Product Description

Arthur and George grow up worlds and miles apart in late 19th-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh, and George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, and then a writer; George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, George remains in hardworking obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events, which made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. With a mixture of detailed research and vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings to life not just this long-forgotten case, but the inner lives of these two very different men. The reader sees them both with stunning clarity, and almost inhabits them as they face the vicissitudes of their lives, whether in the dock hearing a verdict of guilty, or trying to live an honourable life while desperately in love with another woman. 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; about what we think, what we believe, and what we know. Julian Barnes has long been recognised as one of Britain's most remarkable writers. While those already familiar with his work will enjoy its elegance, its wit, its profound wisdom about the human condition, "Arthur & George" will surely find him an entirely new audience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52471 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Released on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

The Good Book Guide
"intriguing"

From the Publisher
A brilliant novel that will take Julian Barnes sales to a new level: his most accessible, most heartfelt novel ever.

About the Author
Julian Barnes is the author of eight novels, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, A History of the World in 10 Chapters, England, England and Love Etc., and two collections of short stories, Cross Channel and The Lemon Table.

Customer Reviews

Arthur & George, Julian Barnes
I bought this on a whim. Longlisted (now shortlisted) for the Booker, a very nice cover, an interesting sounding plot...Boy, am I glad I did. I enjoyed this book tremendously. I've never read Barnes before, and Im glad I've put that right. This is a gripping story of two men: Arthur Conan Doyle, and George Edalji. The first half of the book centres on the two men's passage through life, from childhood to the relative firmament of adulthood. Actually, this is the most gripping half of the book. Doyle...well, we know who Doyle is. Edalji is the son of a local clergyman, and grows up into a relatively sucessful solicitor. Eventually the two men's paths cross as they're both swept up - in entirely different ways - by a series of events known as The Great Wyrely Outrages.

Arthur & George is a super book for two reasons: Barnes' accomplished, brilliant writing, the tone of which is matched faultlessly to the time-period concerned, and the portrait of the two main characters. Indeed, this is the novels central triumph, the presentation and investigation of the psyche's of both men, Arthur and George. George is, actually, by far the more interesting of the two figures. Son of an immigrant who is now a respected vicar, he's largely isolated at school, a solemn lad who largely misunderstands (or just plain doesn't get) the mysterious behaviour of his fellow children (and, later, men), and turns into a largely isolated adult as well. This makes him an easy target when a series of poison-pen letters, graffiti and other strange incidents start happening in the village of Great Wyreley, culminating in a series of cattle "rippings". He refuses, though, to accept that what happens to him has anything to do with his race.

As I say, Barnes' picture of the two men is brilliant. George is a restrained, wonderfully frustrating character (in the way of all humans), and he bears his fate with a great sense of dignity, even though he, or so it seems to the world, has none left. Arthur is fascinating too, but less so, and Barnes does get a little distracted half-way through when he concerns himself with Doyle's courting activities. This isn't an uninteresting strand, and does give nice insight into the character, but given that the book is a tad long, in the end, this could have been excised nicely and made for an even more powerful book.

Arthur and George is VERY highly recommended. It's easy to read, intelligent, and Barnes shows a clear and remarkable insight into the minds of his two characters. I have to wonder, though, if it quite deserves the Booker...somehow, excellent though the whole thing is, I don't think so.

Still thinking about it weeks later
Short listed for the Booker and certainly the best read of all six books, I found it compelling. The two characters are very well drawn. They are different from each other in almost every way and yet you feel sympathy and interest for them whilst at the same time understanding their flaws.

It almost reads like a thriller. You are so keen to find out what happens next and yet the events in the book are also treated with a comfortable safeness that is the very essence of what it feels like to live in England: big issues are there but they are normalised to hold them at bay. You feel comforted by the normality but irritated at the same time.

Barnes tackles the notion of 'how things look' and 'how things are' really well. Given that we live in such a celebrity obsessed age that only cares about how things look and believes there is truth in how things appear, then the ideas the book tackles are very relevant and real. Yet somehow the whole thing is done by telling you a really good story with complex intellectual ideas carefully woven into the narrative.

I had to ration myself the last hundred pages because I was enjoying reading it so much and particularly the chapter where Arthur goes to see Anson(?) - the best chapter in the book!It's also very atmospheric, you really do experience the smell and feel of Edwardian England.

Just my cup of tea
Quintessentially English as a good pot of tea, Arthur & George can be sipped down pleasantly as it tips between its two protangonists and their very different lives. And what figure more English could one choose than Arthur Conan Doyle, creator and here it seems imitator, of the great Sherlock Holmes? The novel's based quite tightly on historical events and reads as if it's ideally designed to be enjoyed without too much prior knowledge, so I won't give too much away. Suffice to say that George is a solicitor accused of a crime he almost certainly did not commit, while the reknowned Arthur becomes his unlikely champion. The writing is slow and mellow as you might expect from such a fine brew, and if it has a downside, it's that its faith to real events makes it slightly predictable. Still, there's a lively bout of leaf gazing in the seances of its final pages to keep you guessing. A worthy Booker nominee, and recommended (lays cup to saucer with a chink).