An Instance of the Fingerpost Paperback - 2000
by Iain Pears
In England of the 1660s, a young woman is accused of the murder of a New College fellow, who has been found dead under mysterious circumstances. Four extremely diverse witnesses give their accounts of the events--but only one reveals the extraordinary truth.
Summary
"It is 1663, and England is wracked with intrigue and civil strife. When an Oxford don is murdered, it seems at first that the incident can have nothing to do with great matters of church and state....Yet, little is as it seems in this gripping novel, which dramatizes the ways in which witnesses can see the same events yet remember them falsely. Each of four narratorsa Venetian medical student, a young man intent on proving his late father innocent of treason, a cryptographer, and an archivistfingers a different culprit...an erudite and entertaining tour de force." People
Iain Pears's The Dream of Scipio and The Portrait are also available from Riverhead Books.
First line
Marco da Cola, gentleman of Venice, respectfully presents his greetings.
From the rear cover
"It is 1663, and England is wracked with intrigue and civil strife. When an Oxford don is murdered, it seems at first that the incident can have nothing to do with great matters of church and state. Who poured the arsenic into the victim's brandy? The evidence points to Sarah Blundy, a servant girl....She confesses to the crime and is sentenced to be hanged.
"Yet, little is as it seems in this gripping novel, which dramatizes the ways in which witnesses can see the same events yet remember them falsely. Each of four narrators -- a Venetian medical student, a young man intent on proving his late father innocent of treason, a cryptographer and an archivist -- fingers a different culprit... an erudite and entertaining tour de force". -- People
Details
- Title An Instance of the Fingerpost
- Author Iain Pears
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Reprint
- Pages 704
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Penguin Publishing Group, New York
- Date 2000-04-01
- Features Table of Contents
- ISBN 9781573227957 / 1573227951
- Weight 1.61 lbs (0.73 kg)
- Dimensions 8.97 x 5.96 x 1.48 in (22.78 x 15.14 x 3.76 cm)
- Ages 18 to UP years
- Grade levels 13 - UP
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 17th Century
- Cultural Region: British
- Library of Congress subjects Mystery fiction, Historical fiction
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 97023899
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
Media reviews
“Ingenious.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“[A] crafty, utterly mesmerizing intellectual thriller…Don’t miss it.” —The Washington Post Book World
“If you liked Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, you should run to buy Iain Pears’s lavishly erudite historical mystery.” —The New York Times
“Fascinating…quite extraordinary…elevates the murder mystery to the category of high art.” —Los Angeles
“Extraordinary…this thriller brings not merely a huge cast of characters but a whole century vividly to life.” —Newsweek
“[A] novel that will have you sitting up all night and calling in sick the next day. It’s that hard to put down.” —Houston Chronicle
“Enthralling.” —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
Citations
- Entertainment Weekly, 05/19/2000, Page 65
- Publishers Weekly Best Books, 01/01/1998, Page 42
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