Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
Dec. 12th, 2009 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Arthur and George grew up worlds apart in late nineteenth-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains a hard-working obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages.
With a mixture of intense research and vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings to life not just this long-forgotten case, but the inner workings of these two very different men. This is a novel in which the events of a hundred years ago constantly set off contemporary echoes, a novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality and race. Most of all it is a profound and moving meditation on the fateful differences between what we believe, what we know and what we can prove.
In ordinary circumstances, George Edalji and Arthur Conan Doyle would never have met. George was a solicitor in Birmingham, born to a Parsee father who converted to Christianity and a Scots mother, he grew up in the vicarage in a small Staffordshire village, his mixed race status setting him apart from the other children. His ambitions in life were modest – developing an expertise in railway law and perhaps marriage. All this changed when someone launches a series of horrific attacks against horses in the village where he lives and he finds himself convicted of the offence.
Arthur Conan Doyle was born to reduced but still genteel circumstances in Edinburgh – his mother forced to take in lodgers as his father succumbed to alcoholism. Raised to be aware of his aristocratic family history, he qualified as a doctor and worked as an optomologist while his writing career took off. Married to Touie, his comfortable world is rocked by Jean Leakie, a bold woman, younger than him with whom he falls desperately in love and engages in a chaste affair. When Touie is diagnosed with tuberculosis, Doyle is wracked with guilt for his affair so when George writes to him, seeking his support in his campaign to obtain a pardon from the Home Office, Doyle sees an opportunity to ease his conscience and energetically takes up the cause.
Barnes has written a beautifully restrained character portrait of two historical figures – one famous, the other more obscure – drawing parallels between their lives. The writing is flawless and Barnes strikes just the right note of distance in his narration. Doyle’s energy and old-fashioned values shine through, but at the same time he’s humanised by the realisation of his own frailties. In contrast Edalji is a man who doesn’t quite fit in and fails to see it, an oddball who is hampered by his skin colour.
The story is slowly told, but never fails to absorb the attention and the way in which Barnes uses genuine material from the time is fascinating and although there are times when it would have been useful to have a signal as to which year the action is taking place in, there is nevertheless a real sense of period at all times. It’s easy to see why this was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2005 as it’s an extraordinary book that’s well worth a few hours of your time.
The Verdict:
An absorbing character study that draws on a true story to frame its plot, this is an absorbing character study with a real sense of period and well worth a read.
Arthur and George grew up worlds apart in late nineteenth-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains a hard-working obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages.
With a mixture of intense research and vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings to life not just this long-forgotten case, but the inner workings of these two very different men. This is a novel in which the events of a hundred years ago constantly set off contemporary echoes, a novel about low crime and high spirituality, guilt and innocence, identity, nationality and race. Most of all it is a profound and moving meditation on the fateful differences between what we believe, what we know and what we can prove.
In ordinary circumstances, George Edalji and Arthur Conan Doyle would never have met. George was a solicitor in Birmingham, born to a Parsee father who converted to Christianity and a Scots mother, he grew up in the vicarage in a small Staffordshire village, his mixed race status setting him apart from the other children. His ambitions in life were modest – developing an expertise in railway law and perhaps marriage. All this changed when someone launches a series of horrific attacks against horses in the village where he lives and he finds himself convicted of the offence.
Arthur Conan Doyle was born to reduced but still genteel circumstances in Edinburgh – his mother forced to take in lodgers as his father succumbed to alcoholism. Raised to be aware of his aristocratic family history, he qualified as a doctor and worked as an optomologist while his writing career took off. Married to Touie, his comfortable world is rocked by Jean Leakie, a bold woman, younger than him with whom he falls desperately in love and engages in a chaste affair. When Touie is diagnosed with tuberculosis, Doyle is wracked with guilt for his affair so when George writes to him, seeking his support in his campaign to obtain a pardon from the Home Office, Doyle sees an opportunity to ease his conscience and energetically takes up the cause.
Barnes has written a beautifully restrained character portrait of two historical figures – one famous, the other more obscure – drawing parallels between their lives. The writing is flawless and Barnes strikes just the right note of distance in his narration. Doyle’s energy and old-fashioned values shine through, but at the same time he’s humanised by the realisation of his own frailties. In contrast Edalji is a man who doesn’t quite fit in and fails to see it, an oddball who is hampered by his skin colour.
The story is slowly told, but never fails to absorb the attention and the way in which Barnes uses genuine material from the time is fascinating and although there are times when it would have been useful to have a signal as to which year the action is taking place in, there is nevertheless a real sense of period at all times. It’s easy to see why this was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2005 as it’s an extraordinary book that’s well worth a few hours of your time.
The Verdict:
An absorbing character study that draws on a true story to frame its plot, this is an absorbing character study with a real sense of period and well worth a read.
