<![CDATA[The Unburied]]>

false <![CDATA[The Unburied]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1246966840m/1220001.jpg 661208 15 Though putatively a mystery set (mostly) in the Victorian age, Charles Palliser's The Unburied has more in common with Umberto Eco than Arthur Conan Doyle. Like The Name of the Rose, this novel is set in a scholarly community and features a lost manuscript as the McGuffin of choice. And here, too, the mystery is not really what the book is about at all. Palliser's tale centers on Edward Courtine, a Cambridge don with a bee in his bonnet about Alfred the Great. It doesn't take a great medievalist to figure out that Courtine has allowed emotion to cloud his reason concerning the Saxon monarch: his version of Alfred's life and character is so forgiving as to be downright suspicious. When it is suggested that a source dear to his heart may in fact be fraudulent, he accuses his critics of cowardice. According to Courtine, those revisionist scoundrels doubt the veracity of his beloved source "because their own self-serving cynicism is reproached by the portrait of the king that Grimbald offers. You see, his account confirms how extraordinarily brave and resourceful and learned Alfred was, and what a generous and much-loved man." Now Courtine has come to the cathedral town of Thurcester because he believes Grimbald's original manuscript may be in the cathedral library--a manuscript that he hopes will validate his own version of the great king's reign. Palliser takes his time setting up his story, seeding it with clues that more often than not lead to dead ends. We learn, for example, that Courtine was once married, that his wife ran off with another man, and that he blames his school pal Austin Fickling for the rupture in his marital bliss. Dark doings at the cathedral are also hinted at, with quite a lot of space devoted to a murder that occurred centuries earlier. Meanwhile, ecclesiastical renovations turn up some unpleasant surprises--and as yet another murder ensues, Courtine is swept up in less scholarly pursuits. As the hapless academic (a Watson without a Holmes) pursues one red herring after another, it becomes apparent that Courtine's psyche is the real mystery on hand. History, he discovers, can obscure as much as it elucidates. All these years, his obsession with an idealized past has provided an excellent refuge from the realities of his present. In the end, what he uncovers is the secret of himself--and the reader of The Unburied is treated to a fine ghost story, in which the ghosts are quite literally all in the mind. --Alix Wilber 1208482 1999 The Unburied total:165|5:20|4:54|3:62|2:24|1:5| 165 555 272 26 2 1 false false Sat Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 21:25:11 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 19:26:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 17:04:15 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 22:33:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 08:01:08 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 08:13:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Wed Jan 30 15:31:06 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 15:34:31 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jul 07 12:18:24 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 07 12:19:10 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Dec 02 17:37:09 -0800 2007 Sun Sep 06 09:35:56 -0700 2009
We begin with the editor's...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 16 20:39:15 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 20:41:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Sun Feb 08 20:08:18 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 20:13:50 -0800 2009
A dense, historical mystery. A bit like some of Umberto Eco's work but easier to get ahold of. You don't necessarily have to know that much about the mileux the story is set in as long as you're able to track the plot through ...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Nov 06 22:31:50 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 30 02:56:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 07:14:47 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 07:39:20 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Sun Apr 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 20:29:52 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 19:10:39 -0700 2009 1 4 0 false false Mon Nov 16 08:45:18 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 08:45:31 -0800 2009 ]]> 0 0 false false Wed Jul 29 11:12:42 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 11:13:36 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Sep 29 14:31:27 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 14:31:42 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jul 07 04:42:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 04:08:49 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 17 19:26:16 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 17 19:34:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 08:19:50 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 14:55:36 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 03 04:38:59 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 03 04:41:34 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sat Dec 29 19:42:58 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 29 19:44:18 -0800 2007 3 0 true false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 07 00:51:44 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 15:07:03 -0700 2007
This one wasn't so bad!

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