The School of Night
A Novel
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- ¥2,000
発行者による作品情報
London. 1985. A city rife with possibility and desire. One young man who wants it all.
Kristian Hadeland, young and ambitious, has moved to London to study photography; he knows that he and his art are destined for more. His family never understood him, and his fellow photography students bore him. But when he meets Hans, an eccentric Dutch artist, the future he yearns for becomes possible—as long as he is willing to sacrifice everything and stop at nothing.
Twenty-four years later, Kristian sees his dreams come to fruition when a major retrospective of his work is held in New York City. As his past catches up to him, Kristian’s world begins to crumble. Success comes at a price, but is he prepared to pay it?
In a thrilling twist on Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Karl Ove Knausgaard masterfully spins a cautionary tale about the lengths that we will go to achieve success—and how far we are willing to fall. His most daring and macabre novel yet, The School of Night is an indelible tale about dark temptations and moral depravity, and what we forget when we bargain with the devil.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Knausgaard's ingenious fourth entry in the Morning Star series (after The Third Realm), a self-absorbed Norwegian photographer strikes a Faustian bargain in exchange for success. As a student in London, Kristian Hadeland meets mysterious Dutch artist Hans, who shows him the first photo ever taken: Louis Daguerre's 1838 picture of a street in Paris. The photo contains a faint image of a dark man possibly getting his shoes shined, which Hans says is the Devil. Following a harsh critique of his first portfolio by a visiting professor, Kristian steals a dead cat from a vet clinic and photographs its skeleton after boiling down the corpse, a signature shot that later propels him to fame. Hans also introduces Kristian to Vivian, a theater director staging an updated rendition of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. Their meeting sends Kristian down a rabbit hole into Marlowe, Shakespeare, and London's occult history. After he accidentally kills an unhoused person during a scuffle, he manages to avoid the consequences and continue his career. In the engrossing second half of the novel, set 24 years later, Kristian is forced to face the ugly truth behind his success and the price paid by his soul. Knausgaard masterfully charts his antihero's ascending ambition and the encroaching forces that eventually snuff it out. It's a remarkable addition to an exciting and disturbing series.
