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The Unburied
A riveting historical murder-mystery by the bestselling author of The Quincunx.
There are three separate tales interwoven in this novel-three tales that could be called ghost stories, for their mysteries can never be resolved, the victims and the perpetrators never laid to rest.
Dr. Courtine, an unworldly academic, is invited to spend the days before Christmas with an old friend. Twenty years have passed since Courtine and Austin last met, and the invitation to Austin's home in the cathedral close of Thurchester is a welcome one. When Courtine arrives, Austin tells him a tale of deadly rivalry and murder two centuries old. The mystery captures Courtine's donnish imagination, as it is intended to do.
Courtine also plans to pursue his research into another unresolved and older mystery in the labyrinthine cathedral library. If he can track down an elusive eleventh-century manuscript, he hopes to dispose of a deadly rival of his own. Doubly distracted, Courtine becomes unwittingly enmeshed in the sequence of terrible events that follows his arrival, and he becomes witness to a murder that seems never to have been committed.
There are three separate tales interwoven in this novel-three tales that could be called ghost stories, for their mysteries can never be resolved, the victims and the perpetrators never laid to rest.
Dr. Courtine, an unworldly academic, is invited to spend the days before Christmas with an old friend. Twenty years have passed since Courtine and Austin last met, and the invitation to Austin's home in the cathedral close of Thurchester is a welcome one. When Courtine arrives, Austin tells him a tale of deadly rivalry and murder two centuries old. The mystery captures Courtine's donnish imagination, as it is intended to do.
Courtine also plans to pursue his research into another unresolved and older mystery in the labyrinthine cathedral library. If he can track down an elusive eleventh-century manuscript, he hopes to dispose of a deadly rival of his own. Doubly distracted, Courtine becomes unwittingly enmeshed in the sequence of terrible events that follows his arrival, and he becomes witness to a murder that seems never to have been committed.
432 pages, Paperback
First published November 24, 1999
49 people are currently reading
1853 people want to read
About the author
Charles Palliser
33 books203 followersCharles Palliser (born December 11, 1947) is an American-born, British-based novelist. He is the elder brother of the late author and freelance journalist Marcus Palliser.
Born in New England, Palliser is an American citizen, but has lived in the United Kingdom since the age of three. He attended Oxford University in 1967 to read English Language and Literature, and took a First in June 1970. He was awarded the B. Litt. in 1975 for a dissertation on Modernist fiction.
From 1974 until 1990, Palliser was a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He was the first Deputy Editor of The Literary Review when it was founded in 1979. He taught creative writing during the Spring semester of 1986 at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1990 he gave up his university post to become a full-time writer when his first novel, The Quincunx, became an international best-seller. He has published four novels which have been translated into a dozen languages.
Palliser has also written for the theatre, radio, and television. His stage play, Week Nothing, toured Scotland in 1980. His 90 minute radio play, The Journal of Simon Owen, was commissioned by the BBC and twice broadcast on Radio 4 in June, 1982. His short TV film, Obsessions: Writing, was broadcast by the BBC and published by BBC Publications in 1991. Most recently, his short radio play, Artist with Designs, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 21 February 2004.
He teaches occasionally for the Arvon Foundation, the Skyros Institute, London University, the London Metropolitan University, and Middlesex University. He was Writer in Residence at Poitiers University in 1997.
In 1991, The Quincunx was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters which is given for the best first novel published in North America. The Unburied was nominated for the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Since 1990 he has written the Introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Foreword to a new French translation of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone published by Editions Phebus, and other articles on 19th century and contemporary fiction. He is a past member of the long-running North London Writers circle.
Born in New England, Palliser is an American citizen, but has lived in the United Kingdom since the age of three. He attended Oxford University in 1967 to read English Language and Literature, and took a First in June 1970. He was awarded the B. Litt. in 1975 for a dissertation on Modernist fiction.
From 1974 until 1990, Palliser was a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He was the first Deputy Editor of The Literary Review when it was founded in 1979. He taught creative writing during the Spring semester of 1986 at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1990 he gave up his university post to become a full-time writer when his first novel, The Quincunx, became an international best-seller. He has published four novels which have been translated into a dozen languages.
Palliser has also written for the theatre, radio, and television. His stage play, Week Nothing, toured Scotland in 1980. His 90 minute radio play, The Journal of Simon Owen, was commissioned by the BBC and twice broadcast on Radio 4 in June, 1982. His short TV film, Obsessions: Writing, was broadcast by the BBC and published by BBC Publications in 1991. Most recently, his short radio play, Artist with Designs, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 21 February 2004.
He teaches occasionally for the Arvon Foundation, the Skyros Institute, London University, the London Metropolitan University, and Middlesex University. He was Writer in Residence at Poitiers University in 1997.
In 1991, The Quincunx was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters which is given for the best first novel published in North America. The Unburied was nominated for the 2001 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Since 1990 he has written the Introduction to a Penguin Classics edition of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Foreword to a new French translation of Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone published by Editions Phebus, and other articles on 19th century and contemporary fiction. He is a past member of the long-running North London Writers circle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 195 reviews
December 17, 2022
Does “The Unburied” really deserve five stars? I’m not sure, but for me this was a case of the “right book at the right time”, the novel I really needed. I received it in the run-up to Christmas, just as I was starting to tune in to carol broadcasts and to get out my choral CDs, whilst secretly wishing that my Mediterranean December would turn a tad foggier, colder and, generally, more “Northern”. And here was this atmospheric Gothic novel, set in a late 19th century English cathedral city in the days before Christmas.
