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Making History

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 3,913 ratings · 259 reviews

In Making History, Stephen Fry has bitten off a rather meaty chunk by tackling an at first deceptively simple premise: What if Hitler had never been born? An unquestionable improvement, one would reason--and so an earnest history grad student and an aging German physicist idealistically undertake to bring this about by preventing Adolf's conception. And with their success...more

Paperback, 575 pages

Published August 5th 2004 by Arrow (first published January 1st 1996)

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Feb 13, 2009 Katie Muffett rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone (including you)

My favourite Fry book. His jumps between narratives and playful use of various lit devices is only possible for Stephen Fry. As usual, you instantly adore the protagonist and watch his every fumbling step with the same paternal-yet-slightly-benevolently-lecherous gaze as Fry. The action in this is perfectly paced, the history glitters with colour, the humanity is raw, the politics aren't preachy or overdone, the love is true, and the voices are clear and exact. Above all of course, is the humour...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, read-in-2013

This book is about Michael Young, a PhD candidate in the field of history, and Leo Zuckermann, a professor. They both attend Cambridge and have a big interest in World War II, and in Hitler especially. Young is writing his thesis about Hitler's life, while Zuckermann creates a time machine. When these two people meet, they decide to eliminate one of the biggest evils that this world has ever known: Hitler. They succeed, but what they did not know is that the world may had been better off with Hi...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Hugh Malcolm rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book started well enough, young chap at Cambridge (Fry's alma mater) immersed in the history of Hitler, working towards spending his life at Cambridge in a paid capacity, is having a tough time with his hard-nosed scientist girlfriend who finally leaves him (I found her more interesting than our hero, stronger, and more capable of carrying a story, and was sorry to see her go). Young man makes a hash of his thesis, dissertation, whatever, by being way too inventive for historical research, b...more The book started well enough, young chap at Cambridge (Fry's alma mater) immersed in the history of Hitler, working towards spending his life at Cambridge in a paid capacity, is having a tough time with his hard-nosed scientist girlfriend who finally leaves him (I found her more interesting than our hero, stronger, and more capable of carrying a story, and was sorry to see her go). Young man makes a hash of his thesis, dissertation, whatever, by being way too inventive for historical research, but bumps (literally) into a physics prof. who catches sight of his subject matter, becomes very excited, and shows our young hero why. For his own reasons, he too is obsessed with Hitler and is working on a way to change the course of history, basically to assuage his own familial guilt. With the young man's detailed knowledge of Hitler's early life, the physics professor's project becomes much easier. And so these two set about making sure Hitler is never born. Fry's idea is that mass events will happen no matter who, or who is not, there...they will simply be somewhat different. Therefore, even without Hitler, the basic impulse of the time is achieved through a different cast of characters. Only worse. That was interesting, interesting enough to keep going with the story. The writing was a bit clever-clever, but not too clever, actually I expected more from such a celebrated wit (no Oscar Wilde here)...and towards the end became rather sophomoric, as did Fry's completely unnecessary descent into an alternative love story way out of character for our young hero, even understanding that he too changed when the world changed. It wasn't necessary for the story, just seemed sort of stuck on as an amusement/fantasy for Fry. In fact, the last fifty pages were juvenile and rushed. In the hands of deeper thinker and a better sci-fi writer, this might have been very good. But it petered out along the way as Fry's grasp of his material also petered out. He really didn't know what to do with everyone when they'd achieved their goal, so thrashed his way out in a very unlikely comic book fashion.

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Nov 05, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer, best, american, english

You know, there were issues with this book. It wasn't perfect by any means (Rapidly Demoted Woman issues and general marginalisation of women. Also no POC. Might be other issues, but it's been a couple of years since I read it) but I actually loved this like few books I've ever read before.

Have any of you guys listened to Chimamanda Adichie's 'Single Story' on TED? Because I feel this book resonates with what she's saying. It is, in my [admittedly not massively extensive] experience, not at all...more You know, there were issues with this book. It wasn't perfect by any means (Rapidly Demoted Woman issues and general marginalisation of women. Also no POC. Might be other issues, but it's been a couple of years since I read it) but I actually loved this like few books I've ever read before.

