Rating: 
Summary: There's a reward in the end
Review: Charles Palliser has created an amazing book in "The Quincunx", a huge novel that could have been written 150 years before. "The Quincunx" is a Victorian book, but easier to read, more cynic, more sarcastic and even somberer. It's almost impossible to go through its 1200 paperback pages without a notebook specifically set aside by the reader to write down scattered information, genealogies, twists, new characters and locations, and I would advise future readers to do just that. The main plot (the book has dozens of inter-related plots) is about John Mellamphy, a young boy living with his mother and a couple of nurses and maids in the early 19th century in rural England. Young Master John doesn't know it yet , but his family's past history is extremely strange and complicated. When the past begins to catch up with John and his unfortunate mother, they will experience extreme poverty, desillusion, weakness. In the Victorian London, gray, crowded, violent (masterfully described by Palliser) they will descend to the lower conditions a human life can possibly bear, dragging with them many other characters as they appear in the story, and not all of them will be able to reach the surface again. Many aspects of the book are really interesting. For example, unusual names like Phumphred, Mallyphant and Steplight help to create the necessary grimy atmosphere adequate to a victorian novel. And what is best, Palliser treats his reader in an intelligent way: he chekced and re-cheked his plots, found inconsistencies, corrected them. Palliser doesn't reveal everything in his lines. Many things he's left the reader to discover for himself, and some other things have no solution. Is "The Quincunx" an easy read? Far from that. But those who will be able to reach its ending will be rewarded with an unforgettable story. Grade 9.3/10
Rating: 
Summary: If you want Dickinsian, read Dickens.
Review: I tried to read this book when it first came out and it became the first book I didn't finish. Until Quincunx, I always finished a book once started, figuring that there might be a gem by the end and a bad beginning shouldn't be a deterent. After 400 pages, I gave up. The mother and son went from one bad decision to the next undetered by intelligent thought. Their decisions were totally implausible. I found this book to be all that is bad about Dickins, with none of the good. I passed my copy on to a series of friends, who like me, coulnd't finish it. Long, difficult, challenging books are wonderful when the characters and plot are well thought out. Unfortunately none of this is the case in Quinconx.
Rating: 
Summary: Anything but escapism
Review: A combination of deft characterization and an extremely clever maze of a plot make The Quincunx difficult to put down, but after eight hundred pages, when the mystery is finally (or nearly) revealed, it might occur to the reader to wonder why it was neccesary to lead them over so many hurdles just to arrive at a resolution. Often, clever mysteries have a dissapointing aftertaste; but in the case of The Quincunx, there is another layer which not only redeems but makes neccesary the complexities of the narrative.
Dickens has been cited again and again as an influence, and what it reminds me most of, in the end, is Great Expectations, in that it's the story of a gradual and rigorous moral education. In order to appreciate the value of money, the protagonist must first suffer every indignity of povery - so that, when his sweetheart later suggests that they elope and disregard his promised fortune, asking romantically "Is poverty really so terrible?" - he answers bluntly: "Yes." He also comes to realize the motives of his enemies, and that his own might not be as far removed from them as he would like. The story is complicated because reality, both in the book and in the world, is complicated. That the novel's hundreds of characters are all interconnected smacks less of coincidence than the natural interdependance of real people.
Rating:
Summary: The Imagery Lingers.
Review: I first read Charles Palliser's Quincunx more than ten years ago and I vividly remember being so wrapped up in the world he created that I would spend every spare moment of the day reading, perhaps only a couple of paragraphs at a time. As it was such a big book, it was my constant companion for a couple of months.
The obvious comparison of this book is to the classic Dickens masterpieces, and the similarities abound; a young boy at the center of a story that spans the world of Victorian London, shady characters, hard times ....many of the classic Dickens elements are there. While the readers of 1800's had a comtemporary understanding of the world of which Dickens wrote, we in the 21st century sometimes have a difficult time grasping all the subtleties and nuances in his texts. Palliser, being a modern scholar of the period, takes the time to help us through some of the aspects of Victorian England with which we may not be all that familiar. For example, right at the beginning of the book before the story even begins, there is a breakdown of Victorian English currency. I found this very helpful, as I really didn't know the difference between a ha-penny and a sixpence, or a pound and a quid. Also included in this book are some wonderful maps of London as it was at the time of the narrative. I've spent many pleasant hours exploring these maps; not only finding various locations within this book, but ferreting out locations that have been mentioned in several novels of the period by authors like Conan Doyle and Anne Perry.
