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Traces Remain: Essays and Explorations
In these wonderfully stylish and eclectic essays, Charles Nicholl pursues the fugitive traces of the past with the skill and relish that have earned him a reputation as one of the finest literary and historical detectives of our time. His subjects range from a murder-case in Renaissance Rome to the disappearance of Jim Thompson in 1960s Malaya, from the boyhood of Christopher Marlowe to the crimes of Jack the Ripper, from the remnants of a lost Shakespeare play to the last days of the poet-boxer Arthur Cravan in a Mexican fishing port. Full of insights, curiosities and unexpected discoveries, these thirty pieces written over two decades show the author of The Lodger and Leonardo da Vinci at his inquisitive best.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2011
13 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Charles Nicholl
28 books69 followersCharles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Nashe and William Shakespeare. Besides his literary output, Nicholl has also presented documentary programs on television. In 1974 he was the winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer Award for his account of an LSD trip entitled 'The Ups and The Downs'.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 17, 2018
25 essays, most of which I found extremely interesting, very informative and well written. Many of them encouraged me to read more about the subjects of the essays.
Essays as follows:
1. Thomas Coryate’s last journeyings
2. Mr Mountjoy at the Magistrate’s Court (in connection with a ‘Naughty House’)
3. A Celebration of John Aubrey
4. Edward Kelley (alchemist) in Bohemia
5. English Portraiture in the Sixteenth Century
6. Christopher Marlowe’s Boyhood
7. Ben Jonson and the Uses of Comedy
8. The Remnants of a Lost Shakespeare Play
9. Shakespeare’s First Biographer
10. Shakespeare Authorship Controversy
11. Antonio Pigafetta in the New World
12. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
13. The Secrets of St Proculus (statue in Rome), a reattribution
14. Ippolito d’Este and Lorenzo de’ Medici
15. The Case of Beatrice Cenci
16. A New Byron Portrait? (Man in Fur Hat)
17. In Search of Sarah Walker
18. Arthur Rimbaud’s African House
19. Jack the Ripper: A new suspect?
20. Arthur Cravan in Mexico
21. The Gold Prospectors of El Dorado
22. The Legend of Colonel Fawcett
23. Alexandria Past and Present
24. The Disappearance of Jim Thompson
25. Crows
I’m inclined to agree with the Irish Times’ review of the book: ‘Some writers are so good at what they do that they can take you anywher. Charles Nicholl is one of them.’
He’s a man of many parts which include being a raconteur, sleuth, commentator…
Fictional short stories don’t generally do it for me, essays are a quite different kettle of fish, particularly CH’s. Warmly recommended.
Essays as follows:
1. Thomas Coryate’s last journeyings
2. Mr Mountjoy at the Magistrate’s Court (in connection with a ‘Naughty House’)
3. A Celebration of John Aubrey
4. Edward Kelley (alchemist) in Bohemia
5. English Portraiture in the Sixteenth Century
6. Christopher Marlowe’s Boyhood
7. Ben Jonson and the Uses of Comedy
8. The Remnants of a Lost Shakespeare Play
9. Shakespeare’s First Biographer
10. Shakespeare Authorship Controversy
11. Antonio Pigafetta in the New World
12. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
13. The Secrets of St Proculus (statue in Rome), a reattribution
14. Ippolito d’Este and Lorenzo de’ Medici
15. The Case of Beatrice Cenci
16. A New Byron Portrait? (Man in Fur Hat)
17. In Search of Sarah Walker
18. Arthur Rimbaud’s African House
19. Jack the Ripper: A new suspect?
20. Arthur Cravan in Mexico
21. The Gold Prospectors of El Dorado
22. The Legend of Colonel Fawcett
23. Alexandria Past and Present
24. The Disappearance of Jim Thompson
25. Crows
I’m inclined to agree with the Irish Times’ review of the book: ‘Some writers are so good at what they do that they can take you anywher. Charles Nicholl is one of them.’
He’s a man of many parts which include being a raconteur, sleuth, commentator…
Fictional short stories don’t generally do it for me, essays are a quite different kettle of fish, particularly CH’s. Warmly recommended.
August 1, 2014
History, as is told and read these days, often focusses on the grand scheme of things, the all encompassing narrative; it is told in timeframes of eras, ages & epochs, with whole decades thrown into a generalization like the Hippies, or the French revolution.
