Hannibal is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 1999. It is the third in his series featuring his iconic character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic serial killer, and the second to feature FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel takes place seven years after the events of The Silence of the Lambs and deals with the intended revenge of one of Hannibal Lecter's victims. It was adapted as a film of the same name in 2001, directed by Ridley Scott.
Synopsis
Seven years after Hannibal Lecter escaped from secure confinement, Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her when a drug raid goes dreadfully wrong and she shoots and kills Evelda Drumgo, an armed meth dealer who was also carrying her child at the time, in self-defense. However, when Lecter sends her a letter offering condolence and requesting more information about her personal life, the F.B.I. finds a use for her once again.
Meanwhile Mason Verger, a horribly disfigured, crippled child molester and one of Lecter's few surviving victims, has been plotting gruesome revenge against the fugitive serial killer, which involves using Clarice as bait.
Reception
Although the ending was controversial, reaction to the novel was generally very positive. Robert McCrum, writing in The Guardian, called it "the exquisite satisfaction of a truly great melodrama". Martin Amis writing in Talk (in an essay later reprinted in The War Against Cliche) said that Hannibal was a work of "profound and virtuoso vulgarity", stating Harris "has become a serial murderer of English sentences and Hannibal is a necropolis of prose".
Author Stephen King, an admitted fan of the series, has said that he considers Hannibal to be one of the two greatest popular horror novels of all time, the other being The Exorcist.
Characters in Hannibal
* Hannibal Lecter
* Clarice Starling
* Mason Verger
* Margot Verger
* Rinaldo Pazzi
* Paul Krendler
* Barney Matthews
* Cordell
* Oreste Pini
* Dr. Doemling
* Carlo Deogracias
* Romula Cjesku
* Gnocco
* Jack Crawford
* Ardelia Mapp
* Evelda Drumgo
Synopsis
Seven years after Hannibal Lecter escaped from secure confinement, Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her when a drug raid goes dreadfully wrong and she shoots and kills Evelda Drumgo, an armed meth dealer who was also carrying her child at the time, in self-defense. However, when Lecter sends her a letter offering condolence and requesting more information about her personal life, the F.B.I. finds a use for her once again.
Meanwhile Mason Verger, a horribly disfigured, crippled child molester and one of Lecter's few surviving victims, has been plotting gruesome revenge against the fugitive serial killer, which involves using Clarice as bait.
Reception
Although the ending was controversial, reaction to the novel was generally very positive. Robert McCrum, writing in The Guardian, called it "the exquisite satisfaction of a truly great melodrama". Martin Amis writing in Talk (in an essay later reprinted in The War Against Cliche) said that Hannibal was a work of "profound and virtuoso vulgarity", stating Harris "has become a serial murderer of English sentences and Hannibal is a necropolis of prose".
Author Stephen King, an admitted fan of the series, has said that he considers Hannibal to be one of the two greatest popular horror novels of all time, the other being The Exorcist.
Characters in Hannibal
* Hannibal Lecter
* Clarice Starling
* Mason Verger
* Margot Verger
* Rinaldo Pazzi
* Paul Krendler
* Barney Matthews
* Cordell
* Oreste Pini
* Dr. Doemling
* Carlo Deogracias
* Romula Cjesku
* Gnocco
* Jack Crawford
* Ardelia Mapp
* Evelda Drumgo
The Silence of the Lambs is a novel by Thomas Harris. First published in 1988, it is a sequel to Harris' 1981 novel Red Dragon. Both novels feature the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, this time pitted against FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel became a bestseller, and its Oscar-winning 1991 film adaptation is still widely ranked among the best films ever made.
Plot summary
The novel opens with Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, being asked to carry out an errand by Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI division that draws up psychological profiles of serial killers. Starling is asked to present a questionnaire to brilliant forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic sociopath, Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a Maryland mental institution for his murders.
We also learn of Jack Crawford's hunt for a serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill", whose modus operandi involves kidnapping overweight women, starving them for about a week initially then killing and skinning them, before dumping the bodies in nearby rivers. The nickname was started by Kansas City Police Homicide Division, as a joke that "he likes to skin his humps."
When Bill's sixth victim is found in West Virginia, Starling helps Crawford perform the autopsy. Starling finds a moth pupa in the throat of the victim, and just as Lecter predicted, she has been scalped. Diamond-shaped patches of skin have also been taken from her shoulders. Furthermore, autopsy reports indicate that Bill killed her within four days of her capture, much faster than his earlier victims. On the basis of Lecter's prediction, Starling believes that he knows who Buffalo Bill really is. She also asks why she was sent to fish for information on Buffalo Bill without being told she was doing so; Crawford explains that if she had had an agenda, Lecter would never have spoken up.
