What starts off well with a murder and plenty of period color slowly descends into a tedious mess of unsympathetic characters who are impossible to keep track of and subplots which induce headaches. Described to me as the greatest historical novel ever written, I plowed on and on and on, waiting for some relief. Never reached it, and gave up on page 536. Perhaps page 537 held the key to the story but I just couldn't make it