The Quincunx A Novel |
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| Author:
| Palliser, Charles |
| ISBN: | 978-0-345-37113-3 |
| Publication Date: | Nov 1990 |
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group
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| Imprint: | Ballantine Books |
| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $22.00 |
Book Description:
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An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary--a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century--London itself. "So compulsively absorbing that reality disappears . . . One is swept along by those enduring emotions that defy modern art and a random universe:...
More Description An extraordinary modern novel in the Victorian tradition, Charles Palliser has created something extraordinary--a plot within a plot within a plot of family secrets, mysterious clues, low-born birth, high-reaching immorality, and, always, always the fog-enshrouded, enigmatic character of 19th century--London itself.
"So compulsively absorbing that reality disappears . . . One is swept along by those enduring emotions that defy modern art and a random universe: hunger for revenge, longing for justice and the fantasy secretly entertained by most people that the bad will be punished and the good rewarded."--The New York Times
"A virtuoso achievement . . . It is an epic, a tour de force, a staggeringly complex and tantalizingly layered tale that will keep readers engrossed in days. . . . The Quincunx will not disappoint you. It is, quite simply, superb."--Chicago Sun-Times
"A bold and vivid tale that invites the reader to get lost in the intoxicating rhythms of another world. And the invitation is irresistible."--San Francisco Chronicle
"A remarkable book . . . In mood, color, atmosphere and characters, this is Charles Dickens reincarnated . . . It is an immersing experience."--Los Angeles Times Book Review
"To read the first pages is to be trapped for seven-hundred odd more: you cannot stop turning them."--The New Yorker
"Few books, at most a dozen or two in a lifetime, affect us this way. . . . For sheer intricacy and ingenuity, for skill and clarity of storytelling, it is the kind of book readers wait for, a book to get lost in."--The Philadelphia Inquirer