The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd

Published in 1993, this novel describes stories in two time periods: the present in which the narrator is Matthew Palmer, a young man of 29, and the sixteenth century in which the narrator is John Dee, a philosopher, magician and practitioner of the dark arts. Matthew has been left the house of the title by his father and discovers that it was previously owned and inhabited by John Dee, with his wife and servants. The basement and the ground floor are sixteenth century, whilst the upper stories were built later.
The novel begins by alternating the narrators chapter by chapter, moving from the present to the sixteenth century and back again. As Matthew becomes interested in John Dee he starts to read as much as he can about him and his times and so realises that the house contains all time periods after John Dee's habitation and begins to see and hear its previous occupants. The sixteenth century chapters repay close reading as they are couched in the literary style of the age and utilise many philosophies and beliefs that John Dee was familiar with but which are alien to many of us. The city of London occupies a centre stage, almost as a character itself, as is the case of other of Ackroyd's novels, and the names of the streets are recorded as a relentless litany of place names and meanings.
This book may be off-putting to the general reader but as the stories progress and draw closer the reader who has persevered with the novel begins to realise what the conclusion will be.