Hannibal Rising
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| Author | Thomas Harris |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
| Publication date | 5 December 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 323 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-385-33941-0 |
| Preceded by | Hannibal |
Hannibal Rising is a novel written by Thomas Harris, the fourth in a series featuring his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The novel, a prequel to Harris' Lecter novels, chronicles the iconic serial killer's childhood and early adulthood. The novel was released on December 5, 2006 with an initial printing of at least 1.5 million copies[1] and had a mixed response, many thinking that the book reduced Lecter to a simple psychological case.[citation needed] A CD version has also been released, with Harris reading the text.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Lecter is eight years old at the beginning of the novel (1941), living in Lecter Castle in Lithuania, when Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union turns the Baltic region into a part of the bloodiest front line of World War II. Lecter, his sister Mischa, and his parents escape to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops. After three years, the Nazis are finally driven out of the countries now occupied by the Soviet Union. During their retreat, however, they destroy a Soviet tank that had stopped at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water. The explosion kills everyone but Lecter and Mischa. They survive in the cottage until six former Lithuanian militiamen, led by a Nazi collaborator named Vladis Grutas, storm and loot it. Finding no other food, they kill and cannibalize a young boy they have captured and held, chained, in the barn, and then Lecter's young sister Mischa to the despair and agony of young Hannibal who has to watch her being dragged, screaming his name, suspended in the air by her arms. Lecter is beaten with a log as he hears an axe end the life of Mischa. He blacks out and is later found wandering and mute by a Soviet tank crew that takes him back to Lecter Castle, which is now a Soviet orphanage. Lecter is removed from the orphanage by his uncle, a noted painter, and goes to live with him in France. The happiness of their lives together is cut short with his uncle's sudden death. Most of the estate is taken for death duties. Lecter goes to live in reduced circumstances with his aunt and they develop a special relationship. While in France, Lecter flourishes as a medical student. He commits his first murder as a teenager, killing a local butcher who insulted his aunt. He is suspected of the butcher's murder by Inspector Popil, a French detective who also lost his family to the war. Thanks in part to his aunt's intervention, however, Lecter escapes responsibility for the crime.
Lecter divides his time between medical school in France and hunting those who killed and cannibalized his sister. One by one, he crosses paths with Grutas' men, killing them all in the most inventively gruesome ways possible. Eventually, Popil arrests Lecter, but Lecter is freed when popular support for his dispatch of war criminals combines with a lack of hard evidence. The novel ends with Lecter going to America to begin his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
[edit] Characters in Hannibal Rising
- Hannibal Lecter
- Lady Murasaki
- Inspector Popil
- Vladis Grutas
- Zigmas Milko
- Enrikas Dortlich
- Petras Kolnas
- Bronys Grentz
- Robert Lecter
- Mischa Lecter
[edit] The story's origins
The February 22, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly features a quote that suggests that the only reason Thomas Harris wrote the story was out of the fear that a Lecter prequel/origin story would inevitably be written without his involvement. Hannibal Rising film producer Dino De Laurentiis said "I say to Thomas, 'If you don't do [the prequel], I will do it with someone else...I don't want to lose this franchise. And the audience wants it...' He said, 'No. I'm sorry.' And I said, 'I will do it with somebody else.' And then he said, 'Let me think about it. I will come up with an idea.'"
[edit] Other titles
Other working titles for the book were "The Blooding of Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal 4, Hannibal IV, The Lecter Variations, The Lecter Variation: The Story of Young Hannibal Lecter, Young Hannibal, The Adventures of Young Hannibal, and Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask (which was used in a few translations).
[edit] Connections and contradictions
- Hannibal Lecter's documented and actual birthdate and his age when his sister died are not consistent. It is stated that he fabricated dates in order to avoid capture. The novel Hannibal firmly states in a flashback that he was six years old when his sister died; in Hannibal Rising, his age is changed to 11 for unknown reasons, and later explained to be because of the fabrications.
- No mention is made of Lecter's bizarre condition on his left hand called mid-ray duplication sexadactyly, or a fully functional sixth finger (duplicated middle finger).
- In Red Dragon protagonist Will Graham says that, as a child, Lecter displayed sadism toward animals. In Rising, however, Lecter exhibits a degree of compassion to a group of swans and his family's horse and no mention is made of any cruelty towards animals.
- In Hannibal, Lecter dreams of seeing Mischa's baby teeth in a reeking stool pit after the deserters' men kill her. In Rising, he has similar visions, but when he later visits Mischa's remains before giving her a dignified burial, he notes that all her teeth are intact.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- "Hannibal Rising" at IMDB
- The Official Dino De Laurentiis Company website
- The Official Thomas Harris website
- The Official Hannibal Rising website
- Hannibal Rising Reviews at Metacritic
- The Official Hannibal Rising MySpace site
- The Hannibal Lecter Studiolo
- The Ravenous Doctor Is In. Again
- An Indigestible Back Story Is Hard To Swallow
- Extract from the book
| Thomas Harris's Hannibal series | ||
|---|---|---|
| Novels Red Dragon • The Silence of the Lambs |
Main Characters |
Films Manhunter • The Silence of the Lambs • Hannibal |
| Secondary Characters List of minor characters in the Hannibal series |
||
