The Royal Family is a novel by the American author William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann

William Tanner Vollmann is an American novelist, journalist, short story writer, essayist and winner of the National Book Award...

. The novel centers Henry Tyler's private investigative work and then personal desire to find the mysterious Queen of Whores, the matriarch of the prostitutes in the area of Tenderloin, San Francisco.

Structure

The novel is divided into thirty-six books, sub-divided into five hundred and ninety-three chapters.

Book I, The Reduction Method

Book II, Irene

Book III, Visits and Visitations

Book IV, Billable Hours

Book V, The Mark of Cain

Curse and mark of Cain

In Christianity and Judaism, the curse of Cain and the mark of Cain refer to the passages in the Biblical Book of Genesis where God declared that Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, was cursed for murdering his brother, and placed a mark upon him to warn others that killing Cain would provoke...

Book VI, Ladies of the Queen

Book VII, "Sometimes It Helps to Talk About These Things"

Book VIII, Sunflower

Book IX, "Easier Than You Might Ever Dream"

Book X, An Essay on Bail

Bail

Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...

Book XI, "Easier Than You Might Ever Dream" (continued)

Book XII, The False Irene

Book XIII, "Business Comes First"

Book XIV, Domino

Book XV, Vigs

Book XVI, The Queen of Las Vegas

Book XVII, Buying Their Dream Home

Book XVIII, Feminine Circus

Book XIX, A Meditation on the Stock Market

Stock market

A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...

Book XX, "Demons Are Here"

Book XXI, Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

Book XXII, The Wicked King's Secret

Book XXIII, Justin

Book XXIV, Sapphire

Book XXV, The Truth

Book XXVI, Celia

Book XXVII, Geary Street

Book XXVIII, John

Book XXIX, Space Invaders

Space Invaders

is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...

Book XXX, Little Baby Birds

Book XXXI, Filial Duties

Book XXXII, The Fall of Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

Book XXXIII, Kitty's Soliloquy

Book XXXIV, Dan Smooth

Book XXXV, Coffee Camp

Book XXXVI, The Royal Family