Have any of you guys listened to Chimamanda Adichie's 'Single Story' on TED? Because I feel this book resonates with what she's saying. It is, in my [admittedly not massively extensive] experience, not at all easy to find a book with queer protagonists that doesn't end up at either extreme end of the spectrum: in MISERY!1!! territory or in fetished gay Eroticlandia. It isn't easy to find books that portray queer relationships that aren't abnormal, that aren't tokenistic sub-plots, where there doesn't have to be a huge amount of conflict for their relationship to exist, where it doesn't have to be ALL ABOUT THE SEX ALL THE TIME BECAUSE QUEER PEOPLE? ALL ABOUT THE SEX, and where you can just feel, for once, normal.

And for me, this was what Making History represented. Yes it had interesting things to say about what if...? alternate histories. Yes it had a pretty bizarre and interesting time-travel thing going on. But more than that, for the first time ever (for me, at least), here was a book that didn't politicise a queer relationship. That broke out of the Single Story mould and had an ending that just felt right.

Obviously, dealing with (view spoiler) and being set in an alternate brutal society for most of the novel, minorities aren't utopianly represented. But Michael and Steve's relationship (which admittedly develops pretty late on and Michael's sudden realisation that he likes guys too seemed a bit suspect) isn't clouded with prejudice, despair and angst, but with optimism, genuinely sweet and charming moments and, crucially, (view spoiler). You know, the kind of uplifting romances that straight people have access to whenever they feel like it?

People can scoff and deride the novel's lack of structure towards the end all they want (and not without cause, it must be said), but books like this are rare. They are a quiet whisper of happiness and optimism being drowned out by a crowd alternately melancholy and gung-ho (OMG THE PECS!). These books help shape your identity, no matter what age you are when you read them, and when the majority of the literature available about you either enforces the idea you should be out shagging everything that moves or says that that no matter how much you shag/love/enjoy life, things will always fail in the end, it's not hard to see why some people, to take myself as an example, hardly even bother with gay lit. It just isn't applicable to people like me (you know, the people whose sex drives are not on turbo-speed) and if I want to feel shit about who I am, well, I don't have to waste time reading a Novel of Doom to do that.

There need to be more books like this. And they need to be the queer books that people tout, not the latest crap about hot, hot boys and their washboard stomachs and unquenchable lust (ofc, there are different issues for lesbian, bisexual and trans* books — this is not to be taken as a statement for all queer identities) or Yet Another Story of Woe.

So I loved this book. It made me feel like I existed too, and what's more, it made me feel hopeful. I remember crying for quite a while after finishing it because I'd been looking for something like this without knowing it for a long time. Would I recommend it for extreme daring of plot and literary avant-garde-ness? Possibly not. But for a well-written (Fry's prose is lovely), engaging read that gives queer men A Different Story — which is an achievement in itself — this is the first book I think of. (less)

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Jun 08, 2008 adventurat rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: 2008, fiction

This amazing novel is a blend of science fiction, history, and time travel, and I thought it brilliant. If you're over the age of sixteen, chances are that you have spent a minute or two - in school or outside of it - pondering what our world would be like if the Germans had won World War II, or if Adolf Hitler had never been born, and that's exactly what this novel is about. Fry explores a spectrum of potential realities: historical, political, scientific, cultural, and sexual, and his speculat...more

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Jun 28, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I heard the premise behind this book I thought I would really enjoy it. It was ok, but honestly i think I expected so much more. It was clever and inriguing but I still think Fry could have done more with it. Without adding spoilers, I think I can tell you that the idea is that 2 academics (through the magic of a time machine of sorts) change history and try to erase Hitler. Wouldn't the world be a better place? Well you'll have to read it to find out. Maybe its just me, but I would have li...more

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Aug 27, 2007 Shelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, historical

Slow to get started, but once the set up ended (around page 150), it got completely awesome and very interesting. Michael and Leo try to fix the world by making it so that Hitler was never born, except the world that results is even worse.

I loved the glimpses of the technology in the alternate world. I think the premise that the world ends up in a perpetual state of the 1950s is fascinating. I liked how Michael and Steve's relationship evolved, although I'd have liked to see a bit more of it. I...more

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Oct 15, 2007 Korynn rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: time travel romance

Shelves: romance

Mr Fry's literary style has always been clever, with his characters overflowing with dry comments and witticisms. This novel is hard to place, definitely fiction, with a definite time-travel storyline and a romantic love story stuffed in at the end, dubiously believable. But it is enjoyable, if a bit boggling at times with the different modes of writing, switching from the past to the future to the alternate future to diary to character to movie script (which is possibly the most annoying and ye...more

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Nov 24, 2011 Haje rated it 3 of 5 stars

Making History, first published in 1996, is a book written by Stephen Fry, and is essentially a long and thorough answer to the question If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?.

