas (Chapel Noir: An Irene Adler
Novel, 2001).
The Novels of Dennis Wheatley and J.G.
Links (Murder Off Miami, 1936; reprinted 1979; Who Killed Robert
Prentice?, 1937; reprinted 1980; The Malinsay Massacre, 1938;
reprinted 1981; Herewith the Clues, 1939; reprinted 1982). Novelty
mysteries featuring reproductions of crime evidence, including newspapers,
letters and telegrams, matchsticks, cigarette butts, a bullet and hair.
The Novels of Derek Wilson (The Borgia Chalice, 1996; The Carmargue
Brotherhood;
The Dresden Text, 1995; The Hellfire Papers;
The Triarchs; these mystery-thrillers all involve British art dealer Tim
Lacy)
The Novels of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Relic, 1995;
Reliquary, 1997; 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 Novels of E.L. Doctorow (Welcome to Hard Times, 1960;
City of God, 2000)
The Novels of Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Nothing Sacred, 1991;
Phantom Banjo, 1991; The Unicorn Creed, 1983)
The Novels of Elizabeth Peters (Lord of the Silent, 2001).
The Novels of Iain Pears: Art History Mystery Series featuring
Jonathan Argyll (The Raphael Affair, 1992; The Titian Committee,
1993; The Bernini Bust, 1994; The Last Judgement, 1996;
Giotto's Hand, 1997; Death and Restoration, 1998; The
Immaculate Deception, 2000; The Last Judgement,
2001, c1993).
The Novels of Irving Wallace (The Word, 1972; The R
Document, 1976)
The Novels of Harold Schechter (Nevermore, 1999; The Hum Bug,
2001)
The Novels of Joanne Dobson (The
Northbury Papers, November 1998; The
Raven and the Nightingale: A Modern Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe,
November 1999) feature an English literature professor, Karen Pelletier, who in
these two novels solves crimes revolving around literary papers and previously
lost historical records.
The Novels of John Le Carré (A Small Town in Germany,
1968; The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, 1964; Tinker, Tailor,
Soldier, Spy, 1974)
The Novels of Jonathan Santlofer (these novels feature Kate McKinnon, a New York City art historian who also happens to be a former police officer and married to lawyer; the author is himself "an internationally recognized artist" according to the dustjacket of his second McKinnon novel : The Death Artist,
2002; Color Blind, 2004)
The Novels of Laura Childs: The Scrapbooking Mysteries Series (Keepsake Crimes, May 2003; Photo Finished, January 2004; Bound for Murder, November 2004).
The Novels of Michael Crichton (Airframe, 1996; Disclosure, 1994;
Sphere, 1987;
Timeline, 1999)
The Novels of Minette Walters (The Breaker, 1998, uses simulated
police records; The Shape of Snakes , 2000, includes photographs and recreated
official records and private papers)
The Novels of Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, 1996;
Message in a Bottle, 1998)
The 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 Sharon Shinn (The Alleluia Files, 1999;
Archangel, 1996; Jovah's Angel, 1997)
The Novels of Simon Goodenough (A Study in Scarlet: A Sherlock
Holmes Murder Mystery, 1983; The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock
Holmes Murder Mystery, 1984). Published by the same British company that
reissued the forensic evidence mysteries by Dennis
Wheatley and J.G. Links, these recreations also feature reproductions of
criminal evidence.
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.
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth (1972)
Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (2005); for young adults and the young at heart, this is the first of a trilogy titled The Guild of Specialists; from the publisher's description on Amazon.com: "Featuring a unique "faux-journal" format and archival elements including
elaborate diagrams and maps, vintage photos and illustrations, documents with
stamps, seals, and watermarks, four full-color gatefolds, and extensive
appendices and notes."
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 True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset ... and Various
Songs, Journal Excerpts, and Letters Such As Seem Pertinentby Philip Lee
Williams (1997)
Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston (2005) in which an evil museum paleontological curator gets murdered
The Werner-Bok Series by Charles A. Goodrum (Dewey Decimated,
no. 1, 1977; Carnage of the Realm, no. 2, 1979; The Best Cellar,
no. 3, 1987; A Slip of the Tong, no. 4, 1992)
What Casanova Told Me (Canadian edition) by Susan Swan (2004); U.S. edition June 2005
The Williamsburg Forgeries by John Ballinger (1989)
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