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Charles Palliser
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The Quincunx: The Inheritance of John Huffam Paperback – 29 Jun. 1995

by Charles Palliser (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings
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The Quincunx is an epic Dickensian-like mystery novel set in 19th century England, and concerns the varying fortunes of young John Huffam and his mother. A thrilling complex plot is made more intriguing by the unreliable narrator of the book - how much can we believe of what he says? First published in 1989, The Quincunx was a surprise bestseller and began a trend for pastiche Victorian novels. It remains one of the best.
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  1. Print length
    1248 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin
  4. Publication date
    29 Jun. 1995
  5. Dimensions
    13 x 5.5 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0140177620
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0140177626
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From the Back Cover

A novel set in 19th century England that deals with the varying fortunes of young John Huffam and his mother.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 29 Jun. 1995
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 1248 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140177620
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140177626
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 836 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13 x 5.5 x 19.8 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 239,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 109 ratings

About the author

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Charles Palliser

Charles Palliser

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Charles Palliser has published six full-length works of fiction and one novella. His historical novel The Quincunx (1989) was an international bestseller and sold more than a million copies. The later historical novel, The Unburied (1999), was also a bestseller. His latest novel is Sufferance (2024) which was longlisted for the 2025 Wingate Prize.

He has written plays for BBC radio and the stage. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1990 he taught literature and creative writing at universities in the UK and the USA. His fiction has been translated into a dozen languages. The Quincunx was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

With Irish and US citizenship, he has lived mostly in the UK and is now based in London.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
109 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book to be a fantastic read with excellent writing and pacing. The plot receives positive feedback for its intricate structure, with one customer noting it features a hidden story within a story.

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ReadabilityPacingPlot
11 customers mention ‘Readability’11 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a fantastic read, with one describing it as a brilliant page-turner.

"I am thoroughly enjoying the book - but I still have quite a long way to go. It is very well written." Read more

"...It is a brilliant page-turner, a hidden story within a story, a perfectly-proportioned Victorian pastiche presenting a mystery that keeps you up all..." Read more

"...I just loved reading it, couldn’t put the book down. I felt like I’d fallen back in time with the character’s...." Read more

"Although slow to start, The Quincunx is a thoroughly compelling read: swift, with a tumbling, endless sequence of events, and intricately plotted...." Read more

6 customers mention ‘Pacing’6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the pacing of the book, finding it well written, with one customer noting that it gets better with time.

"...years after first reading it, and I can confirm that it just gets better with time...." Read more

"...It is undoubtedly a very clever piece of writing. Every coincidence is meticulously accounted for...." Read more

"...Equally good compared to 19th century literature but more readable. However, the reader must be prepared for a 1200 page book...." Read more

"...It started of very well but I have read two thirds and to be quite honest I am bogged down with remembering who the characters are and what part..." Read more

6 customers mention ‘Plot’5 positive1 negative

Customers enjoy the plot of the book, which features a hidden story within a story, with one customer noting its intricate structure and thought-provoking historical descriptions.

"...It is a brilliant page-turner, a hidden story within a story, a perfectly-proportioned Victorian pastiche presenting a mystery that keeps you up all..." Read more

"...is a thoroughly compelling read: swift, with a tumbling, endless sequence of events, and intricately plotted...." Read more