The book is a piece of fiction writing, 600-odd pages long, and is an unusual novel indeed. It interweaves a set of stories: A young history student’s doctoral thesis, a historical account from the trenches of the first world war, and the main story-line, set partially in New Jersey, and partially in Camb...more Making History, first published in 1996, is a book written by Stephen Fry, and is essentially a long and thorough answer to the question If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?.

The book is a piece of fiction writing, 600-odd pages long, and is an unusual novel indeed. It interweaves a set of stories: A young history student’s doctoral thesis, a historical account from the trenches of the first world war, and the main story-line, set partially in New Jersey, and partially in Cambridge, England.

In Making History, Fry explores the implications of time travel in a surprisingly non-science-fiction type way: Whereas most time-travel stories require a significant amount of suspending disbelief, Making History is a far simpler story.

Making History is the account of Michael Young, the above-mentioned history student, who meets up with a physics professor who bears a white-hot hatred for everything related to the Nazi party. Throughout the story, it becomes clear that the professor’s father was in Auschwitz – his greatest wish is to rewrite history, to make sure that Adolf Hitler is never born. Young – who slowly grows to realise that a historian may come in quite handy when attempting to re-write history – joins the team, and together they modify a machine (invented by the professor, designed to be able to observe the past), into a time machine.

The story flows easily, occasionally (disobedient to the normal format of novels of this type) in film-script format, more frequently in the more familiar third person narrative. For people who are familiar with Fry’s other work – in particular his somewhat heteroclite sense of humour – the book will carry no great surprises.

Making History is well-written, with a few Ian Banks-esque twists in the plot, captivating dialogue, some stimulating thoughts on time travel. There are many better books in circulation, and while this one has its moments, it wouldn’t be at the top of my recommendations list. It is, however, worth picking up for a few giggles and to kill a few hours on a long flight, or curled up trying to will a cold winter day to pass by.
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May 09, 2013 Socialbookshelves.com rated it 4 of 5 stars

You'd expect Stephen Fry, the eccentrically British comedy star and host of ecclectic general knowledge show Q.I., to know quite a bit about literature, and Making History, his third novel, is no disappointment.

Loosely speaking, the story is about a young student called Michael Young, who teams up with an elderly physicist to re-write history. The mismatched pair attempt to stop Hitler's birth, creating a more effective Führer in the process.

And as you'd expect with Stephen Fry, the whole thing...more You'd expect Stephen Fry, the eccentrically British comedy star and host of ecclectic general knowledge show Q.I., to know quite a bit about literature, and Making History, his third novel, is no disappointment.

Loosely speaking, the story is about a young student called Michael Young, who teams up with an elderly physicist to re-write history. The mismatched pair attempt to stop Hitler's birth, creating a more effective Führer in the process.

And as you'd expect with Stephen Fry, the whole thing is meticulously researched - apart from Rudolf Gloder, Hitler's replacement, all of the historical characters are real. Many other events in the novel are based on historical fact, and even Fry's depiction of Princeton is based on personal experience, though he argues that if he did make a geographical or technical error in describing it, he has the "somewhat slippery excuse that the Princeton described in Making History is a Princeton that dwells in an alternate reality."

But sadly, and quite surprisingly, the novel contains a small number of basic grammatical errors, of which I spent twenty fruitless minutes trying to rediscover. My copy was a third edition, too - I get the feeling they were introduced by an overzealous editor, as Fry isn't the type to butcher the English language.

Interestingly, certain sections of the novel are written as a screenplay - at first, I thought it was just a gimmick, an attempt at differentiation by mixing different genres together. It quickly becomes apparent, though, that it's actually a plot device intended to convey a lot of action in a short space of time. It also has the added advantage of making you feel like a strong reader as you get through twenty pages in five minutes.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot, 'cause I don't want to ruin it for you when you get around to reading it. Suffice to say that it's a strong novel, filled with particles of Fry's signature wit. Writing about Hitler has become somewhat of a cliche for modern writers, but Fry does it well and avoids the common pitfall of having an elderly Jew save young Adolf's live as a junior.

