The Dream of Scipio
2 journalers for this copy...
Another Iain Pears novel I haven't read, found alongside 'The Raphael Mystery'. I got it at a flea market at Tåsen elementary school in Oslo on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006. Update will follow ... :-)
Starting this tonight.
I finished this book in about a week and a half (am just a really slow journaller ;-) - it was a slow read although there was nothing 'wrong' with it to make it that way. It's very well written, it's an engaging story, good characterization, a convincing setting ... I really don't know what my problem was. This book just didn't hook me. But I did enjoy it and I found it quite moving ... it just took much longer than expected to get through it. There's nothing wrong with the book though, the problem was mine. :-) I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fantasy. It is a book that needs the reader to pay pretty close attention, though - the plot is made up out of three separate stories that don't really have anything to do with each other, but which are tied together in a rather subtle way. The three stories take place in different time periods, and all three settings are very convincingly portrayed. Well written - as I expect from this author. :-)
Findabair wants to read this book now, so I'll probably be bringing it along the next time I see her. :-)
Findabair wants to read this book now, so I'll probably be bringing it along the next time I see her. :-)
From the front cover:
'''A dazzling hall of mirrors ... Ferociously ambitious'
Daily Telegraph'
From the back cover:
'''Irresistibly seizes the imagination'
Evening Standard
'Combining the visceral pleasures of a thriller with the more intellectual excitements of a novel of ideas ... Beautifully constructed ... never less than engrossing'
Sunday Telegraph
Set in Provence at three different critical moments of Western Civilisation - the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Black Death in the fourteenth, and the Second World War in the twentieth - The Dream of Scipio follows the fortunes of three men, Manlius Hippomanes, a Gallic aristocrat obsessed with the preservation of Roman civilisation, Olivier de Noyen, a poet, and Julien Barneuve, an intellectual who joins the Vichy government.
The story of each man is woven through the narrative, linked by the classical text that gives the book its title, and by each man's love for an extraordinary woman. Dense, dark, erudite and yet, like An Instance of the Fingerpost, utterly compelling, The Dream of Scipio confirms Iain Pears as one of Britain's most imaginative novelists.
'Vivid, admirably imagined, ultimately very moving ... This is a novel of the very highest ambition ... Immediate, sensuous, beautiful'
Allan Massie, Scotsman
'Combines dazzling erudition with assured narrative skills to offer glimpses of some of history's darkest corners'
Independent on Sunday
'Illumined by a fizzing passion for the recondite'
Daily Telegraph'
Trade paperback from Vintage, published in 2003. Originally published in 2002.
'''A dazzling hall of mirrors ... Ferociously ambitious'
Daily Telegraph'
From the back cover:
'''Irresistibly seizes the imagination'
Evening Standard
'Combining the visceral pleasures of a thriller with the more intellectual excitements of a novel of ideas ... Beautifully constructed ... never less than engrossing'
Sunday Telegraph
Set in Provence at three different critical moments of Western Civilisation - the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Black Death in the fourteenth, and the Second World War in the twentieth - The Dream of Scipio follows the fortunes of three men, Manlius Hippomanes, a Gallic aristocrat obsessed with the preservation of Roman civilisation, Olivier de Noyen, a poet, and Julien Barneuve, an intellectual who joins the Vichy government.
The story of each man is woven through the narrative, linked by the classical text that gives the book its title, and by each man's love for an extraordinary woman. Dense, dark, erudite and yet, like An Instance of the Fingerpost, utterly compelling, The Dream of Scipio confirms Iain Pears as one of Britain's most imaginative novelists.
'Vivid, admirably imagined, ultimately very moving ... This is a novel of the very highest ambition ... Immediate, sensuous, beautiful'
Allan Massie, Scotsman
'Combines dazzling erudition with assured narrative skills to offer glimpses of some of history's darkest corners'
Independent on Sunday
'Illumined by a fizzing passion for the recondite'
Daily Telegraph'
Trade paperback from Vintage, published in 2003. Originally published in 2002.
Journal Entry 5 by LeishaCamden at A fellow BookCrosser, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Released 15 yrs ago (2/4/2009 UTC) at A fellow BookCrosser, A RABCK -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I gave this book to Findabair at meetup this afternoon.
Happy reading! :-)
I gave this book to Findabair at meetup this afternoon.
Happy reading! :-)
Journal Entry 6 by Findabair from St. Hanshaugen bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Thursday, February 5, 2009
Thanks for bringing this along, Leisha - I've been curious about this author for a while now =)