The Pride and the SorrowThe Pride and the Sorrow is a novel currently with London literary agent James Wills of www.watsonlittle.com.
It is the story of Paul Morphy, born in New Orleans as a chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. He 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...
Writer Biography Matt Fullerty was born in England and educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University (BA, English) and the University of East Anglia (MA, Creative Writing). He was recently awarded a PhD in English from The George Washington University, Washington, DC. The Pride and the Sorrow is his first novel. He is now writing The Murderess and the Hangman. You can contact Matt at fullerty@gmail.com
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 arguably 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...
Characters and settings from THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW and THE MURDERESS AND THE HANGMAN JavaScript must be enabled to view images.
This page was last modified by Matt Fullerty on April 2, 2008