After more than a decade and countless other books, many of the fine points and details of this story have escaped me, yet the feeling of the book, the sense of realism and authenticity have continued to linger. More than anything, the vividly described locations and palpable ambiance of the city have remained. Few books have stood out in my mind for such a long period as has The Quincunx. Don't be put off by the length of the book; if you are a fan of wonderful adventure and mystery, and of Victorian era England, you will not be disappointed with this wonderfully evocative novel.
Rating:
Summary: Rich homage to Dickens with engrossing mystery
Review: A Dickensian tome - 780 pages of the decline and fall of a young boy and his mother in 19th-century England. It's a book with a plot that to describe as labyrinthine would be an understatement. Scores of characters, twists, turns, red herrings, various interpretations, Rashomon-style, of the past; you get the point. The hero and narrator, John Huffam, has a past shrouded in secrecy - in fact he turns out to be heir to one of the largest estates in England. Unfortunately, his identity, the codicil which names him heir and even a copy of the original will have all been suppressed. Several people are out to do him and his mother harm, even kill them. Gradually, as John realizes his own story, he thirsts for Justice against those that oppressed him. The end is left ambiguous; that's not the point to this book. Quincunx makes it a point to stress that everyone, even old man Clothier who wants him dead, has his or her point of view and cannot be judged quickly. Yet the book belies this - the things that John's enemies do in their self interest verge on sadistic evil, while the wrongs that John commits in pursuing his interest are accidental, even if selfish. Clothier and his bunch will kill, happily; Mrs Fortisquence revels in seeing John and his mother ground into poverty, indeed joyfully steers them wrong; the Mompessons are arrogant and deceitful in a way that John and his mother never are. So I did find the book, for all its layers of complexity, a bit old fashioned in its rendering of good and evil characters. All in all, of course, this is a wholly admirable homage to Dickens, structured with care, and utterly engrossing, a page turner to be devoured despite its size.
Rating:
Summary: More Plots than a Cemetery
Review: The Quincunx is obviously, for the author, a love-letter to the works of Charles Dickens, which it emulates in style and formation. The author, Charles Palliser, obviously is an admirer, student, and devotee of the Victorian time period, as well as the literary offerings, which in the latter 20th century gave way to quick, easy reads and 'plots' that seem merely weak tea in comparison to this frothy brew.
A complex, dense, dark novel from the beginning; The Quincunx tells the story of a young man, whom I will simply call 'John' as he encounters more 'changes of identity' along the way than an actor in a repertory company, who uncovers his heritage, the truth behind his purported claim to a family fortune, and all the dark elements that conspired to keep him from it. Tracing interweaving bloodlines that criss-cross more than the subterranean sewers of London, John meets friends who become foes, foes who become family, and ultimately finds his way 'home'.
To try and dissect this book further would be to undercut the various sub-plots. Suffice to say this is not an 'easy' read, but is, however, a very enjoyable one. The one element I missed in the re-creation of the time-tested 'Dickensian' style was the humor of Charles Dickens, which his novels were, for the most part, rife with. The tone of Quincunx is dark, and remains dark, without the requisite interspersing of satirical English manners and foibles by way of colorful characters appearing in the text.
An enjoyable foray, definitely, into a bygone era, and a bygone style of novel.
Rating:
Summary: Charles Dickens without the over-sentimentality
Review: Money has always brought out the worst in people. Add in contested property ownership, a purloined will, include many acquisitive close and distant relatives and you have the recipe for disaster. _Quincunx_ revolves around John Huffam, who seeks justice for himself and for his mother. They have been denied their rights of inheritance to an ancestral estate due to familial greed and vengence. John's true identity and heritage, which are very slowly revealed to him throughout the years, are kept from him by his mother for fear of discovery. She takes an alias and lives under constant dread of being murdered. Even their closest friends, relatives, and servants are suspected of attempting to betray them. Like a Charles Dickens novel, _Quincunx_ takes place circa Victorian England. Also, as do many of the Dickensian characters, the Huffams eventually slide into dire poverty. We also experience the opulence of their more fortunate relatives. Like a typical Dickens child, John undergoes severe abuse and neglect by those who run so-called schools and other institutions, including by those individuals in the legal system. The novel is also very atmospheric with loads of colorful and picaresque characters, and is comprised of numerous labyrinthine plots and subplots. There are enough deaths, through murder and other means, cliffhangers, and intrigue to fill at least ten mystery novels. Unlike a Dickens novel, however, _Qunicunx_ avoids the sentimentality that the great master often utilized to manipulate tears from his readership. Charles Palliser relies, instead, on great storytelling that kept me glued to this compulsively readable novel.
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