Here are some comments that Katherine Neville made in her letters to me. (Once in a while, I'll make my own comments on what she says, too; my comments always begin with "VK"):
NOTE from 2018: I have completely changed my mind about some of these things, especially about Mireille and Marat. The one thing I still stand by is what I said about Mireille's character flaws. Yes, she has a lot of character flaws, but so do we all. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. I don't think she has any more than most people. It's what makes her seem so real.
Her other writings:
She mentions a short story called "La Bellini's Favors". See the main page ("What has Katherine Neville
Written?" section) for details.
Favorite and least favorite characters:
"I have my own favorite/least favorite characters for The Eight,
but no one ever guesses who they are, or why. Hint: an author's
least favorite characters are those who refuse to do what the author
wants, who are recalcitrant about assuming their proper role in the drama.
The author's favorite characters are the ones who stand up for the theme
or message of the book, with no shilly-shallying.
"My favorite character of all time is Ariel Behn in The Magic
Circle--the book you mentioned on your web page which is set "between
the wars." First, Ariel is my only vulnerable heroine thus far, in
situations where this is not necessarily an asset. And she admits and
comes to terms with her mistakes.
"Ariel is also the first of my female protagonists with an actual
living family--all the others being 'killed off in the plague' or
some-such. To the contrary, Ariel is plagued by her family: she
calls them "The behn of my existence"--and what a family. She does
explain that her family relations are rather complex. In that regard, I
was so relieved to see on your page that everyone loved the complexity of
my plots! A great big 'Whew!' for The Magic Circle, where
this is going to come in extremely handy."
VK: I guess I was a little confused: I didn't realize The Magic
Circle was set between the World Wars. The publisher's Web site makes
it seem like there are three time periods in The Magic Circle: 32
A.D., 1870, and 1989 (Ariel's story is set in 1989); I guess there must be
another subplot set between the wars.
What was cut out from The Eight?
"Just things left out due to time/page constraints (some critics
thought there was far too much there, already!) For instance,
historically I left almost all of the American-German-Russian-Greek
-Italian-Spanish subplot out. Not to mention, in the modern part, what
happened to the rest of the chess pieces--which can now go into the
sequel."
Talleyrand references:
"I used Poniatowski's multi-volume biography in French, plus
Talleyrand's own memoirs and those of his (many) lovers..."
What chess game was used in The Eight?
"Clue: it was a game used in international world-champion level competition, in which a black pawn, protected by a knight (Solarin) and a rook (Nim) approaches the queening square, and white concedes."
VK: So, I guess it wasn't Karpov vs. Korchnoi, 1978. Someone,
please help me out with this!!!
More chess:
"There's a wonderful chess game in A Calculated Risk. It was
found for me in heated competition among the US, Canadian and British
chess experts I know who were readers/fans from The Eight. The
winner?--at the final hour, after the page proofs were set, Divinsky, head
of Canada's Olympic chess team, came up with a real historical game of the
Rothschild period that went into the book. And for those chess-nuts, I
think I should "plug" his wonderful book written with the British nat'l
champ, where they try to figure out--all things being equal--what if all
the great players of history sat down across tables: who would the
greatest have been? Warriors of the Mind, Nathan Divinsky &
Raymond Keene, Hardinge Simpole"
Other authors:
Katherine Neville mentions some of her favorite authors: Robertson
Davies, Alexandre
Dumas, Sparkle Hayter. She also likes Laurie King, but she has read
only the Kate
Martinelli series, not the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series.
VK: Interestingly, at the time I received this letter, I had read only
the Holmes/Russell series, not the Kate Martinelli series. I've read
the Martinelli series since then, and I highly recommend it. I'm not
surprised that Katherine Neville likes Dumas; a reviewer said that
Mireille's story reminded him/her of Dumas.
The movie of The Eight:
Here are Katherine Neville's choices of actors she thinks would be good in the movie of The Eight. (This is not meant to influence your votes, of course.):
VK: I have to say I agree with some of her choices and disagree with
others. Winona Ryder would be my choice as Catherine, too. I think
Emanuelle Béart is too old and not flighty enough to play
Valentine, though; if there's any role in The Eight I could see her
in, it would be Corday. For Talleyrand, my first choice would be Gerard
Depardieu. Katherine Neville didn't mention anyone she'd like to see as
Mireille; I'll ask her about this in a future letter. My choice would be
Julie Delpy.
