An Instance Of The Fingerpost (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
”When in a Search of any Nature the Understanding stands suspended, then Instances of the Fingerpost shew the true and inviolable Way in which the Question is to be decided. These Instances afford great Light, so that the Course of the Investigation will sometimes be terminated by them. Sometimes, indeed, these Instances are found amongst that Evidence already set down.” --Francis Bacon, Novum Organum Scientarum, Section XXXVI, Aphorism XXI Oliver Cromwell, not really relevant to this book except for the destabilized government he left after his death.It is the 1660s and England is still in turmoil after the death of Oliver Cromwell. He unnaturally died of natural causes though he was later dug up, hung in chains, and ceremoniously beheaded. Torturing a corpse seems like an odd thing to do. It is as if they believed they could torment the departed soul with what they do with the empty shell. Regardless, Cromwell’s death left a power vacuum that was proving difficult to fill. It is easy to confuse Oliver Cromwell with Thomas Cromwell as both did rise to great heights of power. Oliver is a descendant of Thomas’s older sister. Thomas worked for Henry the VIII and did lose his head not unusual for anyone who worked closely with the colossally paranoid King. Charles II has been allowed to return to the throne taken from his father (Charles I was beheaded, while alive, not another bit of corpse desecration) in 1649. Charles Junior was technically back in charge, but his powers had been severely curtailed. He wasn’t that worried about the extent of his power as he was more concerned about fornicating, gambling, and having the best possible time that English peasant taxes could buy. Given what happened to his father and the life he had on the run, fearing assassination, maybe it makes sense that Charles II devoted his life to the pursuit of pleasure.But that is all on the periphery of our story, merely serving as a backdrop for a good old fashioned English murder mystery. The book is split into four parts each section told by a different narrator each with their own unique view of events. Don’t worry these are not rehashing of the same information over and over again. New, critical information is released with each changing perspective. The victim is Dr. Robert Grove, an amateur astrologer of New College, Oxford. Like many men, then and now, he liked a glass of alcoholic liquor at the end of the day to calm his frazzled nerves and hopefully give him a gentle push off into the land of Morpheus. Unfortunately with the brandy was a tincture of arsenic that seized his heart and left him a cooling, yet still flatulent, corpse with a host of suspects. Our first narrator is Marco da Cola, a rather flamboyantly dressed young man from Venice who is in London on business for his father. He is having pecuniary difficulties and needs sources of ready cash. He turns his hand to being a physician, untrained, but it seems that in this time period men with a degree in most anything would occasionally turn their hand to doctoring. The descriptions of the superstitions that were still dictating prescribed treatment by a physician of this time period made it very clear that one had to be very desperate to seek care at all. Da Cola meets Sarah Blundy when he offers to help heal her mother’s broken leg. He needs a client even if it is unlikely that Sarah can pay his fee with hard coin. There is something, though, not quite right about Marco da Cola. ”He was playing a game with us all, and was confident of his success, and he was now underestimating his audience as I had underestimated him. He did not realize that I saw, that instant, into his soul and perceived the devilish intent that lay hidden there, coiled and waiting to unleashed when all around had been lulled into thinking him a fool.” John Wallis John Wallis, a very serious man who has trained himself to discover conspiracies.What is it with da Cola being do damned friendly as well! Wallis, Professor of Geometry at Oxford and the greatest English mathematician before Newton was also a cryptographer for parliament. Because he was so immersed in the intrigues of court he caught some of the paranoia that was part and parcel of a king and his handlers that felt anything but in control. He sees grand conspiracies where maybe the odd behavior of some people has to do with something altogether different than plotting the downfall of the government. He is our third narrator. I’m taking him out of order simply because he had such a juicy assessment of da Cola. He is a Christian man and invests his money accordingly. ”I had placed to advantage some small part of my surplus funds in the East Indies, and also with a gentleman who captured Africans for the Americas. This latter was by far the finest investment I ever made, the more so because (the captain of the vessel assured me) the slaves were instructed vigorously in the virtues of Christianity on their voyage across the ocean and thus had their souls saved at the same time as they produced valuable labor for others.”Well he was against slavery, but if the crusty bastard who captains the vessel is willing to hold prayer meetings with them all across the ocean than he was in. It is so nice to turn a healthy profit and save souls at the same time. We are supposed to believe this investment is about souls and not about gold. Wallis is an expert