Product Description

The sequel to "Silence of the Lambs" marks the return of Dr Hannibal Lecter. One of Hannibal's victims, the influential and rich Mason Verger - a paraplegic confined to a respirator thanks to Hannibal - is bent on revenge and FBI agent Clarice Starling provides the perfect bait.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74339 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hannibal. Dr Hannibal Lecter. "A brief silence follows the name, always, in any civilized gathering," wrote Thomas Harris at the beginning of his stunning The Silence of the Lambs in 1988. You don't want him in your head, you don't want you in his head. Now, a decade later, Lecter is back--ready to take up his place as one of the cult figures of contemporary fiction. Almost a modern myth, in fact, if the scale, and thrill, of the publication of Hannibal is anything to go by. Harris's book is "news": not only "book news" but "real" news, one of the biggest publishing events of the decade in terms of print run (one million copies worldwide), film rights (Hollywood has paid six million dollars for the book: Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore will star) and cultural cachet.

The serial killer--like his counterpart, the psychologist-profiler--is a figure for our times; "In the contemporary mind," as one psychoanalyst, Christopher Bollas, has put it, "the serial killer is the statement of evil". Psychiatrist and killer, Lecter gives a peculiar twist to that evil (and Harris has always been interested in the precarious division between killer and cure). In Red Dragon, published in 1981, Will Graham was one of the first of the fictional profilers thinking and feeling his way into the minds of the killers he pursued. Behind bars, Lecter was a charged, but compelling, presence--an enigma who promised to be a key to psychopathic crime if only someone were genius enough to understand him. Jack Crawford tried, and then Clarice Starling. Now, as if in response to those who wanted to know more, comes Hannibal, a novel which constantly threatens to bring Lecter to life through its (sometimes grisly) pages. "Dr. Hannibal Lecter's fingerprint card is a curiosity and something of a cult object": Harris is the one who knows, who has "been there", and takes his readers into Lecter's world of curious courtesy and exquisite taste, sickening cruelty and loving murder. Both Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs were masterpieces of plot and suspense; though complex and plotted, this is rather more "Hannibal's book": no-one who wants to know, and suffer with, Lecter--his past victims, his past life, his strange feelings for Starling--can miss this brilliant piece of mythmaking. --Vicky Lebeau

Peter Millar, The Times
‘Worth the wait… Harris’s writing bears the hallmarks of honed perfection…look no further for the chiller of the year’

Mail on Sunday
‘Insanely readable…No thriller writer is better attuned than Thomas Harris to the rhythms of suspense… truly shocking…a brilliant book’

Customer Reviews

A big Thomas Harris fan who feels very let down.
I awaited the release of this book with great anticipation. Every time we reached another Christmas or Birthday, I would head to the book store to see if the next Thomas Harris book was ready for my perusal. I'm sorry to say that I was very disappointed.

It appeared from the outset that Harris was writing this book not for his fanatical readers... but only in anticipation of a big budget movie. Harris's impeccable writing style made it easy to clearly see the movie sets and imagine those points when the actors would have their big "moment"... but in return the story failed (for me, at least). Most importantly, I simply could not buy the ending. I felt that it betrayed the original characters and strayed too far from the original atmosphere of the first books... I don't want to give away the end of the book, but I could never believe the way that the relationship between the two leads developed. The only thing that kept me going to the end was the still enticing prose that Harris manages to conjure.

Please, read all the Thomas Harris books... he is simply marvellous. I even believe that you SHOULD read this one... and find out for yourself if you agree with me.

A sick love story
HANNIBAL is a contentious book with an even more contentious ending. The debate amongst readers and critics continues to this day. Yes this isn't as good as RED DRAGON, but about on a par with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The prose here is more reflective than the propulsive preceding books, the chase replaced by mediation. Starling remains a slightly tedious character (why not bring back Will Graham, Mr Harris) although she is more interestingly flawed than she was in SILENCE, and Hannibal himself suffers when granted the centre stage (he was more interesting in small doses). Humanising him is an interesting move by Harris, but it is ultimately self-defeating. Mason Verger though is a deliciously monstrous creation. Harris does continue his exploration of evil, but this is chiefly a love story, albeit a slightly sick love story. Which brings us to the ending. To dismiss (or rewrite as in the poor movie version of the novel) the ending is to misunderstand the whole book.400 odd pages build to this one ending, to dismiss it is to render the whole work redundant.

HANNIBAL is beautifully written, and Harris continues to conjure with some heady ideas, and only suffers in comparison to Harris's earlier work. A flawed, but fascinating addition to the thriller genre.

Two out of three ain't bad - but full marks to Mr. Harris!
Ok, ‘Hannibal’ has been hailed the worst of the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, but I am here to disagree. It is just a slightly different genre, and may not appeal to all you pyscho lovers out there! It is nowhere near as thrilling as the first two books (‘Red Dragon’ and ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ for all you Hannibal virgins out there!) however; I think it is the most essential. After reading the first instalments, I wanted to find out more about Dr. Lecter himself, and not just focus on another hero/heroine that saves the American public from an evil serial killer. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Red Dragon’ and ‘Silence’ are quite possibly the best novels of the century, and subsequently great films, but they do not capture my imagination as thoroughly as the third of the series. If you have seen the movie version of ‘Hannibal’, do not be discouraged. Surprisingly I found the film terrible as it did not incorporate the most important aspects of the plot (and changed the ending, which was vital to the storyline).
I absolutely loved how Thomas Harris delved into the character of Hannibal, and gave us a taster of his history. I also love how this scarily intelligent and eloquent doctor actually has the views of a 5-year old (see Mischa and Clarice). After ‘Silence’ I was eager to find out what Hannibal actually felt about Clarice, and it is all answered in this book (I LOVE the ending!). It emphasises the characters more than a murderous plot, as seen in the previous two, which I felt gave more depth to the novel and made it so much more interesting. However, the best part of this book is how Harris encourages and builds a relationship between the reader and Dr. Lecter, and by the end I found myself actually liking the vile serial killer! Then I started thinking, what is so bad about eating people anyway?!
(Disclaimer – I am a vegetarian!!!)