Roman Clodia wrote: "Yes, seems to be a Marmite book as I'm the same as Jill on this one, and also struggled with Pears' The Portrait. I missed Sarah's resurrection in my skimming but there were weird intimations earlier about her having messianic tendenc..." Mod Abigail wrote: "I gave up a little way into Prestcott’s narration. Am not surprised to hear that Sarah was not dead after the hanging because of all the blood da Cola described when he came in on the “autopsy.” If..."

An Instance of the Fingerpost, First Edition - AbeBooks An Instance of the Fingerpost, First Edition - AbeBooks

Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth A fascinating book but I found it a slow read as the style reflects the period. I can not call it gripping and the murder mystery is not the prime interest, but I liked how the various narrators each interpreted, and reported, the facts from their own point of view. Even the final and most complete version is influenced by the narrator's feelings. Before the war, he had unearthed an obscure Provençal poet of the fourteenth century, Olivier de Noyen, and a philosophical manuscript, 'The Dream of Scipio', written by a fifth-century Roman aristocrat, Manlius Hippomanes. This mysterious text links the three men, as does their love for a woman - Sophia, Rebecca, Julia - a kind of Universal Muse who wafts inspiringly through time. I was willing to go along with the suggestion that Nancy was the messiah, and that there was one in each generation, but the fact that she was resurrected without much opposition and then sent abroad did seem rather a wet squib ending.The bestselling An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997) marked a new departure for Pears; far more structurally and stylistically ambitious than the Italian series, it suggested that he was developing his voice as a serious novelist, as did his move from HarperCollins to Cape. But, on the evidence of the new novel, it looks as if An Instance of the Fingerpost may have been a one-off. It was interesting to learn towards the end that Prestcott was in Bedlam, which casts additional doubt over his narrative, but I didn't find his section very compelling, and Wallis's even less so.

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Pears Iain - AbeBooks An Instance of the Fingerpost by Pears Iain - AbeBooks

I began Arcadia – a novel conceived and written for an app – over four and a half years ago when a lot of people were musing about digital narrative. After working my way through three publishers, two designers, four sets of coders and a lot of anguish, I am no longer surprised that few others have done anything about it. I also understand why the NHS database could go five times over budget and not work. What should be a simple task – write story, create software, publish – turns out to be anything but in practice. IMO, much of Sarah's messianic character was in Wood's mind. The resurrection is explained by Lower's eagerness to get the body. Wood had no way of knowing if she arrived in America, particularly if she changed her name. The boat was so crowded no one would take accurate notice of the people debarking. And I assumed the mother lied about her conception. As the story evolved, so did the design of the app and that, in turn, influenced the story, even though I decided early on to be rather conservative. It has minimal graphics, no music and no animations. The reader does not choose outcomes or influence decisions, and there are no prizes or levels. You read the text; how you see characters depends on how much of it you read, where you start, and whether you read strand by strand, or hop from one to the other.For the first time, she did want more. She did not know what she wanted, knew that it was dangerous and that she should rest content with what she had, but she knew an emptiness deep inside her, which began to ache.” Ebooks are now quite venerable in computing terms, but it is striking how small an impact they have had on narrative structure; for the most part, they are still just ordinary books in a cheap format. An analogy is the early days of cinema, when film-makers did little more than plonk cameras in front of a stage and film a play. It took some time before they realised that by exploiting the new possibilities the technology offered – cutting, editing, closeups, lighting and so on – they could create a new art form that did not replace theatre, but did things theatre could not. Computing power properly understood and used can perhaps eventually do something of the same; not supplant orthodox books – which are perfectly good in most cases – but come into play when they are insufficient. I assume the whole book is written in this manner. And as such, calling it a mystery or even an historical one is a disservice to potential readers. This is a literary novel about a mystery. And from what I am able to perceive is that it is severely wordy and overlong. I was not surprised to learn he is an Oxford man. His style strongly suggests it. The word pretentious resonates loudly for me. Was not Hypatia the greatest philosopher of Alexandria, and a true martyr to the old values of learning? She was torn to pieces by a mob of incensed Christians not because she was a woman, but because her learning was so profound, her skills at dialectic so extensive that she reduced all who queried her to embarrassed silence. They could not argue with her, so they murdered her.”

An Instance of the Fingerpost: Explore the murky world of An Instance of the Fingerpost: Explore the murky world of

Rosina wrote: "Each of the four narrators has a different mystery, and the killing of Dr Grove is perhaps the least absorbing, though I found the testing of the poison by Stahl - the early forensic science - most..." No single story provides the frame for the others, and we jump between historical moments every other paragraph. There's a lot of movement, but very little progression. The breathless thrills of An Instance of the Fingerpost have been exchanged for a lengthy meditation on cultural history, with characters as pegs for thoughts. The plot has more in common with an academic treatise than with a thriller. In fact, there are more exciting PhD theses. Rosina wrote: "Thom wrote: "Interestingly I never cared for the various series based on his books. I'd watch a few episodes and that was it. Talented as he may have been, I doubt he's a good one for me." This book is really quite polarizing. People either like it or dislike it. I'm so on the fence about reading it. These days, being older and hopefully a little wiser, I have so many books I want to read that I've become more careful when it comes to choosing them. There are many beautiful passages, certainly, but the central aspects of the book would have been better treated in a study of real writers than in this oddly fictionalised form of scholarship.Iain Pears, like Stewart, is a respected academic, the author of a monograph on eighteenth-century collectors, but he's not too proud to publish crime novels under his own name. His Italian art-world romps have titles like The Bernini Bust and The Raphael Affair: they're light and ingenious and they sell well; and their success has encouraged him to move ever further into the mainstream. I was thrilled when I found out Prescott was in Bedlam as he did not deserve the good fortune he thought he had and, hopefully, his letter denouncing Kitty did her no harm. I hated him when he wrote that letter; it was none of his business. Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.” Thom wrote: "Interestingly I never cared for the various series based on his books. I'd watch a few episodes and that was it. Talented as he may have been, I doubt he's a good one for me."

An Instance of the Reading the Detectives - Buddy reads: An Instance of the

The idea that Sarah was a Messiah is what Wood believes, not real truth (even in-book). There can be natural explanations both for her resurrection and ascension, and even for her healing powers, if they truly exist. The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)Da Cola is familiar with the heresy that holds that a messiah is born in each generation, and is betrayed, sacrificed and rises again (foretelling Sarah's fate), but I've been unable to confirm that it's a real historical heresy, even with the use of Google. Montanism is/was real, and a woman called Prisca was one of the leaders, but the bit about the regular appearance of Messiahs might be an invention (or might be that Pears has access to more information than Wikipedia!) Jill wrote: "I was willing to go along with the suggestion that Nancy was the messiah, and that there was one in each generation, but the fact that she was resurrected without much opposition and then sent abroad did seem rather a wet squib ending. ." Writing Arcadia did produce odd effects in ways that an ordinary book or ebook could not; scenes became more episodic and vignette-like; the demands of shifting from one point of view to another, and then to multiple ones in different worlds, required different ways of writing. Most peculiarly of all, I found that the story was most easily structured by looking at it visually; whole strands were expanded or even deleted simply to create a more pleasing shape in the writing program I was using. On every occasion, the more satisfactory the appearance, the better the story read, and I still haven’t quite figured out how that works.