Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke
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Piranesi: Style 1 key example

Key Examples in Piranesi

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Piranesi's style is characterized by its use of a first-person narrator who, although deeply introspective and observant, happens to be unreliable due to Piranesi's amnesia. Piranesi reports the events of his life with what seems like painstaking accuracy. For example, he transcribes his written and verbal conversations exactly, and provides detail-rich descriptions of the House's infinite Halls. However, his perception of the world is ultimately skewed by how little he knows about his own identity. In this way, the novel relies heavily on dramatic irony to create suspense as the reader pieces together the relationship between the surreal realm Piranesi inhabits and the contemporary exterior world.