It is difficult to give a comprehensible overview of the novel’s convoluted plot without giving any of the twists away, but I’ll try. The main body of the book consists of an account by one Dr Courtine, a Cambridge historian who is invited to spend part of the festive season in Thurchester with Austin Fickling, an old college friend. Courtine and Fickling had become estranged, and Courtine eagerly accepts the invitation, seeing it as an opportunity to heal old wounds. He also is keen on spending time in the Cathedral library where he hopes to find an ancient manuscript which could shed light on a problematic episode regarding the reign of Alfred the Great. Once in Thurchester, however, Courtine becomes obsessed with two other historical, albeit more recent, mysteries – the 17th century murder of Cathedral Treasurer William Burgoyne (and the subsequent disappearance of prime suspect Mason John Gambrill) and the killing of Dean Freeth, ostensibly for political reasons but possibly for darker motives. Like the sleepy but deadly villages in “The Midsomer Murders”, Thurchester seems to be a veritable hotbed of criminality and intrigue. Before long, in fact, Courtine is embroiled in contemporary mysteries as well – chief amongst which is the puzzling behaviour of Fickling who, having invited Courtine to his house, now comes across as an increasingly reluctant and grumpy host. The evil which lurks in the historic city clearly goes beyond the petty "church politics" of the Cathedral canons.
In style, “The Unburied” is a veritable mash-up of Victorian genre fiction – the Gothic, the “English” ghost story, crime and sensation fiction are all thrown into the mix. It is rather as if Sheridan Le Fanu and Wilkie Collins teamed up to write a novel, with some help from M.R. James and (!) Anthony Trollope. In the initial chapters, the Gothic has the upper hand, as Courtine travels to a solitary, foggy train station and arrives at Fickling’s dark, creaky house; as the Cathedral (quite literally) throws up its dead and cloaked ghosts appear in the night. The novel’s debt towards the Gothic is also evident in its concern with old manuscripts and journals, unreliable narratives and multiple viewpoints.
Eventually, as secrets are slowly revealed – more tantalisingly than in a burlesque show – the sensation and crime novel elements come into play. The ending more or less manages to tie up all the loose ends (too tidily, perhaps?) - it is ingenious and satisfying and, considering the premises of the novel, does not unduly test the limits of our belief.
Like a glass of hot punch, “The Unburied” is a real delight – a seasonal one, perhaps, but a delight nonetheless.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
It is difficult to give a comprehensible overview of the novel’s convoluted plot without giving any of the twists away, but I’ll try. The main body of the book consists of an account by one Dr Courtine, a Cambridge historian who is invited to spend part of the festive season in Thurchester with Austin Fickling, an old college friend. Courtine and Fickling had become estranged, and Courtine eagerly accepts the invitation, seeing it as an opportunity to heal old wounds. He also is keen on spending time in the Cathedral library where he hopes to find an ancient manuscript which could shed light on a problematic episode regarding the reign of Alfred the Great. Once in Thurchester, however, Courtine becomes obsessed with two other historical, albeit more recent, mysteries – the 17th century murder of Cathedral Treasurer William Burgoyne (and the subsequent disappearance of prime suspect Mason John Gambrill) and the killing of Dean Freeth, ostensibly for political reasons but possibly for darker motives. Like the sleepy but deadly villages in “The Midsomer Murders”, Thurchester seems to be a veritable hotbed of criminality and intrigue. Before long, in fact, Courtine is embroiled in contemporary mysteries as well – chief amongst which is the puzzling behaviour of Fickling who, having invited Courtine to his house, now comes across as an increasingly reluctant and grumpy host. The evil which lurks in the historic city clearly goes beyond the petty "church politics" of the Cathedral canons.
In style, “The Unburied” is a veritable mash-up of Victorian genre fiction – the Gothic, the “English” ghost story, crime and sensation fiction are all thrown into the mix. It is rather as if Sheridan Le Fanu and Wilkie Collins teamed up to write a novel, with some help from M.R. James and (!) Anthony Trollope. In the initial chapters, the Gothic has the upper hand, as Courtine travels to a solitary, foggy train station and arrives at Fickling’s dark, creaky house; as the Cathedral (quite literally) throws up its dead and cloaked ghosts appear in the night. The novel’s debt towards the Gothic is also evident in its concern with old manuscripts and journals, unreliable narratives and multiple viewpoints.
Eventually, as secrets are slowly revealed – more tantalisingly than in a burlesque show – the sensation and crime novel elements come into play. The ending more or less manages to tie up all the loose ends (too tidily, perhaps?) - it is ingenious and satisfying and, considering the premises of the novel, does not unduly test the limits of our belief.
Like a glass of hot punch, “The Unburied” is a real delight – a seasonal one, perhaps, but a delight nonetheless.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
August 18, 2008
The strongest thing this book has going for it is its powerful sense of tone. Are you an Anglophile, particularly drawn to academic politics and social courtesies at Oxbridge in the late nineteenth century? Are you interested in the Gothic architecture of cathedrals, Anglican arguments over latitudinarianism, and the writing of medieval English history? If you answered yes to these questions, and you are a fan of both Christmas ghost stories set in the Victorian period and labyrinthine mysteries, you will surely love this book. The author cleverly requires the readers to try to unravel two mysteries at the same time, one set in the novel's present and the other occurring in the seventeenth century.
This book takes some commitment. If you don't read it fast enough, you might become confused with some of the many different minor characters--and as it's never clear which minor characters might become more significant later on, the alert reader won't want that to happen. I would not recommend this as the sort of book to dip into a bit each day while commuting. There's a map of the neighborhood around the crucial cathedral at the front and a list of characters at the back--don't be too proud to consult these aids, as needed. By all means don't skip the fairy tale addendum and afterword, as they are the icing on this fancy cake from a high tea. And like a fancy cake from a high tea, this book is not something I would wish on the menu every day--but as a special treat, when one has ample time and a sudden yen for that sort of thing, completing it can leave an aftertaste of pleasure and a sense of having participated in an exercise quite civilized, refined, and increasingly arcane in our current culture.
