false 824986 20 The epic length of this first novel—nearly 800 densely typeset pages—should not put off readers, for its immediacy is equal to its heft. Palliser, an English professor in Scotland, where this strange yet magnetic work was first published, has modeled his extravagantly plotted narrative on 19th-century forms—Dickens’s Bleak House is its most obvious antecedent—but its graceful writing and unerring sense of timing revivifies a kind of novel once avidly read and surely now to be again in demand. The protagonist, a young man naive enough to be blind to all clues about his own hidden history (and to the fact that his very existence is troubling to all manner of evildoers) narrates a story of uncommon beauty which not only brings readers face-to-face with dozens of piquantly drawn characters at all levels of 19th-century English society but re-creates with precision the tempestuous weather and gnarly landscape that has been a motif of the English novel since Wuthering Heights. The suspension of disbelief happens easily, as the reader is led through twisted family trees and plot lines. The quincunx of the title is a heraldic figure of five parts that appears at crucial points within the text (the number five recurs throughout the novel, which itself is divided into five parts, one for each of the family galaxies whose orbits the narrator is pulled into). Quintuple the length of the ordinary novel, this extraordinary tour de force also has five times the ordinary allotment of adventure, action and aplomb. (Literary Guild dual main selection.) 2157721 27 11 1990 The Quincunx total:453|5:184|4:157|3:82|2:20|1:10| 453 1844 819 93 4 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 16:38:58 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 30 16:55:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 03 21:37:23 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 26 13:41:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1995 Tue Mar 27 16:50:46 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 27 17:05:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Wed Sep 05 07:45:34 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 04:49:07 -0700 2007 It's an very intriguing, if difficult to follow story: a young boy and his mother are living in a small town under assumed names, due to leg...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 06:49:36 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 10:24:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 12:38:44 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 12:57:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jul 16 19:54:44 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 20:09:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 09:18:46 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 14:24:44 -0700 2009 This was a wonderful book, full of twists, turns and revelations up until the very end. Incredibly well researched and completely realized, down to the dialects and the slime of 19th century London sewers. In the best traditions of ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jan 24 02:25:39 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 10:19:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 1991 Sun Feb 17 14:51:22 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 14:54:27 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1991 Sun Dec 28 01:30:36 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 01:30:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Sun Aug 05 12:13:01 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 05 12:14:17 -0700 2007 4 1 false false Thu Aug 16 14:52:43 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 15:04:11 -0700 2007 5 1 false false Wed May 14 08:45:14 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 08:47:39 -0700 2008 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 24 17:32:31 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 24 17:35:45 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue May 26 13:14:45 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 12:28:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon May 18 13:16:41 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 20:29:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sat Aug 15 10:32:07 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 05:46:41 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 10:32:07 -0700 2009 Part One, The Huffams (p.1-200):
Deals mainly with the childhood of John Mellamphy, though this is not his real name. John lives with his mother Mary in a cottage in the small town of Melthorpe together with a few servants. John is forbidden to have any contact with other children or strangers....more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Nov 14 09:59:39 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 09 09:54:50 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Nov 02 19:17:28 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 02 19:17:28 -0800 2008 Fell flat

Reading Palliser’s first epic, The Quincunx, is a bit like fishing – it requires a great deal of patience (and a good memory wouldn’t hurt either). Whether or not the “catch de jour” is worth all the effort or not is entirely another story.

Quincunx is a sprawling and ambitious dra...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=824986