Pentaptych: A Novel of Unintended Collaboration

In Mark Dunn’s new novel, his alter ego, Griffin Stoddard, a long-time admirer of Cranford author, Mrs Gaskell, chances upon her work called We Five. He comes to learn that the novel – unpublished in her lifetime – was subsequently adapted by three other writers. Stoddard draws together the four versions and writes his own to complement them. The result is a novel which spans five different historical periods – a small mill town near Manchester in 1859, San Francisco in the days before the 1906 earthquake, the fictional Zenith, Winnemac of 1923, autumn in 1940’s war torn London and a small town in Northern Mississippi in 1997 – and follows five childhood friends – Ruth, Jane, Molly, Maggie and Carrie – their encounters with five young men of differing intentions, the girls’ respective families together with their ever-changing occupations and exploits, concluding with an explosive unification of all five stories. This cleverly constructed novel’s style is faithful to each era, the vagaries of language and the bonds of friendship. Readers who have already discovered Ella Minnow Pea – a novel without letters, Ibid: A Life – a novel in footnotes and Welcome to Higby will recognise and enjoy the challenges in Mark Dunn’s new adventure Pentaptych.