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A review by sherwoodreads
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
3.0
Beerbohm was famous during his era for his witty, airy essays and short works of various types. I believe this was his only novel.
There were a number of novels about femme fatales* during that era, after Benson's Dodo, and Hope's (much more witty and readable) Dolly Dialogues--and at the serious end, Henry James' various lapidary, even microscopic looks at females who destroyed men's lives--but this one was meant to be satire. Zuleika, born poor, was an unhappy governess, ignorant and uninterested in academics, and pretty on top of it, so she seldom lasted long at any place. As soon as the house's young master took a look at her, she'd be sent packing . . . but not before one son taught her conjuring.
She soon was world famous for her conjuring act, and rich, but her heart was untouched. She comes to visit an old relative in Oxford, and instantly falls "in love" with a Duke just because he scorns her--as he falls in love with her because she scorns him. Then all of Oxford falls in love with her, and all the young men commit suicide for love.
This was apparently funny at the time. It was not funny to me--it was actually kind of painful, not the suicides of characters with all the depth of kleenex, but because of the Oxford depicted there. It really was the old world, the Oxford Evelyn Waugh, for example, badly wanted to belong to, if only he could have been born a few years earlier and much higher on the social scale then he was. It was Lord Peter Wimsy's Oxford. When you consider that this book came out in 1911, it's difficult not to imagine these swan-like young men sent off to the Somme, a few years later, had they not expired for love of a very, very boring girl with a pretty face.
Three stars for its being interesting as a cultural artifact, but as a story? Meh. A few funny lines, some wit, but most of it very, very dated.
*It could be that Beerbohm was making fun of Mary Sue characters way back in 1911, which idea would almost be enough for another star, but she was still boring to read about.
There were a number of novels about femme fatales* during that era, after Benson's Dodo, and Hope's (much more witty and readable) Dolly Dialogues--and at the serious end, Henry James' various lapidary, even microscopic looks at females who destroyed men's lives--but this one was meant to be satire. Zuleika, born poor, was an unhappy governess, ignorant and uninterested in academics, and pretty on top of it, so she seldom lasted long at any place. As soon as the house's young master took a look at her, she'd be sent packing . . . but not before one son taught her conjuring.
She soon was world famous for her conjuring act, and rich, but her heart was untouched. She comes to visit an old relative in Oxford, and instantly falls "in love" with a Duke just because he scorns her--as he falls in love with her because she scorns him. Then all of Oxford falls in love with her, and all the young men commit suicide for love.
This was apparently funny at the time. It was not funny to me--it was actually kind of painful, not the suicides of characters with all the depth of kleenex, but because of the Oxford depicted there. It really was the old world, the Oxford Evelyn Waugh, for example, badly wanted to belong to, if only he could have been born a few years earlier and much higher on the social scale then he was. It was Lord Peter Wimsy's Oxford. When you consider that this book came out in 1911, it's difficult not to imagine these swan-like young men sent off to the Somme, a few years later, had they not expired for love of a very, very boring girl with a pretty face.
Three stars for its being interesting as a cultural artifact, but as a story? Meh. A few funny lines, some wit, but most of it very, very dated.
*It could be that Beerbohm was making fun of Mary Sue characters way back in 1911, which idea would almost be enough for another star, but she was still boring to read about.