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Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel
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Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel
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Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel
Audiobook6 hours

Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel

Written by Yann Martel

Narrated by Mark Bramhall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Fate takes many forms. . . .

When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulled further into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey-named Beatrice and Virgil-and the epic journey they undertake together.

With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so beloved, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 13, 2010
ISBN9780307715166
Unavailable
Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel
Author

Yann Martel

YANN MARTEL was born in Spain in 1963 of Canadian parents. Life of Pi won the 2002 Man Booker Prize (among other honors) and was adapted to the screen in the Oscar-winning film by Ang Lee. Martel is also the author of the novels The High Mountains of Portugal, Beatrice and Virgil, and Self, the collection of stories The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, and a collection of letters to the prime minister of Canada, What Is Stephen Harper Reading?. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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Reviews for Beatrice and Virgil

Rating: 3.320450814653784 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

621 ratings95 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Beatrice and Virgil, Martel plays with novel form once again. The main character - Henry - is clearly a representation of Martel. He is a successful author who has spent 5 years working on a book which is an allegory of the Holocaust, only to have it crushed by his editors. Utterly defeated and wishing to leave his craft for good, he and his wife move to a new country and city and are enjoying getting on with life when he receives a letter from a reader of his previous novel, and is pulled into the mysterious world of a taxidermist who is trying to perfect a play allegory of the Holocaust, in which a monkey called Virgil and a donkey called Beatrice represent the Jewish victims.A lot more transpires beyond this, but.... no spoilers.This novel got fairly annihilated by critics at the time. Most of this criticism seemed to be on two fronts - firstly, it was felt that Martel was being disrespectful of the Holocaust through his allegory, and secondly, it was felt that in writing a version of himself into the novel he was overly consumed by his own egotism.I didn't feel either of these things when I read it. It shouldn't have worked but it did, despite being really quite odd. I don't think for a minute Martel was making light of the Holocaust - on the contrary, as his character was trying to do, I feel he was simply trying to use an alternative view to bring home the horrors of what happened. It's difficult reading in places, and I think it successfully enables you to properly place the horrors in your mind in relation to the actual Holocaust, despite it being represented in a different way. I also enjoyed Martel as a writer writing about him writing the book we were essentially reading. I think that's been done before, but for me it was interesting rather than a display of arrogance and self-importance.4.5 stars - a short yet astonishing read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When Beatrice and Virgil was released in 2010, it received scathing reviews from critics. I had received an advanced reader's edition of Yann Martel's book, but after seeing such bad reviews, my copy of Beatrice and Virgil got relegated to the back of my shelf. When looking for a short book to read, I found it and decided to give it a whirl, half expecting to stop after a few pages. Well, I finished the book in two sittings.Beatrice and Virgil is a cerebral, philosophical novel that, at its core, is a Holocaust story. Henry is the narrator, and he is a highly successful author who wants to write a story about the Holocaust that is creative but raw. He comes up with a "flip book" that is part essay, part fiction. Certain that he created something brilliant, Henry was devastated to learn that his book would not be accepted by his publisher. Restless, Henry moves, takes up a job at a chocolate store and spends time answering fan letters. One day, he received a cryptic letter from someone locally, asking for help. Henry seeks out his fan, and he strikes up an odd friendship with the man, also named Henry, who was a taxidermist.I won't reveal too much more about the plot, but suffice it to say that the last few pages had an unexpected turn. At least this reader didn't see it coming.Critics blasted Martel for writing a Holocaust story as an animal allegory, trivializing these events through the torture of a donkey and a Howler monkey. I think the critics missed the point. Just like his main character, Martel devised a creative but raw story about the Holocaust that is provocative and gripping. There are parts of Beatrice and Virgil that will grab you by the throat (and be warned: a heart-wrenching scene of animal cruelty). By the end of the book, I felt quite convinced that Martel pulled it off.So, decide for yourself if you think Beatrice and Virgil is a work of creativity or trivialization. For me, it was a work of pure creativity.FTC: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review on my blog.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I guess everyone is introduced to Yann Martel's writing through the beautiful and wonderful LIFE OF PI. I loved that novel and although it has been several years since I read it, the story stays with me.It was with eagerness that I picked up BEATRICE AND VIRGIL. The prose is excellent, though it seems to lack the depth and beauty of PI. The narrative, though seemingly pedestrian at first, carries you along.Martel loves language, that is obvious in this novel as well as LIFE OF PI, and he makes his readers love language as well. He also loves art and obviously believes in its power.This novel seems to be an exploration of the power of art set against the backdrop of processing the horror of the Holocaust. If that sounds strange, it is, but it seems to work in this book.In this novel, we see the power of art to help us process things that are too terrible to deal with in all of their ugliness. They must be filtered, subdued, even tamed through art forms. Only then can they be handled and only then can their power over us be destroyed, or at least managed.The story in this novel, and the story within the story in this novel was lovely until, quite suddenly, it wasn't. And when it got ugly, it got hideous and it did so at lightening speed and in such a way that it leaves you feeling attacked and ill at ease.I find it unsettling that in a novel about trying to use art to heal, Martel uses it to harm.In short, this story is going to stay with me for a while. Though I think I would like to set side and forget much of it. I won't be able to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I find this book very good. Henry, a writer, who is going through his down time, met a taxidermist who wanted him to review his play. The taxidermist was writing about a fable story of a monkey and a donkey. Who would've thought that this story is based on a true story of the taxidermist's experience during the Nazi time? Quite slow at the beginning but picks up fast at the end with a touch of horror. Smart book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What begins as an entertaining exercise in "ego" quickly becomes SO much more.

