The Pride and the Sorrow
The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy, born in New Orleans as an infant chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. Paul is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart... The Pride and the Sorrow is currently with London literary agent James Wills of Watson, Little Ltd and is being sent out to publishers this month.The Pride and the Sorrow recently won the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Novel Competition, 2008. See www.bookhabit.com/competition
The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy, born in New Orleans as an infant chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard.
Paul is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart...
The Pride and the Sorrow is currently with London literary agent James Wills of Watson, Little Ltd and is being sent out to publishers this month.The Pride and the Sorrow recently won the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Novel Competition, 2008. See www.bookhabit.com/competition
Characters and settings from THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW and THE MURDERESS AND THE HANGMAN JavaScript must be enabled to view images.
Writer Biography
Matt Fullerty was born in Warrington, England and educated at Oxford University (B.A. English) and the University of East Anglia (M.A. Creative Writing). He was recently awarded a Ph.D. in English from The George Washington University, Washington, DC. The Pride and the Sorrow is Matt's first novel. He is now writing a London murder story called The Murderess and the Hangman about an Irish maid who murders her landlady for a few pieces of furniture... You can contact Matt at fullerty@gmail.com This page was last modified by Matt Fullerty on June 25, 2008
You can contact Matt at fullerty@gmail.com
This page was last modified by Matt Fullerty on June 25, 2008
Paul's story is a rites of passage about a boy who becomes famous by playing chess. It is also a cautionary tale about New Orleans, family pride and a romantic mind who cannot cope with the real world...
The Pride and the Sorrow is a cross between Josh Waitzkin's SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER (about a chess boy genius) and Vladimir Nabokov's THE DEFENSE (about chess causing madness).
Paul resists gambling and dueling and despite Morphy family rivalries he takes on the Europeans at their own game. But the red-light district and temptations on the other side of New Orleans are never far away...
Bookhabit Novel Award - Winner! Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Novel Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit! Book Review, June 2008Geoff Cush, a member of the judging panel, said"What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time. Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans. In my view this makes THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction.
Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Novel Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit!
Geoff Cush, a member of the judging panel, said
"What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time. Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans. In my view this makes THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction.
Interview, June 2008
A 23-minute interview with Matt is now available through www.reviewyak.com with Clare Tanner of the Bookhabit Show. "Every month over 20,000 listeners download our podcasts for The Bookhabit Show where we tell the author's story behind the story." You can also link to the audio file on a new Bookhabit page here.