Quintuple the length of the ordinary novel, this extraordinary tour de force also has five times the ordinary allotment of adventure, action and aplomb. The quincunx of the title is a heraldic figure of five parts that appears at crucial points within the text (the number five recurs throughout the novel, which itself is divided into five parts, one for each of the family galaxies whose orbits the narrator is pulled into). Reviewed by Richard Platt in Slightly Foxed Issue 60.

A thrilling complex plot is made more intriguing by the unreliable narrator of the book. The suspension of disbelief happens easily, as the reader is led through twisted family trees and plot lines. The Quincunx is an epic Dickensian-like mystery novel set in nineteenth-century England, and concerns the varying fortunes of young John Huffam and his mother.

The protagonist, a young man naive enough to be blind to all clues about his own hidden history (and to the fact that his very existence is troubling to all manner of evildoers) narrates a story of uncommon beauty which not only brings readers face-to-face with dozens of piquantly drawn characters at all levels of 19th-century English society but re-creates with precision the tempestuous weather and gnarly landscape that has been a motif of the English novel since Wuthering Heights. The quincunx of the title is a heraldic figure of five parts that appears at crucial points within the text (the number five recurs throughout the novel, which itself is divided into five parts. 1, 1989 Pallisers first novel is an extraordinary achievement: a triple-decker (800-page) Victorian pastiche, obviously modeled on Bleak House, unfolding the staggeringly complex tale of young John Huffams attempts to ward off ruin and death until he can solve multiple family mysteries. The Quincunx by Charles Palliser PDF Download THE QUINCUNX by Charles Palliser RELEASE DATE: Feb.

The quincunx by charles palliser