This book takes some commitment. If you don't read it fast enough, you might become confused with some of the many different minor characters--and as it's never clear which minor characters might become more significant later on, the alert reader won't want that to happen. I would not recommend this as the sort of book to dip into a bit each day while commuting. There's a map of the neighborhood around the crucial cathedral at the front and a list of characters at the back--don't be too proud to consult these aids, as needed. By all means don't skip the fairy tale addendum and afterword, as they are the icing on this fancy cake from a high tea. And like a fancy cake from a high tea, this book is not something I would wish on the menu every day--but as a special treat, when one has ample time and a sudden yen for that sort of thing, completing it can leave an aftertaste of pleasure and a sense of having participated in an exercise quite civilized, refined, and increasingly arcane in our current culture.
June 22, 2011
“A big, fat murder mystery. It is a perfectly pitched pastiche of Victorian Gothic … compulsive reading.”
That’s what it said on the back cover, quoting the London Evening Standard, and I have to agree.
At the heart of the book is The Courtine Account, a document written in 1882 and put away to be opened only after the deaths of certain of those mentioned in its pages.
The Courtine Account was finally unsealed in 1919.
It was written by Doctor Edward Courtine, a historian, a distinguished academic but a solitary man. A man who had separated himself from the world, and as a result lacked insight and understanding of other men.
It was clear that something was amiss. Subtle hints were dropped as the story advanced and eventually the truth of the man’s history would be revealed.
He was invited to spend the week before Christmas with Austin Fickling, a student friend who had become a teacher in the cathedral city of Thurchester. The two hadn’t met for more than twenty years, and there had been bad feeling between them, but Courtine welcomed the invitation.
He was eager to visit Thurchester as he had a great interest in King Alfred the Great, and he had learned that an earlier historian with the same interest had worked Thurchester Library, and had maybe left behind papers that were never catalogued.
It didn’t occur him to wonder why Fickling had been so eager to extend that invitation, and why he behaved so erratically.
Fickling told him stories. Stories of a ghost that was said to walk in the town. The ghost of a man who was murdered at the cathedral two centuries before. Courtine is fascinated and so he has a great deal to research, a great deal to discuss at the library and at the cathedral.
He is so caught up in his research, so disinterested in what might motivate other men, that he doesn’t wonder why the owner of the house said to be haunted by the murdered man invites him into his home. Even though that man’s door is always locked, opening only to allow servants to enter and leave, and never, never admitting guests.
And, of course, it is too late that Courtine realises that he has become a pawn in a murderous conspiracy.
He struggles both to uncover the truth, and to have it believed.
The Unburied is a book that ebbs and flows.
An introduction, in 1919 with The Courtine Account finally unsealed in a wonderful piece of drama.
Then the pace slows as the account itself begins. There are many conversations, many small details. Stories are told, retold, discussed …It’s still a pleasure to read, but a more subtle pleasure. Close attention is required, but it pays, it really does.
The pastiche of Victorian Gothic is pitch perfect. Others (I’m thinking particularly of Sarah Waters and the late Michael Cox) may have written with more verve, more drama, but The Unburied is just as fine, in a quieter, more cerebral way.
And the two murder mysteries, two centuries apart, were intriguing.
The pace rose again as the account the Courtine Account ended with a quite splendid courtroom drama, and the author’s realisation that all he can do is set down what he knows.
The finale picked up the 1919 story again, and tied up some, but not all, of the loose ends. There was maybe a little too much revelation at the final hour, a little too much contrivance, and, I think, a little cheat, but there was so much in this book to think about that I could quite easily forgive that.
Because I would so like to travel back to Thurcester, to observe and ponder those mysteries just a little more …
That’s what it said on the back cover, quoting the London Evening Standard, and I have to agree.
At the heart of the book is The Courtine Account, a document written in 1882 and put away to be opened only after the deaths of certain of those mentioned in its pages.
The Courtine Account was finally unsealed in 1919.
It was written by Doctor Edward Courtine, a historian, a distinguished academic but a solitary man. A man who had separated himself from the world, and as a result lacked insight and understanding of other men.
It was clear that something was amiss. Subtle hints were dropped as the story advanced and eventually the truth of the man’s history would be revealed.
He was invited to spend the week before Christmas with Austin Fickling, a student friend who had become a teacher in the cathedral city of Thurchester. The two hadn’t met for more than twenty years, and there had been bad feeling between them, but Courtine welcomed the invitation.
He was eager to visit Thurchester as he had a great interest in King Alfred the Great, and he had learned that an earlier historian with the same interest had worked Thurchester Library, and had maybe left behind papers that were never catalogued.
It didn’t occur him to wonder why Fickling had been so eager to extend that invitation, and why he behaved so erratically.
Fickling told him stories. Stories of a ghost that was said to walk in the town. The ghost of a man who was murdered at the cathedral two centuries before. Courtine is fascinated and so he has a great deal to research, a great deal to discuss at the library and at the cathedral.
He is so caught up in his research, so disinterested in what might motivate other men, that he doesn’t wonder why the owner of the house said to be haunted by the murdered man invites him into his home. Even though that man’s door is always locked, opening only to allow servants to enter and leave, and never, never admitting guests.
And, of course, it is too late that Courtine realises that he has become a pawn in a murderous conspiracy.
He struggles both to uncover the truth, and to have it believed.
The Unburied is a book that ebbs and flows.
An introduction, in 1919 with The Courtine Account finally unsealed in a wonderful piece of drama.
Then the pace slows as the account itself begins. There are many conversations, many small details. Stories are told, retold, discussed …It’s still a pleasure to read, but a more subtle pleasure. Close attention is required, but it pays, it really does.
The pastiche of Victorian Gothic is pitch perfect. Others (I’m thinking particularly of Sarah Waters and the late Michael Cox) may have written with more verve, more drama, but The Unburied is just as fine, in a quieter, more cerebral way.
