“The Club Dumas” was originally published in Spanish in 1993 then translated to english in 1996. Eventually the story was adapted to film in 1999 as “The Ninth Gate” starring Johnny Depp. The story is about a ethically questionable finder of rare books, hired to verify the authenticity of a manuscript.  I saw the film first, which involved secret societies, forbidden knowledge, and books hundreds of years old.  With all that going for it, I picked up a first edition of the english version.

The film centers around the authenticity of a book (The Nine Gates) whose author was burned at the stake by the church in 1666.  Allegedly the author describes how to summon the Devil.  The novel includes this same book (as The Nine Doors) but also a manuscript allegedly written by Alexandre Dumas (best known for The Three Musketeers).  The novel spends much more time talking about the Dumas script even though the Nine Doors is more relevant to the overall plot.

I recommend you read the book first.  I personally liked the film better (making this and Fight Club as the only two film adaptations I consider a step up).  The presence and motivation of some characters just makes more sense.  Plus one of the bad guys in the film is a good guy in the book, which kept throwing me off, but that is no fault of the original author.  Either way it is an interesting book detective story.

It also made me think i should hide away some paper and ink from today in case I ever need to forge a historical document.  The only real flaw is that I'll likely die of old age before the paper becomes useful.