The 13 Bookson Architecture, Love and Villainy, by Cletus

Abstract

Juxtaposing text and illustration can induce a state of subtle confusion in the reader and “defamiliarize” select elements of literary craft—in the case of this thesis, the authorial mask in a work of historiographic fiction. The Thirteen Books on Architecture, Love and Villainy by Cletus is an original novel in three parts, which interposes illustrations within a First Century CE Hollywoodesque escape-caper story; a text on the art of architecture not unlike The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius; and a series of biographical sketches after Plutarch’s Parallel Lives of the Noble Romans and Greeks. In the main storyline Cletus, a Gallic inmate and derisively styled “architect” of an Ephesian carcer, survives by acting as an informant composing a compendium on the art of architecture. As he attempts to elicit incriminating evidence from an innocent cellmate, he uncovers a clue to the mystery behind his own denunciation. Cletus’ target – the unusually compelling Aristion – must survive and escape for a terrible wrong to be righted. Yet, that escape will not only doom Cletus but risk the life of his only surviving child. The architect’s effort to unravel a conspiracy involving counterfeit Tyrian-dyed wool, “more valuable than spun gold” and pull off an undetectable escape pits Cletus against Roman lawyers (slightly less vicious) Parthian torturers, an infamous courtesan, gods, goddesses, two largely misunderstood apostles, and his own failures and self-deceptions. In the end, Cletus understands, that in order to be free, both Aristion and his true love Nerissa must become immortal and “escape without escaping.”