The Knight of New Orleans, The Pride and the Sorrow of Paul Morphy (US Hardcover)

Very good and interesting read!

The author moves between time periods and georgraphic locations with great style and thoughfulness. I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in chess or historical fiction.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

From Macon Shibut, Three-Time Virginia State Chess Champion (1993, 1999, 2002)

"From the facts of Morphy's life, novelist Matt Fullerty has imagined a rich and speculative tale. The Knight of New Orleans enters the psyche of a sensitive young artist developing his gift amidst judges and gin runners, generals and call girls. Even the pirate Jean Lafitte (himself a study in the tension between fame and honor) makes an appearance of sorts. Morphy's ascent was meteoric; his downfall was appalling and total. Yet, he will be remembered for as long as chess is played. All of which makes it hard to place him with regard to another of Schopenhauer's pronouncements: "The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming." The Knight of New Orleans takes that fame in new and unexpected directions."

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

From Macon Shibut, Three-Time Virginia State Chess Champion (1993, 1999, 2002)

"From the facts of Morphy's life, novelist Matt Fullerty has imagined a rich and speculative tale. The Knight of New Orleans enters the psyche of a sensitive young artist developing his gift amidst judges and gin runners, generals and call girls. Even the pirate Jean Lafitte (himself a study in the tension between fame and honour) makes an appearance of sorts. Morphy's ascent was meteoric; his downfall was appalling and total. Yet, he will be remembered for as long as chess is played. All of which makes it hard to place him with regard to another of Schopenhauer's pronouncements: "The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming." The Knight of New Orleans takes that fame in new and unexpected directions."

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

From J. C. Hallman, author of The Chess Artist

"Paul Morphy's tragic story echoes Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Winston Groom's Forrest Gump-it is more than an overlooked chess story, it is a quintessential American tale, here told by Fullerty with Morphy's own combination of skill, insight, innovation, and passion."

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

From J. C. Hallman, author of The Chess Artist

"Paul Morphy's tragic story echoes Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Winston Groom's Forrest Gump-it is more than an overlooked chess story, it is a quintessential American tale, here told by Fullerty with Morphy's own combination of skill, insight, innovation, and passion."

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

From Geoff Cush, author of God Help the Queen and Son of France

"What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time.

Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans.

In my view this makes The Knight of New Orleans a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction."

From Tom Robertson, author of Napoleon Vs The Turk

"Matt Fullerty has made an important contribution to the genre of 'historical chess fiction.' A must for anyone with a passion for history or chess."