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In glowing reviews by some of the country's top reviewers, THE DREAM OF SCIPIO is called an "audaciously imaginative intellectural thriller," "elevates the murder mystery," "best historical mystery ever written," "solid mystery novel," and "successful literary thriller," which helps to establish that the book is in fact a mystery. Author Iain Pears gained his reputation by writing seven art mystery entertainment novels, and the much praised AN INSTANCE OF THE FINGERPOST. In a review of FINGERPOST, along with almost all critics I too praised it highly, although I found its 735 pages a bit long for the story it had to tell. Pears has confined SCIPIO to a more reasonable 396 pages, just about right for its content. Many of the SCIPIO reviewers look upon the book as raising the moral question of how to behave when civilization is crashing all about you. Yes, but I think more specifically it asks this question: As circumstances change, does pursuit of what one believes to be the greater good justify one's betrayal of friends to go over to the enemy? I don't think Pears intended to answer this, or perhaps he admits of more than one answer. The story is three in one, unified by place, moral dilemma, and an ancient manuscript. The setting is aways the area around Avignon in Provence, France, and the times are 1) the late 5th century when Rome was about to be vanquished by various barbarian tribes, 2) the mid 14th century during the Black Death, and 3) the mid 20th century when the Nazis conquered France and set up the Vichy Government. The protagonists are 1) Manlius Hippomanes, a sophisticated Roman Gaul who, still a pagan, becomes a Christian bishop and saint; Olivier de Noyen, a young poet and scholar of antiquarian writings in the service of Cardinal Ceccani; and Julien Barneuve, an academic and antiquarian who becomes a censor for the Vichy Government. Each protagonist has a philosophical mentor, a tremendous romantic attachment to a woman whom he pursues in spite of substantial obstacles, several close friends, a concern about the treatment of Jews, a position of either authority or an ability to influence authority, and a fascination with a little-known document called "The Dream of Scipio." This manuscript is not Cicero's more famous "Dream of Scipio" (from his De Republica) which gives a utopian vision of future life, but is a (fictitious) writing by Manlius which is more a dream ABOUT Scipio. Manlius is concerned with neoplatonic moral behavior and the purpose of life, and he inverts almost all Christian interpretations. Centuries later Olivier discovers the manuscript and attempts to learn more about the life of Manlius, and still more centuries later Julien comes under the influence of the manuscript. This Dream of Scipio, then, becomes the thread that links the three men and their times. The three stories are divided into small fragments and intermixed so that the reader goes from Manlius to Olivier to Julien over and over as if without regard to time. The stories are far from static, each developing into something unexpected so each has a flowing movement that captures the reader's interest. We want to know what happens when Bishop Manlius goes out to meet the Burgundian king, and when Olivier is cautioned by a friend that soldiers are out to get him with Olivier little suspecting that his friend's motivation is in itself intended to ruin him, or when Julia, Julien's Jewish love, returns to France in spite of the obvious Nazi menace to her. Intellectual and philosophical, the story (stories) are still loaded with the suspense of well-plotted mysteries. The ending(s) come with increasingly rapid pursuit of their respective denouements. Pears shows himself again to have excellent control of language. His descriptions are languidly invoking of time and place. His plotting is cautiously meticulous; he is more interested in conveying the precise impression than in moving along quickly. Obviously the book is not for everyone. Like the philosophers in the story, Sophia, Gersonides, and Julia, it attempts more to question than teach, but sometimes it reaches conclusions, such as "Any amount of disgrace or infamy can be incurred if great advantage may be gained for a friend," but even here its pronouncements open themselves to further questions and interpretations, and the beliefs of one philosopher may be contradicted by another. Pears does not try to make it easy for us. But for mystery readers, the one thing he does with perfect clarity is to demonstrate the heights to which the mystery novel can soar.
Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, October 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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