Labyrinth is an archaeological mystery English-language novel written by
Kate MosseKate 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
BéziersBéziers is a town in Languedoc in the southwest of France. It is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August...
and the
CrusadeThe Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc...
against the
CatharCatharism 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. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and...
s in
OccitaniaOccitania , also called sometimes the Oc Country , is the territory where Occitan is the traditional language in use. This cultural area is roughly the southern half of France. It includes Monaco, spans parts of Italy and Spain...
, now the South of France, from around 1200.
Discussion
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Labyrinth is an archaeological mystery English-language novel written by
Kate MosseKate 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
BéziersBéziers is a town in Languedoc in the southwest of France. It is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August...
and the
CrusadeThe Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc...
against the
CatharCatharism 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. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and...
s in
OccitaniaOccitania , also called sometimes the Oc Country , is the territory where Occitan is the traditional language in use. This cultural area is roughly the southern half of France. It includes Monaco, spans parts of Italy and Spain...
, now the South of France, from around 1200. The text itself features many Occitan and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
quotes, with some misspellings. Ultimately the story becomes a quest for the
Holy GrailAccording to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers...
.
In the 2006
British Book AwardsThe British Book Awards are given annually and promoted by the UK publishing industry trade journal Publishing News. They are also known as the Nibbies because of the golden nib-shaped trophy given to winners.-Current Awards:...
,
Labyrinth was awarded
Best Read of the Year. According to
The Sunday TimesThe 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 KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
in 2006, after
The Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective fiction novel written by American author Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of...
, selling about 865,400 copies in
paperbackPaperback, 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 cardboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples.-Use:...
. 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 during an archaeological dig 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.
External links