The Holy Innocents Book

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The phrase the holy innocents book usually refers to The Holy Innocents, a 1988 novel by the Scottish writer Gilbert Adair. Several other works share the title, including Miguel Delibes’s Spanish novel and a Biblical story about the massacre of young children. None of these is a Hindu scripture. This article explains which work a reader is most likely looking for, what each one covers, and how to tell them apart. It also places the title within the wider HindusGod.com library of sacred texts, so readers searching for religious books can find the right material.

A dim 1960s Paris cinema auditorium with empty rows of seats facing a blank screen, lit by a single projector beam.
A dim 1960s Paris cinema auditorium with empty rows of seats facing a blank screen, lit by a single projector beam.

The short answer: which book is meant?

An open antique book on a wooden desk beside a lamp, a film reel, and an unlit brass diya in soft window light.
An open antique book on a wooden desk beside a lamp, a film reel, and an unlit brass diya in soft window light.

In most literary searches, the title points to Gilbert Adair’s 1988 novel. The novel is set in Paris in 1968 and follows three young film lovers. Source records describe the book as a story of obsession and youth, shaped by cinema and by the political unrest of that year. If you were searching for a religious text, the answer is different: The Holy Innocents is not a book that a Hindu tradition, or any other religious community named here, recognizes as a sacred scripture. Readers who want a holy book in the sense of a revealed or venerated text will find more relevant guidance in the sections on Hindu scriptures below.

Three works with the same title

The title is shared by several works. The Wikipedia disambiguation page for “The Holy Innocents” lists the Biblical massacre and its artistic depictions, Adair’s novel, Miguel Delibes’s novel, and the film based on the Delibes novel, along with the 2003 film The Dreamers, which is based in part on the Adair novel (Wikipedia disambiguation page). Separating these works is the first step for any reader.

Gilbert Adair’s novel (1988)

Adair’s The Holy Innocents was published by Heinemann in 1988, and the Wikipedia article on the novel gives the ISBN as 978-0-434-04578-5 (Wikipedia: The Holy Innocents (Adair novel)). The article describes the book as a 1988 novel by Gilbert Adair and states that its themes were inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles (The Holy Terrors) and by Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1950 film of the same name. Goodreads lists the book as a 154-page hardcover first published in 1988 (Goodreads listing).

Miguel Delibes’s novel and its film

The Spanish novel Los santos inocentes by Miguel Delibes shares the English title The Holy Innocents. The disambiguation page identifies it as a separate work, and it also lists a film based on that novel (Wikipedia disambiguation page). An English-language edition appears in the Yale University Press Margellos World Republic of Letters series, translated by Peter Bush with an introduction by Colm Toibin, with ISBN 9780300275131 (Amazon product listing). Readers looking for the Delibes novel should check the translator and edition before buying, because the Adair novel carries the same English title.

The Biblical massacre of the Innocents

In religious art and Christian tradition, “the Holy Innocents” refers to the young children who were killed in the massacre described in the New Testament. The disambiguation page notes that the phrase refers to the victims of this Biblical massacre and to artistic depictions of it, including work by Giotto di Bondone (Wikipedia disambiguation page). This is a story from Christian scripture, not from a Hindu text. Its meaning belongs to Christian tradition and art history, and it should not be mixed with the Adair or Delibes novels.

What the Adair novel is about

The Wikipedia plot summary describes three young cinephiles: Matthew, an American studying in Paris, and the French twins Guillaume and Danielle. The story begins with a shared love of cinema. The three spend their evenings at Paris’s Cinematheque, and their friendship grows from that interest (Wikipedia: The Holy Innocents (Adair novel)).

The plot turns when French Culture Minister Andre Malraux dismisses Cinematheque director Henri Langlois, a prelude to the May 1968 uprising, and the Cinematheque closes. The summary states that the three youths are largely unaware of the wider national crisis at first, because their small world has been disrupted. Matthew gradually becomes part of the twins’ household while their parents are away, and the three live apart from ordinary routines. The summary describes their increasingly intense games, their rejection of everyday responsibilities, and their eventual return to a society shaken by the protests of May 1968.

Readers should note that the novel presents intimate relationships among its characters as part of its portrait of obsession and youth. It is a literary novel for adult readers, not a children’s book, despite the word “innocents” in its title.

Key themes

  • Cinephilia as devotion: The characters treat film with the intensity that religious readers might give to a sacred text. The novel uses that comparison to examine obsession.
  • Youth and withdrawal: The three characters create a private world that resists the political and social events outside their door.
  • Politics and history: The Cinematheque dispute and the May 1968 protests form the historical backdrop. Readers who want historical context should consult independent sources about 1968 France rather than relying on the novel alone.

Publication details and reception

Google Books records that Adair won the Author’s Club First Novel Award for The Holy Innocents in 1988, and that he won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize in 1995 for his translation A Void (Google Books record). The same record notes that Adair died in early December 2011 at the age of 66. Note that the Google Books page was not fully inspected for this article, so these details should be checked against the live page before publication.

