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  • Would Recommend but Not Necessarily Re-read

  • The book started out great and was able to exclusively hold my attention for the first 3/4, but they were not able to succintly close the deal. It ended up dragging quite an unfortunate bit the last 1/4.

    

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• ― lisainindie said on Oct 23, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The only problem I had with this book is that I found it hard to suspend my disbelief that people would be so interested in the Hypertenmachia Poliphili (sp?), I had never heard of it before and therefore I thought the premise was weak.

    

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• ― Jane said on Jul 25, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Otto's Books[return]Williamsport, PA[return]October 30th, 2007[return]$1[return][return]

    

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• ― Manatree said on Jun 26, 2007 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, madness, and genius.

Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the five-hundred-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets -- to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline looms, research has stalled -- until an ancient diary surfaces. What Tom and Paul discover inside shocks even them: proof that the location of a hidden crypt has been ciphered within the pages of the obscure Renaissance text.

Armed with this final clue, the two friends delve into the bizarre world of the Hypnerotomachia -- a world of forgotten erudition, strange sexual appetites, and terrible violence. But just as they begin to realize the magnitude of their discovery, Princeton's snowy campus is rocked: a longtime student of the book is murdered, shot dead in the hushed halls of the history department.

A tale of timeless intrigue, dazzling scholarship, and great imaginative power, The Rule of Four is the story of a young man divided between the future's promise and the past's allure, guided only by friendship and love.

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