The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times #1 Bestseller

The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times #1 Bestseller
by Joscelyn Godwin

The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times #1 Bestseller
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Book Summary Information

Author: Joscelyn Godwin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-11-01
ISBN: 1932857087
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: The Disinformation Company

Book Reviews of The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times #1 Bestseller

Book Review: Interesting Introduction to a Strange Work
Summary: 5 Stars

Joscelyn Godwin has published a number of excellent books, the most important of which is probably his first ever English translation of the famous and mysterious Renaissance epic, the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili". This book, with its clouded origins and hidden meaning, forms the basis of the novel "The Rule of Four" which has managed to work itself onto bestseller lists on the coattails of "The Da Vinci Code", though its obscure esocteric subject is much less controversial. Here Godwin explores the origins and authorship of the "Hypnerotomachia" in detail for the layreader and provides much interesting insight into this most beautiful and strange book.

The "Hypnerotomachia" was published in Venice by the famous Renaissance humanist printer Aldus Manutius in 1499 and has intrigued and confounded readers and scholars alike for 500 years. Godwin first gives an overview of the book's plot and discusses the 172 beautiful woodcut engravings that have made the book so fascinating to five centuries of readers. The book is filled with long and painstakingly detailed descriptions of architecture, statues, parades, ruins, pagan rituals, and beautiful, ethereal, naked nymphs and goddesses. In fact, it is this rather blatant erotic element that has certainly helped to make the book so popular. This scandalous aspect of the book made it so popular in fact, that today it is almost impossible to find original copies with all of its engravings intact or without censorship. Godwin also discusses at length the controversy regarding the authorship of the tome, today largely accepted by scholars and historians as the Venetian monk Francesco Colonna. "The Rule of Four", Godwin points out, makes great use of fictional elements of the famous book, inventing codes and ciphers that are reputed to hide secret knowledge in its voluminous pages. Godwin emphasizes that despite these fictional inventions that help make "The Rule of Four" entertaining, the real Hypnerotomachia is just as interesting without them.

Godwin has written an engaging and accessible book on a difficult and bizarre work. He has helped to clear up many of the mysteries that have clouded the famous book and its author and given fans of "The Rule of Four" more detail and information on the events, places, and people found in that novel. This book is a must for anyone who enjoyed "The Rule of Four" and is looking to delve deeper into the strange world of Poliphilo and his dream quest for the elusive Polia.

Summary of The Real Rule of Four: The Unauthorized Guide to The New York Times #1 Bestseller

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason?s The Rule of Four is already a bookselling phenomenon. The 28-year-old Ivy League super-achievers drew upon an authentic 1499 Renaissance text to create a thriller about two Princeton undergraduates who try to unravel the mysteries in an ancient book titled Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (pronounced HIP-nair-OTT-oh-MOCK-ee-uh Poe-LIFF-il-ee).

Noting the Da Vinci Code¬-like obsession The Rule of Four has engendered, Publishers Weekly says "readers might be tempted to buy their own copy of the Hypnerotomachia and have a go at the puzzle. After all, Caldwell and Thomason have done most of the heavy deciphering ? all that's left is to solve the final riddle, head for Rome and start digging." Now those readers inclined to take up PW?s challenge ? and those who prefer to do so from the comfort of their armchairs ? have the perfect companion, Joscelyn Godwin?s The Real Rule of Four.

The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was not translated into English for 500 years. In 1999, Godwin, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili scholars, finally achieved that near impossible task (the book was written in Latin, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean and Egyptian hieroglyphics ? and when the author couldn?t find a suitable word in those languages he made up ones of his own!).

In his new book The Real Rule of Four, Professor Godwin carefully investigates each aspect of the history of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and its use in The Rule of Four, including:

? What is the Hypnerotomachia?
? Who wrote the Hypnerotomachia? (A central theme of The Rule of Four)
? What does the Hypnerotomachia mean?
? Places and people in The Rule of Four
? Glossary of names and terms in The Rule of Four

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