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The Luminaries
The Luminaries is a 2013 novel by Eleanor Catton. Set in New Zealand's South Island in 1866, the novel follows Walter Moody, a prospector who travels to the West Coast settlement of Hokitika to make his fortune on the goldfields. Instead, he stumbles into a tense meeting between twelve local men, and is drawn into a complex mystery involving a series of unsolved crimes. The novel's complex structure is based on the system of Western astrology, with each of the twelve local men representing one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and with another set of characters representing planets in the Solar System.
The novel has won many awards and honours, including the 2013 Booker Prize. It was adapted into the BBC/TVNZ miniseries The Luminaries in 2020. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
The story begins with one of the book's protagonists, Walter Moody, arriving in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel after having encountered a horrific sight on his ship to Hokitika. There, he meets the twelve men who become the other protagonists of the book: Te Rau Tauwhare (a Māori greenstone hunter), Charlie Frost (a banker), Edgar Clinch (an hotelier), Benjamin Lowenthal (a newspaperman), Cowell Devlin (a chaplain), Sook Yongsheng (a hatter), Aubert Gascoigne (a justice's clerk), Joseph Pritchard (a chemist), Thomas Balfour (a shipping agent), Harald Nilssen (a commission merchant), Quee Long (a goldsmith), and Dick Mannering (a goldfields magnate).
The twelve men inform Walter Moody about the mysterious events that have happened leading up to the current night, from their different perspectives. Some two weeks previously, Crosbie Wells, a little-known hermit, was found dead in his cabin by a politician named Alistair Lauderback on his way into town. Wells' death was apparently peaceful, but upon inspection, his cabin had several thousand pounds' worth of gold hidden inside it, as well as an unsigned deed (witnessed by Wells) which suggested that Emery Staines, a rich and likeable young man, was to pay £2,000 to Anna Wetherell, a prostitute well-known for frequenting the Chinatown areas of Hokitika. Upon the same night as Wells' body was found, Staines himself had disappeared, and Wetherell was found lying in the road unconscious, having apparently attempted suicide. She and Gascoigne discovered the next day that hundreds of pounds' worth of gold has been sewn into the lining of her dress by an unknown person.
The council has met to discuss these and subsequent events, and the man who appears to be at the centre of all these occurrences is Francis Carver, a violent and scarred man who captained the Godspeed, the ship in which Moody came to Hokitika, and who, nine months previously in Dunedin, had cheated Lauderback out of that same ship using the false name of Francis Crosbie Wells. Carver had blackmailed Lauderback by hiding a fortune of gold inside a shipment of five dresses under Lauderback's name; if Lauderback refused to give Carver the ship, Carver would have Lauderback arrested and imprisoned for smuggling undeclared gold. However, the shipping crate disappeared and washed up ashore, forcing Carver to arrive in Hokitika in search of the fortune. Anna unknowingly bought the dresses upon her arrival in Hokitika; one of her clients, Quee, discovered the gold in four of her dresses and secretly removed and replaced with leaden makeweights while she slept. However, because Anna never wore the fifth dress while visiting Chinatown, the gold in that dress remained. He then smelted the gold and submitted it to the bank, only to discover it had been stolen by Staines.
After hearing and considering the tales of the other twelve men, Moody tells them his own story: he believes he saw the ghost of Emery Staines on the Godspeed. As he tells them his story, the council is interrupted by one of Dick Mannering's servants telling them the ship has foundered just off-shore.
Three weeks later, the wreckage of Godspeed is pulled up onto shore. Moody is mistakenly sent Alistair Lauderback's trunk, in which he finds letters revealing that Crosbie was Lauderback's half-brother, a bastard born to a prostitute mother. Crosbie had originally travelled to New Zealand in search of their father, and had attempted to contact Lauderback for years to no response. In the letters, he also reveals that he amassed an enormous fortune on the goldfields, only for the fortune to be subsequently stolen from him in circumstances he declines to divulge.
Lydia Wells, Crosbie Wells' widow and Carver's mistress, announces that she plans to hold a séance to contact the ghost of Emery Staines. As an assistant, she hires Wetherell, who has recently given up prostitution, having paid off her debt to Edgar Clinch. Lydia claims to have befriended Wetherell when she first arrived in Dunedin, but keeps her under a tight watch and does not allow her out without supervision. Sook Yongsheng, Wetherell's opium dealer and friend, goes to visit her, and recognises Lydia as Carver's mistress. Sook had sworn revenge on Carver years earlier for murdering his father, and he will not rest until Carver is dead. Lydia insists that Sook attend the séance, where instead of channelling Staines, she speaks Cantonese and repeats Sook's promise to kill Carver many years before. After the séance, Sook goes to Carver's hotel to attempt to murder him. However, before he can execute his revenge, he is shot by George Shepard, the gaoler, in an act of revenge for his brother, whom Shepard believes was killed by Sook.
