Charles Palliser, The Unburied
The story is set in nineteenth-century England. Dr. Courtine, a Cambridge scholar, visits an old friend; Austin Fickling, in Thurchester. His house is in the Cathedral Close, it is shaded by its walls, adding to the depressing and foggy atmosphere of this gloomy place.
In these gothic surroundings, Fickling tells Courtine a ghost story, about the haunting of the Cathedral by William Burgoyne, a man who had been found dead beneath scaffolding in the Cathedral two centuries before. Courtine, whose curiosity is aroused, tries to learn more about Burgoyne and his enemy the Sub-Dean of the Cathedral; Launcelot Freeth, who also died in questionable circumstances…
Courtine’s main reason for answering his friend’s invitation, even though they have been estranged for many years for reasons related to a woman (the reader will discovered them in the course of the book), is because he himself is looking for a document which he believes to be in Thurchester’s library, and which could prove him right against an intellectual adversary, by bringing light to the personality of ninth-century’s King Alfred…
In the disquieting settings of Thurchester’s Cathedral Close, a murder soon occurs in which Courtine finds himself unwillingly implicated…
As you will have understood by now, The Unburied is a very intricate story, unfolding in the midst of scholarly disputes and Church Canons’ rivalries. More precisely, there are several time periods in which unrelated events occur: the 9th century, the 17th century, Courtine’s time in Thurchester and twenty years before that. Moreover, the story is framed by another narration, taking place several years after Courtine’s account. If you can keep track of all the events and characters (which demands a bit of concentration but that I did not find so hard after all), the experience is very rewarding. The novel is skillfully written, the Victorian atmosphere delightful, and the murder mystery(-ies) complex and well-crafted. Despite its old-fashioned language, The Unburied is unmistakable for a nineteenth-century novel: some of the themes raised are unthinkable in a Victorian novel….
The Unburied are not unearthed bodies and actual ghosts as much as long-buried secrets, skeletons in the closet, inner ghosts haunting various characters. The Unburied reminded me of Conan Doyle and Edgar Alan Poe on the surface, and of Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost, as well as Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose for the contents. I always enjoy reading a learned and clever mystery: this one held my attention from page one and kept it…
Rating: 4/5
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