in cyphers, certainly one of the best minds for puzzles living in this time period. In fact, he periodically receives offers to work for other governments, but he is as fervently patriotic for England as he is about saving the souls of black slaves. For instance, he knows more about the downfall of Jack Prestcott’s father than what he is willing to share. Because of the intersection of characters Prestcott’s obsession with discovering the truth about his father gets wrapped up in the investigations of Grove’s murderer. ”Tully says true, a dux quidem immortalibusquae potest homini major esse poena furore atque dementia, what greater punishment can the gods inflict upon a man that madness?Jack is the second narrator. He is convinced that Sarah Blundy is a witch. After he raped her, he did have to rough her up as the silly bitch wouldn’t just lay there and take it like the wanton slut he assumed her to be, he was convinced she put a curse on him. ”You may have been born a gentleman; that is your misfortune. But your actions are those of one far lower than any man I have ever known. You violated me, although I gave you no cause to do so. You then spread foul and malicious rumors about me, so I am dismissed from my place, and jeered at in the streets, and called whore. You have taken my good name, and all you offer in return is your apology, said with no meaning and less sincerity. If you felt it in your soul, I could accept easily, but you do not.”“How do you know?”“I see your soul,” She said, her voice suddenly dropping to a whisper which chilled my blood. “I know what it is and what is its shape. I can feel it hiss in the night and taste its coldness in the day. I hear it burning, and I touch its hate.”As much as I wish that Sarah had been capable of putting a curse on Jack it simply wasn’t the case. His own mind put a curse on him. He was sure she was his enemy, why wouldn’t he? He certainly gave her just cause. He turns out to be much more than a rapist, but also a liar and a manufacturer of evidence. Sarah, because she had worked for Dr. Grove, and was known as a willful woman, meaning she was likely to defend herself verbally if assaulted verbally, is the most convenient number one suspect in the poisoning of the Dr. Grove. The fourth narrator is Anthony Wood, an antiquary and historian, best known for his diaries that were published long after his death. He gets Sarah a job with his parents and also recommended her for the job at Grove’s. He carries a torch for Sarah. Despite the risks, he has a night of passion with her that goes beyond lust and reaches the first hills and dales of love. ”I sinned against the law, against God’s word reported, I abused my family and exposed them even more to risk of public shame, I again risked permanent exclusion from those rooms and books which were my delight and my whole occupation; yet in all the years that have passed since I have regretted only one thing: that it was but a passing moment, never repeated, for I have never been closer to God, nor felt his love and goodness more.” An engraving of Anthony Wood.You will like Anthony Wood. He is probably the only man in this novel lacking in guile. A man who gives loyalty and understands the true responsibility of the word, not just when it is convenient, but from the first breath as he gives it to the last breath as he expires. Iain PearsIain Pears has built this four layered cake of a novel, each layer is sprinkled with truth, but lies and half truths are hidden in the batter and the frosting. The reader is forced to pay attention to each bite, each paragraph, each lick, each word as the twists and turns of this plot are patiently revealed. Most of what the narrators reveal to us they believe to be true, but they are all guilty of their own suppositions colored by their own prejudices. The reader feels like an investigator, barraged with different views, conflicting stories, and it is only in the final moments of the book that most of us will discover that we were wrong. Highly Recommended!”I have been spared riches and fame and power and position, just as His goodness has saved me from poverty and great illness.” Anthony Wood
* Note: Lots of spoilers in this review, so tread with caution.Iain Pears digs deep into religion and science in this compelling period mystery set in Oxford, England in 1663. An Instance of the Fingerpost is the kind of lengthy, slow burn of a book that reveals itself only to the most observant and committed of readers, but with an explosive payoff that's well worth the wait. The book is lengthy, and the time period obscure for most contemporary readers, so be ready to jump in with a strong stomach and a clear mind.The driving force of every mystery is to figure out what really happened. In An Instance of the Fingerpost that discovery is no easy feat. A murder has been committed, and someone, Sarah Blundy, is eventually accused, convicted, and executed. Pears gives us four different narrators, each with their own account of what took place, and it's up to us to weed out the delicate thread of truth from the mishmash of half-truths, contradictions, and misdirection.Each chapter starts off with epigraphs taken from Francis Bacon's opus, Novum Organum Scientarum. The epigraphs serve as thematic signposts to hammer home the flawed thinking at work in each account:- Idols of the Market (Marco da Cola - His account shows how language and description can color the facts; outright deception)- Idols of the Cavern (Jack Prescott - His story shows how personal obsession, personal demons, and self-delusion can distort the truth; complete unreliability)- Idols of the Theater (John Wallis - His version shows how the most precise, logical and science-based reasoning can still lead to the wrong conclusion; fallacies)- Idols of the Tribe (Anthony Wood - His testimony reveals the supposedly inviolable explanation of what really happened, but it is also a greater meditation on the shaky foundations of truth in general). The big reveals depend critically on the sequence of those accounts, as each narrator reveals new information that purposefully illuminates or obfuscates what has been said before. In other words, the four narrators each have had access to the testimony told before them: Prescott has read Cola's account when he gives his; Wallis has read Prescott's and Cola's; and Wood has read all three. This makes it easy to compare events and catch similarities and differences, though you may have to flip back and forth between chapters to compare versions. Structurally the book's framework seems straightforward enough. The Rashomon-style whodunit is a common enough trope in literature, especially in mysteries, as is the use of unreliable narrators. But what makes the book so much more entertaining to read is that it's set solidly in England's Restoration period, one of the more interesting period settings I've encountered. Forget Game of Thrones, people! This is the real deal when it comes to vicious power struggles, political intrigue, and social unrest. I had to brush up on my English history as I was reading this. Not a necessary thing to do but it makes for a richer reading experience to have some basic knowledge of the historical figures who show up, and the context of the times to get a sense of what's at stake (clue: a sh*t-load). As I understand it, a Civil War has just come to a close. Oliver Cromwell, the rebel and "Lord Protector" is dead, his cronies vanquished. Charles II is back on the throne and the monarchy returned to power. But Restoration England is still a dangerously divided place with bitter hatreds and prejudices everywhere. There are the Royalists and Protestants on one side, pitted against everyone from radicals and Quakers, to Anabaptists and Catholics. It is in this political moshpit that Pears sets up the murder, and so you can expect that the cast of characters to be embroiled in the various plots, schemes, and rivalries that reflect the precariousness of those post-Restoration years. Pears uses this real-life tumult to corrosive effect, not only to set the stage and tone but also to drive the plot. By the end of the last account, we see just how far up the chain a simple case of murder in the small town of Oxford goes, the ramifications of which reach as far up as the king himself. This book reminded me so much of Eleanor Catton's Booker Prize-winning The Luminaries, and I wouldn't be surprised if Catton got a lot of her inspiration from Pears's book. On the surface, both novels explore a specific event through the viewpoints of various witnesses. But the deeper commonality is the exploration of the mystical; Catton takes her structure from the position of the stars, and hence that book's abstract, astrological framework; Pears draws more directly from the philosophy of logic, specifically Francis Bacon, though he also touches on mysticism and religion. In fact, there is a strong religious/spiritual fixation in Pears's book. Key characters seem to be Christian figures or symbols:- Sarah Blundy is obviously the Messiah figure. The various conspiracies and special interests that lead to her conviction makes her the 'sacrificial lamb' and the botched execution is her 'resurrection'; she is also depicted as a healer and visionary with special powers. Even her birth is similar to the Christ birth as her relation to Ned Blundy, her father, is called into question in the Wood account.- Wallis is the Pontius Pilate figure; he knows that Sarah is innocent and still allows her to be taken to the gallows anyway because her death ensures a sense of order and justice in his mind.- Prescott is probably the Judas figure as he betrays both Sarah and Grove and sets up a kind of murder-execution with the lies he tells and spreads.- Wood is … well, I'm not sure who Wood would be. Keeping with the Christian framework, Wood is probably Peter, the rock of the church, or another apostle. Wood is the only one who truly loves and venerates Sarah in the book.What does that say about Pears's stance on religion to include these Christian tropes in a book that examines the nature of truth? I wonder...Overall, An Instance of the Fingerpost is a richly satisfying book. It's a heavy book—and I don't mean just physically. The historical realism of the setting—the oppressive attitudes of the time (especially toward women), the squalor, disease, early experiments in medicine are rendered in visceral, gross-out detail—is placed jarringly alongside weighty explorations of the Truth. You get the full spectrum in this book, from the gutter to the celestial. When I finished it, I literally sat back and stared at the wall for a few seconds. It's a book told in layers upon layers of deception, with Pears ever so slowly peeling back those layers, until we're finally left with the truth at the end…or are we? Well, I'd like to think so.
What do You think about An Instance Of The Fingerpost (2000)?
735 pages, and it wasn't even worth one star.For the first hundred pages, the book was so dull that I trudged along, hoping it would get better. It didn't, and by then I was trapped. After that, it stopped being boring and became shockingly offensive instead. The writer killed off the only charismatic character in the book, and showcased the most villainous. In the final segment, a decent character came back into play, and things started looking up – until, that is, the author decided to cheer t
—Danger Kallisti
An Instance of the Fingerpost had been on my radar for quite some time before I actually picked it up. It's a critically acclaimed murder mystery that takes place in England right after Cromwell's death and the king's return to the throne (as is the current book I'm reading - I'm not too sure how that happened!). The book is divided into four parts, each part narrated by a different character. The premise is that different people can all see one event and take completely different things from it. Although each narrator covers the exact same event (the murder of Jeremy Grove and subsequent arrest and execution of Sarah Blundy), their perceptions are radically different enough that you never feel like you're reading the same story over and over.I was worried that this was going to be yet another one of those "It's up to you to decide what the truth is" deals (see: Sarah Dunant's Mapping the Edge), but the fourth narrator gives a sense of finality to the entire book. It's also possible to suss out some of what is and isn't true when considering A) inconsistencies in the four stories, B) information that one narrator has that the others don't, and C) the biases and personality of each narrator. One narrator has the tendency to react rashly and foolishly; another is prone to obsession. Most often, books are written so that the narrator's prose is meant to be taken as a reliable truth; this is definitely not the case here.I read Fingerpost in two sittings, with about a month passing between. If I had to do it all over, I wouldn't let that large amount of time go by before finishing it; the book is far more interesting when all the details are fresh in your mind and you can make the tiny connections between each narrator's story. I also think the book is more rewarding upon finishing it and reflecting on it as a whole; I felt only moderately warm about it until I reached the end of the final narration, at which point I felt considerably awestruck (Sarah Waters' Affinity had the same effect, although I felt only less-than-lukewarm about the novel up until the end). One of the bigger surprises for me would probably not surprise a history buff very much, but it's still presented in a neat way that should interest someone who saw it coming.I enjoyed Fingerpost far more than my first Iain Pears novel, A Dream of Scipio (which also bills itself as a murder mystery on its back cover, but is most definitely not). It's given me enough faith in him to check out his others books, which are in a series of "art history mysteries." Pears is an art historian himself, and I'm looking forward to reading something he has considerable knowledge about.
—Brooke
Iain Pears is an Oxford-born and educated art historian and author of historical mysteries, and An Instance of the Fingerpost is his most famous novel. Good historians are not necessarily good authors and good authors are not necessarily good historians, but in Fingerpost Pears manages to strike a comfortable balance between both professions. An Instance of the Fingerpost is a long but involving book, which pays great attention to its historical setting and theme, but at the same time manages to weave in a compelling, involving mystery, full of smoking guns and false trails, and one which will not reveal itself to the reader until the very end to the book.The book is set in Oxford in 1633, after the end of the English Civil War, just after the monarchy of King Charles II has been restored. Although the war is over, Oliver Cromwell is dead, and the monarch is officially in power, the early Restoration years were a tumultuous period - England was still very much divided politically between Royalist supporters and opposing Parliamentarians. Even places such as Oxford - the intellectual center of the country, and the place of great intellectual debates - are not safe for political dissent, and just a few overheard words can grant one a great deal of trouble. And despite great scientific advancement and discoveries of the age, religion is present in all entitlements of society - from one's personal beliefs and superstitions to academic work and scientific research, contrasing the newly developed scientific method with ancient, medieval beliefs. The events of the novel are set in motion by the death of Robert Grove, an fellow of the New College. Although the exact circumstances of his death are unclear, all signs point to poison; soon a young woman named Sarah Blundy is accused of his murder. The novel is narrated by four different narrators, each of which tells his version of the story: Marco da Cola, a Venetian Catholic physician who has just arrived in England; Jack Prescott, son of a Royalist traitor who is bound on clearing his father's name; John Wallis, a genius mathematician and cryptographer who served both Cromwell and Charles II, who has a fondness for conspiracies; and lastly Anthony Wood, an Oxford antiquarian. Each of these characters maneuvers through the web of Oxford rivalries and plots, and has his own version of the story to tell.Although the book's mystery begins as a classic whodunnit surrounding the death of an Oxford Don, it soon becomes apparent that the real mystery surrounds the nature of discovery, investigation, understanding and ultimately truth itself. The title is a quotation borrowed from the 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon, who in his Novum Organum wrote about the nature of reasoning and the fallibility of evidence, but accounted for instances of the fingerpost - crucial instances which pointed in only one direction, sure and indissoluble, allowing for no other possibility. Such is the case with the book - although I felt a little disappointed by the ending: (view spoiler)[I felt that the introduction of a supernatural theme was unnecessary - it looked like Pears wrote himself into a corner, and had to resort to the supernatural to solve the plot and tie all its ends. Although to his credit we have to take into account that even the supernatural event is narrated by one of the characters, who has his own bias and perhaps is telling us what he wished had happened instead of what has actually taken place. (hide spoiler)]
—Maciek
