Dream of Scipio - Softcover

Pears, Iain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573229865 ISBN 13: 9781573229869

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2003

Synopsis

In national bestseller The Dream of Scipio, acclaimed author Iain Pears intertwines three intellectual mysteries, three love stories, and three of the darkest moments in human history. United by a classical text called "The Dream of Scipio," three men struggle to find refuge for their hearts and minds from the madness that surrounds them in the final days of the Roman Empire, in the grim years of the Black Death, and in the direst hours of World War II. An ALA Booklist Editors' Choice.

Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Portrait are also available from Riverhead Books.

About this title

Review:

With his admirable craftsmanship and the rich emotional life Iain Pears grants his beautifully drawn characters, he has created a considerable following for his remarkable novels. The Dream of Scipio is a novel of great ambition that simultaneously engages the emotional and intellectual capacities of the reader while always remaining compulsively readable.

Set in Provence at three crucial moments of Western civilisation (the final collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Black Death in the 14th century, and the Second World War in the 20th), Pears presents the lives of three men. Manlius Hippomanes is an aristocrat, obsessively concerned with the preservation of Roman civilisation; Olivier de Noyen is a poet; and Julian Barneuve is an intellectual who makes the mistake of joining the corrupt Vichy government. Pears weaves his dazzling and discursive narrative through the troubled lives of each man, the common thread being the classical text which is the book’s title-- a work of challenging philosophical inquiry. The other common denominator is the love each man has for a remarkable woman.

It is difficult to know where to begin in praising the achievement of this rigorous but infinitely beguiling book. The novel of ideas has been moribund for quite some time, but Pears breathes rude life into the genre with an epic that echoes the achievements of Robert Graves and Andrι Gide. The balance between the key questions of existence and the passionate, life-affirming solidity that the author grants to his characters is impeccable, and all three protagonists are forcefully characterised.

But above all, this is a piece of storytelling that almost redefines the very notion of the art: luminescent entertainment by a master, even more impressive than An Instance of the Fingerpost, the book which first drew attention to Pears’ highly individual skills.--Barry Forshaw

Review:

"A thrilling journey through history, into the human heart and soul."—Washington Post

"Braiding together parallel plots of romance and political intrigue set in Provence during three dark eras, The Dream of Scipio is a murder mystery on the grandest scale...[Pears] invests his complex story with piquancy, irony, and humor. Their is much to ponder here, from Neoplatonic philosophy to anti-Semitism to public duty...Eye-opening."—People

"A multilayered tale of moral choice, love, danger and loss."—The New York Times Book Review

"An adventure and achievement to match An Instance of the Fingerpost."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A dazzling triptych of love and ideas...Pears leaves us with a dream, not only of destruction, but of immense and unexpected heroism."—Boston Globe

"[An] ambitious, heartfelt, and thought-provoking book, one that should find a home in the heart of every thinking reader."—Portland Oregonian

"This is a dream that will stay with the reader for a long, long time."—Montreal Gazette

"A novel for our time about all time. Wildly entertaining."—The Christian Science Monitor

"Complex, surprising and thought-provoking, a dream of a novel in more senses than one."—Wall Street Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1573229865
• ISBN 13: 9781573229869
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416