Iain Pears

Bookmarks, July-August, 2009 by Jessica Teisch

IN ENGLISH NOVELIST IAIN PEARS'S LATEST NOVEL, Stone's Fall (see our review below), a wealthy financier and arms dealer mysteriously dies in London in 1909. As the book moves backward in time to 1890 Paris and 1867 Venice, the truth about the man's death emerges. Like the widely acclaimed An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998), Stone's Fall is a puzzle of a book filled with deceptions and false leads, where murder, love, and espionage come together in a smart, riveting historical thriller.

Although Pears (1955-) explores erudite historical issues in much of his work, from the growth of empirical science in 17th-century England, to questions of morality in the Roman Empire, to high finance during World War I, his intricately plotted novels appeal to wide audiences; he is the consummate storyteller. Pears began his career not as a novelist but as an art historian. After completing a doctorate in art history at Oxford and authoring a history of 17th- and 18th-century British art, A Discovery of Painting (1989), he turned to journalism. He reported for the BBC and Reuters and worked as a television consultant in England, France, Italy, and the United States before settling in Oxford with his wife. In 1991, he combined his love of journalism and art in The Raphael Affair, the first novel in a seven-part contemporary art history mystery series set in Italy and featuring sleuthing art historian Jonathan Argyll. The series, which merged the worlds of art and crime, drew a loyal following.

It wasn't until the publication of An Instance of the Fingerpost, an ambitious philosophical mystery novel which critics compared to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, that Pears obtained international acclaim. The novels that followed, including The Dream of Scipio (2002), The Portrait (2005), and now, Stone's Fall, similarly combine Pears's love of mystery and big ideas as he locates and explores the pulse of critical junctures in history. "Ideas hold the books together," Pears told Bookmarks. "Without the questions about science and truth which occur in Fingerpost, the book would make no sense at all. Equally, in the Dream of Scipio, the characters relate to each other through their common inheritance, which is a certain sequence of ideas about the nature and duties of civilization. Without those, they would never come into contact, and so the book could not have been written."

THE BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL

An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998)

This dense novel is one of ideas and political intrigue, Rashomon-like deceptions and self-deceptions. The title comes from Francis Bacon's claim that while all evidence is imperfect, the fingerpost "points in one direction only, and allows of no other possibility." The novel explores the Restoration era's larger canvas: the dawn of the Enlightenment and questions about reason and observation, as well as the sects, superstition, witch hunts, conspiracies, and religious strife that marked the times. Most of the characters are actual historical figures.

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THE STORY: In 1663 Oxford, England, just after Charles II regains the throne, Dr. Robert Grove is found dead, possibly by murder. His former servant and alleged mistress, Sarah Blundy, is accused and hanged--perhaps too soon. As four witnesses tell their version of events, they correct each others' stories and shed light on the political, religious, and intellectual turmoil of the Restoration era. Visiting Venetian physician Marco da Cola may not be what he seems. Student Jack Prestcott escaped from prison the night of Grove's death--and wishes to clear his traitorous father's name. Famed mathematician and cryptographer Dr. John Wallis finds conspiracy theories in the new monarchy. Finally, historian Anthony Wood weighs in--and the book's deepest mysteries come to light.

"An Instance of the Fingerpost is a good deal more than a detective story. The whodunit element, prominent in the opening section, recedes in importance as the book broadens out to embrace more complex material." ANDREW MILLER, NEW YORK TIMES, 3/22/98

"Every sentence in the book is as solid as brick--and as treacherous as quicksand. ... [W]ith perfect mastery Pears gradually takes us from an unexplained death in a small college town to a revelation that could shake the foundations of England and the world." MICHAEL DIRDA, WASHINGTON POST, 3/8/1998

THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOLLOW-UP

The Dream of Scipio (2002)

When societies start to collapse, is it better to try to act justly and risk doing harm, or is it better to spurn evil by turning away? Pears's second stand-alone novel, which takes place in Provence over a period of 1,500 years, weaves together three stories that deal with questions of law and order, good and evil, and love, power, and wisdom in times of turmoil. The stories are linked by a manuscript titled "The Dream of Scipio," after the philosophical treatise by Manlius Hippomanes based on that by Cicero. (*** Nov/Dec 2002)

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THE STORY: Manlius Hippomanes, a Neoplatonist scholar and unlikely bishop of the early Christian church, destroys a Jewish community for a stated larger good. His philosophical essay passes down through following generations, and the choice he presents between action and nonparticipation resounds with two characters living 600 years apart. Oliver de Noyen, a poet in Avignon, grapples with a terrible dilemma at the onset of the Black Death in 1347. Julien Barneuve, a 20th-century scholar and government censor in Nazi-occupied France, questions his own moral responsibility to his Jewish colleagues. One of the characters aptly captures the book's essence: "The evil committed by good men is the worst of all, because they know better and do it anyway."