And the two murder mysteries, two centuries apart, were intriguing.
The pace rose again as the account the Courtine Account ended with a quite splendid courtroom drama, and the author’s realisation that all he can do is set down what he knows.
The finale picked up the 1919 story again, and tied up some, but not all, of the loose ends. There was maybe a little too much revelation at the final hour, a little too much contrivance, and, I think, a little cheat, but there was so much in this book to think about that I could quite easily forgive that.
Because I would so like to travel back to Thurcester, to observe and ponder those mysteries just a little more …
June 20, 2021
This fog-drenched Victorian English mystery was filled with gaslit conspiracies, drafty libraries, and dastardly villains. Generally entertaining, the novel’s major flaw was its innocent, naive, and exasperating narrator, Edward Courtine. A brilliant (albeit overzealous) historian, Dr. Courtine’s epiphanies about the shadowy schemes surrounding him are always too late and too underwhelming. The atmosphere was palpably suspenseful and the author’s period expertise was evident. I just wish the characters had been as exciting as the foggy streets and the crumbling cathedral.
August 27, 2017
Where Palliser's novel The Quincunx was reminiscent of a sprawling Dickens saga, here's a shorter (but still pretty long) novel that's more in the style of Dickens's friend and frequent colleague Wilkie Collins (although I note that in the interview at the back of this edition Palliser tries to shrug off that comparison).
It's the late 19th century. Fiftyish Cambridge history don Edward Courtine arrives in the cathedral city of Thurchester to spend a few pre-Christmas days with an old student friend, Austin Fickling, whom he hasn't seen in nearly a quarter of a century, and from whom he's been estranged all that time because Fickling encouraged Courtine's wife to leave him for another man. Despite the warmth of the invitation Fickling issued, he seems far from pleased to see his visitor.
While Courtine conducts literary detective work in the cathedral library, evidence emerges most gruesomely in the cathedral concerning a centuries-old murder the facts of which have never properly been sorted out. And then there's another murder in the cathedral close, with this time Courtine very directly involved as a vital witness. Can the visiting don pierce through the fog of his own self-centeredness and preconception to get at some approximation of the truth of both murders -- and at a few blunt truths about himself?
Courtine's our narrator and in so many ways he's such a purblind, pompous prig that it took me a while to feel comfortable in his company. But as he slowly humanized himself, with the help later on of the cathedral librarian's wife (no, not at all in the way you're thinking!), I began to warm to him and consequently to the novel. By the time I finished I was wondering where I could lay hands pronto on Palliser's related follow-up novel, Rustication . . .
The book's quite densely written, and quite a few times I found myself checking the convenient dramatis personae at the back. It's a novel that ideally you don't want to be reading in snatched moments: it deserves, and rewards, longer periods of immersion.
And it reminded me I really must get round to reading/rereading Collins sometime soon. I devoured most of his novels in my late teens and early twenties, which is sufficiently long ago that I can remember almost nothing about them except, obviously, The Moonstone and The Woman in White . . . and, for some incomprehensible reason, The Dead Secret, which has to be one of the weakest! I own a copy of his Little Novels collection, which I haven't read, so maybe I should start there.
It's the late 19th century. Fiftyish Cambridge history don Edward Courtine arrives in the cathedral city of Thurchester to spend a few pre-Christmas days with an old student friend, Austin Fickling, whom he hasn't seen in nearly a quarter of a century, and from whom he's been estranged all that time because Fickling encouraged Courtine's wife to leave him for another man. Despite the warmth of the invitation Fickling issued, he seems far from pleased to see his visitor.
While Courtine conducts literary detective work in the cathedral library, evidence emerges most gruesomely in the cathedral concerning a centuries-old murder the facts of which have never properly been sorted out. And then there's another murder in the cathedral close, with this time Courtine very directly involved as a vital witness. Can the visiting don pierce through the fog of his own self-centeredness and preconception to get at some approximation of the truth of both murders -- and at a few blunt truths about himself?
Courtine's our narrator and in so many ways he's such a purblind, pompous prig that it took me a while to feel comfortable in his company. But as he slowly humanized himself, with the help later on of the cathedral librarian's wife (no, not at all in the way you're thinking!), I began to warm to him and consequently to the novel. By the time I finished I was wondering where I could lay hands pronto on Palliser's related follow-up novel, Rustication . . .
The book's quite densely written, and quite a few times I found myself checking the convenient dramatis personae at the back. It's a novel that ideally you don't want to be reading in snatched moments: it deserves, and rewards, longer periods of immersion.
And it reminded me I really must get round to reading/rereading Collins sometime soon. I devoured most of his novels in my late teens and early twenties, which is sufficiently long ago that I can remember almost nothing about them except, obviously, The Moonstone and The Woman in White . . . and, for some incomprehensible reason, The Dead Secret, which has to be one of the weakest! I own a copy of his Little Novels collection, which I haven't read, so maybe I should start there.
February 22, 2009
It took me three goes to get through this opus. 'Don't know why I kept plowing through to the 399th page. Perhaps it was the dust jacket's enthusiastic description: "brilliantly written...ingenious and atmospheric." Or perhaps it's because I'm very interested in 1880's England. In any case, I found several serious flaws in this novel: 1)the narrators and the other characters speak with the same voice, style; 2)some of the characters have modern attitudes that seem jarring set in this time and location; 3)the novel was very windy and could benefit by a deft Hemingwayesque editing; and 4)the unforgivable flaw in a mystery: I solved the case on p. 215. After that, I just felt like kicking the characters in the butt for obtuseness and the author for wasting my time. *sigh* Let this be an object lesson in not trusting either dust jackets nor goodreads ratings (3.46).
