A Long Overdue Update and Future Plans

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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.

Caleb Carr’s CFA Master Class

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As I’m sure all visitors would be aware, The Alienist TV series premiered last week. For those of you who are new to The Alienist, I strongly recommend reading along with the original novel as you watch the series. To enhance your reading experience, don’t forget that you can find everything you need to know about the novel’s themes, the (real) New York City locations that feature in the novel, and the characters right here.

While you’re waiting for the next episode, The Center For Fiction recently released up a recording of Caleb Carr’s Crime Fiction Academy masterclass from December. You can view the video below.

Introducing Kreizler, John, and Sara

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No sooner had I posted about the new trailer for TNT’s upcoming adaptation of The Alienist than three clips were released by TNT to introduce the characters of Dr. Kreizler, Sara Howard, and John Moore. The clip of Daniel Brühl introducing Dr. Kreizler can be found below. The additional clips of Dakota Fanning introducing Sara Howard and Luke Evans introducing John Moore can be found at TNT’s YouTube channel.

Finally, a reminder to those visitors from the NYC region that Caleb Carr will be offering a Master Class this week as part of the Center for Fiction’s Crime Fiction Academy. If you are interested in attending the Master Class, you can view the details of the event and RSVP at the Center’s website. The Master Class will be taking place on Thursday, December 7th at 7:00pm.

New Trailer and Tie-In Edition

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A new TV tie-in paperback edition of The Alienist was released last week by Random House in anticipation of TNT’s upcoming adaptation due to premiere on January 22nd. The new cover features the three stars of the show — Daniel Bruhl as Dr Kreizler, Dakota Fanning as Sara Howard, and Luke Evans as John Moore — along with some of the key artefacts featured in the case. A copy of the cover can be seen to the right.

In addition, a third trailer for the adaptation of The Alienist was released last week as well. As with the previous trailers, it’s clear that this will be a dark and atmospheric adaptation. I would be curious to know what long time readers of the Alienist books feel about the trailers that have been released so far. How do you feel about the changes that are evident from the trailers that have been released so far? Are you looking forward to the adaptation?