List Books Toward An Instance of the Fingerpost
| Original Title: | An Instance of the Fingerpost |
| ISBN: | 1573227951 (ISBN13: 9781573227957) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Oxford, England,1663(United Kingdom) |
| Literary Awards: | Martin Beck Award (1999) |
Iain Pears
Paperback | Pages: 691 pages Rating: 3.94 | 20880 Users | 1256 Reviews
Define Out Of Books An Instance of the Fingerpost
| Title | : | An Instance of the Fingerpost |
| Author | : | Iain Pears |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 691 pages |
| Published | : | April 1st 2000 by Riverhead Books (first published 1997) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Mystery. Crime |
Commentary As Books An Instance of the Fingerpost
An ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page. We are in England in the 1660s. Charles II has been restored to the throne following years of civil war and Cromwell's short-lived republic. Oxford is the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. A fellow of New College is found dead in suspicious circumstances. A young woman is accused of his murder. We hear the story of the death from four witnesses: an Italian physician intent on claiming credit for the invention of blood transfusion; the son of an alleged Royalist traitor; a master cryptographer who has worked for both Cromwell and the king; and a renowned Oxford antiquarian. Each tells his own version of what happened. Only one reveals the extraordinary truth. With rights sold for record-breaking sums around the world, An Instance of the Fingerpost is destined to become a major international publishing event. Deserving of comparison to the works of John Fowles and Umberto Eco, Iain Pears's novel is an ingenious tour de force: an utterly compelling historical mystery with a plot that twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing until the very last page.Rating Out Of Books An Instance of the Fingerpost
Ratings: 3.94 From 20880 Users | 1256 ReviewsPiece Out Of Books An Instance of the Fingerpost
Sometimes I like my historical fiction like a balm of gentle story and escapism and sometimes I like my historical fiction to make me think and ponder. This novel certain falls into the latter category. A story full of mystery, intrigue and plots upon plots. I like the theme that one persons point of view is hardly ever is enough to fully explain a situation and that there is no such thing as an "objective" narrator, we are all by default unreliable. I am not sure if Pears did it deliberately,
Oxford, England, 1663 the intellectual seat of the country, a place of great scientific, religious, and political ferment. It has been more than 20 years of civil and religious upheaval. The Protector Oliver Cromwell is dead; the Levellers, Diggers and other such factions -- with their dreams of an egalitarian society-- have been destroyed or dispersed; peace, finally, has returned to a ravaged land . . . or has it? So begins Iain Pears's crafty, utterly mesmerizing intellectual thriller, An
An Oxford Don's murder coincides with the return of the monarchy to power after the collapse of Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in 1663. Pear's complex intermingling of fictional and historical characters captures the byzantine structure of political life during the English Restoration while his use of multiple narrators reveals the subjective nature of personal testimony and the difficulty in ascertaining the objective truth. Rashomon-style, four narrators relate the events surrounding Robert
There's a lovely bit in the musical film "Call Me Madam", when a lyrical ballad is succeeded by a contrasting upbeat number - both good - then, miraculously they are sung at the same time, working brilliantly together (watch it here - if you're interested, but ignore Ethel Merman's over-acting). And, in AIotF, Pears carries off the same trick. Four stories - each well told, but completely different personalities and atmospheres. And then - this is the technical tour de force - they are overlaid,
The conceit of this book -- 4 different narrators each telling his version of the same set of events -- was novel and well-executed, and the rendering of Restoration England was obviously well-researched. However, the story dragged at times as a result of the detailed explorations of 17th-century politics and mannerisms. I would recommend this only to a those with a serious interest in historical fiction.
This is one of the few books that I felt compelled to start immediately again, from page one, after reaching the end -- even though it has close to 700 pages.The story of this thriller is retold, in succession, by four different people. One of them lies and not until the very end does the reader know who is falsifying the story. And that is why I wanted to read it again: to pay attention to the structure and to how the story is woven by different points of view, and see where the liar has
0 Comments