    The novel's protagonist is an eerily familiar author who is in a holding pattern following the wild success of his first book --a fabulist narrative featuring animals as the main characters. "Henry" recedes from public life while politely continuing to answer his fan mail which, on one occasion, includes some oddly compelling script-pages from a play-in-progress and a plea for writerly help to complete it.

    Henry meets the playwright, a gruff and talented taxidermist, and begins to suspect that the play in question might be an attempt at something he had recently failed to find: a new way to discuss the Holocaust.

    The play-within-the-book is largely a dialog between Beatrice, a donkey and Virgil, a howler monkey. It is parceled out to the reader(s) in a disjointed fashion which heightens its dreamlike surrealism, its uncomfortable but thought-provoking beauty, and its author's quiet desperation.

    The back-and-forth between Henry and the taxidermist is tense and mysterious and yields vapors of revelation that eventually coalesce into a surprising (and somewhat horrific) ending.

    I love the way the scope of this book grows using simple tools and spare prose. Martel artfully explores the difficulties of his core themes without alienating the reader or going too far over her/his head. This is an impressive trick done expertly. Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is no Life of Pi, but there is plenty of brilliance in this disturbing, intensely compelling, ugly story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed Life of Pi - I liked this work as well, but for different reasons. It read a little faster than Life of Pi, to me, because portions of the book were in play format, and they go quickly. The allegorical/symbolic nature of the book really sold the book for me, in that it was solid enough that you understood the importance of the symbolism to the work (and the author), but subtle enough that you weren't being beaten over the head with it, which I think tends to diminish the power of symbolism if you're being smacked with it. The ending ending (yes, I used ending twice for a purpose, but I don't want to tell why so as not to spoil) was very powerful.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Unfortunately I ended up unimpressed by this novel. Martel made an attempt to try a new way to write of "the horrors" of the holocaust but in the end it just didn't work. It worked for the first 150 pages or so and then it stopped working. The story was so slow moving that I felt like Martel was trying to make the reader think more than he was trying to tell a story and then the ending was something out of a bad crime novel. It just didn't fit.I don't really recommend this book and I especially don't recommend it for anyone who can't deal with reading about animal cruelty. There is a brief period where Martel is describing torture of a donkey and it made me cringe (and I don't cringe easily!)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was well-written, but the narrative lacked any kind of punch. The taxidermist was so clearly a former Nazi, and his play wasn't nearly compelling enough to explain the narrator's interest in him or blindness toward what he is (although I did like the description of the pear).