April 10, 2014
They need a "gave up on" option. I love Palliser's twisty, dark works but this one just sagged and dragged for me. I can't figure out why we're supposed to care about the central mystery, and I'm not even entirely sure what the central mystery is, but the endless academic discussions about arcane historical matters just wore me out. I put it down after about 100 pages. There might be a good book in there, but life is too short sometimes.
August 9, 2011
This book came with very high praise from many critics and I was ready to settle into a good old fashioned ghost story. I had some trouble in the first few chapters getting into the story, but it didn't take long for the multiple stories to grab my attention. I didn't want to put it down! Not all that much of a ghost story though. But, a very, very good mystery, or two.
December 17, 2012
I think it must be a keystone of the genre of Victorian fiction for it to be slow-moving. Despite the snail’s pacing, it is an interesting and well-written novel. My biggest issue with it lies with its rather annoyingly repetitive style - the same three stories are retold over and over again, each time with a new possible solution, but with none of the set-up presented any differently! So, while it is interesting overall, it is just not terribly engrossing. It’s too easy to put the book aside, and it keeps dragging on and on in what feels like circles at times. The ending, at least, ties together most of the loose threads in an original and satisfying way, which is really the salvation of the entire book. Still, the pace of the book is its main downfall. Although, the structure feels original and the way it all works out was pretty surprising. It really isn’t a hatable book, but it isn’t really a lovable one either.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2025
This was just bad.
June 2, 2009
This book is a mystery within a mystery within a mystery & all the mysteries parallel other mysteries or one another. Not as great as The Quincunx, tho it’s an ingenious concept. This one is a little TOO arcane & definitely requires the reader to take notes, especially in the beginning when you don’t realize what’s important & what’s not, as Palliser leads you down multiple wrong pathways. None of the characters in this book is attractive, so as you are reading you’re sort of wishing for them to either die, be disgraced, or generally disappear from the narrative. The main one you wish would disappear is the main character, narrator Courtine, surely the most annoyingly stupid academic known to literature – which could be sort of funny – maybe that’s what Palliser intended! Courtine never hesitates to talk to those he shouldn’t talk with, or ignore those he should listen to. He interrupts important conversations with glee, sabotages his own work, & generously shares his opinions about things he knows nothing of – like cathedral architecture - & when confronted with his own idiocy, either denies all knowledge of it, or blames it on someone else! I wanted to conk him on the head!
February 23, 2016
Wow. What a gripping read! This murder mystery is not full of paranormal frights but is rather a very cerebral, immersive journey to the sleepy town of Thurchester - where secrets and old grudges can turn fatal. I loved how the author adeptly took us deep into the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of academia and the narrator is a very likeable fellow who has had a pretty bad time of it in his personal life. There are many characters, quite a number of intricate storylines to pay close attention to, and at least five time periods (9th century, 17th century, 1860s, 1880s, 1900s), so it was worth going back to make sure I hadn't missed any important clues. The writing is superb, and the vocabulary impressive (you might need a dictionary to hand at times - I certainly found it useful). Thoroughly enjoyable, with a sort of moving ending, and enough twists and turns to throw one off track. Fabulous.
October 5, 2025
No es una lectura fácil o comercial, pero sí ciertamente inteligente. Hace pensar. Más concretamente, hace pensar en cómo, ahora que el Dark Academia está tan sumamente de moda, este libro no es redescubierto, reeditado y consumido hasta la saciedad en los tops de ventas.
Tengo una clara teoría al respecto, pero me la guardo para mí a riesgo de iniciar un debate indeseado que no llevaría a ningún sitio. El debate sobre cómo, quizá y solo quizá, hemos perdido en sutileza intelectual generalizada en el mundo lector a cambio de capitalización y apertura masiva en el mundo editorial.
Pero sí, este libro es lo más Dark Academia que he leído en mi vida. Más Dark Academia que Donna Tart, más Dark Academia que los pasillos del King's College en noviembre. Ahí lo dejo.
Tengo una clara teoría al respecto, pero me la guardo para mí a riesgo de iniciar un debate indeseado que no llevaría a ningún sitio. El debate sobre cómo, quizá y solo quizá, hemos perdido en sutileza intelectual generalizada en el mundo lector a cambio de capitalización y apertura masiva en el mundo editorial.
Pero sí, este libro es lo más Dark Academia que he leído en mi vida. Más Dark Academia que Donna Tart, más Dark Academia que los pasillos del King's College en noviembre. Ahí lo dejo.
May 2, 2010
The title of this book may suggest a horror story complete with zombies and vampires, but The Unburied is actually a scholarly murder mystery which reminded me of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco or An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. I wanted to read it because a few years ago I read another Charles Palliser book, The Quincunx, which I really enjoyed. Like The Quincunx, this one is set (mostly) in Victorian England. It begins with a mock 'Editor's Foreword' in which we are told that we are about to read an account which will throw new light on the controversial Thurchester Mystery. This account, known as The Courtine Account, forms the bulk of the book.
Dr Edward Courtine, a historian from Cambridge University, has been invited to spend the week before Christmas with Austin Fickling, an old friend from his student days who is now teaching at a school in the cathedral city of Thurchester. He and Austin haven't seen each other since they parted on bad terms twenty years ago, and Courtine is eager to renew their friendship. He also has another reason for wanting to visit Thurchester – he has been studying King Alfred the Great and has learned that an ancient manuscript detailing the events of Alfred's reign may be available in Thurchester Library. On the night of Courtine's arrival he hears the story of a murder that took place in the cathedral two centuries earlier. Courtine is fascinated, but as he begins to investigate he becomes involved in another murder mystery – and discovers Austin's true motive for inviting him to Thurchester.