Quite the opposite, in fact. In a way...(less)

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Nov 21, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lusfaf-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I thought this novel had an interesting concept but ultimately I felt it failed somewhat in the execution and the detail. The basic conceit is that, at the University of Cambridge in 1996, a postgraduate student in history meets a professor of physics who wants to travel back in time and kill Hitler due to his personal connection to the events at Auschwitz. The main thrust of the plot makes sense; killing Hitler doesn't create the clean cutoff for which the main characters hope and the novel tac...more I thought this novel had an interesting concept but ultimately I felt it failed somewhat in the execution and the detail. The basic conceit is that, at the University of Cambridge in 1996, a postgraduate student in history meets a professor of physics who wants to travel back in time and kill Hitler due to his personal connection to the events at Auschwitz. The main thrust of the plot makes sense; killing Hitler doesn't create the clean cutoff for which the main characters hope and the novel tackles that with aplomb. However, I had multiple issues with the book.

Firstly, and most obviously, is the writing style. I like Stephen Fry but there were too many points during this novel where the turn of phrase was so obviously contrived that it jerked me out of the immersion, and the chapters where Fry decides to write a movie script instead of a novel are just plain annoying.

Secondly, there are multiple facets of what happens that don't make sense. The most minor of these that I noticed is a postgraduate at Cambridge turning in a thesis that contains sections of fiction, which bridge the chapters. Speaking as a postgraduate student, this was so far beyond the realm of believability. There is no way that a budding academic, who has been reading papers and similar texts throughout his time in academia, would be under the impression that this was a good idea. Now, I'm a physicist and not a historian, so perhaps my view isn't accurate and most historians really do get through a PhD without doing any significant research; but I highly doubt it (I know historians who work damn hard).

Then there's the stuff in the alternate future that Fry constructs. So homophobia and racism abound in the 1990s America that is constructed in opposition to the German superpower. Really? Why? What about the replacement of Hitler with Gloder leads to black and gay rights movements in North America not taking off? Since the Americans, in opposition to the Soviet Union, skewed heavily right-wing to get away from the Soviet left-wing philosophy, does it not seem likely that an America faced with a heavily right-wing enemy would skew left-wing and thus these issues would actually be better, not worse? Perhaps there are logical chains of events that could lead to these things happening, but they remain unexplained and this was rather unsatisfactory; I thought, at several points, 'show your working!'

The last thing that proved to be extremely irritating was the main character. He starts the novel at around the age of 23 – he finishes his PhD thesis but started university early, so he's a bit younger than he would otherwise be. However, he has a worrying lack of maturity. At the beginning of the novel his girlfriend, Jane, leaves him. This is understandable; if I was dating him, I'd leave him too. She takes him back because he goes to her lab and she's willing to trade emotional integrity for convenience; the reason I conclude that this is the case is because she moves to the USA a few weeks later without telling him she's going (the ultimate way to get away from the lover you've just rejected).

However, it's worth repeating at this point what the author has done. The author has constructed a main character so annoying that the only way you can feel for him or begin to sympathise with him is to set him up with a girlfriend who dumps him twice in two weeks, the latter being when she moves five thousand miles away without telling him. That's a pretty fucking annoying main character.

All in all, this wasn't a terrible book. But it keeps me from wanting to recommend it with several glaring flaws which annoyed me and rendered the book less than the sum of its parts.(less)

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Sep 24, 2012 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, fiction, literary

We all know what happens when characters in a novel mess with history, but try they must, especially when they have a chance to prevent Hitler from being born, and so they shall. This is what the protagonists of Making History think and who can argue with such an obvious course of action. Stephen Fry in his third novel comes up with a remarkable narrative construction, which is clever, endearing, smart, intelligent, amazing, and unfortunately grossly under appreciated. Us readers don't remember...more We all know what happens when characters in a novel mess with history, but try they must, especially when they have a chance to prevent Hitler from being born, and so they shall. This is what the protagonists of Making History think and who can argue with such an obvious course of action. Stephen Fry in his third novel comes up with a remarkable narrative construction, which is clever, endearing, smart, intelligent, amazing, and unfortunately grossly under appreciated. Us readers don't remember a novel for its clockwork plot precision, we remember it because we relate to people and the events happening to them.

Without giving too much away, the hero and his sidekick Darwnin-esque-action-professor manage to first screw up history big time and then put things back in place with many personal lessons learned concerning life, love and the pursuit of alternate realities.

