SOURCE: Knight, Stephen. “In Tales within Tales.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4939 (28 November 1997): 23.

In the following review, Knight discusses Høeg's attention to detail in Tales of the Night but finds that the level of detail detracts from the flow of the storyline.

In “The Verdict of the Right Honourable Ignatio Landstad Rasker, Lord Chief Justice,” Peter Høeg patiently uncovers the secret that has riven an eminent Danish family. On his son's wedding day, the homophobic, lugubrious Hektor recounts the events of twenty-two years earlier, when the family's ordered world was wrecked by the decision of his father, Ignatio, to abscond with a Wildean novelist imprisoned for offences against public decency. While its account of a man “straight-backed and crystal clear and deep as a well” gradually discovering his true nature is undoubtedly poignant, the triumph of the piece is its structure. Used throughout Tales of the Night...