Codex
Author: Lev Grossman
Release: March 8, 2004
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Mystery, Literature, Fiction
ISBN-10: 0151010668
ISBN-13: 978-0151010660
Main Character(s): Edward Wozny, Margret Napier
Synopsis: “About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hot-shot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm’s most important and mysterious clients. When asked to uncrate and organize a personal library of rare books, Edward’s indignation turns to intrigue as he realizes that there may be a unique medieval codex hidden among the volumes, a treasure kept locked away for many years and for many reasons. As friends draw Edward into a peculiar and addictive computer game, his obsession deepens as he discovers surprising parallels between the game’s virtual reality and the mystery of the codex.”
Declassified by Agent Palmer: The Mystery of The Codex is Always on the Periphery
Quotes and Lines
“What makes you think he’s important?”
Edward hesitated, puzzled.
“I guess I just assumed–you’re saying he’s not important?”
Edward caught a faint flash of something in her eyes.
“He’s a significant minor figure,” she said, calmly enough, and took another sip of coffee.
“Libraries live a long time, and time only makes books more valuable.”
“Not everything means something, you know.”
“People in the Middle Ages didn’t use books for the same things we do. We read books for fun, to escape from the world around us, but back then books were serious business. In Gervase’s time literature was for worship and instruction, for moral improvement. Books were vessels of the Truth. A book like the Viage, a fictional narrative written to be read alone in your room, for pure enjoyment, would have been considered immoral and unhealthy, if not positively satanic.”
“Now listen to me, Edward. The real world isn’t nice like this. It’s chaos, it’s all out of order, just like my pages were. The whole world has been disbound, Edward, its pages scattered to the wind. It’s your job to put them back in their proper order.”
“Maybe it’s that the world is an imperfect place, but if you spend all your time looking for something better you’ll only end up somewhere even worse.”