List Containing Books The Unburied
| Title | : | The Unburied |
| Author | : | Charles Palliser |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 432 pages |
| Published | : | November 1st 2000 by Washington Square Press (first published 1999) |
| Categories | : | Mystery. Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Gothic. Horror |
Charles Palliser
Paperback | Pages: 432 pages Rating: 3.46 | 1459 Users | 161 Reviews
Chronicle Toward Books The Unburied
Our ReviewA Historical Murder Mystery of the Highest Order
In 1990, Charles Palliser made a spectacular debut with The Quincunx , a huge, densely plotted book that illuminates, in extraordinary detail, virtually every level of English society in the early 19th century. In his fourth novel, The Unburied, Palliser turns to the late Victorian era to give us an equally authoritative reconstruction of the past and a tightly compressed narrative filled with treachery, drama, and interconnected mysteries.
The novel opens with a brief preface in which Philip Barthram, editor of the manuscript we're about to read, travels to Geneva for an enigmatic encounter with an old, dying woman. At the end of this encounter -- which makes numerous references to events and people we know nothing about -- the narrative shifts abruptly, taking us into "The Courtine Account," a memoir written by Cambridge historian Edward Courtine. The memoir recounts Courtine's 1881 visit to the cathedral town of Thurchester, site of the mysteries that will gradually dominate the novel.
Ostensibly, Courtine has come to Thurchester to visit his former college roommate, Austin Fickling. Courtine and Austin parted bitterly 20 years before and hope to effect a belated reconciliation. Courtine also hopes to unearth a manuscript -- rumored to reside in the Thurchester library -- that will shed new light on his academic specialty, the reign of King Alfred, medieval ruler of Wessex. As he attempts to follow both his personal and professional agendas, Edward finds himself embroiled in a pair of unresolved mysteries. One concerns the 200-year-old murders of William Burgoyne and Launcelot Freeth, whose violent deaths continue to generate controversy and speculation. The other concerns the brutal killing of a local banker, a killing that takes place -- or appears to take place -- just minutes after Courtine and Austin have visited the banker's home.
As the novel progresses, the details of the two crimes echo each other with an eerie frequency. With unobtrusive skill, Palliser leads us through a cumulatively fascinating labyrinth composed of fact, rumor, legend, and supposition. Within this labyrinth, objective "truth" proves to be an illusive, perhaps unattainable goal. But Courtine, a historian who believes in the power of the imagination, continues to pursue that goal. In the course of his pursuit, which is never wholly successful, he finds himself forced to reassess the central elements of his life: his embattled relationship with Austin Fickling, the painful failure of his marriage, two decades before, and the unperceived weaknesses of his own character.
Admirers of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, John Fowles, and Umberto Eco should take this novel to their hearts. The Unburied is exciting, audacious, mysterious, moving, and intellectually challenging, all at once. Like The Quincunx, it speaks clearly and directly to the modern sensibility and leaves a lingering aftertaste behind.
--Bill Sheehan
Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has recently been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).
Present Books Conducive To The Unburied
| Original Title: | The Unburied |
| ISBN: | 0743410513 (ISBN13: 9780743410519) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Containing Books The Unburied
Ratings: 3.46 From 1459 Users | 161 ReviewsAssess Containing Books The Unburied
No doubt it is a brilliant work by the author. Full of politics, intrigue, mystery and of course, history But still while providing answers to the 200 or so years old multiple murder/death mystery, conclusively, the leaving of questions of why, how and more about the current time murder of Mr. Stonex unanswered doesn't make readers happy, at least this one...LOL!
It took me three goes to get through this opus. 'Don't know why I kept plowing through to the 399th page. Perhaps it was the dust jacket's enthusiastic description: "brilliantly written...ingenious and atmospheric." Or perhaps it's because I'm very interested in 1880's England. In any case, I found several serious flaws in this novel: 1)the narrators and the other characters speak with the same voice, style; 2)some of the characters have modern attitudes that seem jarring set in this time and
Our intrepid, if somewhat unreliable, narrator goes to visit an old school friend right before Christmas, 1881. He ends up solving not one, not two, but three murders, although none of them in a timely enough fashion to be of much use. The atmosphere in and around the cathedral in the fictitious town of Thurchester is wonderful. My only quibble is that the story is sometimes a little slow, especially in the denouement. Still, I highly recommend this book for fans of late Victorian mysteries.
I'll begin by saying I really, really, really wanted to like this book. Perhaps that's the reason I find myself still giving it three stars instead of two. I love novels with twisty plots set in dark, Gothic places. I find modern interpretations of the genre spun by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens some of my favorite fiction (i.e. "The Meaning of Night", awesome novel). However, while this novel did have the requisite setting and is well written, the plot is anything but twisty. We find most
Wonderful mindless Gothic bunkum. Victorian England and Ned Courtine comes to spend a few days with an old friend in the cathedral town of Thurchester. They have not spoken for 20 yrs.But Ned's old friend Austin Fickling seems to be weighed down with guilt and secrets. In order to deflect Courtine's questions Fickling tells the story of the Thurchester ghost William Burgoyne who still haunts the cathedral close since his murder just after the civil war.Intrigued Courtine goes in search of the
I hate this book. I can't even describe the depths of loathing I have for this horrid, stupid, boring, thoroughly uninteresting piece of crap... It's got to be the slowest, most tedious, most entirely disengaging novel I've ever had the misfortune of purchasing. What a complete turd. The characters are two-dimensional, the story drags, the dialog is tedious, the characters aren't even likable, and I doubt if I'm going to finish it. I'm over a third of the way through, and I loathe the idea of
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