Product Description

As every schoolboy knows, you can fit the whole of England on the Isle of Wight. In Julian Barnes's new novel, the grotesque, visionary tycoon Sir Jack Pitman takes the saying literally and does exactly that. He constructs on the island 'The Project', a vast heritage centre containing everything 'English', from Buck House to Stonehenge, from Manchester United to the White Cliffs of Dover. The project is monstrous, risky and vastly successful. Indeed it gradually begins to rival 'Old' England and threatens to supersede it.

'Both ambitious and serious -- real if you like. Dive at those dump-bins.' Andrew Marr, Observer

'A brilliant, Swiftian fantasy.' Economist

'There is no more intelligent writer on the literary scene. In this novel he is also moving. He has written nothing more poignant and enticing.' John Carey, Sunday Times

'The novel has memorable characters and sentences, but its main impact will be through its penetrating ideas.' John Lanchester, Daily Telegraph

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191402 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Julian Barnes's England, England is a sharp-edged satire of Englishness at the end of the 20th century. The real England is failing--her empire lost, her aspirations to greatness subsiding, her history fading. Megalomaniacal entrepreneur Sir Jack Pitman hits upon the idea of creating an altogether superior, theme-park version of the original on the Isle of Wight (renamed simply the Island). His creative team includes Martha Cochraine, whose own childhood disappointments and unfulfilled dreams Barnes unfolds to the reader in the opening chapters. For a brief moment it looks as if able Martha will outsmart the ruthless Sir Jack, assisted by her grateful, bespectacled lover Paul Harrison (the operation's "ideas catcher"). But this is fantasy, so humble Paul betrays Martha (it would never do for the feisty woman to win after all). She retreats to the real England of faded glory, nostalgic folklore and regret.

In one section of this short novel the theme-park Dr Johnson talks entirely in direct quotations from his distinguished 18th-century counterpart, before being judged insufficiently convincing. The real, we understand, is less compelling than the fake. There are so many cultural allusions per page that the head of even the most enthusiastic English culture snob will spin. --Lisa Jardine

About the Author

Julian Barnes has published eight other novels, Metroland, Before She Met Me, Flaubert's Parrot, Staring at the Sun, A History of the World in 10 and Half Chapters, Talking It Over, The Porcupine and Love, etc ; two books of short stories, Cross Channel and The Lemon Table; and also two collections of essays, Letters from London and Something to Declare. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Midicis (for Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Fimina (for Talking It Over). In 1993 he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation of Hamburg. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Witty, entertaining and brilliant
Barnes' reputation as one of Britain's foremost modern authors is strongly reinforced by this recent work. England, England is the story of one man's successful attempt to turn the Isle of Man into a gigantic theme park containing everything that represents England. He is so rich, and so influential, that this project manages to relocate key English landscapes and even the monarchy. The theme park becomes more and more "English", whilst, meanwhile, England is changing. What is left behind on the mainland in the absence of London Bridge, traditional pubs, the Royal Family, soldiers in bearskin hats, and so forth, is a much slower pace of life. With all foreign visitors now diverted to the Isle of Man, by then a quasi-state more powerful than the country it has emulated, England becomes progressively isolated and retreats within itself. An arcadian revival takes place, with a return to rural living, agriculture, village fetes and simple, uncluttered lifestyles. The natural question this draws us to ask is: "Which one is *really* England?" Barnes' concept is strikingly brilliant, and calls into sharp question the values to which we ascribe a certain country or people -- is what makes a country quintessentially that country the legacy of a rotting jumble of nineteenth-century national rhetoric - Britannia, the Union Jack, Queen and Country-, or is it rather something deeper, that has survived political change in the hearts and minds of its people over the centuries? The portrait of life in England Barnes paints by the end of the novel is so much simpler, so much more pleasant than the busy, noisy, stressful lives we lead today that one almost wishes someone would try to create that Isle of Man themepark. In an age of globalisation where states - Britain and England prime amongst them - are having to reconsider their identities, to redefine what makes them "unique" and what characterises them, England, England is an intelligent and persuasive addition to the literary debate, presented in a very clever and extremely amusing format. Its characters are sharply and wittily constructed and the whole central plot, based around the scheming of the self-made millionaire and the constrast between his public and private personae, will keep all readers entertained. Highly recommended.

A brave attempt by the brilliant non-conformist Barnes.
If you have never read Julian Barnes' work before then this is probably not the book to start with.

Barnes adopts a more 'conventional' novelist's style in this book, though there are a few appearances of more 'Parrot'-like prose. Barnesian analysis of reality, history, knowledge, belief and human emotion continues unabated,though it would seem that for some it gets in the way of 'plot', a typically un-Barnesian vehicle.

If philosophical debate is your thing, then Barnes is your man. If you didn't like this book, then come back to it after dabbling in '10.5 Chapters' and 'Metroland', and it should make more enjoyable reading. If you don't like either of those, pick up a Bill Bryson book and chuckle along with the masses...

Tedious nonsense
It was a real struggle to stick with this book to the end. The combination of uninteresting characters and dull storyline put paid to any enjoyment that might have been found within its pages.

The book is basically the story of Martha, professional cynic. Each of the three parts of the book detail episodes in her life- the short first and last parts are about her childhood and old age respectively, and how her surroundings change with the passage of time - there may be some allegory to be drawn here but I wasn't interested enough to think about it more deeply. The longer middle part chronicles her involvement with the book's other main players- Sir Jack, egotistical self-made multimillionaire, and Paul, wimpy professional yes-man.

The first and last parts are the most interesting, and merit at least a couple of stars. The middle part is dull beyond belief. It's based around Sir Jack's magnum opus- a vast theme park based on the idea of 'England' which takes over the Isle of Wight and becomes more 'England' than 'England' itself, resulting in the downfall of the mainland after the island's independence. There's some heavy-handed philosophising about the nature of 'replica' and 'reality' with the involvement of some minor players to spin out Barnes' amateurish navel-gazing. It's impossible to really care about any of the characters and the theme park, which had the potential to be an interesting story by itself, merely becomes the background to the characters' tedious self-involvement. Even Sir Jack's unusual personal predilections don't hold the interest for any longer than it takes to read about them. On the whole, not recommended.