Does it all work well together? Surely the novel is a great read and highly entertaining, but a there is also a persistent sense that Fry is trying to make a point he can't quite get across. Unfortunately the one obvious message can't be accurate since the reader might have to conclude at the end that we should be glad we had a Hitler because the most likely alternative would have been much worse. Certainly it is arguable that only one possible outcome is presented from a range of historical possibilities. However, other collaborating details, for example the personalities of the other soldiers waiting in the wings besides Hitler in the trenches of World War 1, can not give the reader any other options for seeing how things might have turned out for the better.

Although this novel is written much later than The Liar, it uses surprisingly more primitive narrative constructs, something I wasn't expecting. For example Stephen Fry uses a lot of lists and litanies to get a point across, which is something the Victorians loved to do but which has run its course. Even Helprin in his novel Freddy and Fredericka discovered it doesn't work anymore and has since abandoned it. Fry shows off not only his deep knowledge of World War 2 but also flaunts his linguistic skill by subtly playing with English-isms vs American-isms. A clearer case of temporal plot for occurs when the author clearly points out when we should remember something for later usage. A box of bright orange pills spills on the ground and the owner starts screaming that these are highly dangerous. Surely these pills must be useful for something later in the book. And they are.

It's hard not to like a Fry novel, the man is a really good writer and his plots are quite refreshing, not to mention that his stories are quite entertaining. Making History is an odd one however, it is a quick read of something that felt like it was meant to be something bigger. A recommended read but also pick up some of the author's other novels.(less)

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Dec 10, 2011 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Much, much better than Fry’s first book, this 550-page SF time-travel historical thriller is engrossing from start to finish. The dialogue is witty and crammed with topical references, the complex plots are weaved together solidly, and the suspense is truly heart-pounding at times. In a nutshell, it tells the story of a Cambridge graduate student and a professor, the son of an Auschwitz doctor, who make sure Hitler was never born. The result is far more horrific than either one of them ever drea...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Sjhigbee rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first time I’ve picked up a Stephen Fry novel, and it was an enjoyable, if slightly uneven, experience. Thumbing through the opening pages, I noticed that this book was first published in 1996, which begins to make sense when considering some of the faultlines running through this alternate history offering.

The book is an intriguing premise – two men decide, for very different reasons, to tamper with history by ensuring the one man responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany is never bo...more This is the first time I’ve picked up a Stephen Fry novel, and it was an enjoyable, if slightly uneven, experience. Thumbing through the opening pages, I noticed that this book was first published in 1996, which begins to make sense when considering some of the faultlines running through this alternate history offering.

The book is an intriguing premise – two men decide, for very different reasons, to tamper with history by ensuring the one man responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany is never born. However, the result isn’t what they bargained for… As a former history student, I thoroughly enjoyed Fry’s thorough approach to the historical content and had no problem with the leisurely start. And the conclusion that Fry comes to is certainly thought provoking – I’ve been thinking a lot about the book since I put it down.

Fry successfully establishes Michael’s character as a wunderkind bedevilled with increasing insecurities as his peers are rapidly catching up, if not overhauling his precocious giftedness. Inevitably, given the sub-genre, the narrative timeline is speckled with flashbacks which are ably handled. And it goes without saying that the writing is excellent – actually, that shouldn’t go without saying. Excellent writing should always be acknowledged and I’d be selling Fry short if I just gave a nod in that direction because we all know that the man has an intellect the size of Greece’s overdraft.

So far, so good. The protagonist has been well established, with plenty of depth. We have met with Leo and there’s been a couple of interesting plot twists – and then the novel prose comes to abrupt end and I was confronted with a film script. The action immediately speeded up as I witnessed a major emotional confrontation spool through in this script mode – feeling completely unconnected to the characters. Later in the novel, there is another, longer film script interlude, which also had the effect of alienating me from the action – a real shame as I’d really enjoyed the book up to this point.

I am aware that my extreme aversion to this literary device is subjective – probably connected to the fact that books are my first and major love, while films are okay, I suppose…. However, I did find the film script sections really spoilt the book for me. Having said that, up to the point it all went Courier I found the depiction of the alternate world engrossing and chilling in equal measure. Fry is good at writing minor characters memorably and the flashes of humour helped alleviate what could have been a grim read, given the subject matter.

