Arthur & George

Julian Barnes

Arthur and George were both raised in Victorian England. George is the son of an Anglican minister who immigrated from India and a Scottish mother. Arthur's father was a drunk and ne'er do well, only occasionally helping the family. Mam is the ruling force in his life. George grows up to be a lawyer with a special interest in train law. He is a quiet man with little social contacts. Arthur grows up to be a doctor. He is very active socially. When he can't support himself and his family as a doctor, he starts writing and selling stories about a superior detective, Sherlock Holmes.

George's family starts receiving anonymous harrassment when he is a teen. After a year or two of veiled threats and malicious pranks, everything suddenly stops for an unknown reason. Seven years later they start again. Then someone starts mutilating animals as well. The police arrest George for the crimes despite his protests of innocence. Although his lawyer defends him well in court with evidence that should show his innocence, he is convicted and sent to jail for seven years. After three years he is released with no word of explanation or reason for the early release.

George writes to Sherlock Holmes' creator. Perhaps Sir Doyle can help him prove his innocence so he can return to practice law. Arthur's first wife has just died after a lingering illness. He is in a depression. He finds George's letter before his secretary has had a chance to weed it out. Something in George's plea catches his imagination. He decides to help George and prove the English courts wrong.

Arthur & George is an excellent character driven novel. It is written at a steady pace - neither a fast read nor does it drag. The tone of the novel stays quiet, evoking the feel of the Victorian era that shapes the two men. The novel is based on real events and follows the possible thoughts and emotions of the two men in their respective lives. All the written evidence from George's case are the original documents. Julian Barnes has then written a story around these two men that brings the men, the case, and the era into focus.

Barnes' writing is subtle. We are used to the attitudes of 100 years after these events. It is easy to look at the opinions of the time and either chuckle or wonder why people reacted the way they did. But Arthur & George kept me from being "currently prejudicial". When Arthur's wife is so sick he has an opportunity to have an affair, but he refrains. His Mam raised him honorably. Many men would have taken the opportunity, even in that era (perhaps more so due to the divorce laws) but he doesn't. George doesn't have any ideas of the reasons for his persecution. It isn't until Arthur brings them out that the reader finally understands what probably happened to George.

I also like the way Barnes follows the two men's lives after they part again. After that he keeps the focus on George. The reader gets the quiet perspective from outside the flambouyant man's life. Arthur & George is literature that shouldn't be missed.