First Chapter Published!

Dear England, I'm pleased to say that online publisher Word Riot has kindly published the first chapter of my novel, The Pride and the Sorrow, with a nice endorsement at this link...Very nicely laid out too. Word Riot currently have about 9000 hits a month, so it's definitely pleasing to be part of their venture!

You can also download the first chapter for free here at Bookhabit.com, the New Zealand company currently promoting my book through their website. If you really want to hear me talk nonsense about the book, there's also an interview directly accessible here and at Review Yak.

Word Riot - good writing. no remorse!

Thanks Word Riot!

Matt wins Unpublished Novel Competition!

Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit!

You can see full details with an endorsement of the novel at http://bookhabit.com/competition/

The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy (1837-1884), born in New Orleans as a chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. He is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart ...

The novel itself is available at http://bookhabit.com/book_details.php?book_id=459

Novel's first interview - thanks Clare!

A 23-minute interview with Matt is now available through http://www.reviewyak.com/ with Clare Tanner of the Bookhabit Show. "Every month over 20,000 listeners download our podcasts for The Bookhabit Show where we tell the author's story behind the story."

Novel's first review - thanks Geoff!

Geoff Cush, a member of the judging panel, had this to say about THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW :


"What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time. Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans. In my view this makes THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction."


This serious-looking chap is Paul Morphy. You can follow this link to find out more about his nutty family. And to learn more about his formidable chess opponents with slideshows of the players click here!

New Site (If You Like Chess and Murder)

Check out Matt Fullerty's new website and novel The Pride and the Sorrow about the life of chess world champion Paul Morphy at www.mattfullerty.com

The Greatest Chess Game Ever!

A Queen sacrifice played by Paul Morphy in Paris, 1858. It doesn't get more exciting than this!

Click on the picture of Morphy:


In the words of Serguei Vorojtsov, "just beautiful...very often the case with Paul Morphy's games!"

The Murderess and the Hangman

Please visit The Pride and the Sorrow's sister pages, The Murderess and the Hangman, the story of maid Kate Webster who murdered her London landlady before she met the hangman William Marwood, inventor of the famed 'long drop' technique. See the full blog at http://themurderessandthehangman.blogspot.com/

The Brothels of Basin Street

Paul Morphy is today remembered as "the pride and the sorrow" of chess, a short-lived genius. Clarabelle and her fellow tricksters of Basin Street , New Orleans, have been forgotten by history. These image shows the townhouse brothels of New Orleans, and Basin Street as it is today.

The Boy Genius

The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of the famous New Orleans chess player, Paul Morphy, and his impassioned and destructive love for a prostitute, Clarabelle. A story of Creole family, fame and love, the novel depicts the high life and the underbelly of New Orleans, London and Paris.

The Big Easy

The Pride and the Sorrow takes place at a time when prostitution in the Big Easy was legally sanctioned, before child prodigies and mental illness were better understood. In the mid-nineteenth century chess matches were fought as duels, with seconds, monetary stakes and gambling, and true genius was lauded but not without jealous undercurrents. Mismatched love could be fatal.

Before modern chess competition but not before Mardi Gras, operatic funerals, destructive hurricanes, Creole slavery, Civil War Union soldiers lining Bourbon Street, or real passage d'armes fought for love and honor…a chess player caught the national interest, a gentleman with a calm passion for the royal game but a troubled obsession for an unsuitable woman.

Passion and Destruction

Who is Paul Morphy? Paul Morphy is a real person, a child prodigy born into a wealthy Creole family in the French Quarter in 1837. He grows up to become the unofficial chess world champion, 'breaking' Europe while only twenty-one. He defeats all chess challengers, performing miraculous blindfold feats along the way. No one dares play him.

After astounding Paris and London, he returns to New Orleans, lionized, but misunderstood. Rooted in Paul is an irrational obsession for the red-light district crib-girl, Clara. Paul abandons chess and grows reclusive in his love. A strict amateur on the board, off the board he develops a misconceived love for a professional working girl who cannot understand his world, or he hers.

Young and Immortal

This is a bronze bust of the famous New Orleans chess player Paul Morphy, created in Paris by Eugene Lequesne, 1858.

The Pride and the Sorrow

Welcome to the Blog site for Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. The Pride and the Sorrow is a novel about chess. And New Orleans. And a prostitute called Clarabelle.