    The book tries too hard to be too clever. Both main characters having the same name; narrator Henry's book-publishing ideas (which feel a little too auto-biographical); the classical references. All in all, just a huge disappointment. It could have been better.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow. Started slow and slightly boring and at the end quickly built with an unexpected twist to a serious crescendo, the rapidity of which both left one reeling and slightly unsatisfied. Overall I would recommend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this was a remarkable book. While not as gripping or perhaps quite as well-constructed as Life of Pi, which remains one of the most engaging and original books I've read, it was clever both in style and content and interesting in the point it tackles - that of how the Holocaust is represented (or not) in cultural media, especially in comparison to other historical events.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really enjoyed this lively and surprising story which is loosely connected to his other novel -- Life of Pi -- which I adored.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have read the reviews which complain of the derivative nature of the book ('Waiting for Godot' etc)and the obviousness of the allegory, and I concur to a degree, but Martel does have a narrative and descriptive power that keeps me fixed and fascinated; in this case horrified too, particularly by the skinning of the red fox and the casual violence of the boy near the end of the story. The taxidermist Henry is well drawn in being so faintly drawn - his passive menace reminded me for some reason of the murderer Dr Harold Shipman. This story is no 'Life of Pi', but it offers something different and is a worthwhile read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There is a certain level of awe-inspiring coordination that takes place during catastrophes. In particularly bad disasters, teams of people and dogs come out to try and locate survivors and victims. This book reminded me of them, the cadaver dogs and their handlers. What they do takes skill, hard work, and a lot of compassion - yet I wish they didn't have to exist. It would be nice if we lived in a world where all endings of life were humane, peaceful, and understandable - but we don't. In the same way, "Beatrice and Virgil" made me reflect on a kind of horror that we rarely face or even acknowledge. There are obvious references to the Holocaust in this story but it is bigger than that if we let it be so. All the bad things that we inflict upon one another also need to be faced, or else can't prevent them from happening.I cried when I read this book, but I don't regret it - this is the kind of story that needs to be read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I didn't really know what to expect. I know the novel got pretty panned by critics when it came out. I'm not even sure why I picked it up - I wasn't that much of a fan of Life of Pi, which I thought was too contrived. And then it took me awhile to warm up to this novel, which starts a bit too randomly, a bit too cute, a bit too cloyingly, and somewhere near the middle I was starting to lose patience. But then it picks up again. The end, the games for Gustav, were some of the most troubling things I have ever read. Not necessarily in a bad way, but just in that sort of dug into your soul way. If it weren't for the last twenty of so pages, I think I would have rated this far lower, maybe 2, 2.5? And you need the rest of the novel to get to the last twenty pages. Pleasantly surprised I guess is the more concise way to put it. I was pleasantly surprised.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Risky, audicious tale of Henry, a famous writer. After his new manuscript is greeted with bemused scorn by his editors Henry withdraws from literary life and, with his wife, moves to a town in Europe, where he pursues various interests unrelated to writing and responds to queries from readers of his published books. One day he receives a letter from a reader asking for his help. Enclosed with the letter is an excerpt from a story by Flaubert and a piece of dialogue in which a character named Virgil is trying to explain to a character named Beatrice the unique and essential nature of a pear. Henry meets the author of the letter--an elderly taxidermist--and learns that the dialogue is part of a work-in-progress in which Beatrice (a donkey) and Virgil (a howler monkey) discuss...well, everything. An undercurrent of violence and persecution occasionally breaks through the surface of the action--the Holocaust is evoked--which culminates in a bloody and terrifying climax. The novel is a powerful meditation on unreasoning hate and victimization. Always thought provoking, often despairing, its power is not diminished by offering no solution. Martel was unfairly slammed by critics for not writing Life of Pi 2. And while Beatrice & Virgil is flawed and will alienate some readers, it will satisfy if approached on its own terms.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very very well written and very very clever book, but it freaked me out. The contrast, juxtapositions, the allusions and allegories are very clever and thought-provoking. However, I couldn't bring myself to read the violent descriptions.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In general, people seem to be quite divided in their ratings and reviews of this book. I, unfortunately, belong in the negative camp. I think the idea of the book is quite good, and I usually like the concept of a story within a story. However, I only kept reading because I knew it was a short book and wanted to see if the ending was better. Unfortunately it wasn't. One positive thing was that the book did make me think, especially the last section with games. Alas, this didn't make up for the boring and confusing read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought it was good and thought provoking. It's a little hard to explain what it is -- how the story of a writer helping out an anti-social taxidermist who is writing a play about a donkey and a monkey can actually be about the Holocaust. But when you read it, it makes sense, and it's actually surprising that something thought provoking can still be written about the Holocaust.