Reading the Hannibal Lecter Series
If you have stumbled across this with genuine interest, then may God bless your poor misguided soul. However that is only if you believe in God, unlike a certain someone...
After reading the four books comprising Thomas Harris’ series, and watching the NBC TV Show Hannibal, I believe I posses the necessary qualifications to give some relevant advice on how to approach the vast amount of content on Lecter:
1. Read the books and then watch the TV show/movies. The reason is that the books give significantly more context and insight into, specifically, Lecter’s character and allow for a more nuanced and exquisite understanding of the cinematographic works.
2. Read the books in order of publication: Red Dragon (1981), Silence Of The Lambs (1988), Hannibal (1991), and Hannibal Rising (2006). The reason is that this order gives progressive insight into Lecter’s character, and allows the reader to unveil his mystery himself, rather than being handed the entire backstory first (Hannibal Rising). Plus, Red Dragon serves as a fantastic hook into the series, and gives you freedom to decide whether you want to delve deeper, as the ending is relatively complete, and if you decide to drop it, there will be less guilt.
3. Do not read Hannibal, at least not past the end of “II Florence”. If you don’t want to feel disappointed, in relation to character development, and have trouble putting down books, stop at Silence Of The Lambs. If you want maximum personality development, pertaining to Lecter, stop at the end of the second part of Hannibal, “Florence”. Finally, if you want to decide for yourself, whether to be disappointed or not, feel free to read the entire book, but be warned (from my subjective point of view, of course).
I personally found that it is best to follow this pattern, however do not be strayed from your path by my opinion. Do what you feel is necessary, and most importantly, enjoy.
