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A review by ben_miller
Zuleika Dobson: Or, An Oxford Love Story by Max Beerbohm
3.0
Zuleika Dobson - lady prestidigitator and Helen of Troy reincarnate - arrives at the Oxford train station one afternoon, and over the next few days wreaks unfathomable havoc and destruction, almost without trying.
I found her story equal parts hilarious and annoying, fascinatingly experimental, self-aware, disturbing, claustrophobic, and beautiful. In other words, there's no simple way to slap 3 stars on this puppy and move on. On the one hand it's a novel of manners, quintessentially British, on the other hand, it's a parody of such novels. And on the OTHER other hand, there are ghosts, supernatural portents, excursions to Mount Olympus...and there is death. So much death.
Perhaps the greatest thing about the book is the freedom with which it was written. The author was unafraid to take it in the most bizarre directions, to interpose himself, to argue with the reader, to claim divine powers, and to employ a vocabulary that even for the time would have been comically arcane.
All that said, I was relieved to finish it. I would recommend it if only because it seems to be a one-of-a-kind experience, and who can say no to that?
I found her story equal parts hilarious and annoying, fascinatingly experimental, self-aware, disturbing, claustrophobic, and beautiful. In other words, there's no simple way to slap 3 stars on this puppy and move on. On the one hand it's a novel of manners, quintessentially British, on the other hand, it's a parody of such novels. And on the OTHER other hand, there are ghosts, supernatural portents, excursions to Mount Olympus...and there is death. So much death.
Perhaps the greatest thing about the book is the freedom with which it was written. The author was unafraid to take it in the most bizarre directions, to interpose himself, to argue with the reader, to claim divine powers, and to employ a vocabulary that even for the time would have been comically arcane.
All that said, I was relieved to finish it. I would recommend it if only because it seems to be a one-of-a-kind experience, and who can say no to that?