Labyrinth (book)
Encyclopedia
Labyrinth is an archaeological mystery English-language novel written by Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse is an English author and broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel Labyrinth, which has been translated into more than 37 languages.- Private life :...

 set both in the Middle Ages and present-day France. It was published in 2005.

It divides into two main storylines that follow two protagonists, Alaïs (from the year 1209) and Alice (in the year 2005). The two stories occur in a shared geography and intertwine. The novel relies heavily on historical events such as the massacre at Béziers
Béziers
Béziers is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event...

 and the Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...

 against the Cathar
Cathar
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...

s in Occitania
Occitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...

, now the South of France, from around 1200. The text itself features many Occitan and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 quotes, with some misspellings. Ultimately the story becomes a quest for the Holy Grail
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...

.

In the 2006 British Book Awards
British Book Awards
The Galaxy National Book Awards are a series of British literary awards focused on the best UK writers and their works, as selected by an academy of members from the British book publishing industry...

, Labyrinth was awarded Best Read of the Year. According to The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

, it was the second best selling book in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 2006, after The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...

, selling about 865,400 copies in paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

. An extract from the novel was used in the Scottish Qualifications Authority's 2009 Standard Grade English General close reading paper.

Plot

When Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons at an archaeological site in southern France, she unearths a link with a horrific and brutal past. But it's not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there's an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off, even in the bright French sunshine. Puzzled by the words carved inside the chamber, Alice has an uneasy feeling that she has disturbed something which was meant to remain hidden...

Eight hundred years ago, on the night before a brutal civil war ripped apart Languedoc, three books were entrusted to Alais, a young herbalist and healer. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the books contain, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs. Skilfully blending the lives of two women divided by centuries but united by a common destiny, 'Labyrinth' is a powerful story steeped in the atmosphere and history of southern France.

Adaptation on TV

"Ridley Scott is reportedly developing a television adaptation of Kate Mosse novel Labyrinth.

According to Variety, the Alien director will produce the four-hour mini-series from a script by Primeval co-creator Adrian Hodges.

The original 2005 novel follows two stories, charting both the discoveries of a modern-day archaeologist and the plight of a young woman who lives through the Crusades and Cathar massacres in France.

Scott, whose production company Scott Free will team with Tandem Communications
Tandem Communications
Tandem Communications is a Munich based company which produces TV movies, miniseries, television series and film series.It was founded in 1999 by Emmy-nominated producers Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin.-Produced:* Relic Hunter...

on the project, said: "[This] story affords us the opportunity to create exciting drama that will thrill and delight the book's readers worldwide and the viewers who'll be discovering it for the first time."

He added: "We look forward to this new chapter in the long-standing relationship between Tandem and Scott Free, and also to bringing the quality that has become the hallmark of our joint efforts with Tandem to yet another piece of event television."

Labyrinth will film in southern France later this year. Production is expected to wrap up in spring 2012."

Source : http://www.digitalspy.ca/

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK