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Loading... An Instance of the Fingerpost (original 1997; edition 1999)by Iain Pears
Work InformationAn Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears (1997)
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Splendid book. I love historical fiction, and this is by far the best book I have read in this genre. Two charchters stand out: Sarah Blundy and Dr.Wood. The story is narrated in four parts by four different charchters. Each narration has half truths and a self-fulfilling philosophy. The complete plot emerges only in the last twenty pages, until then story hangs in balance. The kind of book that must completed in a day or two, else one might lose the thread very easily. This was great! Broadly the same events narrated by 4 different characters it grows in scope with each section. There are a lot of educated men talking rubbish in this book, and one silenced woman at the centre of it, but yet it works perfectly as a mystery and also an interesting work of historical fiction, especially the history of medicine in the 17th century. The first "book" was good. I enjoyed the main character's quirkiness. However the remaining three books were painful. The characters telling the story were unlikable and boring. All the books were about the events that took place in 1660's. Some didn't know what happened and others lied. I did not care what happened by the end. The plot had potential and a writer I enjoyed could have pulled it off. 5,065 members; 3.92 average rating; 4/23/2023
If you liked Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose," you should run to buy Iain Pears' lavishly erudite historical mystery "An Instance of the Fingerpost."... If Eco's book was a sly demonstration of semiotics, the study of signs, Pear's is an exercise in theories of knowledge. Theological disputation, cryptography, religious dissent, medical experiments, moral philosophy, even the Turkish-Venetian war over Crete are all dealt with in what sometimes seems an entertaining encyclopedia of the second half of the 17th century.... When the denouement comes, it is with a new and final twist, one whose quality of surprise is the final proof of this talented author's almost infinite capacity to replace one understanding of things with another. Successful literary thrillers in the mold of Umberto Eco's ''Name of the Rose'' are the stuff of publishers' dreams, and in Pears's novel they may have found a near-perfect example of the genre. It is literary -- if that means intelligent and well written -- and for the reader who likes to be teased, who likes his plots as baroque and ingenious as possible, ''An Instance of the Fingerpost'' will not disappoint.... [T]wo, perhaps three, of the four narrators are men hard to like or care about. It was not until the final 150 pages that I found myself being moved. The feel of this last section is bolder, more imaginative, mysterious even, as though the novel had suddenly transcended itself and broken free of the trappings of the genre. ...a novel about deception and self-deception, about the scientific method and Jesuitical chicanery, above all about political expedience and religious transcendence. Every sentence in the book is as solid as brick -- and as treacherous as quicksand.... [Y]ou could reread the novel just to savor the subtle tricks of omission and misdirection.... Iain Pears has written an impressively original and audaciously imaginative intellectual thriller. Don't miss it. Rashomon meets The Name of the Rose in a triumphant triple-decker that knocks every speck of dust from the historical mystery. AwardsDistinctions
A novel on the way we interpret events to suit our purpose. The protagonists are four people giving evidence in a murder in 17th century England. One blames the crime on too much authority, another on the lack of it. A look at the controversies of the day, from medical experiments to religious freethinking. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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It is the story of the same events told by four different narrators, by the time I was a little way into the second narrator, I wanted to double check facts from the first narrator and this all the way through the other narrators
I am sure that when I read it again, that the information I got from each narrator, will change the way I understand the book from the beginning. ( )