The Cabinet of Curiosities

Like the title this story is a curiosity. The historical backdrop is not one instantly familiar to most young people, being that of Prague in 1598, the seat of Rudolph, the Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolph collects curiosities in a museum which becomes a source of fascination for Lukas, nephew to the curator of the cabinet and court physician, Anselmus, to whom he has become apprenticed. Lukas has travelled from the Low Countries after his father had been put to death by the Inquisition. On the road he met Etienne who led him astray somewhat. Lukas finds life in the Emperor’s Palace dull and boring and through Etienne falls into bad company. He is also used by Celestina, daughter of Dorantes, the envoy of the Spanish King, who is trying to stop the Emperor’s relaxed attitude to the practice of religion. Rudolph is eccentric and suffers from depression and the envoy sees a way to kill him using Rudolph’s interest in curiosities. Having been caught stealing from the museum and sent packing, Lukas is given a way to re-instate his apprenticeship and regain his uncle’s trust.

This is a portrait of a boy, bitter at his father’s treatment, who has lost his way and seems to be easily led. The unfamiliar historical background is not explained enough for the reader to become engaged with the background to the story. In the notes at the back Paul Dowswell does explain which bits of the background are real and those that are not, but more setting of the background within the text would have made the reader’s job easier. Some of the unpronounceable names do not help. The reader can feel sympathy for an orphaned boy in an unfamiliar city lodging with an old man, but not perhaps for how easily Etienne leads him so quickly into the path of robbery and deceit on the road to Prague. Would a boy whose father obviously had strong moral feelings himself go astray so easily I wonder? The publicity talks of a ‘fantastical adventure set against the backdrop of Ancient Bohemia’, but the attempts of the Spanish to oust Rudolph from his throne are not that fantastical, given his lax rule. The adventure itself is quite credible if not rooted in historical fact and makes for an exciting end to the story, if the reader gets that far.