At the end of the book are essays about:Ħ. These then lead you into the images of the Voynich Manuscript. Following on, is an introduction by Deborah Harkness (author of the All Souls Trilogy and a historian herself), there is a preface by Raymond Clemens. This letter was to only be opened after Ethel's death. Even the dust jacket is excellent quality - it is not a paper dust cover, but some form of plastic that will keep the hard cover of the book clean for years to come without deteriorating in the same way that a paper dust jacket would.Īs you open the book you see images of the envelope and letter that Ethel Voynich wrote on the 19th July 1930, after the death of her husband Wilfrid Voynich. Excellent quality paper, with excellent images. I'm very impressed with the quality of this Yale edition. I sat there for a while and then decided to take off the shrink wrap. Don't ask me why this was - maybe I had an inner wish to keep the book in pristine condition, or perhaps I didn't want to 'read' it until someone had deciphered all the gobbledegook text. Holding the book in my hands, I was still somewhat reluctant to remove the shrink-wrap. Reading about the manuscript in this novel spurred me on to 'read' it. In this novel, Harkness incorporates the Voynich Manuscript into the storyline. I've been reading The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. I purchased the Voynich Manuscript earlier this year, but it's shrink-wrap remained unopened until a few days ago. Will the boys discover the fundamental building blocks of creation? Or will they be distracted by puberty and the potent force of naked girls in a pond? YOU DECIDE!* In their plight, they turn to the only adult who understands them - Roger Bacon, who becomes a mentor figure for their youthful adventures until he is gradually expunged from existence by people who don't understand that Francis Bacon is an entirely different person. There is a darker underlying theme of corporate greed and identity theft as they struggle against alien lizard Nazis who want to suppress their discoveries. Presented in a choose-your-own-adventure format, the story of Jeb and Pants is touching and filled with fraternal warmth, with the older, wiser twin Jeb caring deeply for his seconds-younger brother who was dropped on his head as a child. The Voynich Manuscript is a thrilling roller-coaster ride through the lives and loves of Jeb and Pants, two teenage boys in the 15th century struggling to understand the word as seen through a microscope with the assistance of seven comedy nymphs. I wouldn't mind having a physical version on my coffee table to flip through every now and again. The rest looks like someone's drawings and the kind of text you see when you try to read a book in your dreams. The first section makes for somewhat interesting reading, if a little dry. Maybe it's in a language older than mankind and its deciphering will wake Cthulhu from his dead and dreaming slumber on the floor of the Pacific. As a sf/fantasy reader, the book most resembles a wizard's spell book or an alien explorer's journal. There are some sections that look botanical, some medical, some astronomical, and some featuring naked women. I can see how people would arrive at either interpretation. Is it a scientist's enciphered journal or just meaningless gibberish? The introduction traces the Voynich manuscripts history from its discovery to modern day and hypothesizes its origins. I've been aware of the Voynich Manuscript for about a decade and how often do you get to look at an undecipherable Renaissance era tome? When this popped up on Netgalley, I had to give it a go. This book is divided into three sections: two introductions and the manuscript itself. The Voynich Manuscript is a book from the 15th century, written in a language no one can identify, let alone read.
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