60 pages • 2 hours read
Cornelia FunkeThe Thief Lord
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Victor’s New Clients”
On an autumn day in Venice, private detective Victor Getz tries on a new mustache as a disguise when Max and Esther Hartlieb come to his door. They show him a picture of their nephews, Prosper and Boniface, who ran away from Hamburg after their mother died. They wanted to adopt five-year-old Bo and send 12-year-old Prosper to boarding school, so the boys ran away to Venice, which their mother used to tell magical stories about. Max and Esther hire Victor to find the boys. Victor is unimpressed by the heartless Hartliebs but doesn’t want the boys to remain on their own, as they have been for eight weeks. He feeds his tortoises, Lando and Paula, whom he found during another case. He tries to decide where to start looking.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Three Children”
Prosper and Bo came to Venice by stowing away on trains. In Venice, they had trouble finding shelter, and Bo got sick. Prosper was seeking help from a policeman when Hornet, one of the Thief Lord’s crew, found the brothers. She brought them back to the Stella, which the crew calls the Star-Palace, and promised them that the Thief Lord would look after them.
As Victor contemplates the boys’ whereabouts, Prosper and Bo shop with Hornet. They go to a hardware store for batteries, and Bo complains about being hungry. The elderly lady behind the counter gives Bo candy as she remarks on his worn-out clothes, which aren’t suited to the coming winter. Bo skips ahead out the door and crashes into some Japanese tourists, who try to take his picture. Prosper drags him away, fearful of the picture reaching Aunt Esther. Hornet tells Prosper to stop worrying as Bo picks up a wallet. Prosper scolds him, feeling guilty that he has been stealing to survive and not wanting Bo to begin stealing too. Prosper reluctantly goes through the wallet and only finds a few bills. Hornet hopes the Thief Lord can fill up their coffers tonight. Bo idolizes Scipio, the Thief Lord, which deepens Prosper’s unease about having run away with Bo. The trio arrive at the Stella and look around before vanishing inside.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Star-Palace”
In the derelict auditorium, the children have strung a few battery-powered lightbulbs. A curtain with golden stars hides the movie screen. Arriving at their hideout, Prosper, Bo, and Hornet walk down a narrow passageway to the emergency exit, where Prosper tugs the cord according to the secret signal. Riccio asks for Scipio’s secret password, which no one remembers, and Hornet insists they be let in with the groceries.
The Thief Lord’s crew consists of Riccio and Mosca, who recently staked out the Palazzo Pisani for Scipio’s next raid; they function as Scipio’s eyes. Hornet oversees the crew’s money and supplies. Prosper and Bo are the newcomers.
Mosca fiddles with a radio on the stage until Bo scares him. Mosca chases and tickles Bo. Bo then puts supplies away while Mosca complains about having no paint for his boat. Hornet ignores his quip about her book stacks hiding her mattress. All their mattresses are against the back wall. Riccio’s bed is covered in comic books and stuffed animals, and Mosca’s bed is marked by his toolbox, fishing rods, and a golden seahorse lucky charm from a gondola. Bo and Prosper share a bed decorated with Bo’s collection of plastic fans. The Thief Lord never sleeps at the theater. Once when Riccio tried to follow Scipio to his lodgings, Scipio got so angry that no one dared to try again. Scipio’s schedule is inconsistent, but he is supposed to come tonight. After dinner, the children huddle on their beds listening to Hornet read by the light of a candle, which Riccio stole from a church. They are all asleep when Scipio arrives.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Thief Lord”
Prosper wakes to Scipio in his usual outfit: a bird-like mask doctors wore during the Black Death, heeled leather boots, and a long coat that reaches his knees. Scipio pulls the mask off, ordering the others to wake. He implies he was behind the burglary of the Palazzo Contarini, which the newspaper reported on, and opens his sack full of treasures. Scipio says he sold the jewels, but the rest is for the gang, including a pair of golden tongs. The gang is in awe as Scipio explains the robbery. Scipio says the tongs are for sugar, mocking Riccio for not knowing this. Hornet defends him and Scipio apologizes.
Scipio wants the gang to get a good price for the loot; he does the stealing but leaves the haggling with Ernesto Barbarossa to the crew. Barbarossa is the only antique dealer who makes deals with children. Mosca is nervous about haggling, so Bo volunteers Prosper, who got good prices for their toys at the flea market. Scipio tells Prosper not to sell for anything less than 200,000 lire. Scipio vanishes behind the curtain after telling Bo to look after two kittens that someone tried to drown in the canal.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Barbarossa”
Prosper pulls Riccio away from a pastry shop next to Barbarossa’s shop, Souvenirs of Venice, which stocks merchandise ranging from tourist baubles to antiques. Inside, they spot a statuette they sold to Barbarossa, now priced much higher. Riccio makes faces at a painting of a masked lady, which has a peephole so Barbarossa can keep an eye on his customers. Barbarossa appears and demands decent goods. Riccio asks if his red beard is dyed, and Barbarossa is offended. Barbarossa sends the children to his office as he takes care of his customers. Riccio bet Hornet three comics that Barbarossa dyes his beard, so he sends Prosper sleuthing; he finds a box of red dye in the bathroom. He rejoins Riccio in the office before Barbarossa enters.
