Timescoop by John Brunner

A lighthearted SF tale of rape, paedophilia, torture, slavery, murder and racism, with a central conceit which calls into question our very sense of self.

The conceit in question is a device which can take a 3d 'slice' out of a 4d object in the past and restore the fourth dimension to it, in effect creating a perfect copy. This 'timescoop' also works on people.

The playboy owner of the company who invented this thing, Harold Freitas III, uses it for a publicity stunt in which he brings to life his illustrious ancestors in the hopes of impressing his wife, Sarah, who he is keenly aware is smarter than he is. Unfortunately for him, they aren't all that illustrious after all. I rather like the core theme of this book that modern society is actually relatively enlightened and that, by comparison, history can be regarded as a kind of storage unit for assholes.

Edgar Freitas: The most presentable of the bunch, a pleasant young man, not much of a poet as claimed but popular with the ladies. An adventurer at heart, being snatched into the future was the perfect thing for him.
Reverend Ebenezer Freitas: Supposedly a pillar of his community, was actually responsible for burning his own wife and daughter as witches. Believes the modern world is a form of purgatory and that everyone he meets is a demon, but eventually comes to feel shame at his puritanism and ends up joining the Society for Absolute Orgasm.
Joshua Freitas: This august gentleman turned out to be an arrogant ponce and a slave trader. He picked a fight with the black scientist behind the project, Chester, and was promptly impaled by him. Chester avoided a murder conviction when the sheepish Joshua was timescooped and brought into the courtroom.
Tabitha Freitas: Supposedly a hero of the civil war, she actually just liked to fuck soldiers.
Horatio Freitas: Turned out to be a paranoid loon who wore a bulletproof vest everywhere he went.
Sir Godwin de Freitas-Molyneux: An unpleasant greasy crusader, wanted to nuke the middle east.
Sieur Bohun de Freitas: A Knight of William the Conquerer, and pretty much just an asshole.
Reginald de Freitas, Earl of Winchelsea and Poitenne: Supposedly a composer, turned out to be a fraud and child molestor to boot.
Bufallo Hank Freitas: A cowboy who wandered around the party watching porn and firing off his six guns at every climax.

With the help of Sarah, Chester and their massive computer Sparky, Harold struggles to make his party a success despite these assholes, and eventually they find a niche for each one of them within the modern world, learning a lesson about accepting people as they are rather than for what you want them to be.

They are opposed by Solomon Schatzenheim and the treacherous employee Cy Detrick, who arranges the murder at the party. Miriam, Solomon's unhappy trophy wife, helps Sarah out and in the process gets the divorce she was hoping for.

In the end Harold proves himself to Sarah by figuring out what needs to be done by himself, and Sparky confides in Chester that he planned everything from the start because he was sick of Harold relying on him for everything.

Weak keep. It was a decent story. I probably won't read it again anytime soon, but it's part of a nice hardcover series along with The Overman Culture and The Ice People. While I could do without the latter, the former is one of my favourite books.