an english novelists name who writes like Dickens. He wrote a book in
the 1980s with cuniform in the title. The story is about a boy and his
mother and a secret past. There is an inheritance at issue. |
Request for Question Clarification by
pinkfreud-ga
on
14 Sep 2004 12:00 PDT
Could you be thinking of Charles Palliser, author of "The Quincunx"?
"PALLISER, Charles (b. 1947)...
The occasional writer, like John Irving, is said to be the Charles
Dickens of our era, writing about large casts of eccentric characters
resolving moral and emotional issues in a world of coincidences. But
The Quincunx recreated the Victorian world of Dickens, both in its
detail and in its style, while still being a page-turner for a modern
readership."
http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/authors/Palliser.html
"...there are still writers of enormous potency, who can write
compelling, old-fashioned, epic novels in the best tradition of the
XIX century. Palliser is one such author, and I claim that his debut
novel, one he had researched for ten years prior to its publication -
is a compicated inheritance mystery, a literary novel that puts to
shame all business-plan novels out there. Treat yourself to The
Quincunx, a book amongst the best that literature of XX century offers
us."
http://www.literarymoose.info/literature/palliser.html
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pinkfreud-ga
on
14 Sep 2004 12:23 PDT
Here's more on the plot of "The Quincunx":
"This is the story of John Huffam, a middle-class country boy in the
early nineteenth century, who is brought down to and below the poverty
line by a combination of bad luck, poor judgement and a conspiracy
that makes Watergate look amateur. Little by little, he discovers his
family's amazing past, and that he has been cheated out of his
valuable inheritance. Unfortunately, several of his unknown cousins
also consider themselves the rightful heirs, and John is left to chose
between the safety of his poverty, and risking his life to rediscover
a document thought lost for generations.
On a less threatening note, John and his mother's slide into poverty
and crime lets us see an incredible picture of life in London, on the
very edges of society. I found parts of this shocking, but the
intention is honesty, not shock value. The plotting might be Collins',
but the humanity is Dickens', which makes John's desire to reclaim his
property and act for the good of the poor slightly less silly than it
might otherwise have looked."
http://www.suziesbookpages.co.uk/book.php?id=11
|
Clarification of Question by
hemmingway_bg-ga
on
14 Sep 2004 15:01 PDT
Thank you pinkfreud. I have read two or three novels by Palliser but
could not recall his name.
Thanks again,
Hemmingway_bg
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pinkfreud-ga
on
14 Sep 2004 15:02 PDT
May I post information about Charles Palliser as the answer to your
question, or are you seeking the name of another author? I have not
been able to find any work of Palliser's that has "cuniform" in the
title.
|
Clarification of Question by
hemmingway_bg-ga
on
14 Sep 2004 15:52 PDT
You were 100% correct in your answer. The cuniform turned out to be a red herring.
Thank you again,
hemmingway_bg
|