Barbarossa says he intends to deduct money from the children’s payment because Bo broke a glass beetle last time. Prosper protests Bo’s innocence. Barbarossa examines the loot and offers 100,000 lire. Prosper counters with 500,000, and they settle on 400,000. Barbarossa offers a job for the Thief Lord from a client who will pay generously. Riccio agrees to tell the Thief Lord, although Prosper is wary about the offer. Barbarossa gives them the money, minus a deduction for the glass beetle. Prosper begrudgingly signs the receipt. Barbarossa reminds them about the job, but Prosper is determined not to tell Scipio.
Chapter 6 Summary: “A Nasty Coincidence”
Riccio drags Prosper into the pastry shop and buys a box of cakes to celebrate Prosper’s haggling success. He’s so excited he opens them outside. Prosper eats a cake, talking of practical things they can buy like warm jackets and shoes, while Riccio daydreams of getting a TV. Riccio wants to take Barbarossa’s job if Scipio won’t and share the loot with everyone. Prosper is nervous about people overhearing them, especially since Riccio got caught the last time he stole. He distrusts Barbarossa and doesn’t want Riccio to tell Scipio about the job, but Riccio refuses to stay quiet.
Prosper walks into a man with a thick mustache. It’s Victor in disguise. Prosper runs away and explains to a puzzled Riccio that a man is following them. Prosper drags Riccio into a maze of alleys and points the mustached man out when he passes by. Riccio recognizes him. They run through the alleys to the Grand Canal and smuggle themselves onto a boat. After the boat casts off, Riccio waves to their pursuer on shore. Riccio explains that Victor is a detective who almost caught him once. Prosper tells Riccio that he and Bo ran away from their aunt, who sent the detective to look for them. Prosper worries about taking care of Bo and makes Riccio promise not to tell Bo about the detective.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Bad Luck for Victor”
Upon realizing Prosper got away, Victor kicks a wooden post and sprains his ankle. He limps home mumbling to himself about his stupidity. At home, he looks at the boys’ picture in his office, wonders how they are surviving the cold evenings, and determines to find them. He feeds his tortoises and takes care of his foot. He decides to sit on the Piazza San Marco for the next few days because everyone in Venice goes there at least once a day.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
These first chapters introduce readers to the characters, the setting of Venice, the omniscient point of view, and the themes of Found Family and Home, Coming of Age Versus Wanting to Grow Up, and Adults’ Failures to Understand and Protect Children. The first point-of-view character and the first character introduced is Victor, in tandem with the novel’s premise: Two boys are missing in Venice, and he must find them. Venice is a symbol of hope and possibility, so Victor’s evident love for it establishes that while he may be working for the unsympathetic Hartliebs, he himself is no villain.
The Hartliebs’ disinterest in adopting Bo’s older sibling (and their own nephew) will be a recurring pattern in the novel. Prosper is still a child, but he is too old for the Hartliebs to find appealing as a prospective son; their idea of family is a selfish one based on their desire to have a child who “belongs” entirely to them rather than to another set of parents who partially raised him. They do not consider the needs of either Prosper or Bo, who does not want to be separated from the only remaining member of his immediate family.
By contrast, the brothers’ bond with one another and now with the rest of Scipio’s gang reveals the true meaning of home and family. Mosca and Bo interact with each other playfully, and Mosca and Hornet banter about Hornet’s book collection. Despite the group’s youth, they also keep some semblance of a family schedule, with Hornet reading a bedtime story aloud much like a parent might. It’s this connection and feeling of belonging that Bo and Prosper crave, and it makes their impoverished situation at the Stella more desirable than a life with their stifling, privileged aunt and uncle.
Funke’s description of the children’s different mattresses and collected items reveals that they’ve created a home for themselves, but it also points to their individual character traits. Mosca’s stuffed animal collection, for example, reveals a more vulnerable, childlike side to the character. Hornet’s book stack shows that she’s able to read and does so voraciously, and Bo’s collection of plastic fans shows his quirkiness.
It is significant that Scipio alone does not sleep in the theater and remains a mystery. Likewise, the novel has not directly shown his point of view; readers encounter him through the other characters’ speculations about who he truly is. His costume further enhances his mystique and makes him an authority figure among the children. By concealing Scipio’s identity, Funke aims to make the revelation of his parentage hit readers as hard as it does the other children. Nevertheless, the novel gives several hints about Scipio’s life as the privileged son of a doctor. The plague mask, used by doctors during the Black Death, likely belongs to Scipio’s father. Scipio also unintentionally reveals his privileged status when he mocks Riccio for not knowing what sugar tongs are; the other orphaned children don’t recognize the tool either, revealing that Scipio is not one of them. However, if Scipio is developing his “found family” through dishonesty, his intentions are no different than those of the other children. He seeks the acceptance, belonging, and freedom that he does not get at home. The same feeling informs his wish to become an adult, as growing up would free him from his unhappy family life.
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By Cornelia Funke
