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Original Title:	The Dream of Scipio
ISBN:	1573229865 (ISBN13: 9781573229869)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	France

The Dream of Scipio

Iain Pears

Paperback | Pages: 416 pages

Rating: 3.73 | 3788 Users | 374 Reviews

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Title	:	The Dream of Scipio
Author	:	Iain Pears
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 416 pages
Published	:	June 3rd 2003 by Riverhead Books (first published 2002)
Categories	:	Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Mystery

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Three narratives, set in the fifth, fourteenth, and twentieth centuries, all revolving around an ancient text and each with a love story at its center, are the elements of this ingenious novel, a follow-up to the bestselling, An Instance Of The Fingerpost.

"May well be the best historical mystery ever written," proclaimed The Sunday Boston Globe about Iain Pears's An Instance of the Fingerpost, while Booklist called its publication "a major literary event." Iain Pears's international bestseller was greeted with front-page reviews ("A crafty, utterly mesmerizing intellectual thriller"--The Washington Post Book World), named a New York Times Notable Book, and hailed as a Book to Remember by the New York Public Library. Now he returns with a greatly anticipated novel that is so brilliantly constructed, the author himself describes it as "a complexity."

The centuries are the fifth (the final days of the Roman Empire); the fourteenth (the years of the Black Death); and the twentieth (World War II). The setting for each is the same--Provence--and each has at its heart a love story. The narratives intertwine seamlessly, but what joins them thematically is an ancient text--"The Dream of Scipio"--a work of neo-Platonism that poses timeless philosophical questions. What is the obligation of the individual in a society under siege? What is the role of learning when civilization itself is threatened, whether by acts of man or nature? Does virtue lie more in engagement or in neutrality? "Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless," warns one of Pears's characters.

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Ratings: 3.73 From 3788 Users | 374 Reviews

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This was one of the most remarkable novels I have ever read. The theme introduced is how one participates in epochs of change. Set in three different time periods in Provence, France, the novel explores how three different men make decisions about the preservation of culture. They are Manlius Hippomanes, living in the decline of the Roman empire; Olivier de Noyen living during the Italian Renaissance with the exiled papacy and Julien Barneuve a scholar during the Nazi occupation. I am familiar

I loved this book. The three stories of a fifth century Roman bishop, a Medieval court person and a twentieth century historian blend nicely together and have a tension brought on by three turning points in world history: the fall of the Roman Empire, the plague and the Holocaust. Tied together is the will to survive and the scourge of collapse. The three stories are really one story as the more modern person looks back on the Medieval person, who in turn examines the Bishop and each tries to

This is a masterpiece. An exploration of a theme played out across time. Three specific periods in history, each which saw the end of a civilization. The first in the final days of the Roman Empire; and then during the worst days of the Black Death, and finally at the end of WWII. The story examines the way in times of strife we scapegoat the other. It asks the same question over and over: what is civilization? Is civilization just the books we read or is it the society that allows certain

Some time ago I finished The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears and it has continued to drift around my mind ever since. Simply put, it is a wonderful book that, if you are anything like me, you will savor as the rare delicacy that it is. I literally forced myself to put it down several times in order to prolong the pleasure of reading it. My first Pears novel and already I am in awe of the fellow.I cannot think of the last book I read where parallels among characters were drawn with such subtlety

This was an interesting story set in three different times around the now French town of Vaison. The earliest was at the fall of the Roman Empire, the second at the dawn of the Renaissance and the most recent was set during Vichy France. All three times have humanist protagonists who fail in their ambitions to uphold honesty, decency and the greater good. All three times also illustrate that the persecution of Jews is an ever present event.

Iain Pears is everybody's fantasy of the ultimate history teacher. (At least for people whose fantasies extend to history teachers.) His popular mysteries, so intricately woven from the threads of the past, have given the genre more class and intellectual depth than it's ever had. His latest novel, "The Dream of Scipio," is another category-buster, a work of such philosophical and cultural complexity that its greatest mystery is "How can Pears know so much?"Pears's canvas has never been larger

So the other day Yann and I were talking about food (as one does here) and the in-laws. The conversation centered around the kiwi question, which is as follows:I do not particularly like kiwis, but neither do I particularly dislike them. I am happy to eat a kiwi which is placed in front of me, without objection or disgust, but I do not necessarily take great pleasure in eating them either. They're fine. They're moyen. They're edible, but I wouldn't cross the street for one. I am unable to