Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.
A novel on the way we interpret events to suit our purpose. The protagonists are four people giving evidence in a murder in 17th century England. One blames the crime on too much authority, another on the lack of it. A look at the controversies of the day, from medical experiments to religious freethinking.… (meer)
PuddinTame: The Sarah Blundy character in Instance is roughly based on the real life Anne Greene. [Wikipedia] Newes from the Dead is a young adult account of Anne Greene's hanging and revival.
ehines: Both interesting contemporary books set amidst the scientific enlightenment, Pears is a bit more historical where Stephenson is more flashily contemporary, but fans of one certainly should look at the other.
Strange book that took me a long time to read. In the end I liked it and am convinced that I will read it again.
It is the story of the same events told by four different narrators, by the time I was a little way into the second narrator, I wanted to double check facts from the first narrator and this all the way through the other narrators
I am sure that when I read it again, that the information I got from each narrator, will change the way I understand the book from the beginning. ( )
Splendid book. I love historical fiction, and this is by far the best book I have read in this genre. Two charchters stand out: Sarah Blundy and Dr.Wood.
The story is narrated in four parts by four different charchters. Each narration has half truths and a self-fulfilling philosophy. The complete plot emerges only in the last twenty pages, until then story hangs in balance.
The kind of book that must completed in a day or two, else one might lose the thread very easily. ( )
In the back there is a chronology and info about the historical characters in the book. This would have been useful to know before getting through 2/3 of the book, since there are A LOT of characters to keep straight. ( )
This was great! Broadly the same events narrated by 4 different characters it grows in scope with each section. There are a lot of educated men talking rubbish in this book, and one silenced woman at the centre of it, but yet it works perfectly as a mystery and also an interesting work of historical fiction, especially the history of medicine in the 17th century. ( )
The first "book" was good. I enjoyed the main character's quirkiness. However the remaining three books were painful. The characters telling the story were unlikable and boring. All the books were about the events that took place in 1660's. Some didn't know what happened and others lied. I did not care what happened by the end. The plot had potential and a writer I enjoyed could have pulled it off. 5,065 members; 3.92 average rating; 4/23/2023 ( )
If you liked Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose," you should run to buy Iain Pears' lavishly erudite historical mystery "An Instance of the Fingerpost."... If Eco's book was a sly demonstration of semiotics, the study of signs, Pear's is an exercise in theories of knowledge. Theological disputation, cryptography, religious dissent, medical experiments, moral philosophy, even the Turkish-Venetian war over Crete are all dealt with in what sometimes seems an entertaining encyclopedia of the second half of the 17th century.... When the denouement comes, it is with a new and final twist, one whose quality of surprise is the final proof of this talented author's almost infinite capacity to replace one understanding of things with another.
Successful literary thrillers in the mold of Umberto Eco's ''Name of the Rose'' are the stuff of publishers' dreams, and in Pears's novel they may have found a near-perfect example of the genre. It is literary -- if that means intelligent and well written -- and for the reader who likes to be teased, who likes his plots as baroque and ingenious as possible, ''An Instance of the Fingerpost'' will not disappoint.... [T]wo, perhaps three, of the four narrators are men hard to like or care about. It was not until the final 150 pages that I found myself being moved. The feel of this last section is bolder, more imaginative, mysterious even, as though the novel had suddenly transcended itself and broken free of the trappings of the genre.
...a novel about deception and self-deception, about the scientific method and Jesuitical chicanery, above all about political expedience and religious transcendence. Every sentence in the book is as solid as brick -- and as treacherous as quicksand.... [Y]ou could reread the novel just to savor the subtle tricks of omission and misdirection.... Iain Pears has written an impressively original and audaciously imaginative intellectual thriller. Don't miss it.
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae.
