The Club Dumas

The Club Dumas (original Spanish title El Club Dumas) is a 1993 novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The book is set in a world of antiquarian booksellers, echoing his previous 1990 work The Flanders Panel.
The story follows the adventures of a book dealer, Lucas Corso, who is hired to authenticate a rare manuscript by Alexandre Dumas, père.
Corso’s investigation leads him to seek out two copies of a rare book known as De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis (“Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows”).
Corso’s travels take him to Madrid (Spain), Sintra (Portugal), Paris (France), and Toledo (Spain).

On his way to Lisbon to visit the owner of one of the copies, Corso meets a pretty young girl of about 19 years old, with bright green eyes , short brown hair, no earrings or necklaces or any adornment for the body. She identifies herself as “Irene Adler”, and suggests that she is a fallen angel.

The Club Dumas is full of details ranging from the working habits of Alexandre Dumas to how one might forge a 17th-century text, as well as insight into demonology.

Roman Polanski’s film The Ninth Gate (1999) was adapted from Pérez-Reverte’s novel. While following the same basic plotline for the first two-thirds of the film, the finale is greatly altered in the movie. Several characters’ roles diminish, expand, merge, swap or disappear completely, and one of the novel’s most important subplots – the Dumas connection – is removed entirely.

Lucas Corso 150 mm height
Glasses frame – cooper
Bag – linen

Irene Adler 100 mm height
Bag – linen, leather
Books – paper, leather, with metal parts

Spring – summer 2017