I have read & tried to understand history this way, as it was taught to me - in broad sweeps, and though there may be some merit in looking at an entire age through a lens of this sort, there is sometimes great beauty & poignancy in looking at the bygone through the eyes of individuals or from the viewpoints of the mundane, everyday things.
This is what historical fiction tries to do & mostly succeeds in; it gives us a close look at people and places we are sometimes never aware even existed (I obviously don’t mean the sprawling novelizations of the lives of great people/royalty/novelists in the British tradition). These sometimes futile & inaccurate reimaginings are our forays into a world we didn’t know but recognize as our past. The why of this is quite easy - we just want to know these things.
This is why Charles Nicholl’s books have enthralled, entertained and won a fawning, loyal fan following. This collection of essays, collected & published as Traces Remain, is very much in the same tradition, and though it may seem like a few of them have been just thrown in to lend some weight to the tome, a few essays here are nothing short of stunning.
Travel, literature, history & a fascination for the arcane and the forgotten collide in these pages, producing stories like that of Thomas Caryote, Beatrice Cenci and Jim Thompson. Nicholl takes us on sometimes wild trips, give us details like that of Shakespeare’s landlord’s shady dealings and William Hazlitt’s weaknesses. They are endlessly interesting; none of these essays seem like an end in themselves, they only serve to pull you into some story or the other, and you find yourself trying to figure your way through this muddle of the past.
I took my time reading Traces Remain, if just to honour all the work that Nicholl must have put into to reveal all these obscurities & murky happenings. But sometimes just because I needed time to think about all these remains of the past, and wonder at them.
I have read & tried to understand history this way, as it was taught to me - in broad sweeps, and though there may be some merit in looking at an entire age through a lens of this sort, there is sometimes great beauty & poignancy in looking at the bygone through the eyes of individuals or from the viewpoints of the mundane, everyday things.
This is what historical fiction tries to do & mostly succeeds in; it gives us a close look at people and places we are sometimes never aware even existed (I obviously don’t mean the sprawling novelizations of the lives of great people/royalty/novelists in the British tradition). These sometimes futile & inaccurate reimaginings are our forays into a world we didn’t know but recognize as our past. The why of this is quite easy - we just want to know these things.
This is why Charles Nicholl’s books have enthralled, entertained and won a fawning, loyal fan following. This collection of essays, collected & published as Traces Remain, is very much in the same tradition, and though it may seem like a few of them have been just thrown in to lend some weight to the tome, a few essays here are nothing short of stunning.
Travel, literature, history & a fascination for the arcane and the forgotten collide in these pages, producing stories like that of Thomas Caryote, Beatrice Cenci and Jim Thompson. Nicholl takes us on sometimes wild trips, give us details like that of Shakespeare’s landlord’s shady dealings and William Hazlitt’s weaknesses. They are endlessly interesting; none of these essays seem like an end in themselves, they only serve to pull you into some story or the other, and you find yourself trying to figure your way through this muddle of the past.
I took my time reading Traces Remain, if just to honour all the work that Nicholl must have put into to reveal all these obscurities & murky happenings. But sometimes just because I needed time to think about all these remains of the past, and wonder at them.
May 2, 2023
In general the pieces in this collection are of great interest. It seems to combine reviews of books with original essays.
Once more he displays his story excellent research skills and an ability to bring the world of 17th century and earlier literature to life.
As ever with a collection there are a few pieces of little interest but on balance these are a definite minority.
Once more he displays his story excellent research skills and an ability to bring the world of 17th century and earlier literature to life.
As ever with a collection there are a few pieces of little interest but on balance these are a definite minority.
June 24, 2019
The very best type of popular history: entertainingly and provocatively written but also balanced and grounded in serious research. Nicholl provides compelling new angles on household names such as Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci and familiar stories such as Jack the Ripper whilst also shining a light on some fascinating characters who have disappeared into historical obscurity.
A particular standout for me was the French/Swiss boxer/poet/adventurer Arthur Cravan/Fabian Lloyd (many of the characters in this book have multiple or uncertain names, nationalities and professions), who vanished somewhere off Mexico in 1918 but sightings of whom continued to be reported years afterwards in various parts of the world. Cravan’s story has been inexplicably neglected in the English speaking world (at the time of writing there had still been no English language biography and only a handful of media articles) and he is one of several people covered in this book that I’ve come away wanting to learn and research more about.