Starling takes the pupa to the Smithsonian, where it is eventually identified as the Death's-head Hawkmoth, which would not naturally occur where the victim was found.
In Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin, the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, is kidnapped. Within six hours, her blouse is found on the roadside, slit up the back: Buffalo Bill's calling card. Crawford is advised that no less than the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case, and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed.
After Starling leaves, Lecter reminisces on the past, recalling a conversation with Benjamin Raspail. Raspail, during that therapy session, explained Klaus's death at the hands of Raspail's jealous former lover, Jame Gumb, who then used Klaus's skin to make an apron. Raspail also revealed that Gumb had an epiphany upon watching a moth hatch. Lecter's pleasant ruminations are interrupted when Chilton steps in. A listening device allowed him to record Starling's conversation, and Chilton has found out that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers one of his own: If Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if Chilton gets credit for getting the information from him. Lecter insists that he'll only give the information to Senator Martin in person, in Tennessee. Chilton agrees. Unknown to Chilton, Lecter has previously hidden under his tongue a paperclip and some parts of a pen, both of which were mistakenly given to him by untrained orderlies during his stay at the asylum. He fashions the pen pieces and paperclip into an improvised lockpick, which he later uses to pick his handcuff locks.
In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying the woman's anguish, but eventually gives her some information about Buffalo Bill: his name is William "Billy" Rubin, and he has suffered from elephant ivory anthrax, a knifemaker's disease. He also provides an accurate physical description. The information is a red herring: bilirubin is a pigment in human bile and a chief coloring agent in human excrement, which the forensic lab compares to the color of Chilton's hair.
Shortly after this, Lecter manages to escape by killing off his captors and eviscerating them, using the face of one as a mask to fool paramedics. Starling continues her search for Buffalo Bill, eventually tracking him down.
Characters
* Clarice Starling
* Dr. Hannibal Lecter
* Jack Crawford
* Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill
* Barney Matthews
* Ardelia Mapp
* Dr. Frederick Chilton
* Catherine Baker Martin
* Senator Ruth Martin
* Paul Krendler
* Noble Pilcher
* Albert Roden
* I. J. Miggs
Influences
Jame Gumb was based on five real-life serial killers:
* Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who robbed graves and murdered women in order to flay their bodies and make clothing out of them. Gein was also the inspiration for Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho and Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
* Gary Ridgway, who like Gumb only murdered women and dumped his victims bodies' in rivers, often with objects inserted inside their bodies.
* Ted Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s, often luring victims by pretending he was injured with a cast on his arm, a technique Gumb used to lure Catherine Martin into his van. Similar to Lecter, Bundy also offered to help investigators find other serial murderers by "giving insights" into their psychology while he was in death row, specifically about the Green River Killer.
* Gary M. Heidnik, who held women captive in a deep hole in his basement.
* Edmund Kemper, a man who murdered women and had sex with his victims.
Film adaptation
Main article: The Silence of the Lambs (film)
Following the 1986 adaptation of Red Dragon (filmed as Manhunter), The Silence of the Lambs was adapted by Jonathan Demme in 1991. The Silence of the Lambs became the third film in Oscar history to win the five most prestigious Academy Awards - Actor in a leading role, Actress in a leading role, Director, Motion Picture and Screenplay. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Ted Levine as the serial killer Buffalo Bill. It continues to be listed among the best movies ever made to this day.
Literary significance
The novel was a great success and Craig Brown of the Mail on Sunday wrote, "No thriller writer is better attuned than Thomas Harris to the rhythms of suspense. No horror writer is more adept at making the stomach churn", The Independent wrote "Utterly gripping" and Amazon wrote "...driving suspense, compelling characters,...a well-executed thriller..." Children's novelist Roald Dahl also greatly enjoyed the novel, describing it as "subtle, horrific and splendid, the best book I have read in a long time."
Awards and nominations
* The novel won the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
* It was nominated for the 1989 World Fantasy Award.
Plot summary
The novel opens with Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, being asked to carry out an errand by Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI division that draws up psychological profiles of serial killers. Starling is asked to present a questionnaire to brilliant forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic sociopath, Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a Maryland mental institution for his murders.
We also learn of Jack Crawford's hunt for a serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill", whose modus operandi involves kidnapping overweight women, starving them for about a week initially then killing and skinning them, before dumping the bodies in nearby rivers. The nickname was started by Kansas City Police Homicide Division, as a joke that "he likes to skin his humps."
