The Quincunx
| The Quincunx | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Charles Palliser |
| Illustrator | Jenny Phillips |
| Cover artist | Volker Strater |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | historical |
| Publisher | Canongate Publishing |
| Publication date | 1989 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 1221 |
| ISBN | 0345371135 |
| OCLC Number | 23069665 |
The Quincunx (The Inheritance of John Huffam) is the epic first novel of Charles Palliser. It takes the form of a Dickensian mystery set in early 19th century England, but Palliser has added the modern attributes of an ambiguous ending and unreliable narrators. Many of the puzzles that are apparently solved in the story have an alternative solution in the subtext.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The novel begins in London with a secret meeting between two legal men. A bribe reveals the confidential details of a correspondent who is the link to a vital hidden document. Meanwhile young John Mellamphy is growing up in the remote countryside with his mother Mary, ignorant of the name of Huffam. Gradually it becomes clear that they are threatened by the search for the document.
[edit] Plot details
- Exploring one day, John ventures into the estate of Mompesson Hall, where he encounters Henrietta Palphramond and her governess, Miss Quilliam. Later an attempted burglary persuades Mary to show her hand. She possesses a codicil to a will which controls the inheritance of the estate, and she reluctantly considers selling it to Sir Perceval Mompesson. She is put under pressure by treacherous advice which persuades her into a loss-making property speculation. An attempt is made to abduct John; it is possible that his death would alter the legacy. To escape, John and his mother travel to London.
- With dwindling savings, John and his mother are forced into successively poorer lodgings and are pursued by bailiffs. They find refuge with the Isbister family, but flee when they discover they are amongst the body-snatchers of Bethnal Green. They discover Miss Quilliam, who takes them in, but they are caught by the bailiffs. Mary is forced to sell the codicil and is persuaded to send John to a school in Yorkshire for safety. But the excessive cruelties of the school put John in further danger and he escapes back to London. There, further debts have forced Mary into a debtors' prison which she has only been able to escape by entering into a form of prostitution. On reencountering John she leaves that life but, still penniless, she ultimately dies of consumption.
- John seeks out Henry Bellringer, who is a relation of a school friend. But instead he finds himself among a gang of thieves, living in a part-built mansion. There he reads his mother's journal, which gives tantalisingly incomplete details of his parentage and his chance of attaining the inheritance. Mary's family, the Huffams, were the original owners of the estate. But the legacy could pass to any of five families – the Huffams, the Mompessons, the Clothiers, the Palphramonds or the Maliphants. Eventually John escapes from the gang and is taken in by the Porteous family. But their act is not as generous as it first appears, for they too stand to benefit from the legacy. Once John learns this they have him sent to an insane asylum.
- In the asylum John meets Peter Clothier, whom he now knows as his father. John escapes from the asylum with the help of the Digweed family, whom he once encountered in the countryside. He starts a new life with them, surviving by scavenging the sewers of London. He visits Jeoffrey Escreet, who tells the story of the murder of Mary's father. John resolves to take the name of Huffam. His salvation may lie in a second will, hidden in the Mompesson's London house. After a failed burglary he gets a job as a servant at the house and is eventually able to steal the will.
- John again seeks out Henry Bellringer to help him take advantage of the will. But Bellringer betrays him to another potential legatee, Silas Clothier. Clothier burns the will and attempts to murder John, but John escapes. It emerges that burnt will was only a copy and that Bellringer has the original. With that, it is possible for him to win the inheritance by marrying Henrietta. During a storm, John interrupts a secret marriage ceremony in a derelict chapel at Mompesson hall. Bellringer is killed by David Mompesson, who flees the country. As the book draws to a close John finally comes within reach of the inheritance. As he does so he loses his original heroic character, becoming cynical and dismissive of his past friends. At the last moment it is revealed that the inheritance is still being determined in Chancery and may be worth nothing because of debts. With the outcome unresolved the story ends.
[edit] Style
The Quincunx was a surprise bestseller.[2] It is notable for its portrayal of 19th century England, covering the breadth of society from the gentry to the poor and from provincial villages to metropolitan London, and its dealing with the eccentricities of English land law. In a review citing parallels with Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual Friend, Martin Chuzzlewit, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, Michael Malone has written that "Mr. Palliser appears to have set out not merely to write a Dickens novel but to write all Dickens novels".[3]
J. Hillis Miller[4] points out that "The conventions ... of Dickens’ novels, are made salient through parody and exaggeration, just as a postmodern building makes the fragility and artifice of those old styles evident..." But Palliser differs from Dickens in that there are "no benevolent father figure, no guiding Providence, almost no good people, no guarantee that justice will eventually be done, nothing, for the most part, but uncertainty and prolonged suffering. It is as though Palliser were saying: 'Let me show you what things were really like at that time'."
The book is deeply researched. For example, a crucial point in the plot is the timing of John Huffam's birth. This is indicated by reference to contemporary events such as the Ratcliff Highway murders, the Great Comet of 1811, Wellington's capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, and the passing of the Rose act determining how parish register entries should be made. On another level the hero's name hints that the author may have given him the same birth date as Charles John Huffam Dickens.
[edit] Structure
The novel has a fivefold structure. It is divided into five "Parts", each taking the name of one of the families linked to the inheritance. Each Part is then divided into five "Books" and each Book is divided into five chapters.
At the beginning of each Part a quincunx of quatrefoil roses from the relevant family's arms are displayed. These then reappear as a count of one to five roses at the start of each Book. At the end of the novel all five families' devices are combined in a larger design, a quincunx of quincunxes. The pattern of narration of the 125 chapters - John Huffam, an omniscient narrator and a third person - exactly matches the colour pattern - white, black and red - of the 125 elements of the design.[1][5] The mixture of first-person and detached narration is similar to the alternation between Esther Summerson's story and a neutral point of view in Bleak House. Palliser also notes that the heart of the book is an account taken from a journal which has a further subdivision into five "Relations" and a central ambiguity made by some missing pages. The information in the journal (as John Huffam suggests obliquely at the end of the book) is a key to reinterpreting all the events.
The design of the five families' devices is also important within the story, when it is the key to the secret hiding place of the second will.
At the end of each Part of 25 chapters, a partially revealed family tree is given, showing the relationships as John so far understands them.
The book also includes extracts from Richard Horwood's 1813 map showing key locations in London. The rural locations are, however, fictional. Although the central settlement is on the York-London road and shares its name with Hougham in Lincolnshire the story contradicts this identification by placing it south of Grantham.
[edit] Awards
Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction 1991
[edit] References
- ^ a b The Quincunx, Second edition (1993), Author's Afterword
- ^ "The Quincunx" Twists Its Way To Success Jessica Baldwin, Associated Press, Lawrence Journal-World, 3 June 1990
- ^ The Spirit Of Dickens Present, Michael Malone, The New York Times, 4 March 1990
- ^ Parody as Revisionary Critique: Charles Palliser’s The Quincunx, J. Hillis Miller
- ^ The Symbol Made Text: Charles Palliser's Postmodernist Re-Writing of Dickens in The Quincunx, Susana Onega, University of Zaragoza, Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 6 (1993): 131-41
[edit] External links
- Forum: http://s1monmorr1s.wordpress.com/quincunxsnarkout/ (copied from the defunct http://www.snarkout.org/seven/000827.php)
- Unofficial website: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gix/quincunx/index
- Charles Palliser Bibliography, José Ángel García Landa. (Word document; in A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology)