Reader reception varies. A Goodreads snapshot shows a community average of 3.63 from 3,473 ratings and 356 reviews, with a spread across all five star levels (Goodreads listing). Rating totals change over time, so the figures should be treated as a single snapshot rather than a fixed measure of the book’s quality. Some reviewers praise the atmosphere; others find the characters difficult. Readers should form their own judgment.

The adaptation: The Dreamers

Wikipedia lists The Dreamers (2003) as a film based in part on the Adair novel (Wikipedia disambiguation page). Goodreads also describes Adair as the author of The Dreamers, one of two novels of his that were made into films, alongside Love and Death on Long Island (Goodreads listing). Because the film is “based in part” on the novel, it is not a faithful screen version. Readers who watch the film should not assume every event in it matches the book.

Is The Holy Innocents a Hindu holy book?

No. Hindu scripture is a broad category that includes texts such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, the epics, and the Puranas, along with devotional literature. Each of these has its own history, language, and community of use, and not all Hindus treat every text in the same way. The Adair and Delibes novels belong to the category of modern literature. The Biblical massacre belongs to Christian scripture and art. None of them is part of a Hindu canon, and none is used in Hindu worship.

This distinction matters because search results sometimes place novels next to religious books. The three categories below should be kept separate:

  • Scripture and tradition: Texts a religious community reveres or uses in worship, such as those discussed in the holy book posts on this site.
  • Literature: Novels and films, such as Adair’s novel, which are read for story, style, and historical interest.
  • Religious art and narrative: Depictions of a scriptural story, such as the Biblical Massacre of the Innocents in painting.

When a reader uses the phrase “holy book” to ask about sacred literature, the answer depends on the tradition. For a general overview of how different communities define sacred texts, see our guide to holy book basics, and for the meaning of the term across traditions, read holy book meaning.

How to identify the book you need

Use these steps to confirm which work matches your search:

  1. Check the author. Gilbert Adair wrote the 1988 novel. Miguel Delibes wrote the Spanish novel of the same English title.
  2. Check the publication year and publisher. The Adair novel was published by Heinemann in 1988 (Wikipedia: The Holy Innocents (Adair novel)).
  3. Check the ISBN. Compare the ISBN with the edition you plan to buy or borrow. The Adair novel’s listed ISBN is 978-0-434-04578-5, and the Delibes translation’s listed ISBN is 9780300275131.
  4. Check the translator. The Delibes edition named here was translated by Peter Bush, so an English reader should confirm that translator before citing the book.
  5. Check whether you want religious art or scripture. If the phrase refers to the Biblical massacre, the relevant material is Christian scripture and art history.

Editions and access

The Internet Archive lists a digital copy of The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair under the identifier holyinnocents0000adai (Internet Archive listing). Availability on that site depends on its terms and on the user’s location, so readers should check the page directly. Library catalogues, bookshops, and publisher pages are better sources for current purchase options. This article does not recommend a particular seller.

Why this matters for HindusGod.com readers

HindusGod.com focuses on Hinduism, deities, scriptures, festivals, and devotional practice. A reader who arrives here looking for The Holy Innocents may be confused by the title. The most useful response is to explain what the title means and then point to the appropriate religious material. Readers who want to explore Hindu scriptural texts can begin with the Gita holy book guide, and those interested in the Geeta can also read Geeta holy book. For readers comparing sacred texts across other religions, the site also has drafts on the Buddhist holy book, the Avesta holy book, the Bahai holy book, the Confucianism holy book, and the Daoism holy book. Each of these pages should be checked for publication status before anyone links to it publicly.

The Hindu material on the site should be read with attention to tradition. Hindu communities differ in which texts they revere, how they recite or study them, and which texts hold authority in their lineages. A single “Hindu holy book” does not exist in the way a single novel does. For this reason, readers should look for the tradition and sampradaya named in each scripture post rather than a general label.

Common questions about the title

Is The Holy Innocents a religious book?

The Adair novel is not a religious book. It is a literary novel about three young film fans in Paris in 1968. Delibes’s novel is also a literary work. The phrase “the Holy Innocents” appears in Christian art and scripture as a name for the children killed in the Biblical massacre, but that is a separate subject.

Why does the title sound religious?

The title draws on the older religious phrase “the Holy Innocents.” Adair’s novel borrows that wording, and the Wikipedia disambiguation page lists the Biblical massacre as the first meaning of the phrase (Wikipedia disambiguation page). The title’s sacred sound may therefore be a deliberate contrast with the novel’s subject matter, but the sources reviewed here do not establish the author’s exact intention, so readers should avoid treating that interpretation as settled.

Should I read the Adair novel before comparing it to scripture?

That depends on your purpose. If you want to study literature, the novel is a self-contained text. If you want to study a sacred text, you should begin with the tradition’s own scripture and reliable translation. Mixing the two can lead to confusion, so it is best to keep them in separate reading plans.

Takeaway

The phrase the holy innocents book most often refers to Gilbert Adair’s 1988 novel, set in Paris in 1968. The Delibes novel, the Biblical massacre, and the film The Dreamers are related but separate subjects. None of them is a Hindu scripture. Before you search, buy, or cite a book by this title, confirm the author, year, edition, and ISBN. If your interest is in Hindu scripture, the links above provide a starting point for reading responsibly within each tradition.

Sources and further reading

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