The Unburied

The novel is set in the town of Thurchester in Victorian England. To be precise, the action involves events in and around Thurchester's Cathedral at the end of the 19th Century, during the reign of King Alfred, and during England's civil war. In essence this is one novel contains three interwoven stories and plots. Each of these three stories contain a 'mystery' involving death, martyrdom, or murder in and around the cathedral grounds.The stories unfold in an entertaining and very well written fashion. Palliser does a masterful job creating characters and atmosphere. Palliser does not draw you into this novel in an abrupt fashion. Rather, you are absorbed into the story over time. The novel kept me interested from cover to cover. It is more than a little ironic perhaps that one of Palliser's strengths, the ability to create realistic characters - warts and all - caused my only, small, discomfort with the novel. Neither of Unburied's two protagonists, Courtine and Fickling, were in anyway appealing to me. It was not simply that there were both seriously flawed people. Neither one of them seemed to have any character traits that would cause the reader (me in this instance) to feel any affinity for the situation of that character. This is not a problem with Palliser's writing. I thought it was clear that he did not intend for the characters to be particularly sympathetic. I have seen more than my share of both Courtines and Ficklings in my time. I think I need to feel some kind of emotive tie to one or more of the characters of a novel for it to really grab a hold of me. This did not get in the way of the story or in any way lessen its excitement. The reader who does not share this compunction need not be concerned.This book is a very well written glimpse into three different eras in the history of a town and its people. The structure and presentation were excellent and interesting. It is a book worth reading.

A very vibrant portrayal of 19th century britain by a master story teller! Arrived in good time in excellent quality.

Incredibly happy with this recommendation. The book was engrossing and very well written. It arrived in time for me to gift it to myself for Xmas!

At times, tedious. Disappointing compared to other Palliser novels.

A good tale well told.

No surprises here. Not particularly Victorian, nor mysterious. Sold off.

I was drawn to this book because I enjoy books set in Victorian England and have read many of the classics of Victorian literature. I'd also read and enjoyed (although I do remember getting bogged down by all the misery), Palliser's novel "The Quincunx". I have to say I was probably about halfway through "The Unburied" before it really grabbed me. I was not particularly fond of the main character and found the story only moderately interesting. Also, I'm a pretty attentive reader and even so I had a hard time keeping the characters, timelines, and various interpretations of events straight. Then, something happened; I found myself caught up in the mystery. The main character, Dr. Courtine, also became more interesting as more was revealed about his past. He turned out to be far from a static character, and exhibited real growth and change.I had expected "The Unburied" to be more of a horror novel, and perhaps have some supernatural elements, but it really didn't. It is, however, a complex, well-plotted mystery that I ultimately found to be an absorbing and rewarding read.

Charles Palliser is obviously a familiar of ghosts. He has a penchant for weaving together the intricate threads of the Classic Victorian Mystery, ala Wilkie Collins, stark with the emphatic colours of the darkest side of human nature -Indeed- upon the furthest extent anything even the likes of Charles Dickens ever conceived! And his sense of atmosphere is uncanny.Unlike with THE QUINCUNX, which I'd read a few weeks prior to picking up this one, Palliser tenders the gentle reader with a very likeable protagonist: Dr. Edward Courtine. Courtine is a Cambridge scholar who, in 1882, as he nears the age of 50, accepts an invitation from his old school chum, Austin Fickling, after some 20 years of separation stemming from a supposed betrayal. Since Austin resides in the Cathedral Close of the ancient village of Thurchester, Courtine views the visit as more than just the renewal of their friendship -- For, somewhere within the vast labyrinth of the Cathedral Library, there supposedly houses an ancient manuscript confirming the heroism of the -notably obscure- 9th-century Saxon king, Alfred, of whom Courtine has long held a scholarly fascination.When I say that Palliser has "woven," I do mean that in almost the most literal sense: for he has intricately threaded four mysteries into one: the earliest being that of Alfred the Great and the martyr, St. Wulflac. Second is the unsolved 17th-century murder of a Canon-Treasurer, William Burgoyne, inside the Thurchester Cathedral itself. Burgoyne's ghost appears to still haunt certain paths nearby the Cathedral. Then, during the course of Courtine's visit, another murder takes place within the Close: that of a reclusive banker residing at the New Deanery, who was found to have been killed very shortly after Courtine and Fickling had had tea with him. Finally, there's the mystery of Courtine himself - his past, his passions, and his own personal ghosts. And by the time he leaves, some four days after having first arrived in Thurchester, Courtine finds himself less content with his life and how he's lived it. But he's by far a wiser man.Palliser's style of tale-telling is something one must develop a taste for reading. He certainly has a tendency to get too tedious in his detailing, especially of historical elements. There was quite a bit less active motion, especially during the first 1/3 of the novel, than one could have wished there to be. Also, as with THE QUINCUNX, the reader may well be working out in their head a certain portion of the clues given, well before the hero does. Yet, I must say that- though I read through the more than 800 pages of THE QUINCUNX without even the tinge of anxious thirst, nor verily a hunger pain- I had, by the end, found that it roused my brain sufficiently to really think about it, even -perchance- dream about it. Thus, THE UNBURIED coerced its way into my perusal embrace.And there's no denying that I'm very glad that it did.

Charles Palliser has written several Victorian novels. A a confirmed Dickensian, they are to my taste. He uses mannerisms such as old spellings ('sopha' for 'sofa', &c) and an antiquated world-view, with servants virtually invisible, the clergy revered unthinkingly, income desperately important, reputation supremely so. Unlike Dickens, however, Palliser's plots are not only convoluted, but deliberately misleading, whereas Dickens was usually content with being mysterious. The plot here involves three sequences of crimes occurring centuries apart; retribution is, necessarily, in short supply. Charles Palliser brings to the fore the omnipresent squalor, poverty and ignorance of the Victorian era, as Dickens did, but without his sentimentality. Strange to think that, at the same time as the action of the novel, James Maxwell was developing his field equations, and Charles Darwin the theory of Natural Selection.

I have just finished reading 'the unburied' for the second time and once more I am amazed at the quality of the prose and the cleverness of the plot with its many twists and turns. It is the story of a Cambridge man ,Edward Courtine, honest but somewhat easy to mislead, who visits a former friend of his 20 years after they last saw each other, in the small university town of Thurchester in the year 1882.Courtine is eager to renew a friendship that has been lost and to find a manuscript supposed to reside in the Thurchester library that might enable him to prove a historical point and gain an enviable position at his university. In Thurchester Courtine will learn many of the town's secrets and legends including that of a famous murder in the cathedral 200 years before but what he will only realize too late is that he has been duped and betrayed and that his visit is no coincidence at all. Some people with dark deeds on their minds need him to be there and to witness certain events...A fascinating book about trust, betrayal, love, friendship, conceit, guilt, ambition ,greed, stupidity it is a literary masterpiece that gives the reader infinite pleasure, leads us astray before finally setting us on the right path. There are only a very limited number of writers whose stories have interested and challenged me as much as Palliser's. It would be a great pity not to read it!

I found the book disappointing and with an unreasonably complex structure. It did not grip and became tedious. It did not have the literary merit of a Wilkie Collins. A real disappointment.

The Unburied is a classy novel strong on atmosphere and reminiscent of Wilkie Collins at his best. Complex plot lines intertwine with pace and style to reveal solutions to mystery after mystery past and present. An enthralling read that’s worth the effort.

Bought for a gift