Mireille's name:
VK: In my letter, I had asked Katherine Neville where she got the name
"Mireille". Since she is an opera fan, I thought she might have heard of
an opera called Mireille and liked the name. It turns out she
hadn't heard of that opera, though. (Actually, I'm not surprised; it's
very obscure, and I found out about it almost by accident.) Here's what
she says about the name:
"As for her name, the root would be mirer, meaning to mirror
something or to candle an egg to see though the shell, two allusions that
fit manyof the actions surrounding her. Also, because of the way
"Mireille" is pronounced in French, Mee-RAY, combined with
Valentine's family name, 'de Remy,' which she later adopts, I made a
little personal pun: 'mi-re-do-re-mi.'"
VK: I'm confused about something. Katherine Neville says Mireille
"adopted" the name de Remy. I thought that was her name all along. Also,
I've read about another origin of the name. I looked up "Mireille" in a
book of first names, which said it came from the Provençal
mirar, which means "to admire". Very appropriate, I thought!
Is Montglane a real place?
"I invented Montglane, but in its layout I was describing the abbey at
Caen, where Charlotte Corday was actually in residence. I later learned
from a reader that there was a very similar abbey in the south of France,
reputed to have treasure, which burned to the ground at a later date."
Is the Montglane Service real?
"I invented the Montglane Service, but there were many similar chess
sets described in the Legend of Charlemagne and other medieval
romances. The Charlemagne chess set Llewellyn shows her a picture of
(designed much later than Charlemagne's time) is still in the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris."
How many languages has The Eight been translated
into?
"I think The Eight is translated into 17 languages. Some that
spring to mind are: Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish,
Serbo-Croat, Czech, as well as the more usual European languages. In
addition to these, A Calculated Risk has been translated into
Russian. Both books will soon be translated into Catalan by my Spanish
publisher. The titles are quite different in some languages: the German,
for instance, is 'The Montglane Game.' I'll try to get you a complete
list as soon as we know what languages The Magic Circle will be
translated into."
VK: See the list of translations, for the
ones I know about.
She begins: "I've been snowed in for three days, so I finally got
everything caught up besides taxes, that I have to do before heading out
on book tour. My new book, THE MAGIC CIRCLE, is shipping to the
bookstores right now, and should be available by its pub date, February
17."
VK: Wow! This is even better than I thought!
Main characters with families:
"Yes, Ariel Behn in THE MAGIC CIRCLE is my first main character to have
a family--although of course Lily Rad had a family in THE EIGHT--and what
a family! Wow. The Behns were a real breakthrough for me. I can't say
too much about it, though, because her family members all play significant
roles in the story.
"Not only do we know nothing about Cat's parents in THE EIGHT, as you
observed, we don't even know anything about her appearance! At one time,
Hollywood wanted her to have a "backstory" family--with a brother named
Brad! Hmm."
VK: "Hmm" is right!
Is The Magic Circle set between the wars?
"THE MAGIC CIRCLE is the same book earlier described as 'between the
wars.' Actually, the action takes place over two thousand years, so it's
between a lot of wars. But the majority of the Behn family lived
between the wars, which forms the crux of the story. Keep checking the
website. I think they're going to put my Q&A on there pretty soon,
which describes a lot more about the book."
More about what was left out of The Eight, and what
will be in the sequel:
"Nothing was cut out of THE EIGHT. Things were left out
because I ran out of time and page count. It went 50 pages over the 500
pages we were shooting for, and I delivered it six weeks late: a no-no,
for publishing schedules. But Napoleon dropped into my book a chapter
early, so I had to revise some scenes from the way I'd first visualized
them, which took time. Those tricky characters!
"In the sequel, we'll see lots of things that went on in the historical
characters' lives behind the scenes, that we didn't learn about in THE
EIGHT. I can't say too much more than that before I write it because, as
Hemingway used to say, talking about a book before you write it dilutes it
in your brain."
Was the same chess game used in both stories?
