The Inquisitor Author:Hugh Walpole Hugh Walpole says about the origin of The Inquisitor: "I dreamed with quite unusual vividness of a man with a crooked neck coming out of the Cathedral door, followed by his strange procession into the empty, but listening, market place. The dream persisted in haunting me and I was driven to write this book. The two years I have spent on it ha... more »ve been among the most compelling in the creative way that I have ever known."
The Inquisitor completes the famous catherdral series of Walpole novels. In it Michael Furze, a wanderer in many lands, comes to his brother's house in search of peace and a new way of life. But a cathedral town is a miniature world and his search for peace reveals the intense drama in the lives of the town people. Some are almost saints and some are almost devils. The violences of the world are mirrored in their seemingly tranquil lives.
Joseph Wood Krutch says: "Michael Furze captures the attention from the moment he enters an antiquary's shop with his precious crucifix and the attention never lapses throughout all the complicated events that follow . . . we have here an intensely readable story."
Walpole in his old -- and to many, favorite -- vein, of the Polchester stories, The Cathedral, the Jeremy books, Harmer John, etc. One feels a certain sense of familiarity in the casual mention of well known characters, though the central figures are new. And again he uses his unique genius of creating an all-pervading atmosphere of impending doom, of creeping horror, of the Cathedral itself a dominant -- and almost sinister --character. ""The Inquisitor"" is symbolized by a usurer, whose obsession of power -- and unpleasant method of exercising it --brings about his disappearance, and turns friends into fees, decent neighbors into suspicious cavillers. Sell to all Walpole fans -- they are legion. And dig out from your memory those who asked -- these past five years -- when he was going back to his earlier type of novel. Literary Guild for September. --Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc.« less