When Bill's sixth victim is found in West Virginia, Starling helps Crawford perform the autopsy. Starling finds a moth pupa in the throat of the victim, and just as Lecter predicted, she has been scalped. Diamond-shaped patches of skin have also been taken from her shoulders. Furthermore, autopsy reports indicate that Bill killed her within four days of her capture, much faster than his earlier victims. On the basis of Lecter's prediction, Starling believes that he knows who Buffalo Bill really is. She also asks why she was sent to fish for information on Buffalo Bill without being told she was doing so; Crawford explains that if she had had an agenda, Lecter would never have spoken up.
Starling takes the pupa to the Smithsonian, where it is eventually identified as the Death's-head Hawkmoth, which would not naturally occur where the victim was found.
In Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin, the daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, is kidnapped. Within six hours, her blouse is found on the roadside, slit up the back: Buffalo Bill's calling card. Crawford is advised that no less than the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case, and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed.
After Starling leaves, Lecter reminisces on the past, recalling a conversation with Benjamin Raspail. Raspail, during that therapy session, explained Klaus's death at the hands of Raspail's jealous former lover, Jame Gumb, who then used Klaus's skin to make an apron. Raspail also revealed that Gumb had an epiphany upon watching a moth hatch. Lecter's pleasant ruminations are interrupted when Chilton steps in. A listening device allowed him to record Starling's conversation, and Chilton has found out that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers one of his own: If Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if Chilton gets credit for getting the information from him. Lecter insists that he'll only give the information to Senator Martin in person, in Tennessee. Chilton agrees. Unknown to Chilton, Lecter has previously hidden under his tongue a paperclip and some parts of a pen, both of which were mistakenly given to him by untrained orderlies during his stay at the asylum. He fashions the pen pieces and paperclip into an improvised lockpick, which he later uses to pick his handcuff locks.
In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying the woman's anguish, but eventually gives her some information about Buffalo Bill: his name is William "Billy" Rubin, and he has suffered from elephant ivory anthrax, a knifemaker's disease. He also provides an accurate physical description. The information is a red herring: bilirubin is a pigment in human bile and a chief coloring agent in human excrement, which the forensic lab compares to the color of Chilton's hair.
Shortly after this, Lecter manages to escape by killing off his captors and eviscerating them, using the face of one as a mask to fool paramedics. Starling continues her search for Buffalo Bill, eventually tracking him down.
Characters
* Clarice Starling
* Dr. Hannibal Lecter
* Jack Crawford
* Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill
* Barney Matthews
* Ardelia Mapp
* Dr. Frederick Chilton
* Catherine Baker Martin
* Senator Ruth Martin
* Paul Krendler
* Noble Pilcher
* Albert Roden
* I. J. Miggs
Influences
Jame Gumb was based on five real-life serial killers:
* Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who robbed graves and murdered women in order to flay their bodies and make clothing out of them. Gein was also the inspiration for Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho and Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
* Gary Ridgway, who like Gumb only murdered women and dumped his victims bodies' in rivers, often with objects inserted inside their bodies.
* Ted Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s, often luring victims by pretending he was injured with a cast on his arm, a technique Gumb used to lure Catherine Martin into his van. Similar to Lecter, Bundy also offered to help investigators find other serial murderers by "giving insights" into their psychology while he was in death row, specifically about the Green River Killer.
* Gary M. Heidnik, who held women captive in a deep hole in his basement.
* Edmund Kemper, a man who murdered women and had sex with his victims.
Film adaptation
Main article: The Silence of the Lambs (film)
Following the 1986 adaptation of Red Dragon (filmed as Manhunter), The Silence of the Lambs was adapted by Jonathan Demme in 1991. The Silence of the Lambs became the third film in Oscar history to win the five most prestigious Academy Awards - Actor in a leading role, Actress in a leading role, Director, Motion Picture and Screenplay. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Ted Levine as the serial killer Buffalo Bill. It continues to be listed among the best movies ever made to this day.
Literary significance
The novel was a great success and Craig Brown of the Mail on Sunday wrote, "No thriller writer is better attuned than Thomas Harris to the rhythms of suspense. No horror writer is more adept at making the stomach churn", The Independent wrote "Utterly gripping" and Amazon wrote "...driving suspense, compelling characters,...a well-executed thriller..." Children's novelist Roald Dahl also greatly enjoyed the novel, describing it as "subtle, horrific and splendid, the best book I have read in a long time."
Awards and nominations
* The novel won the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
* It was nominated for the 1989 World Fantasy Award.