As the main narrator of the book, I found Courtine very irritating, but at the same time I felt slightly sorry for him. For such an obviously intelligent person he was completely lacking in perception, constantly saying the wrong things, missing important clues and failing to notice people behaving suspiciously. Sometimes he would tell us that he was beginning to form a theory or that an idea had occurred to him, but he didn’t let us know what it was. This was good in one way, as it encouraged me to work things out for myself, but it also annoyed me because I was already finding it difficult enough to keep all the threads of the story straight.
Although the town of Thurchester and its community are vividly depicted, I didn’t find any of the characters particularly memorable. The fact that some of them had similar names (Slattery, Sheldrick, Sisterton for example) didn't help. There is actually a character list at the back of the book but I was trying not to look at it in case I came across any spoilers. As for the plot, it's so intricate you really need to read this book in as few sittings as possible so you don't forget any important details. There seemed to be a constant stream of unexplained deaths and forged documents, with at least three separate mysteries from different eras all running parallel to each other – and different characters giving different versions of what may or may not have happened. I wished I had been taking notes from the beginning.
This is a very atmospheric book with lots of gothic elements, from the freezing fog that accompanies Courtine's arrival in Thurchester to the obligatory 'ghost' supposedly haunting the cathedral. It would have been a good book to read in front of the fire on a cold winter's night. In spite of the slow pace the book was relatively quick to read and although it was certainly confusing, I did enjoy it, especially when the various mysteries began to unravel towards the end. Not as good as The Quincunx, though – if you've never read a Charles Palliser book before, try that one first.
Dr Edward Courtine, a historian from Cambridge University, has been invited to spend the week before Christmas with Austin Fickling, an old friend from his student days who is now teaching at a school in the cathedral city of Thurchester. He and Austin haven't seen each other since they parted on bad terms twenty years ago, and Courtine is eager to renew their friendship. He also has another reason for wanting to visit Thurchester – he has been studying King Alfred the Great and has learned that an ancient manuscript detailing the events of Alfred's reign may be available in Thurchester Library. On the night of Courtine's arrival he hears the story of a murder that took place in the cathedral two centuries earlier. Courtine is fascinated, but as he begins to investigate he becomes involved in another murder mystery – and discovers Austin's true motive for inviting him to Thurchester.
As the main narrator of the book, I found Courtine very irritating, but at the same time I felt slightly sorry for him. For such an obviously intelligent person he was completely lacking in perception, constantly saying the wrong things, missing important clues and failing to notice people behaving suspiciously. Sometimes he would tell us that he was beginning to form a theory or that an idea had occurred to him, but he didn’t let us know what it was. This was good in one way, as it encouraged me to work things out for myself, but it also annoyed me because I was already finding it difficult enough to keep all the threads of the story straight.
Although the town of Thurchester and its community are vividly depicted, I didn’t find any of the characters particularly memorable. The fact that some of them had similar names (Slattery, Sheldrick, Sisterton for example) didn't help. There is actually a character list at the back of the book but I was trying not to look at it in case I came across any spoilers. As for the plot, it's so intricate you really need to read this book in as few sittings as possible so you don't forget any important details. There seemed to be a constant stream of unexplained deaths and forged documents, with at least three separate mysteries from different eras all running parallel to each other – and different characters giving different versions of what may or may not have happened. I wished I had been taking notes from the beginning.
This is a very atmospheric book with lots of gothic elements, from the freezing fog that accompanies Courtine's arrival in Thurchester to the obligatory 'ghost' supposedly haunting the cathedral. It would have been a good book to read in front of the fire on a cold winter's night. In spite of the slow pace the book was relatively quick to read and although it was certainly confusing, I did enjoy it, especially when the various mysteries began to unravel towards the end. Not as good as The Quincunx, though – if you've never read a Charles Palliser book before, try that one first.
December 10, 2022
This is a dense, intelligent, magisterially plotted book, set in the Victorian period, which interweaves three mysteries centring on the town of Thurchester and its cathedral. The main part of the book is an account by a Cambridge scholar, Edward Courtine, who comes to Thurchester shortly before Christmas to visit an old but estranged friend and to try and unearth an old manuscript relevant to a controversial episode in the life of King Alfred, his scholarly interest. The story surrounding that manuscript, and the question of its veracity, is linked with another mystery from a couple of centuries earlier, when two canons of the cathedral were murdered. Gradually Courtine becomes embroiled in a current plot which ends in the murder of an old banker who lives near the cathedral, and Courtine comes to suspect his friend of having invited him to Thurchester for the express purpose of providing an alibi for the murder. Numerous and contradictory theories are expounded about the three mysteries, especially by Courtine who tries to piece together what has happened in the current murder case, never quite solving it. The truth is revealed in the afterword, but not in a straightforward way (nothing is straightforward in this book) - immediately I started back at the beginning with the foreword, and re-reading various other key passages picking up on the clues I had missed. It's quite an intellectual puzzle and I think you'd need to read it over a short period of time otherwise you'd probably get rather lost. It took me a while to get into - there are quite a few extracts from medieval documents near the beginning - but once the book hits its stride with the murder of the old banker it becomes really gripping, and I enjoyed the characterisation of Courtine, a rather smug man lacking in self-awareness. It's all seriously clever and the kind of book you really need to read twice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2025
Highly recommended for aficionados of unconventional mystery and crime stories, and especially for the fans of dark academia.
This novel has everything: mediaeval history; academic rivalry; questions of research ethics being raised; intellectual obsession; a foggy, brooding English town with a looming 9th century cathedral in its middle; an old library full of 17th century manuscripts, and mysterious murders - both in the present day of the book (which takes place in 19th century for the most part) and in the distant past (1643, to be exact).
This novel has everything: mediaeval history; academic rivalry; questions of research ethics being raised; intellectual obsession; a foggy, brooding English town with a looming 9th century cathedral in its middle; an old library full of 17th century manuscripts, and mysterious murders - both in the present day of the book (which takes place in 19th century for the most part) and in the distant past (1643, to be exact).
