- Paperback
- Publisher: Mandarin (1 Mar 1991)
- ISBN-10: 074930698X
- ISBN-13: 978-0749306984
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,135,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Zuleika Dobson
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Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Zuleika Dobson", subtitled "An Oxford Love Story" was written by Max Beerbohm in 1911. Though Beerbohm was a prolific caricaturist and essayist, it is his only novel, and in some ways represents a distillate of his highly idiosyncratic talent.
Zuleika, the dazzling offspring of a curate and a circus-rider (Beerbohm took great trouble to contrive appropriate names for all his characters) is the granddaughter of the Warden of Judas College, Oxford. On her first - and possibly only - visit to the city, during Eights Week, her beauty wreaks havoc among the undergraduates, not least the Duke of Dorset, a youth of (even in 1911) anachronistically godlike perfection. Though the novel has been variously interpreted as a satire on snobbery, the herd instinct, war & so forth, the author has said that he only ever intended it as fantasy; & it is in such a spirit that it ought to be approached.
Zuleika, the dazzling offspring of a curate and a circus-rider (Beerbohm took great trouble to contrive appropriate names for all his characters) is the granddaughter of the Warden of Judas College, Oxford. On her first - and possibly only - visit to the city, during Eights Week, her beauty wreaks havoc among the undergraduates, not least the Duke of Dorset, a youth of (even in 1911) anachronistically godlike perfection. Though the novel has been variously interpreted as a satire on snobbery, the herd instinct, war & so forth, the author has said that he only ever intended it as fantasy; & it is in such a spirit that it ought to be approached.
Though a great part of the novel's charm lies in its evocation of a world now vanished - the pre-Great War Oxford of aesthetes and hearties, Max's own fascination with the demi-monde and the music hall - its great genius, and the greatest delight for the reader, lies in the author's own inimitable narrative voice. Beerbohm, as he tells us in an early aside, has been selected by the muse Clio for the purpose of relating the lovely Zuleika's story as fact, and thereafter we see him wholly (even uneasily) aware of the Olympian task that has been laid upon him, trying to reconcile the appropriate flights of Homeric eloquence with the crashing, inarticulate bathos of Edwardian undergraduate idiom, of which he unerringly manages to seek out and present, with a sort of apologetic helplessness, the worst possible examples. Re-reading "Zuleika Dobson" I suddenly saw for the first time exactly what Donna Tartt means in "The Secret History", when she writes that English is, in some ways, just not suited to Greek translation. But has anyone but Beerbohm ever exploited the disparity to such precise comic effect? And yet "Zuleika Dobson" is a profoundly beautiful piece of art as well. "I am never quite certain," says the author at one point, "whether I be or be not quite a gentleman." And the answer, of course, is that he is not, quite - any more than the wild fauns in Saki's drawing-rooms can be made quite respectable by putting them in starched collars and patent shoes - and for the same reason; that Beerbohm is at heart a Pagan, and that despite a few cursory nods in the text to Heaven, and Hell, and the startling number of Old Judasians who become clergymen, Zuleika Dobson is, au fond, a Pagan book, a book in which beauty and art and youth are not mere worldly gauds but ideals in themselves. And it is because of this intrinsic Paganism that in the end the bathos rises above farce to become something of real pity and art in its own right. If you have been an undergraduate, the chances are that you will have been at least half a young Pagan yourself, and Zuleika Dobson will ravish your heart. I genuinely cannot understand how any reviewer can possibly have awarded it fewer than five stars. I'd give it more, if I could.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone with an appreciation of the gentle humour and satire in Evelyn Waugh's novels will thoroughly enjoy this warm and enchanting tale set in Oxford.
Zuleika, as the student population soon finds, is utterly captivating and her suitor, the Duke of Dorset, has a wonderful pomposity that Beerbohm pricks with witty cleverness. The supporting characters are just as credibly drawn, all contributing to a very amusing, thoughtful and entertaining story.
Those who would dismiss it as full of preening self-regard and snobbishness have clearly overlooked Beerbohm's subtle self-deprecation. I'm surprised the book's treacle-treading detractors haven't also pointed out two rather glaring geographical errors in the first few pages (you'll have to find them yourselves).
But, those aside, this novel is rightly a classic.
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed reading this novel. Would recommend it to anyone who likes English satyre. Elegant, delightful prose, fine depiction of Oxford of the 19th century and the life as a student of one of its colleges. The main character is the true "heroine of her times". A very clever, entertaining book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A little gentle escapism !
A very enjoyable read, so far !! will take in on holiday as I'm sure it will absorb me during the endless wait at airports !!
Published 20 months ago by Carrie
zuleika dobson
It is a lampoon on the oxford privileged students of the Edwardian era. If you think of this context it is quite funny BUT it is now dated and instead of good farce it just... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. E. G. Coia
Excellent service
Very good all round service. It was a present for granddaughter and arrived earlier than 'promised' and well in time for the birthday.
Published on 3 Feb 2010 by Granny
Sufi parable of 'mimetic desire'- better than Proust
In Islam, especially Sufi poetry, Zuleikha is the name of Potiphar's wife who falls in love with Joseph. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2009 by windwheel
A wonderfully written satire
An enchanting story that was both tragic and comic at the same time and exquisitely written. One cannot help feeling sorrow for the poor Duke who throws his life away in order to... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2009 by Jane Austen
Unfunny, ridiculous, snobbish rubbish
Even if the notion of Oxford undergraduates drowning themselves en masse out of unrequited love for Zuleika Dobson were funny, which it isn't, the joke wouldn't stretch to 350... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2003 by David Bewers
A Wade Through Treacle
As a character, Zuleika Dobson is one of the most well-rounded, interesting females in modern literature. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2002
a wonderfully satirical tale of the elite
Zuleika Dobson is brimming with perfectly balanced emotion, magic and satire. It is full of bizarre twists and unexpected events, providing a captivating and humorous piece of... Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2001
A hilarious account of an innocent but literal femme fatale
Max Beerbohm dazzles with his ability to stretch his depiction of the brink of a disaster-waiting-to-happen over a whole novel. Read more
Published on 23 July 2001
Wonderful, escapist, romantic fantasy
This book demonstrates everything that is good about literature. It can be read on many levels, from the romantic love story to a reflection on society and values as they were. Read more
Published on 19 July 1999
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