An Instance Of The Fingerpost (Signed)
Language: English
Published by Random House UK, United Kingdom, 1997
- First Edition
- Signed
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: A Flare For Books, San Jose, CA, U.S.A.A Flare For Books
AbeBooks seller since March 10, 2020
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 38.64
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Book has mild edgewear and has a couple of dog-eared pages, else clean. Jacket has edge and cornerwear and handling marks to the head and heel of the spine. Not price-clipped. First edition, first printing. Signed on the title page by Pears.
Seller Inventory # 002684
- Title
- An Instance Of The Fingerpost (Signed)
- Author
- Iain Pears
- Publisher
- Random House UK, United Kingdom
- Publication year
- 1997
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- Very Good -
- Signed
- Signed by Author(s)
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0224044664
- ISBN 13
- 9780224044660
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Printing
- 1st Printing
- Seller catalogs
- Mystery Thriller
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
The year is 1663, and the setting is Oxford, England, during the height of Restoration political intrigue. When Dr Robert Grove is found dead in his Oxford room, hands clenched and face frozen in a rictus of pain, all the signs point to poison. Rashomon- like, the narrative circles around Grove's murder as four different characters give their version of events: Marco da Cola, a visiting Italian physician--or so he would like the reader to believe; Jack Prestcott, the son of a traitor who fled the country to avoid execution; Dr. John Wallis, a mathematician and cryptographer with a predilection for conspiracy theories; and Anthony Wood, a mild- mannered Oxford antiquarian whose tale proves to be the book's "instance of the fingerpost" (the quote comes from the philosopher Bacon, who, while asserting that all evidence is ultimately fallible, allows for "one instance of a fingerpost that points in one direction only, and allows of no other possibility").
Like The Name of the Rose, this is one whodunit in which the principal mystery is the nature of truth itself. Along the way, Pears displays a keen eye for period details as diverse as the early days of medicine, the convoluted politics of the English Civil War, and the newfangled fashion for wigs. Yet Pears never loses sight of his characters, who manage to be both utterly authentic denizens of the 17th century and utterly authentic human beings. As a mystery, An Instance of the Fingerpost is entertainment of the most intelligent sort; as a novel of ideas, it proves equally satisfying.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
A Flare For Books
San Jose, CA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since March 10, 2020
Shipping rates within U.S.A.
| Item | 5 to 14 business days | 3 to 6 business days |
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A Flare For Books
CA, U.S.A.
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Terri Westbrook
A Flare For Books
5038 Severance Dr.
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