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July 19, 2020Although the main plot of this novel is set in the 19th century 'present', there is a framing story that takes place decades later, and two historical subplots: one in the Dark Ages during the Viking invasion of Western Europe, and one during the latter years of the English Civil Wars which opposed the High Church and Low Church factions of Anglicanism. There is even an 8-page fairy tale that is not without interest towards understanding the psychology of the narrator/main character.
Palliser evokes the atmosphere of classic Gothic novels without actually wanting to write one. This is a very smartly written mystery where things are often, as they should, different from what they seem; on several occasions we realize that the narrator, though a diligent and intelligent historian, fails to infer the correct conclusion from elements at his disposal through the limitations of his personality.
Credible characters, historical interest (I knew virtually nothing about King Alfred) and a complex but tightly written main plot contribute to the attractions of this novel. Other reviewers here have rightly remarked that it deserves being read rapidly lest the reader lose track of the characters and alignments.
Palliser evokes the atmosphere of classic Gothic novels without actually wanting to write one. This is a very smartly written mystery where things are often, as they should, different from what they seem; on several occasions we realize that the narrator, though a diligent and intelligent historian, fails to infer the correct conclusion from elements at his disposal through the limitations of his personality.
Credible characters, historical interest (I knew virtually nothing about King Alfred) and a complex but tightly written main plot contribute to the attractions of this novel. Other reviewers here have rightly remarked that it deserves being read rapidly lest the reader lose track of the characters and alignments.
July 29, 2016
Unburied? Unfinished!
First of all, let it be known that I adore a sprawling good read. I love Dickens and Wilkie Collins, with their deep complex plots and characters. Palliser's books however, including this one, just fall flat for me.
I finally trudged my way through to the middle of this book, and I won't be finishing it. I'm neither interested in the characters, the plot, the "mystery" or anything else this book has offered thus far, and I have no desire to find out the remainder.
I read Palliser's The Quincunx a few years back and felt the same way about it (see my review), though I managed to finish reading it. I guess Palliser's 'blatant' style of writing and plots are just not my cup of tea.
First of all, let it be known that I adore a sprawling good read. I love Dickens and Wilkie Collins, with their deep complex plots and characters. Palliser's books however, including this one, just fall flat for me.
I finally trudged my way through to the middle of this book, and I won't be finishing it. I'm neither interested in the characters, the plot, the "mystery" or anything else this book has offered thus far, and I have no desire to find out the remainder.
I read Palliser's The Quincunx a few years back and felt the same way about it (see my review), though I managed to finish reading it. I guess Palliser's 'blatant' style of writing and plots are just not my cup of tea.
February 22, 2018
I wasn’t impressed with this book at all. I found it confusing & uninteresting. I never connected with any of the characters & found them insipid. That is once I sorted through the several whose names all started withe the same letters each one less pronounceable than the one before.
I found the plot convoluted & uninspiring & unengaging. I only read this as it was recommended as a choice because right before this I’d read The Meaning of Night. I thought this would be of the same caliber. It wasn’t even in the ballpark as the Meaning of night. Maybe it is the same time frame, but I found this a total waste of my time. The writing in this book couldn’t hold a candle to Cox’s Meaning of night which I found was like reading a symphony.
I was sorely let down.
I found the plot convoluted & uninspiring & unengaging. I only read this as it was recommended as a choice because right before this I’d read The Meaning of Night. I thought this would be of the same caliber. It wasn’t even in the ballpark as the Meaning of night. Maybe it is the same time frame, but I found this a total waste of my time. The writing in this book couldn’t hold a candle to Cox’s Meaning of night which I found was like reading a symphony.
I was sorely let down.
December 27, 2010
I really hate when I don't hit SAVE before leaving my Review.
Whatever: Victorian-style ghost story, murder mystery, angry old friends, Alfred the Great, Christmas.
It didn't light my fire, eventually I'll read The Quincunx but I'm not in a big hurry now, etc. etc. My previous review made comparisons to Umberto Eco and Arthur Conan Doyle, and also Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, but it all felt too forced and "Look at me" and it was a bit of a turn-off.
And some other stuff. Whatever.
Whatever: Victorian-style ghost story, murder mystery, angry old friends, Alfred the Great, Christmas.
It didn't light my fire, eventually I'll read The Quincunx but I'm not in a big hurry now, etc. etc. My previous review made comparisons to Umberto Eco and Arthur Conan Doyle, and also Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, but it all felt too forced and "Look at me" and it was a bit of a turn-off.
And some other stuff. Whatever.
dusty-shelf
September 2, 2023I struggled through the first 33% of this book and decided to give up. It was an interesting story but the author kept bringing up certain problems but not telling us what it was about. All I know is there were mysteries but I haven't the foggiest idea what they even pertained to as a basis for a story line. Something happened in a school and something else in a church and I think there was a death at some point. The author is from Loundon so the English language does not flow easily for me as I am use to American English. I can usually enjoy the differences in the format differences of our sentences however this was just to difficult to proceed with little benefit of knowing a plot.
March 27, 2019
I hate this book. I can't even describe the depths of loathing I have for this horrid, stupid, boring, thoroughly uninteresting piece of crap... It's got to be the slowest, most tedious, most entirely disengaging novel I've ever had the misfortune of purchasing. What a complete turd. The characters are two-dimensional, the story drags, the dialog is tedious, the characters aren't even likable, and I doubt if I'm going to finish it. I'm over a third of the way through, and I loathe the idea of even picking it up and trying to read it. In fact, I've had it. I'm throwing this one in the trash. What a waste of money.