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The Luminaries
The Luminaries is a 2013 novel by Eleanor Catton. Set in New Zealand's South Island in 1866, the novel follows Walter Moody, a prospector who travels to the West Coast settlement of Hokitika to make his fortune on the goldfields. Instead, he stumbles into a tense meeting between twelve local men, and is drawn into a complex mystery involving a series of unsolved crimes. The novel's complex structure is based on the system of Western astrology, with each of the twelve local men representing one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and with another set of characters representing planets in the Solar System.
The novel has won many awards and honours, including the 2013 Booker Prize. It was adapted into the BBC/TVNZ miniseries The Luminaries in 2020. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
The story begins with one of the book's protagonists, Walter Moody, arriving in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel after having encountered a horrific sight on his ship to Hokitika. There, he meets the twelve men who become the other protagonists of the book: Te Rau Tauwhare (a Māori greenstone hunter), Charlie Frost (a banker), Edgar Clinch (an hotelier), Benjamin Lowenthal (a newspaperman), Cowell Devlin (a chaplain), Sook Yongsheng (a hatter), Aubert Gascoigne (a justice's clerk), Joseph Pritchard (a chemist), Thomas Balfour (a shipping agent), Harald Nilssen (a commission merchant), Quee Long (a goldsmith), and Dick Mannering (a goldfields magnate).
The twelve men inform Walter Moody about the mysterious events that have happened leading up to the current night, from their different perspectives. Some two weeks previously, Crosbie Wells, a little-known hermit, was found dead in his cabin by a politician named Alistair Lauderback on his way into town. Wells' death was apparently peaceful, but upon inspection, his cabin had several thousand pounds' worth of gold hidden inside it, as well as an unsigned deed (witnessed by Wells) which suggested that Emery Staines, a rich and likeable young man, was to pay £2,000 to Anna Wetherell, a prostitute well-known for frequenting the Chinatown areas of Hokitika. Upon the same night as Wells' body was found, Staines himself had disappeared, and Wetherell was found lying in the road unconscious, having apparently attempted suicide. She and Gascoigne discovered the next day that hundreds of pounds' worth of gold has been sewn into the lining of her dress by an unknown person.
The council has met to discuss these and subsequent events, and the man who appears to be at the centre of all these occurrences is Francis Carver, a violent and scarred man who captained the Godspeed, the ship in which Moody came to Hokitika, and who, nine months previously in Dunedin, had cheated Lauderback out of that same ship using the false name of Francis Crosbie Wells. Carver had blackmailed Lauderback by hiding a fortune of gold inside a shipment of five dresses under Lauderback's name; if Lauderback refused to give Carver the ship, Carver would have Lauderback arrested and imprisoned for smuggling undeclared gold. However, the shipping crate disappeared and washed up ashore, forcing Carver to arrive in Hokitika in search of the fortune. Anna unknowingly bought the dresses upon her arrival in Hokitika; one of her clients, Quee, discovered the gold in four of her dresses and secretly removed and replaced with leaden makeweights while she slept. However, because Anna never wore the fifth dress while visiting Chinatown, the gold in that dress remained. He then smelted the gold and submitted it to the bank, only to discover it had been stolen by Staines.
After hearing and considering the tales of the other twelve men, Moody tells them his own story: he believes he saw the ghost of Emery Staines on the Godspeed. As he tells them his story, the council is interrupted by one of Dick Mannering's servants telling them the ship has foundered just off-shore.
Three weeks later, the wreckage of Godspeed is pulled up onto shore. Moody is mistakenly sent Alistair Lauderback's trunk, in which he finds letters revealing that Crosbie was Lauderback's half-brother, a bastard born to a prostitute mother. Crosbie had originally travelled to New Zealand in search of their father, and had attempted to contact Lauderback for years to no response. In the letters, he also reveals that he amassed an enormous fortune on the goldfields, only for the fortune to be subsequently stolen from him in circumstances he declines to divulge.
Lydia Wells, Crosbie Wells' widow and Carver's mistress, announces that she plans to hold a séance to contact the ghost of Emery Staines. As an assistant, she hires Wetherell, who has recently given up prostitution, having paid off her debt to Edgar Clinch. Lydia claims to have befriended Wetherell when she first arrived in Dunedin, but keeps her under a tight watch and does not allow her out without supervision. Sook Yongsheng, Wetherell's opium dealer and friend, goes to visit her, and recognises Lydia as Carver's mistress. Sook had sworn revenge on Carver years earlier for murdering his father, and he will not rest until Carver is dead. Lydia insists that Sook attend the séance, where instead of channelling Staines, she speaks Cantonese and repeats Sook's promise to kill Carver many years before. After the séance, Sook goes to Carver's hotel to attempt to murder him. However, before he can execute his revenge, he is shot by George Shepard, the gaoler, in an act of revenge for his brother, whom Shepard believes was killed by Sook.