This is the first of probably many postings of an attempt to annotate Gene Wolfe's magnum opus, "The Book of the New Sun." Needless to say, this contains many major spoilers. You shouldn't read this until you've read the series three times.
Your help and submissions will be very appreciated. I will archive these in my web site, http://www.cs.duke.edu/~gac/wolfe.html.
SPOILERS
The Book of the New Sun Annotiation Initiative (BONSAI)
The Shadow of the Torturer, Chapter I
Compiled by Geoff Cohen, gac at cs.duke.edu
Version 1.0
Epigraph: "A thousand ages in your sight..."
Part of the poem "Psalm XC" by Isaac Watts (1674-1748) [Otter]
Chapter I: Resurrection and Death
The title reverses the usual order of things.
"We are the volunteers... we come to protect our own dead."
The intruders who are about to appear will steal the bodies of the dead
to ingest them and absorb their knowledge. See Claw, Chapter XI.
"I... collided full tilt with a man in a black coat."
This is Hildegrin the Badger. He is properly introduced in Chapter
XXIII.
"A woman said, 'Open the lamp.'"
This is Thea, Thecla's sister, who is first named in Shadow, Chapter
VII, and Severian meets in Claw, Chapter X.
"...I have backed into the throne."
Severian becomes Autarch.