The Silent Gondoliers

The Silent Gondoliers is a 1983 novel written by William Goldman, under the pseudonym of "S. Morgenstern", about why the gondoliers of Venice no longer sing through the tale of the protagonist Luigi. The tale of Luigi actually starts in Chapter III and the previous chapters I and II build up further mythology behind the name Morgenstern and the backstory of Gondolierian history. It has the trademark humour of Goldman, and the unexpected fairy tale twist akin to an anti-fairy tale as the characters never end up as what we imagined or expect in fairy tales. The Silent Gondoliers is the... lesser-known book written by S. Morgenstern. It was released in hardcover in 1983, and a trade paperback version came out from Del Rey in 2001. Paul Giovanopoulos provided 20 pen-and-ink illustrations for the story. William Goldman also uses this pseudonym in his better-known novel, The Princess Bride which leads us to believe it is William Goldman's favorite pseudonym. However in this tale, he writes as if he remembers spending Christmas in Venice, with the echo of singing gondoliers, once as a child and again with his wife and daughters.
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