The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett

Author:Charlie Lovett
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Mystery & Detective, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781101622803
Publisher: Viking Adult
Published: 2013-05-27T23:00:00+00:00

London, 1875

In a sumptuously appointed office above his retail premises just around the corner from St. Paul’s, Benjamin Mayhew sat at a wide desk composing correspondence. He had expected a visit from Phillip Gardner, his most profitable client, but one o’clock had come and gone and there had been no sign of the collector. Perhaps, thought Benjamin, his train had been delayed.

Benjamin had worked in the book business for over twenty years now, and had built a wealthy clientele who made him a very good living. He well remembered his first encounter with his favorite client, William Henry Smith—the businessman who now served as secretary to the treasury under Benjamin Disraeli. Smith had indeed been intrigued by the book on Ireland’s Shakespeare forgeries and had, over the years, been a steady customer. Though he was by no means a collector, Smith was an intelligent and ambitious man with a level of intellectual curiosity that made good books an essential part of his life. He had become more than a client to Benjamin; he had become a friend and a man for whom the bookseller bore the utmost respect. Benjamin had provided several volumes of source material for Smith’s 1857 book, Bacon and Shakespeare, an expansion of the ideas set forth in the pamphlet that Benjamin had read all those years ago on the train to Oxford. Benjamin had a copy of this book, presented to him by the author, on an honored shelf in his office. The two men had enjoyed a good laugh together when, at Smith’s club, the author had read aloud the second chapter of the book, titled “A Brief History of Shakespeare.”

William Shakespeare’s is indeed a negative history.

Of his life, all that we positively know is the period of his death.

We do not know when he was born, nor when, nor where, he was educated.

We do not know when, or where, he was married, nor when he came to London.

We do not know when, where, or in what order, his plays were written or performed; nor when he left London.

He died April 23rd, 1616.

“Is that the whole chapter?” Benjamin had asked, laughing.

“Well,” said Smith, “It’s all we know for sure, so it’s all I need say.”

—

Phillip Gardner had first approached Benjamin several months earlier because of his neighbor. “I should like to begin collecting historical documents,” he had told Benjamin on the floor of his shop.

“What sort of documents?” asked Benjamin.

“Any that might be of interest to Mr. Reginald Alderson,” said Gardner.

Thus Phillip Gardner became the best sort of client—one motivated not by intellectual curiosity or literary passion but by hatred. Reginald Alderson was a passionate collector of historical documents, Phillip Gardner was bound by birth to hate Reginald Alderson, therefore Phillip would use his wife’s money to pay any price to outbid Alderson at auction and go to any lengths to outfox him in other means of acquisition. All this he told Benjamin at their first meeting. Since then, Benjamin had been Phillip Gardner’s primary supplier of material.

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