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What an incredibly powerful mix of genres and subjects! I loved the way Martel uses the novel, the play and the short story to talk about a painful and incomprehensible moment in history. The play, with its Brecht-like characters, perfectly conveys the alienation and dissociation of humanity with events, an absurd and baffling experience. The novel with the creepy taxidermist, so malevolent and yet luring neatly brings the various elements together carefully leading to the shocking conclusion. Flaubert's short story with its intriguing message and bloody carnage sets the tone as a warning and fearful message to be heeded.This is not a light and fluffy read; the flimsy book is surprisingly dense; a cruel and emotional message which will stay with me for a long time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book in one day which is no reason to take this book lightly. The subject matter is dense. I respect his authors choice to use animals to tell a story. It does allow for a greater suspension of disbelief. I definately recommend this book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Not my cup of tea.Having read Life of Pi and given it 3 stars, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read another book by this author. Having read this, I feel I should have followed my instincts in the first place. I felt this was trying to be clever, metaphorical, I just found it a bit thin and basically boring.The first part, a vaguely disguised autobiography about a man who has written a hugely successful book and is having trouble with the follow-up, rang true and was an enjoyable read. The follow-up that he presents to his agent is a novel about the Holocaust with an essay on the same subject, in the form of a 'flip-book' - two front covers but no back. And then there follows an attempt at just this, not a flip-book, but an unusual take on the Holocaust, using animals as characters - and embedded within, is a play.The play reminded me of Waiting for Godot, in that very little happens - they discuss a pear for a whole scene, for instance.The ending was abrupt and very frustrating and this really only gets 2 stars because I finished it and one star is for books I abandon.A disappointing read for me but may appeal to lovers of more philosophical literature, such as that by the author Paulo Coelho.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beatrice and Virgil is a great book. It concerns itself with the story of an author Henry who wants to write about the holocaust as an allegory because he finds that the holocaust hasn't been given the fictional treatment that it deserves and is treated as a very matter of fact event by all authors.The novel drags a bit in between but the writing is fabulous. Yann Martel is probably one of the few writers in the world who could write about anything without a care in the world for the subject matter. Definitely a worthy follow up to the Life of Pi. I enjoyed this book tremendously.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow! This is one of the most engaging books I have read in a long time. I absolutely loved Life of Pi and this did not disappoint! Martel's writing style catches me and doesn't let go. I am a person who loves animals and has a high interest in the Holocaust, so book sits high on my list. I also tend to love books about strange topics or characters. The ending wasn't what I was anticipating, but actually I think it was better than I had expected.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Do I like it or hate it, I just can't decide. It lurches from whimsy to horror in a blink of an eye- I think the author has overstretched the allegory and it is sure to offend some readers. A really interesting contrast with the Boy in Striped Payjamas
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Hard to describe. Starts out concrete, moves to whimsical, and ends up in horror. Readers will probably expect hope and this time there is none.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beatrice and Virgil is one of those books for me that I am happy to have read and finished, the story and the perspective will stay with me for a while, but I know I would never read it again. I thoroughly enjoyed Life of Pi and this book was also very good. I think this is a book that people will either love or hate much like Life of Pi. As I've read in other reviews, you can't say much about the book without inadvertently giving away the story. I think this is a book that requires patience and a little dedication. There is a scene describing a pear that made me go out and find pears. I love the descriptions in the book. I think it is masterfully written and I enjoyed it a great deal.2010
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    saw the author in Wilmette - strange story
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I have tried to read this book about 10 times, picking it up and reading through and then putting it down - each time vowing to try again. I'm officially done. I don't care and I won't want to read it. I'm sure it's a fine book, but it's just not for me.On the positive side, I made a friend at work gloriously happy by passing the copy along to her so all's well that ends well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Henry the taxidermist is writing a play and seeks the assistance of Henry the author. Beatrice and Virgil are the play's central characters. The holocost is its theme. I wanted the story to "get to the point", and I think it did - in the end, which was also not what I expected.