(History is the witness of the times, the light of truth, the life of memory, the mistress of life.) Cicero, De Oratore
A Question of Precedence
There are idols which we call Idols of the Market. For Men associate by Discourse, and a false and improper Imposition of Words strangely possesses the Understanding, for Words absolutely force the Understanding, and put all Things into Confusion. — Francis Bacon, Novum Organum Scientarum, Section II, Aphorism VI
An Instance of the Fingerpost
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
Opdracht
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
To Ruth
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Marco da Cola, gentleman of Venice, respectfully presents his greetings. I wish to recount the journey which I made to England in the year 1663, the events which I witnessed and the people I met, these being, I hope, of some interest to those concerned with curiosity. Equally I intend my account to expose the lies told by those whom I once numbered, wrongly, amongst my friends.
Citaten
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
At this time, coffee in England was something of a craze, coming into the country with the return of the Jews. That bitter bean had little novelty for me, of course, for I drank it to cleanse my spleen and aid my digestion, but was not prepared to find it so much in fashion that it had produced special buildings where it could be consumed in extraordinary quantities and at the greatest expense.
But fashionable attire was not for comfort and, as it was profoundly uncomfortable, we may conclude that the wig was very fashionable.
And after you have put Aristotle to your proof? And, no doubt, found him wanting. Then what? Will you submit the monarchy to your investigations? The church, perhaps? Will you presume to put Our Savior Himself to your proofs? There lies the danger, sir. Your quest leads to atheism, as it must unless science is held firmly in the hands of those who wish to strengthen the word of God, rather than challenge it.
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
This is the truth, the one and only truth, manifest, complete and perfect. Besides it, what importance have the dogma of priests, the strength of kings, the rigour of scholars or the ingenuity of our men of science?
A novel on the way we interpret events to suit our purpose. The protagonists are four people giving evidence in a murder in 17th century England. One blames the crime on too much authority, another on the lack of it. A look at the controversies of the day, from medical experiments to religious freethinking.
▾Beschrijvingen bibliotheek
Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.
▾Beschrijving door LibraryThing leden
Boekbeschrijving
In het Oxford van 1663 grijpen ambitieuze wetenschappers nieuwe kansen en wagen ze zich al experimenterend op onbekend terrein. Te midden van deze grote intellectuele, religieuze en politieke beroering wordt dr. Robert Grove, lid van New College, dood aangetroffen. Vier getuigen komen aan het woord over de mysterieuze omstandigheden waarmee de dood van Grove is omgeven. Alle vier hebben ze hun redenen om selectief met de feiten om te gaan; slechts één vertelt de onvoorstelbare waarheid.
In Oxford wordt in de jaren zestig van de zeventiende eeuw, een periode van politieke spanningen, een geestelijke vermoord. De gebeurtenissen worden door vier personen beschreven: Da Cola, een Venetiaan, John Prestcott die erop gebrand is de naam van zijn vader van verraad te zuiveren, John Wallis, theoloog en cryptograaf van Cromwell en van Charles II en door Anthony Wood, een geschiedkundige uit Oxford. Slechts een van hen is op de hoogte van de hele waarheid. De schrijver geeft op deze manier een zeldzaam realistisch beeld van de tijd. Da Cola behandelt patiënten in Oxford als niet afgestudeerd arts. Met andere medici bespreekt hij de geneeskunst, maakt de rechtspraak en de terechtstellingen mee, het bemachtigen en onderzoeken van lijken en vindt de bloedtransfusie uit. Volgens een andere verteller was Da Cola een spion voor de Spanjaarden of voor de katholieke Fransen. De schrijver neemt er 700 bladzijden de tijd voor, maar schrijft een uniek verhaal. De lezer heeft ook een lange adem nodig, want het verhaal bevat weinig actie en het kost moeite de lange redenaties en diepzinnige conclusies te volgen. Slaagt men daarin, dan valt er veel te genieten.
)
)
)
Google Books — Bezig met laden...
(3.93)
Iain Pears, An Instance Of The Fingerpost
7
It is the story of the same events told by four different narrators, by the time I was a little way into the second narrator, I wanted to double check facts from the first narrator and this all the way through the other narrators
I am sure that when I read it again, that the information I got from each narrator, will change the way I understand the book from the beginning. (