The Malacia Tapestry (1976)

The Malacia Tapestry is a fantasy-historical novel by British writer Brian Aldiss, published in 1976. The story takes place in a fictional port city called Malacia, which is an alternate history version of a Renaissance city-state. It tells the story of a poor young actor named Perian de Chirolo who hopes to change his station in life so he can marry a wealthy merchant's daughter. While Malacia is considered a near-utopia, the happiness in the city belies the authoritarian rule of the powerful Supreme Council, which uses fear to prevent progress.

Plot

The Malacia Tapestry is a novel about Perian de Chirolo, a poor young man who is both a rogue and rarely-working actor, in the imaginary city of Malacia, which resembles Renaissance Venice. De Chirolo lives in a humble attic, cadges meals and drinks in taverns, seeks love affairs with many women, and mingles with artists, astrologers, magicians, and nobility in the bustling port town. As the story opens, De Chirolo enjoys his free time with his young friend Guy de Lambert, who is also an actor. The pair pass their days drinking, jesting, and having affairs with women.

Malacia has a legendary curse that it can never progress or change, which is enforced by a powerful Supreme Council, which also eliminates heretics and other freethinkers. The craftsman Otto Bengtsohn, though, defies the anti-progress edicts and invents a type of early photography. Bengtsohn uses the camera to make slides for a play, which is funded by the powerful and wealthy merchant Andrus Hoytola. De Chirolo falls in love with Hoytola's daughter, Armida, who is acting in the play. De Chirolo starts a secret love affair with the wealthy Armida, but she tells him they cannot marry unless he achieves enough in life to make an acceptable mate.

Despite De Chirolo's professions of love to Armida, and their secret plan to marry, De Chirolo has sexual encounters with a number of women. De Chirolo starts to fall in love, and decides to cease his womanizing. As De Chirolo works with the other participants in the play, he meets working-class apprentices who call for progress and changes in society, which is against the law in Malacia. As De Chirolo tries to rise in Malacian society, he feels frustrated at his lack of progress in being accepted by the nobles.

When Andrus Hoytola invites de Chirolo to join the annual hunt for "ancestral animals" (rare examples of the almost-extinct dinosaurs), de Chirolo is pleased to mingle with nobles and slay a seven-ton Devil-Jaw. However, de Chirolo's rise in Malacian society unravels when Andrus Hoytola learns that Bengtsohn is a Progressive who hopes that his zahnoscope slides can be used to foment a revolution against the ruling class. As the elder Hoytola suspects that de Chirolo is in league with Bengtsohn, de Chirolo ends up banished from society and Bengtsohn is killed. As the story ends, Bengtsohn's fellow Progressives try to recruit de Chirolo to join their plans for a class revolution.

Characters

Perian de Chirolo: young man who works occasionally as an actor

Guy de Lambant: young man in the same theatre troupe as Perian de Chirolo and one of his friends; he is described as handsome, witty, idle and vain

Pozzi Kemperer: a middle-aged theatre impresario and actor, sometimes hires de Chirolo and de Lambant

La Singla: beautiful young actress with golden hair and an ample figure who is married to Kemperer, she has amorous encounters with de Chirolo

Caylus Nortolini: a "lordly young man" known as a ladies' man and swordfighter, who is liked for his generosity buying drinks at local taverns

Bedalar Nortolini: an attractive young woman, Caylus' sister, and a friend to Armida Hoytola, the daughter of a wealthy merchant

Armida Hoytola: the beautiful, slender 18-year-old daughter of Andrus Hoytola, a wealthy merchant

Andrus Hoytola: a wealthy merchant who seeks to rise in Malacian society, he lives in a mansion and owns 80 horses and a country estate, Juracia

Progressives

Otto Bengtsohn: old inventor and craftsman from Tolkhorm, a northern town known for its enlightened Progressive political leanings; he has invented the zahnoscope, a Daguerreotype-style early camera

Bonihatch: an apprentice to Bengtsohn and a fellow Progressive

Letitia Zlatorog: an impoverished young seamstress; Bonihatch is in love with her and Perian tries to seduce her. She is also a Progressive

Minor characters

Piebald Pete: a balding, impoverished marionette artisan, who once entertained in the houses of the nobility, but has now become mostly a busker on the streets

Bledlore: a brilliant glassworker who once did work for the nobility, but who now has become impoverished, living in a shabby room atop a crumbling warehouse

Yolaria: Armida's "whey-faced" old chaperone, she supervises most of Armida's social activities

Man in black coat: this anonymous figure wears a large black coat and a black tricorne hat over a grey wig. His hat bears the Supreme Council's emblem, showing he is a representative of the powerful, but shadowy ruling body which ensures order and stability in Malacia through disappearances, torture and executions

Captain John: A Captain in the Tuscady Heavy Cavalry, which is posted temporarily in Malacia to defend it from the Turkish attacks; he is in love with La Singla

Katarina de Chirolo: Perian de Chirolo's sister, married to the rarely-home merchant Volpato; they live in a crumbling castle

Elder de Chirolo: Perian de Chirolo's elderly, sick father; he is a scholar who is obsessed with his historical research and writing