Ian Caldwell attended Princeton University, where he studied
history. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1998.
Dustin Thomason attended Harvard University, where he studied
anthropology and medicine. He won the Hoopes Prize for
undergraduate writing, and graduated in 1998. Thomason also
received his M.D. and MBA from Columbia University in 2003.
1. One of the most unique aspects of this novel is its ability
to take the reader directly into the lives of the student-heroes
Tom and Paul (as well as Gil and Charlie), and then in a sentence
place readers in the middle of Renaissance intrigue. Did you think
tensions among the Princeton students and their mentors and rivals
mirror those of the men centuries ago protecting the secrets? How
were the conflicts similar, or different? Did you find that these
character relationships drove the narrative as much as the decoding
of the fascinating book, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
(pronounced Hip-ner-AH-toe-mak-ee-a Poh-LI-fi-ly)?
2. The authors, Caldwell and Thomason, have been close friends
since they were eight-years-old. Why is this important to the
book?
3. What are Tom's and Paul's motivation for pursuing the secrets
of the Hypnerotomachia? In what way is Tom fulfilling his
own needs by alternately obsessing himself with and then ignoring
the messages of the text? Did you find the father/son story moving,
and in what way do the relationships we have with the people we
love or admire drive our ambitions or destroy our dreams? How is
Paul different from Tom?
4. In what ways are the worlds of Paul, Tom, Tom's father, his
old colleagues and foes as cut-throat and deadly as that of the
anonymous writer of the Hypnerotomachia? How does the
conflict of ideas become deadly? Why is the Robert Browning poem
entitled "Andrea Del Sarto" that is slightly misquoted by one
character, and later referenced by Paul in a critical scene, a
statement about motive?
5. After the first death on campus, did you suspect who the
murderer was? Were you correct?
6. What part of the code-breaking did you find most interesting?
Did you "beat" Paul or Tom to a conclusion as they unraveled some
of the mystery? Did you agree with the characters' conclusions?
Could you understand the mesmerizing effect that a book or work of
art could have on a person? Have you ever felt this pull? In what
way is it exhilarating?
7. Tom's and Katie's relationship suffers as the mysteries come
to a head. Did this seem natural to you? Did you find the
resolution of their relationship realistic?
8. At a critical moment in the novel, Paul says "I don't want to
do this alone." What does this say about the nature of his specific
quest, and intellectual puzzles in general? Why is the sharing of
the result so important to him?
9. The action of the novel begins on Good Friday; three days
later, on Easter, it ends (saving the postscript). Is this
important? What might the authors be saying using this specific
timeframe?
10. At the heart of the Hypnerotomachia may be a
crusade to save works of art and literature from the ancient,
mostly pagan world-a world considered infidel by some of the
zealous contemporaries of the anonymous author. Why would the cause
have been important? What was at stake? And if such a covert rescue
operation had occurred, is it possible that it could have been kept
secret for 500 years? How so? If you could uncover something in an
undisturbed crypt, hidden away for centuries and untouched, what
would you most want to discover?
11. In early praise for The Rule of Four
admirers have compared the authors' work to that of F.Scott
Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby, etc.), Dan Brown (The Da
Vinci Code, etc.) Umberto Eco (The Name Of the Rose,
etc.) and Donna Tartt (The Secret History, etc.). Are
these comparisons apt? How? What other works of suspense and
literature did this novel call to your mind? Could you see it as a
film?
12. 12) What is the rule of four?