Barnes doesn’t hesitate to reveal George’s Parsi origins and teach us quickly about his duality, simultaneously set apart from his rural surroundings by his skin, and yet as English as the Queen herself. Only when Arthur’s literary creation is named does Barnes let his famous last name slip, but Barnes knows he’s not fooling us – he let us see who Arthur was beforehand. We follow Arthur as he becomes the Conan Doyle of legend, from success to success, starting with that shadowed companion of his, Sherlock Holmes. We begin with both Arthur and George in childhood, and a curious trick of Barnes’ – setting Arthur’s narrative in the past tense while George’s lingers vividly in the present – sets them apart immediately, making Arthur’s story seem like a thing of history while George’s feels like we’re following alongside, heart in throat about the troubles we can feel up ahead.

Suffice it to say that the Arthur in question is none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the George is a young, serious man named George, from the Midlands, and his life becomes inseparably linked with Conan Doyle’s. You’ll only render moot the slow care with which Barnes reveals his intent throughout the first half of the novel. Don’t do what I did – don’t go looking up their identities and connection to each other before Barnes unravels it for you, in the brilliant way he does. Barnes has created a work of historical fiction out of the lives of real people. Nonetheless, I wasn’t prepared for the mature, measured force of Arthur & George.Īny novel that’s titled with two first names is going to give you a good sense of the players involved – but a small caveat, if I may. What’s more, I loved them both very much (which is more than I can say about the slightly anemic Wonder Boys). I’ve read A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters. I think I’ll be saying the same thing about Julian Barnes’ latest novel, Arthur & George. I remember telling a friend, after finishing Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, that Wonder Boys had not prepared me for this brilliance.

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Julian barnes arthur and george review