Horace Dorlan

by Andrzej Klimowski

Preparing to deliver a lecture in Pisa, Professor Horace Dorlan plans to incorporate music and performance into his scientific presentation. On the eve of his big event, however, strange things start to happen. Consciousness and reality start to shift, divergent voices speak of confusing things and questions start to mount up. Where, for instance, is his wife, why is there a miniature musical quintet in his room, and what of the accident that afflicted himA darkly imaginative tour de force - that melds elements of silent movies, graphic novels, thrillers and the surreal - Horace Dorlan is Andrzej Klimowski's first work to incorporate text into his visual narratives.

Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novels

Paperback

First published April 5, 2007

About the author

Andrzej Klimowski, who was born to Polish parents in London, retains strong links with Poland, where he lived and worked for some years. During his career he has made films and written graphic novels. He has designed theatre posters and book covers for leading publishers. He was head of Illustration at the Royal College of Art for many years, and is now Professor Emeritus. He continues to produce graphic novels with his wife Danusia Schejbal, and works in graphics and produces illustrations. He also makes films. His work has been the subject of a retrospective at the National Theatre, London.

Reviews

[Ashish Kumar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird book. Reading it was like watching a highly intelligent movie where one isn’t sure what one is watching. Like Tenet. And even in the end one needs someone to explain, explicitly, the whole movie. Especially if that person is like me, an average human being with an average intelligence.

Horace Dorlan is part novel, part picture book with the ratio of 3:1. From what I could gather, this is about a professor who is planning to deliver a lecture at a university in Pisa. But on the eve of that magnificent day, weird things starts to happen. Not really sure what else I can say, because not everything that happens here makes sense. I was confused throughout, especially when pictures started to appear. The text contradicted everything the pictures were depicting and vise verse, but I had hope that everything would come to a satisfactory conclusion, one that would bring the baffling ends together. Unfortunately this never happened. I didn’t get any answers, only more questions. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the process of reading it, putting together the pieces even when in the end, the final picture didn’t make any sense.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book still lingers in my mind. It has a dream logic, mysterious but grounded in a way that makes the surprises more surreal. It's the kind of book that wants to be re-read.

Klimowski is an illustrator as well as a writer, so he alternates between passages of text and full-page lithographs. The structure made me wonder if this is the ideal form for visual narrative. Each panel is given space and time, unlike many comic books that can sometimes feel too dense. It gives the story a meditative quality.

The story itself uses mirroring, which I really liked. Characters swap places, reflect on each other, transform into one another. At one point, a character describes his book (within the book) as a 'science fiction biography' and this seems to describe how Klimowski himself envisions his story.

I did feel lost in blank pages when I stumbled into the end, but I think it was right that the story retains a sense of mystery about it.

[Sourav · Rating 2 out of 5]

If confusion was the objective, the author succeeded. This is a kafkaesque novel that is separated by two different timelines of its lead character, Horace Dorlan

The graphical elements contributes to the confusion and mystery surrounding the story. I did enjoy reading the novel and making sense out of the images. However, it felt dijointed throughout.

I do believe I need to revist this book again as much of what happens in the latter stages of the book is connected to the first part, I am told.

The book hasn't been read by many, however, upon some research I did find that the author Andrzej Klimowski has multiple other works in the same category - kafkaesque graphic novel. I might look into it solely because of the strangeness that these stories offer😅

[Laurence Boyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klimowski's meld of narrative prose and sequential is a dreamlike piece of work that follows the fortunes of a Professor as he heads to deliver a lecture and the surreal things that then occur. There's an echo of, erm, Eco here - the waft of academia throughout the story - and also David Lynch, the consistently taking strange turns and unexplained detours.

While Klimowski in creating an often unsettling mood, thanks both to the prose and the art sequences, it never quite hangs together. There's obtuseness that you can wallow in and ignore the lack of narrative coherence as you succumb to the atmosphere. But here you never quite succumb and it's wilful strangeness ends up feeling unsatisfying.

But there's still something here and Klimowski deserves praise for his attempt

[Al Capwned · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, that was strange...but also captivating. Is it kafkaesque or something? I'm not sure but it's definitely an ambitious work, both in terms of format and story. I will probably have to read it again at some point.

[Η Cultσα · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύ περίεργο το έργο, αλλά το τέλος ήταν mind-blowing και με αστείο τρόπο, οπότε εγκρίνεται. Καλά, δεν εγκρίνεται μόνο γι'αυτό προφανώς, αλλά καταλαβαίνετε τι εννοώ.

[Kate Mackley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit bizarre for my taste.