July 2, 2013
19th century academic intrigue! Cathedral intrigues in the 12th, 16th, and 19th centuries, all mysteriously connected! Inheritance intrigue! Sexual intrigue! Possibly gullible Oxbridge professor with unclear allegiances and possibly devious Cathedral school professors, all fulminating like mad. Oh, it's a scholarly mystery to beat the band. Worth the effort, if frustratingly detailed (in fussy academic ways) at times. Reminiscent of A. S. Byatt's "Possession" or Eco's "The Name of the Rose".
November 9, 2019
This a mystery set a long time ago in Victorian England. The language is a bit difficult to get into, but once one gets used to it, it becomes easy to read. My problem was that it was difficult to keep the story line straight and to keep each character's various theories about a murder straight. I found it quite confusing. Although I did enjoy the end of he book as the mystery became clear, I felt like I missed a lot of the details.
March 6, 2018
Our intrepid, if somewhat unreliable, narrator goes to visit an old school friend right before Christmas, 1881. He ends up solving not one, not two, but three murders, although none of them in a timely enough fashion to be of much use. The atmosphere in and around the cathedral in the fictitious town of Thurchester is wonderful. My only quibble is that the story is sometimes a little slow, especially in the denouement. Still, I highly recommend this book for fans of late Victorian mysteries.
September 22, 2019
Wonderful mindless Gothic bunkum. Victorian England and Ned Courtine comes to spend a few days with an old friend in the cathedral town of Thurchester. They have not spoken for 20 yrs.But Ned's old friend Austin Fickling seems to be weighed down with guilt and secrets. In order to deflect Courtine's questions Fickling tells the story of the Thurchester ghost William Burgoyne who still haunts the cathedral close since his murder just after the civil war.Intrigued Courtine goes in search of the ghost and uncovers more than he bargained for. Terrific Gothic tale.
November 4, 2014
This is the second historical murder mystery I've read in as many weeks, the previous one being Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. This one, however, is far more complex.
Dissolution is set in the sixteenth century and stays there, and though there are lots of deaths, they all take place in the 1530s. The Unburied is set in the nineteenth century, in the fictitious English cathedral city of Thurchester, but as the primary narrator, Dr Edward Courtine, is a historian, it harks back to several mysterious, or at least historically-disputed deaths in the past, in several different periods.
I enjoyed the book a lot, but perhaps that is because history is a topic that interests me a great deal. An interest in history, however, is not enough to make one enjoy historical novels, and in fact can impair enjoyment of them. A historian reading historical novels is always on the lookout for anachronisms (and yes, there are some in this book -- the use of the word "teenager", is but one example). But because the protagoinist is a historian, as are some of the other characters, perhaps one could call this a historigraphical novel, and that would make it of more interest to historians.
As I said, it is complex, and you have to keep your wits about you when reading it, to follow the motives not only of the characters, to see who had a motive for murdering whom, but also the motives of the historians who left their written accounts of the events, and the motives of the current characters in the story who interpret the documents and other evidence -- part of the evidence is in the fabric of Thurchester Cathedral itself.
The bulk of the book is taken up with Dr Courtine's visit to Thurchester, which lasts five days. He visits an old friend, from whom he has been estranged, and also visits the cathedral library in search of a manuscript that he believe's may throw light on the death of a ninth-century bishop, which may in turn illuminate the character of King Alfred. During his visit there is another murder, in which Dr Courtine is a witness, and uses his skills as a historian to try to work out what actually happened, but to some extent he is blinded by class prejudice, and so misses some important clues. So we have to read his account with a critical historian's eye, looking for unjustified assumptions and other historical errors.
It's a good and challenging read, especially if you like history.
Dissolution is set in the sixteenth century and stays there, and though there are lots of deaths, they all take place in the 1530s. The Unburied is set in the nineteenth century, in the fictitious English cathedral city of Thurchester, but as the primary narrator, Dr Edward Courtine, is a historian, it harks back to several mysterious, or at least historically-disputed deaths in the past, in several different periods.
I enjoyed the book a lot, but perhaps that is because history is a topic that interests me a great deal. An interest in history, however, is not enough to make one enjoy historical novels, and in fact can impair enjoyment of them. A historian reading historical novels is always on the lookout for anachronisms (and yes, there are some in this book -- the use of the word "teenager", is but one example). But because the protagoinist is a historian, as are some of the other characters, perhaps one could call this a historigraphical novel, and that would make it of more interest to historians.
As I said, it is complex, and you have to keep your wits about you when reading it, to follow the motives not only of the characters, to see who had a motive for murdering whom, but also the motives of the historians who left their written accounts of the events, and the motives of the current characters in the story who interpret the documents and other evidence -- part of the evidence is in the fabric of Thurchester Cathedral itself.
The bulk of the book is taken up with Dr Courtine's visit to Thurchester, which lasts five days. He visits an old friend, from whom he has been estranged, and also visits the cathedral library in search of a manuscript that he believe's may throw light on the death of a ninth-century bishop, which may in turn illuminate the character of King Alfred. During his visit there is another murder, in which Dr Courtine is a witness, and uses his skills as a historian to try to work out what actually happened, but to some extent he is blinded by class prejudice, and so misses some important clues. So we have to read his account with a critical historian's eye, looking for unjustified assumptions and other historical errors.
It's a good and challenging read, especially if you like history.
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November 3, 2014This seems like a cleverly written novel. So far, the characters seem right out of Poe! This is a very difficult read. It involves many sub-plots and presupposes knowledge of Alfred the Great. For example, one character discusses the myth of the burning dinner. Alfred, deep in thought about a battle, doesn't notice the dinner is buring. I had to go to wiki for that one. Try it, give it about 100 pages and decide for yourself.
January 30, 2008
Great writer, but a snooze, because I'm an ignoramus. You might like it, as it is historically accurate, especially in regards to social relations that so many writers seem to assume are the same as the modern world. It's a murder mystery, but there are no cliff hangers here, just a slow plod through a richly detailed landscape.
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