The bestselling phenomenon – a 6,000-year adventure through the history of books and reading
A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘Outstanding, universal and unique’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘A literary phenomenon.’ TLS
‘Masterly.‘ ECONOMIST
‘Mindboggling’ TELEGRAPH
Long before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched emissaries to the edges of the earth to bring them back.
In Papyrus, celebrated classicist Irene Vallejo traces the dramatic history of the book and the fight for its survival. This is the story of the book’s journey from oral tradition to scrolls to codices, and how that transition laid the very foundation of Western culture. And it is a story full of heroic adventures, bloodshed and megalomania – from the battlefields of Alexander the Great and the palaces of Cleopatra to the libraries of war-torn Sarajevo and Oxford.
An international bestseller, Papyrus brings the ancient world to life and celebrates the enduring power of the written word.
A FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘Outstanding, universal and unique’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘A literary phenomenon.’ TLS
‘Masterly.‘ ECONOMIST
‘Mindboggling’ TELEGRAPH
Long before books were mass-produced, scrolls hand copied on reeds pulled from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and Pharaohs were so determined to possess them that they dispatched emissaries to the edges of the earth to bring them back.
In Papyrus, celebrated classicist Irene Vallejo traces the dramatic history of the book and the fight for its survival. This is the story of the book’s journey from oral tradition to scrolls to codices, and how that transition laid the very foundation of Western culture. And it is a story full of heroic adventures, bloodshed and megalomania – from the battlefields of Alexander the Great and the palaces of Cleopatra to the libraries of war-torn Sarajevo and Oxford.
An international bestseller, Papyrus brings the ancient world to life and celebrates the enduring power of the written word.
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Reviews
'One can be a masterful philologist and at the same time write like the angels. Irene Vallejo flips communication upside down until she turns her dialogue with the reader into a true literary feast.'
'A very free and very wise and very digressive journey through the world of the book from the creation of the Library of Alexandria to the fall of the Roman Empire; Irene Vallejo has delivered an outstanding, universal and unique book.'
'Irene Vallejo has written an incredible, universal, and unique book which will no doubt become a classic.'
'It's a joy to read Irene Vallejo's prose, she is such a brilliant creator and full of sensitivity.'
A literary phenomenon . . . didactic and daring . . . elegant and richly digressive.
A fascinating and profound, yet delightfully personal take on books in the ancient world, with many illuminating insights into more modern literature and life.
'In this fabulous, anecdote-filled history, award-winning Spanish writer Vallejo charts the fates and fortunes of books and libraries in the ancient world... As well as chronicling the thrills and spills of literary culture, she celebrates those whose heroic efforts ensured the continuity of the written word.'
Vallejo enlivens history with imagination and personal anecdote as she traces the book's lineage from scrolls made of aquatic plant pith to codices and tablets, digressing to show how its development is interwoven with the development of western civilisation. Is Papyrus available as an ebook? Yes, but I'll bet any reader drawn to it is going to want to save up for the hardcover.'
'Irene Vallejo has a writer's passion for books and a classicist's fascination with the way they came to be. She is also imaginative, lively and contemporary. In her hands written texts are not only a sensual pleasure, but living and frequently disruptive... Ms Vallejo has a notable talent for evoking ancient scenes. Her description, for example, of the poet Martial returning to Spain from Rome, near the end of the book, is masterly.'
'Papyrus is packed with fascinating insights... Vallejo is a diligent scholar, excelling with her accounts of the human experience of books.'
'A mindboggling history of the earliest books... Vallejo is a novelist and she has a storyteller's ability to animate her subjects... and the story she tells is impressively rip-roaring... She draws a six-thousand-year line from the clay tablets of Mesopotamia to the e-reader tablets of today and leaves her readers inspired, invigorated and sincerely grateful for the invention of the book.'