Nicholl’s other great achievement is to communicate human emotion powerfully and credibly without appearing to take major liberties with the source material, which in most cases is very limited. Cravan’s tempestuous relationship with the poet Mina Loy, for example, and the essayist/critic William Hazlitt’s humiliating infatuation with his land lady’s daughter are communicated in a way that is immediately recognisable, pathetic (in the older sense of that word) and makes these characters come affectingly alive, in some cases across multiple centuries.
A particular standout for me was the French/Swiss boxer/poet/adventurer Arthur Cravan/Fabian Lloyd (many of the characters in this book have multiple or uncertain names, nationalities and professions), who vanished somewhere off Mexico in 1918 but sightings of whom continued to be reported years afterwards in various parts of the world. Cravan’s story has been inexplicably neglected in the English speaking world (at the time of writing there had still been no English language biography and only a handful of media articles) and he is one of several people covered in this book that I’ve come away wanting to learn and research more about.
Nicholl’s other great achievement is to communicate human emotion powerfully and credibly without appearing to take major liberties with the source material, which in most cases is very limited. Cravan’s tempestuous relationship with the poet Mina Loy, for example, and the essayist/critic William Hazlitt’s humiliating infatuation with his land lady’s daughter are communicated in a way that is immediately recognisable, pathetic (in the older sense of that word) and makes these characters come affectingly alive, in some cases across multiple centuries.
November 12, 2023
An eclectic collection of wonderfully written essays, ranging from a few pages to 20 or so. They shine a more detailed light on the lives of a number of obscure collectors, explorers, academics, showmen as well as dealing with some more well-known characters and events.
Because the essays were so short, they often left you looking for more (which is perhaps the point?). Some were of minor interest, but some were absolutely fascinating.
My particular favourites were the lost Shakespeare play, the Shakespeare authorship controversy, the Cenci murder, the Byron portrait, the Jack the Ripper suspect, the disappearances of Jim Thompson and the imposing Colonel Fawcett, and the life of the marvellous Arthur Cravan. (The caption under his wonderful photo says ‘The Colossus. Poet, Boxer and Provocateur’. What description could be more enticing?!)
Because the essays were so short, they often left you looking for more (which is perhaps the point?). Some were of minor interest, but some were absolutely fascinating.
My particular favourites were the lost Shakespeare play, the Shakespeare authorship controversy, the Cenci murder, the Byron portrait, the Jack the Ripper suspect, the disappearances of Jim Thompson and the imposing Colonel Fawcett, and the life of the marvellous Arthur Cravan. (The caption under his wonderful photo says ‘The Colossus. Poet, Boxer and Provocateur’. What description could be more enticing?!)
October 2, 2022
glimpses into the past
August 5, 2023
A book shop review of this caught my eye, and I found some of the essays interesting.
November 6, 2023
I adore this sort of discursive book that bounces around the globe to different countries and time periods. Wonderful stories, wonderfully written. This book is a great treat and I can't see you not enjoying it if you are fascinated by things like:
1. The Cenci murder
2. The disappearance of Arthur Cravan
3. The childhood of Marlowe
and that is just a taster. If you are familiar with Beatrice Cenci or Arthur Cravan then my review alone provides you with an opportunity to increase your store of fascinating trivia even you never read this book, though I hope you do.
1. The Cenci murder
2. The disappearance of Arthur Cravan
3. The childhood of Marlowe
and that is just a taster. If you are familiar with Beatrice Cenci or Arthur Cravan then my review alone provides you with an opportunity to increase your store of fascinating trivia even you never read this book, though I hope you do.
June 1, 2013
excellent non fiction book that walks you through the arcana of some famous and less famous characters of yore. The chapter about the Shakespeare controversy (telescoping out of the argument as to whether he was real, to look at the argument itself) was particularly good.
July 19, 2016
Well-written, short essays that offer a slice-of-life viewing into history. Euro-centric, but that is to be expected and the book makes it clear that it is framed this way. Debunks some popular narratives in history, but never crosses the line into contrarianism.
April 20, 2013
An enjoyable mixed bag of historical essays.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews