An Instance of the Fingerpost: Explore the murky world of 17th-century Oxford in this iconic historical thriller

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I appreciated the author's bios of the characters at the end as I recognized many as historical figures but others were new to me. Mandatory standards ( The Traffic Signs (Size, Colour and Type) Provisional Regulations) were passed for Great Britain in 1933 which required poles to painted with black and white bands and lettering to be of a different typeface. The Oxford University of the novel is steeped in its own plots, schemes, and rivalries (think of the competition between Marco da Cola and Richard Lower, and Lower’s alliances with Robert Boyle, as well as the university fellows’ various reactions to the murder of Robert Grove). Along with the new areas of philosophy, which includes the budding knowledge of medicine, alchemy and belief in witchcraft still exist.

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He unnaturally died of natural causes though he was later dug up, hung in chains, and ceremoniously beheaded. What might we infer about Cromwellian England from the character—and memories—of his supporters and detractors? There is a wonderful scene in the novel’s first section where Marco da Cola attends (and loathes) a production of King Lear by William Shakespeare.The posts have traditionally been made from cast iron or wood, with poles painted in black, white or grey and fingers with black letters on a white background, often including distance information in miles. The second of the four long narratives is just about bearable but the boredom begins to set in like a fine drenching cold rain.

Reading guide for An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears

The plot is at first centred on the death of Robert Grove [1] but later takes in the conspiracies of John Mordaunt and William Compton (of Compton Wynyates), and the politics of Henry Bennet and Lord Clarendon. For all that the aristocrats are bullying and convinced of their superiority, for all that pompous priests feather their nests, we are always aware of the cataclysm of the wars fought a generation before and the threatened ‘world turned upside-down’. He is given the task of wrapping up the narrative and, if he can be believed, gives information that neatly solves the many threads of the plot. It's really long too, but that just makes it better- by the time you finish it you'll be sorry it wasn't longer.Once again my happiness at not living in the 17th century is validated as I read of the physical squalor, the political and religious unrest and distrust in England after the restoration of Charles II, the relative worthlessness of the average person's life. It is cleverly left open, and it's easy to show that the 'evidence' from Wood's account is quite explicable by non-supernatural means. Of note was that the design did not allow for mileages of over three miles to be expressed with the use of halves and quarters. Nowadays, we often tend to conceive of prejudice in ethnic or racial terms, but in the world of Fingerpost, one’s trustworthiness and social worth is decided by family history. The end result is that you simply don’t know the real nature of the plot’s events once you have finished.

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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. Iain 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.At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. The reader can only take so much of this, however, and I was certainly relieved when the baton was handed on to the historian Anthony à Wood, the fourth narrator.

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However, it was obviously a clever novel and I sure it was difficult for the author to keep track of everything. Born in 1955, Iain Pears has worked as an art historian, a television consultant, and a journalist, in England, France, Italy, and the United States.Then there was an absolutely bizarre ending about Sarah coming back to life after being hung, which left me utterly bemused.