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sherwoodreads's review against another edition
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.
nnikif's review against another edition
4.0
Цинично, но виртуозно и несмотря на фантастичность интонации часто правдиво. Напоминает то Гоголя, то Уэса Андерсона, то психоделический мюзикл, то фильм Алена Рене.
Все утонули. Это спойлер.
Все утонули. Это спойлер.
readwithrichard's review against another edition
5.0
Like a glass of champagne as a novel. Light and sweet.
sarahrussell's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
minusfigures's review against another edition
5.0
Greek tragedy. Edwardian absurdity. Modern celebrity.
sam_bizar_wilcox's review against another edition
3.0
I think this book is primed for a reparative reading that emphasizes how the book skewers the British elite and the academy. I watched Triangle of Sadness recently, and I think this Edwardian satire could be read as a forebear to the eat-the-rich cinema that has been popping up as of late. Zuleika herself This is a novel that I think could be tackled or adapted for contemporary audiences.
The novel, which follows Zuleika, a counterfeit conjurer who is, in some ways, a fin-de-siecle influencer, casts this femme fatale as a harbinger of destruction. No one can help but fall in love with her, and she cannot help but feel disinterested in anyone who reciprocates her affections. Poisonous stew.
And poison is the right word for the arrogance and self-destruction of the young men in her wake. Zuleika is like a Helen of Troy; her beauty inspires men to commit sacrifice. Unlike Helen, Zuleika's men just commit suicide. In so doing, Beerbohm eviscerates the young, pompous chauvinist who studies at Oxford. His primary target is the Duke, a vain and egomaniacal man who cannot imagine not getting what he wants (and so dies in retaliation to Zuleika's rejection).
There's a lot here that works in the present: it speaks to the image and status-obsessed culture of the online world, the decadence of the 1% (it's fitting, for example, that Zuleika books a ticket to Cambridge by the novel's end; the book takes shots at the denizens of England's most elite institutions because Beerbohm seems to intuit that these are mere houses of pageantry.
Is Zuleika Dobson timeless, or even well-written? Hardly. But it's a smart farce that aims it arrows at the hoarders of power, and there's something gleefully wonderful about seeing an entire city destroyed because of one woman. Is Zuleika Dobson a "good for her" novel? This honor, we should grant it.
TLDR: They fell in love with her; she felled a whole city.
The novel, which follows Zuleika, a counterfeit conjurer who is, in some ways, a fin-de-siecle influencer, casts this femme fatale as a harbinger of destruction. No one can help but fall in love with her, and she cannot help but feel disinterested in anyone who reciprocates her affections. Poisonous stew.
And poison is the right word for the arrogance and self-destruction of the young men in her wake. Zuleika is like a Helen of Troy; her beauty inspires men to commit sacrifice. Unlike Helen, Zuleika's men just commit suicide. In so doing, Beerbohm eviscerates the young, pompous chauvinist who studies at Oxford. His primary target is the Duke, a vain and egomaniacal man who cannot imagine not getting what he wants (and so dies in retaliation to Zuleika's rejection).
There's a lot here that works in the present: it speaks to the image and status-obsessed culture of the online world, the decadence of the 1% (it's fitting, for example, that Zuleika books a ticket to Cambridge by the novel's end; the book takes shots at the denizens of England's most elite institutions because Beerbohm seems to intuit that these are mere houses of pageantry.
Is Zuleika Dobson timeless, or even well-written? Hardly. But it's a smart farce that aims it arrows at the hoarders of power, and there's something gleefully wonderful about seeing an entire city destroyed because of one woman. Is Zuleika Dobson a "good for her" novel? This honor, we should grant it.
TLDR: They fell in love with her; she felled a whole city.
rtherese's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Brilliant concept of story and character, but falters at points throughout the book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
alisonjfields's review against another edition
3.0
This is a very funny book about a literal femme fatale. A droll trifle best enjoyed over a couple of hours (and maybe a G&T)on a warm afternoon.
jetia13's review against another edition
4.0
so ridiculous - i liked it a lot. not sure if that's me being weird. there is a break in the middle where the narrator talks directly to the reader which was weird, but that's my only real complaint.
hrlukz's review against another edition
« The Americans were, to a sensitive observer, the most troublesome- as being the most troubled- of the whole lot. The Duke was not one of those Englishmen who fling, or care to hear flung, cheap sneers at America. Whenever anyone in his presence said that America was not large in area, he would firmly maintain that it was. He held too, in his enlightened way, that Americans have a perfect right to exist. But he did often find himself wishing Mr. Rhodes had not enabled them to exercise that right in Oxford. »