- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Picador; 4 edition (18 Mar 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330373447
- ISBN-13: 978-0330373449
- Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.4 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 269,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
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
Product Description
Julian Barnes's ferociously funny novel about England, about the idea of England and about the search for authenticity and truth amid the fabulation and bogusness that is 'England'. Shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Typically immature Barnes satire which only amuse those with similar limited perception of Englishness. Cleverness provides a few amusing moments but lack of other faculties means that it rarely goes beyond being superficial.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"Old England had lost its history, and therefore, since memory is identity, had lost all sense of itself."
14 May 2007
Format:Paperback
In this witty satire of English traditions, values, and national identity, the eccentric Sir Jack Pitman gathers a staff of "forward-thinking" consultants and young executives to create the ultimate theme park. Sir Jack intends to relocate (or recreate, if he must) all of England's important tourist sites in one location--the Isle of Wight--creating a "Disneyland" of British history. Time is fluid here--Robin Hood and his band inhabit the woodland while Dr. Samuel Johnson holds forth in the local pub. The Battle of Britain is reenacted while shepherds and farmers cultivate the countryside using the oldest of tools.
The "selling" of the theme park idea to the king, who will appear at functions, and to the Houses of Parliament, which Pitman hopes to move there, is no less ambitious than his plan to challenge the thirteenth century purchase of the Isle of Wight by England so that he himself can govern it as a separate country. Sir Jack hires Martha Cochrane, an ambitious woman nearing forty, to be his primary assistant, along with a cast of eccentric characters, all of whom are determined to produce a new, more compact "England" to which tourists will be drawn in droves.
Throughout this wickedly complex satire, author Julian Barnes examines what constitutes "Englishness," raising issues of what how Britons define reality, what role the Church of England plays in real life, how important to present life are the "roots" of ancient history, and more personal subjects, such as how one defines salvation, what constitutes love, and whether integrity can exist within a business environment. Naturally, the concept of the theme park and its reality do not always mesh. The fake smugglers become real smugglers, Robin Hood and his Merry Men really do rob from the rich, and Dr. Johnson turns out to be an inebriated cynic who refuses to socialize at the pub.
Despite the intriguing concept and the pointed satire, this is a very "talky" novel, with little real action. Conferences in the boardroom or Sir Jack's office vastly outnumber scenes in which something actually happens, and the author's self-conscious wit and arch observations pall in the course of the more than four hundred pages. Sir Jack, Martha Cochrane, and her lover Paul Harrison never develop enough human qualities to add genuine humor to the dark cynicism of the satire, and the reader often feels a bit patronized--left out of the joke. Ultimately, Barnes shows the cycle of history repeating as he fantasizes about the future. An idea more interesting in concept than in execution. n Mary Whipple
The "selling" of the theme park idea to the king, who will appear at functions, and to the Houses of Parliament, which Pitman hopes to move there, is no less ambitious than his plan to challenge the thirteenth century purchase of the Isle of Wight by England so that he himself can govern it as a separate country. Sir Jack hires Martha Cochrane, an ambitious woman nearing forty, to be his primary assistant, along with a cast of eccentric characters, all of whom are determined to produce a new, more compact "England" to which tourists will be drawn in droves.
Throughout this wickedly complex satire, author Julian Barnes examines what constitutes "Englishness," raising issues of what how Britons define reality, what role the Church of England plays in real life, how important to present life are the "roots" of ancient history, and more personal subjects, such as how one defines salvation, what constitutes love, and whether integrity can exist within a business environment. Naturally, the concept of the theme park and its reality do not always mesh. The fake smugglers become real smugglers, Robin Hood and his Merry Men really do rob from the rich, and Dr. Johnson turns out to be an inebriated cynic who refuses to socialize at the pub.
Despite the intriguing concept and the pointed satire, this is a very "talky" novel, with little real action. Conferences in the boardroom or Sir Jack's office vastly outnumber scenes in which something actually happens, and the author's self-conscious wit and arch observations pall in the course of the more than four hundred pages. Sir Jack, Martha Cochrane, and her lover Paul Harrison never develop enough human qualities to add genuine humor to the dark cynicism of the satire, and the reader often feels a bit patronized--left out of the joke. Ultimately, Barnes shows the cycle of history repeating as he fantasizes about the future. An idea more interesting in concept than in execution. n Mary Whipple
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Provocative perspective
In England, England, Julian Barnes inhabits similar territory to that of Unswaorth's Losing Nelson, but humorously. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2007 by Philip Spires
A promising satire let down by it's loss of focus
The idea is fairly simple.... Recreate England on the Isle of Wight. The problem with the book is the fact the prose fails to hide effectively that Barnes is ranting- Satires like... Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2006 by Whyareyouonyourowntonight
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... Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2002 by NumberSix
A funny satire which hits most of it's targets.
England, England is a strange book which aims to cut through the whole myth of an English national identity. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2002 by David Jesudason (davidjesudason@hotmail.com)
Contrived, self-important, wannabe-intellectual muddle
Take one great, great idea (England as a themepark). Take another great idea (a Baudrillardian take on said themepark). Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2001
Julian
Julian Barnes... you have managed to capture the spirit of the English in one novel. I won't say if that is a good thing... or a bad thing!
Published on 21 Mar 2001
An interesting satire and social commentary
Barnes's "England, England" is a humorous novel about historical and personal identity, and how both can be lost through overidealization of the past. Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2000 by willsullivan@aol.com
Nice cover
"a reader from scotland" sums this tiresome book up well, and I have just given up after 50 pages. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2000 by Clive Pacey
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... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2000
Too clever by half
If I weren't so obsessive about finishing books I've started, I would have given up after 50 pages. I can see what the author is trying to do, but I found the writing too... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2000
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