The Dorothy Dunnett Companion

Provides all the historical research for the books rather than using footnotes in the novels. Much preferred and definitely emphasizes the importance and accuracy of historical info in the books.

For the outstanding scholarship I award 10 stars! For the organization of this and the second volume I award zero stars. It's just awful. In this first volume Morrison covers all six volumes of Lymond and the first four volumes of the House of Niccolo in alphabetical order. I prefer Laura Caine Ramsey's page by page organization which is much easier to use. But then Morrison makes it worse. Morrison wrote a second volume which covers all 6 volumes of Lymond and all 8 volumes of Niccolo, again in alphabetical order. So when you are reading Lymond or any of the first 4 volumes of Niccolo and you go to look something up in Morrison's first volume and it is not there, then you have to stop and look the same thing up again in Volume II of Morrison. The organization couldn't be much worse. You totally lose the flow of the novels as you go back and forth between volumes. And frequently what you are looking up isn't there anyway. e.g., many French and Spanish references are translated and explained; many are omitted all together. It is as tho Morrison and her publisher were in such a rush to get into print, they published volume one before Morrison had finished writing volume one. If only Morrison had put all of Lymond into one volume and all of Niccolo into a second volume. But the fact remains, the scholarship is outstanding. Morrison has added so much to my understanding of Dunnett's masterpiece. (I refer to Lymond and Niccolo as one masterpiece because Dunnett referred to them as one series.) It would be a shame to miss out on what Morrison will add to your understanding. I especially enjoyed the short biographies of non-fiction characters.

What a helpful guide to read the marvelous Dorothy Dunnett books. She was an amazing author.

I know the book has loads of great information, but initially I've been disappointed because many of the terms or phrases I am curious about aren't listed. For instance, in The Disorderly Knights, should I know what Lymond means when he says (at Kindle location 1656) "The three mutes with a bowstring"? And what does "stooters" mean in "hell-bent on stooters"? Also, I agree with the review "Disappointing, August 22, 2005" for the way the book is structured. It would have been nice to have the unusual terms, sayings, foreign language quotes, and historical references in the order of their appearance (I found a partial list at [...]/zine/azurite/gknotes.html). Musings: How about WITHIN each book footnotes, annotations, and an alphabetical index in the back. But then you'd need to republish the books. The Kindle would be perfect for that, as long as they supplemented the dictionary with terms from the books and added footnotes to perhaps jump to the Companion or Companion-like appendix and/or a supplemental dictionary tailored to the book; the current dictionary does provide a surprising number of historical definitions and background, but not enough. In any case, I love the Lymond Chronicles and look forward to the House of Nicolo series.

My very favorite author!

The fine folks at Vintage Books have done a great favor to those of us who are longtime fans of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond and Niccolo chronicles as well as those who have only just discovered her writing. The Companion first was published in 1994 and inexplicably was allowed to go out of print, so that the only copies available recently were used books that seemed to start around [price]...and up. Some readers of Dunnett's books might have the benefit of a classical education that allows them to understand who all the historical characters are, what all the literary allusions are to, and what all of the quotations in foreign languages mean. For all of the rest of us, Elspeth Morrison has performed the invaluable labor of tracking down Dorothy Dunnett's original sources and fleshing out the details. Dunnett's books remind me of Medieval and Renaissance tapestries--rich in intricate symbolism and detail. You can look at them and enjoy them as fine art, but when you know what the details mean, your experience is that much deeper and richer. Fervent thanks to Morrison for making this illumination available!

Like some other reviewers, I really wish this book was organized to match up with each volume of Dunnett's work. The huge scope of alphabetical references is definitely better than not having ANY references at all, but it's a little maddening at times. And occasionally something I REALLY expected to be in the Companion is not there at all. But so far, it's useful.

I found both of the Companions difficult to use in relation to the novels. They would have been much more helpful if Ms. Morrison would have begun with either the Lymond or Niccolo Series and followed it through with references page by page from, for example, The Game of Kings, then from Queen's Play, etc. then doing the same with the other series rather than placing all references from all books of both series at the same time in alphabetical order. Also, sometimes I would search for terms or quotes that I felt should be included based on those already in the Companions but didn't find them so do not know what the criteria was for including some and not others.

I have read all Dunnett's books without this companion - now I am enjoying them again with this companion to deepen the experience. An excellent refence book in its own right.

Can't read the series without this book. It's nice someone put in the time to explain everything. I've had this book for years but recently bought it for a friend.

Rapida la consegna. Articolo perfetto.

... to get the very best - particularly from the Lymond books. Dear Francis is just so EDUCATED that we mere mortals need something like this to figure out the finer points of, Ms Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. Fortunately for the reader, Nicholas de Fleury was an apprentice dyer in his youth so the notes for the Niccolo books mostly pertain to Medieval personalities, geography and politics. For the Lymond Chronicles, however, the stories include poetry and philosphy in a variety of tongues including Irish, Arabic, French etc. which, to make things even more complicated, are displayed in their Medieval forms. The stories do, of course, stand alone without an understanding of the quotations but, once understood, they add a fresh dimension and additonal colour to the story. Well worth the money.

Explained the many, many obscure references, and kept track of the many different historical and fictional characters. I didn't know this book existed -- I've been a fan for years and I would have bought it at the beginning of these adventures!