The Castle of Dreams

This enlightening, entertaining, and intriguing novel begins as a story within a story—or a story within a trunk. A Frenchman—our narrator, presumably the author Michel Jouvet, or a literary version of himself—buys an antique chest with brass fittings, labeled with the initials HLS and a partially worn-away date, "178-." Happy to have such a handsome piece for his hallway, the narrator is surprised to find within it bundles of ancient papers tied with string. He has discovered the dream journals, experiments, and correspondence of eighteenth-century amateur scientist Hugues la Scève. With Jouvet, a recognized authority on sleep and dream research, as our guide, we follow la Scève's quest to unlock the mystery of dreams.