{{Short description|Novel by John Banville}} {{For|the concept of Ancient lights in English law|Right to light}} {{Infobox book | name = Ancient Light | image = AncientLight.jpg | caption = Cover of first edition | author = John Banville | country = Ireland | language = English | genre = <!-- Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Novel categorization --> | publisher = Viking Penguin | release_date = 2012-07-05 | media_type = Print (Hardcover) | pages = 245 pp (hardcover) | isbn = 978-0-670-92061-7 }} '''''Ancient Light''''' is a 2012 novel by John Banville.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/03/how-i-write-john-banville-on-ancient-light-nabokov-and-dublin.html|title=How I Write: John Banville on 'Ancient Light,'Nabokov, and Dublin|work=The Daily Beast|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref> First published on 7 July 2012, the novel concludes a trilogy concerning Alexander Cleave and his daughter, Cass.<ref>{{cite news|first=Christopher|last=Benfry|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/books/review/ancient-light-by-john-banville.html?pagewanted=all|title=Doubling Back|work=The New York Times|date=9 November 2012|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref> ''Eclipse'' (2000) and ''Shroud'' (2002) were ''Ancient Light'''s literary predecessors in the Banville canon.
Banville dedicated ''Ancient Light'' to the literary editor Caroline Walsh, whose recent sudden death had left him devastated.<ref>{{cite news|first=Stuart|last=Jeffries|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2012/jun/29/john-banvill-life-in-writing|title=John Banville: a life in writing|work=The Guardian|date=29 June 2012|access-date=29 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first1=Edel|last1=O'Connell|first2=John|last2=Spain|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/literary-world-mourns-loss-of-passionate-editor-walsh-59-26804857.html|title=Literary world mourns loss of 'passionate' editor Walsh (59)|newspaper=Irish Independent|date=23 December 2011|access-date=23 December 2011}}</ref>
==Plot and themes== ''Ancient Light'' is narrated by Alexander Cleave, a 60-something year-old retired actor, and takes place 10 years after the death of his daughter Cass in ''Eclipse''. Cleave begins to record his memories of a first, unlikely affair he had at age 15 with Mrs Gray, a married woman 20 years his senior. "Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother."<ref>Banville, John. ''Ancient Light''. Viking Penguin, 2012, p.3</ref> The book moves between memories of this affair and his current state of grief he shares with his wife Lydia, touching on themes of family, love, grief, and the reliability of memory. His solitude is interrupted by an offer to play the lead in a film entitled ''The Invention of the Past''. The film is to be based on the life of literary theorist Axel Vander, the man with Cass when she killed herself in Italy. On the set Cleave bonds with Dawn Devonport, an emotionally fragile young ingenue mourning the death of her father. As Cleave continues to narrate his past relationship with Mrs Gray to its inevitable conclusion, the father-daughter relationship grows between him and Dawn.
==Reception== Critical reception for ''Ancient Light'' was primarily positive,<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Joan|last=Acocella|url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/10/08/121008crbo_books_acocella?currentPage=all|title=DOUBLING DOWN|magazine=The New Yorker|date=8 October 2012|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Malcolm|last=Forbes|url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/172870691.html?refer=y|title=FICTION: 'Ancient Light,' by John Banville|work=Star Tribune|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref> with a reviewer for UK newspaper ''The Independent'' calling it a "luminous, breathtaking work."<ref>{{cite news|first=Leyla|last=Sanai|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/ancient-light-by-john-banville-7922384.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711123445/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/ancient-light-by-john-banville-7922384.html |archive-date=2012-07-11 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Ancient Light, By John Banville|work=The Independent|access-date=10 November 2012|location=London|date=8 July 2012}}</ref>
Critics for ''The Guardian'' also reviewed ''Ancient Light'', with Tim Adams praising Banville's themes and "cleverness", while Alex Clark praised the dual narrative as "disorienting".<ref>{{cite news|first=Tim|last=Adams|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/24/ancient-light-john-banville-review|title=Ancient Light by John Banville – review|work=The Guardian|access-date=10 November 2012|location=London|date=24 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Alex|last=Clark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/22/ancient-light-john-banville-review|title=Ancient Light by John Banville – review|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=22 June 2012|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref> UK newspaper ''The Daily Telegraph'' gave the book three out of five stars, writing that it is "notably, though for the most part seamlessly, light-fingered – strings of Yeses from ''Ulysses'', bits of Eliot, a hazel wood from Yeats, a lovely quote from Leopardi".<ref>{{cite news|first=Keith|last=Miller|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9395293/Ancient-Light-by-John-Banville-review.html|title=Ancient Light by John Banville: review|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=17 July 2012|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref> ''The Harvard Crimson'' stated that '[t]he major weakness of "Ancient Light," however, lies is not in its moments of gimmickry but in its vagueness'.<ref>{{cite news|first=Keshava D.|last=Guha|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/10/10/ancient_light_review/|title='Ancient Light' Ultimately Unilluminating|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=10 November 2012}}</ref>
The writer Colm Tóibín named ''Ancient Light'' as one of his books of the year.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/books-of-the-year/story-fn9n8gph-1226541203228|title=Books of the year|work=The Australian|date=22 December 2012|access-date=22 December 2012}}</ref>
''Ancient Light'' won in the Novel category at the 2012 Irish Book Awards.<ref>{{cite news|first=Rosita|last=Boland|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1123/1224327011713.html|title=Banville wins novel of year at awards|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=23 November 2012|access-date=23 November 2012|archive-date=20 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120152905/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/1123/1224327011713.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Artwork== The cover photograph of a man and a woman dancing in a kitchen was taken by Elliott Erwitt and is titled "Spain, Valencia, 1952, Robert and Mary Frank".<ref name="magnum">{{cite web|url=http://www.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Elliott-Erwitt/1952/Miscellaneous-1952-NN161351.html|title=Elliot Erwin 1952|work=Magnum Photos|access-date=28 November 2012}}</ref> Andrew Winer also used the photograph for the book cover of ''The Marriage Artist'' (2010, Henry Holt & Company) and Mark Knopfler used it for the album ''The Ragpicker's Dream''.<ref name="ol">{{cite news|url=http://www.opinionless.com/different-book-same-cover-andrew-winers-the-marriage-artist/|title=Different Book, Same Cover: Andrew Winer's The Marriage Artist|work=OpinionLess|access-date=24 November 2012|archive-date=20 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120135234/http://www.opinionless.com/different-book-same-cover-andrew-winers-the-marriage-artist/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
{{John Banville}}
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Category:2012 Irish novels Category:Novels by John Banville Category:Viking Press books