"A totally brilliant account of life and times in old London...." Read more

"...it down .It is a huge volume so not for the faint hearted but the intricate and exciting plot kept me enthralled for ages!" Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Sarah W
    5.0 out of 5 stars A work of crazy genius that explores (and creates) obsession!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2015
    Verified Purchase
    The Quincunx is a compulsive masterpiece of a novel, offering genuine escapism. It is a brilliant page-turner, a hidden story within a story, a perfectly-proportioned Victorian pastiche presenting a mystery that keeps you up all night and leaves you wondering at the end (and wanting to return to the beginning to examine the plot in more detail). It is incredibly intricate and lengthy but never dull. I dashed through the roller-coaster narrative, reading like a child, unable to discipline myself to pause and reflect; I just wanted to know what happened next. Palliser is a brilliant story teller, first and foremost, and to appreciate the plot and unravel the hidden story, I think you need to re-read the novel, which is something I intend to do in the not-too-distant future. The Author's Afterword hints at some of the mysteries to revisit and tempts you back to Chapter 1. One warning to the reader: this book can become an obsession. It has spawned a blog forum that has been running for more than 10 years where interpretations and theories are still being discussed and hotly-debated! Nobody has claimed to be able to explain every single element despite endless re-readings and reseach. If that all sounds a bit much and you would prefer to start with a shorter novel of Palliser's, I would also recommend his most recent work, Rustication (an excellent 'gothic puzzler' - to quote the Guardian review - a joy to read, though not quite as compelling as The Quincunx to my mind). I have just bought The Unburied and am expecting more sleepless nights ahead?!
    21 people found this helpful
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  • Damo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best of its Kind
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 March 2006
    Verified Purchase
    In response to an earlier review, I have just reached the point where I can read this again, 10 years after first reading it, and I can confirm that it just gets better with time. Wilkie Collins, Dickens, Conan Doyle are all pastiched wonderfully and knowingly in this book, but with a level of interpretation which eludes all but the most observant readers on first reading - myself included. I finished the book on first reading with the nagging feeling that the understanding the narrator arrives at by the end is missing something important - and the joy reading this the second time around is tracking this hidden plot beneath the explicit plot. With the apparent revival of interest in the Victorian mystery in recent years - witness the success of Fingersmith, another great read - I am amazed that this masterpiece is relatively little known. Perhaps it is the 1200 pages that put off casual readers? If you are willing to lose yourself completely for weeks or months, this is the book to do it in.
    49 people found this helpful
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  • Miss Marple
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very thrilling read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2022
    Verified Purchase
    It’s been some years since I read this novel but I’ve never forgotten it, like some of the others I’ve read. I’m not like some comments here trying to write a composition of the novel. I just loved reading it, couldn’t put the book down. I felt like I’d fallen back in time with the character’s. I love a book that lasts for over 1,000 pages as I know there will be a long tale to go with it. I’ve yet to be disappointed. If you love Shardlake I’m sure you’ll love this novel. I’m sorry it isn’t in Kindle form. Enjoy the book.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Client d'Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2024
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    Read it !
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  • Mrs L
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 August 2016
    Verified Purchase
    OK
    One person found this helpful
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  • KNA
    3.0 out of 5 stars Clever but cold
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2017
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    Although slow to start, The Quincunx is a thoroughly compelling read: swift, with a tumbling, endless sequence of events, and intricately plotted. It is undoubtedly a very clever piece of writing. Every coincidence is meticulously accounted for. The concealed subplot will challenge you, if you are so inclined to uncover it. However, the actual plot is cold and soulless. In its obsessive attention to form and to 'mathematical structure' (as per the author's afterword) the book possesses no animating spirit, no characterisation to speak of. Every person we encounter is either thoroughly unlikeable or pitiable. The narrative is devoid of humour: an unforgivable error even (or especially) for a novel this bleak. At times, it reads more like an exercise in authorial ingenuity than it does a work of fiction.

    The author, again in his afterword, explicitly sets out to repudiate and overturn some of the norms of Victorian fiction. In particular, he rails against the 'sentimentality' that animated the works of Dickens and others: a tendency that saw heroes emerge unscathed, goodness rewarded and evil condemned, and happy marriages liberally dispensed with. But Palliser seems to confuse 'sentimentality' with 'sentiment.' Abandoning the former need not necessitate compromising on the latter. It is possible to imbed moral ambiguity in a novel without stripping it - and its characters - of their humanity. Even the most depraved ones.

    Of all the villains that populate The Quincunx (and there are many) none come even close to matching the likes of Uriah Heep in David Copperfield. That keenness to detail, and the fine eye for witty characterisation, is simply missing here. And it's a sore loss, for without it, the novel only propels you to its completion in a desperate bid to unravel its technical mysteries. And when you have closed the page, you'll question whether you ever really enjoyed reading it at all.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • 000736
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for ever
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2025
    I’m buying a new copy of this book that I actually picked up ten years ago. I have read it twice and now have the desire to read it again. The only book that I’ve returned to more than once. So many twists and turns always something you forgot and that intrigues you all over again, a masterpiece
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  • Glocken Blau 1
    5.0 out of 5 stars Quincunx, the best read for December/January blues. It blew them away.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I absolutely loved this book. Equally good compared to 19th century literature but more readable. However, the reader must be prepared for a 1200 page book. One does not have to have a good memory as there is an alphabetical list of names. A book to really get your teeth into.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Cornelia
    3.0 out of 5 stars Entrega rápido.
    Reviewed in Spain on 27 October 2021
    Verified Purchase
    El libro llegó con unos daños pequeños.
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  • Elephantschild
    2.0 out of 5 stars Clever if you like miserabilism
    Reviewed in France on 2 December 2016
    Verified Purchase
    The plot is, as everyone says, is complex, mystifying, ingenious. However, to mystify, it relies heavily on things being said 'off page' which shock the narrator to the bone but which he (or she) does not share with the reader, or with the 3rd party narrator starting to say something then breaking off with 'no no I can't go on...'. These seem to me artificial and repetitive effects which end up being annoying. Secondly, I just can't hack the book's unredeemed (I'm only on page 800 out of 1198, and not sure of going to the end) miserabilism. Absolutely everyone is cold-blooded, cruel, and traitorous. The mother's decisions and impulses are invariably the height of folly. It's all so gratuitous. One can understand a 19th century author pouring outrage on the evils of society as it was then (although I don't understand their contemporaries' enthusiasm for reading them), but for a 20th century author to invent the stuff, and at such length, just as pudding to stuff a clever plot in, seems to relie heavily on readerly masochism.
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