The Newton Letter

Drawing comparisons with Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier and John Hawkes's The Blood Oranges for their use of the unreliable narrator, The Newton Letter was described in The New York Times as Banville's "most impressive work to date".

Kevin Billington directed in 1984 a film adaptation for the British broadcaster Channel 4, Reflections with Gabriel Byrne, Harriet Walter and Fionnula Flanagan.

The presence of Charlotte's husband, Edward Lawless, creates a romantic triangle-plus-one.

The story is loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1809 novel Elective Affinities, from which it takes its main characters Charlotte, Ottilie and Edward.

[1] The Newton Letter is the third of Banville's "scientific tetralogy" (preceded by Doctor Copernicus and Kepler, followed by Mefisto, a reworking of the Faust theme).