"Same chess game for Mireille and Cat's timeframes."
Laurie King and Sparkle Hayter:
"The only Laurie King book I've read was the first one about the
painter accused of murdering children. It won the Edgar award for Best
First Mystery when I was a judge. Sparkle Hayter's books are so funny,
they just tickle me."
VK: This is a correction to something I had said earlier. I thought
that Katherine Neville had read all the books in Laurie King's Kate
Martinelli series.
Gerard Depardieu as Talleyrand:
"Gerard Depardieu can't play Talleyrand: he looks exactly like
Danton--a part, in fact, that he played in the French movie by the same
name. Talleyrand was blond with a turned-up nose, and looked like an
intelligent California surfer in lace jabot. They called him 'the angora
cat' because he was so suave, not dark and intense at all like
Depardieu."
VK: I'm afraid I have to disagree here. Depardieu was wonderful as
Danton, but that doesn't mean he can't play Talleyrand. Depardieu doesn't
have to be dark and intense all the time.
Mireille and Valentine:
"Mireille and Valentine are cousins on their mothers' side. De Remy is
Valentine's father's name. Remember that David tells Talleyrand he knew
the father's family. Valentine is David's godchild, not Mireille.
Mireille didn't even know Valentine had a living godfather. More about
the two girls and their relationship in the sequel."
VK: For some reason, I had thought Mireille and Valentine were cousins
on their fathers' side, and they both had the same last name, de Remy.
Catherine and Mireille, and the mark on their hands; also,
more about Mireille's daughter, and about Catherine and Solarin:
"Marks on your palm, like birthmarks, aren't genetic. Mireille's
daughter in the book--Elisa, aka Charlotte--was a real historical figure,
so she can't be the ancestress of my fictional ones." [VK: note--I had
thought Catherine might be a descendant of Mireille's daughter] "That's
why I invented Charlot, the son. Talleyrand actually married off the real
Charlotte to his nephew so he could leave his vast property to her. Women
couldn't inherit land in France--Salic Law, discussed in THE MAGIC CIRCLE.
The mark on their hands is an invention in the mind of an author.
Catherine doesn't marry Solarin in the book; there's no mention that they
plan to marry, either."
VK: I know very well that birthmarks aren't genetic, but my father and
I thought that this particular mark might be. I guess we were wrong. I
had no idea Mireille's daughter was a real person. According to the
biographies of Talleyrand I've read, the woman he married off to his
nephew was named Dorothea, not Charlotte or Elisa. Also, I had always
thought (or hoped?) that Catherine and Solarin would get married. I know
the book doesn't specifically say that, but it's the impression I was left
with at the end of the book. And, according to the messages I've
received, a lot of readers were left with this impression, too!
The French translation of The Eight:
"The French publisher went out of business so we're trying to get a new
one to do both my earlier books."
Mireille and Marat:
"Mireille a murderess? How can she be acting in self defense, stabbing
a guy who's sitting unarmed and naked in a bathtub? Maybe she's
protecting Talleyrand and some of her fellow nuns, or the pieces in
England or whatever. But my picture of her motivations would have to
include a good hard look at how she has interacted with everyone since
Valentine's death: Talleyrand, their two children, as well as her later
extended family in Russia--not to mention with Cat, whom she's left
holding the bag (or at least, the queenship.) By last count, though,
Mireille does seem to be everyone's all-time favorite character, despite
what I myself would have to perceive, if she were my own real-life friend,
as more than a few character flaws. This ethics problem is really at the
heart of the book, and it's going to be really interesting when I do the
sequel. (Book after next.)"
VK: I still think it was self-defense. So what if he was in the
bathtub? He could still have killed her; his "wife" Simonne certainly
could have; she was banging on the door. He could also have had her put
to death, just like Valentine. And Mireille knew all along that her life
was in danger from him. See my article on Mireille
and Marat for details. I don't really see what her interactions with
Catherine and her family in Russia have to do with her reasons for killing
Marat. Yes, she does have character flaws, but so does everyone! It is
very hard for me to think of Mireille as a murderer. By the way, Mireille
is no longer the all-time favorite character; Catherine is now the
overwhelming favorite. But Mireille is my favorite character.