Fake Books, Fictional Detectives

“Would anyone go and ‘consult’ him? One feels not.” In a rediscovered Agatha Christie document, the author admits to a love-hate relationship with her creation, the debonair Belgian detective Poirot, and critiques other mystery writers.

The Marquis de Sade wanted even more days of Sodom? Unfinished novels of great writers.

“Wanting for some unknown reason to fill a space in his study with a selection of false books—complete with witty names he thought up himself—[Dickens] wrote to a bookbinder with a list of ‘imitation book-backs’ to be created specially for his bookshelf.” Now, the New York Public Library has re-created several of these fake books.

And speaking of the NYPL! Thanks to a donation, the library has reconsidered its controversial plan to relocate many of its books.

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