It has been nearly a year since I last updated 17th Street and so much has happened in the interim.
For those of you who are new to the site or discovered 17th Street as a result of the 2018 TV adaptation of The Alienist, you may be unaware of this website’s history. 17th Street was first opened in 2005 with the intention of providing interested readers with everything they could ever want to know about Caleb Carr’s Alienist books. Over the years, the website has experienced both busy and slow periods, primarily due to a lack of news about upcoming books and my own study/work commitments. Even so, the site slowly grew and developed into the resource you see today.
For the past year, I have been extremely busy with work. However, I have also been devoting a lot of time to the development of another project that evolved out of my love of classic literature. Anybody who has been a long-term visitor to the website will be familiar with a series of blog posts that I started writing in 2013. These 17th Street “Book Blogs” provided short reviews of 19th century classics and historical nonfiction that I felt may be of interest to readers of the Alienist books. These were some of the most enjoyable blogs for me to write, so it should come as little surprise that this love of history and classic literature led me to start working on a new project that directly relates to those interests: revitalising some of the finest works of literature from around the globe. While I will not be discussing the project in any depth here, readers who are interested in seeing what I am doing now, particularly those who also enjoy classic literature, are welcome to visit the home of my new endeavour, Sophene Armeniaca.
Although it may seem as though I have abandoned 17th Street, this is not the case. I still love the Alienist books—they hold a special place in my heart—and I am hopeful that one day we will see a sequel published. Even so, I did not feel as positively about the TV series that emerged as a result of the books. I did watch the series in 2018, but I felt that it deviated too far from the source material for me to truly appreciate. I understand that those of you who found 17th Street as a result of the TV series will feel differently to me. Although I hope fans of the adaptation do not feel unwelcome here, visitors need to understand that the reason I maintain this website is for the books, not for any adaptations.
All of this brings me to the directions I will be taking with 17th Street into the future. As I mentioned above, my new endeavour is very time consuming, which means that I have much less time to devote to other projects such as 17th Street. In saying this, I will not be closing the site and I would like to become active here again in the future; however, this comes with a caveat. Ultimately, I want to return to my roots with this website. This means that I will not be providing any updates about adaptations here. I may occasionally discuss a book that relates to an adaptation (such as the upcoming adaptation of The Devil Soldier), but that is as far as I will be going. Any book-related news will still be posted here.
Thank you for your continued support and I hope you continue to return in the future.
I am very disappointed by the adaptation of The Alienist too. I am looking forward for the new books. If somebody as any news about a release date, please share the information ! 😀
Hi Fab, as you’ll see in my new update today, it looks like the release date for the next book will be September 1st, 2019 – this year! :)
Ah thank you Kim. I’m glad and i’m sad, i mean September is a long wait. Especially because i will have to wait a lot more to have the book translated before to be published in my country.
But you know what, i’ll probably have « September » by Earth Wind & Fire all day in my head ! LOL
Although the TV adaptation was not always faithful to the book, I found the series to be riveting and rich in detail. As one who spent considerable time working with forensic professionals, including a prominent forensic psychologist, I appreciated both the tv series and the book in their portrayals of the origins of these sciences.
I also didn’t like the TV series. I was disappointed with casting as well as deviating so far from the book.
I was also very disappointed with the tv adaptation, which seemed to be adapted by someone who had never read the book! September has come and gone. Is there really a sequel at all?
The Alienist was and remains one of my most memorable reads. I just finished Surrender, New York and enjoyed it Especially your reference to Kryzler!