All in all, it’s an interesting book with an interesting premise and if you enjoy alternate histories, I highly recommend it. Who knows - you may even enjoy the scripted sections…
8/10
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Sep 17, 2011 Blandine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It’s easy to understand why some girls would write and sing love songs to Stephen Fry on YouTube asking him to maybe let them carry his baby. Making History was the first thick book which I picked up after two intense years of dissertation-writing. My Masters finally done and over with, all I wanted was to sit down and enjoy a good read “for pleasure”. I have loved Stephen Fry for years now but despite staring at his books on the bookshop shelves many a time, I never went ahead and bought one. L...more It’s easy to understand why some girls would write and sing love songs to Stephen Fry on YouTube asking him to maybe let them carry his baby. Making History was the first thick book which I picked up after two intense years of dissertation-writing. My Masters finally done and over with, all I wanted was to sit down and enjoy a good read “for pleasure”. I have loved Stephen Fry for years now but despite staring at his books on the bookshop shelves many a time, I never went ahead and bought one. Liking the summary at the back of my copy of Making History, I decided to finally lose my Fry-novel virginity with it.

The story is that of Michael, a Cambridge History student about to finish his thesis about Hitler. His relationship with his slightly older girlfriend – a biochemistry researcher – is not going too well but Michael is confident that his masterpiece of a thesis will secure himself a successful life and career (he does call it “das Meisterwerk” after all). But things don’t go as planned: his thesis turns out to be a failure and his girlfriend dumps him. However his meeting with Leo Zuckerman, a professor, is about to change his life and the face of the world: what if the two men could change History and prevent Hitler’s birth?

I could not put down Making History. The story is fascinating and thought-provoking. You can’t help but wonder, what if? Stephen Fry here chooses to imagine that somebody else would have taken Hitler’s place. His argument is that nationalism was growing in Germany, as was anti-Semitism, and that the rise of a Hitler was unavoidable. I would like to believe otherwise although Fry’s pessimistic approach is most probably the most realistic one. Europe becomes a giant dictatorship ruled by the Nazis (German becomes its one and only official language) and the United States and Russia fight side by side against Germany. Furthermore, Stephen Fry’s Hitler-free world has never known the 1960s – this means that segregation is still in place in America and that homosexuality was never decriminalised.

Fry did an incredible job with his research: everything is perfectly detailed and, I imagine, accurate since a bibliography is to be found at the end of the book (and anyway, he apologises for any mistake he may have made, and who wouldn’t forgive Stephen Fry?!). The style is also to be commented upon: while most of the story is written in prose, the more “action-packed” chapters are written in screenplay mode. To be honest, as I’m not used to reading to screenplays, I found it long to get through these chapters.

Overall, I would genuinely advise this book to anyone who likes a good thought-provoking yet distracting read. I was disappointed in the end which felt a little like an anti-climax after such an intense experience however I decided to not hold it against Stephen Fry (too much) because he definitely gave me five-or-so days of terribly pleasant compulsive reading.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Как творить Самого Себя
Елена Карпос-Дедюхина
Рецензия на книгу "Как творить историю": Роман (пер. с англ. Ильина С.)
автор: Стивен Фрай
Автор рецензии: Дедюхина Елена
Дата публикации: 20 августа 2005 г.

Великобритания середины 90-х. Среди множества разноплановых событий, шокирующих и не очень, дольше всех оставалось загадкой внезапное исчезновение со сцены в день показа спектакля "Cell Mates" известного актера Стивена Фрая. Как любят отмечать на обложках его книг российские издатели, "больше из...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Paul Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars

Hmmm. This bopok's blurbs claim it to to be a science fiction comedy, which completely baffled me as to how these two genre could be merged to form a coherent piece of work.
It isn't funny at all, and is a rather tired re-working of H.G Wells' 'Time Machine' that is only used as a vehicle for Mister Fry to show us how much he knows about history, or at least the particular segment of history against which the book is set.
It is a reasonable read, though heavily laden with German phrases and saying...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Jenny Sparrow rated it 4 of 5 stars

Из всех романов Стивена Фрая я сильнее всего хотела прочитать "Как творить историю". Особенно после того как узнала, что там будут некие махинации со временем и историей - одна из моих любимейших тем.

Читаться роман начинал тяжело. У меня, по крайней мере, всегда так с Фраем - для погружения требуется время. Столько незнакомых имен использует Фрай, столько намеков и аллюзий на британскую и мировую культуру, такая у него специфичная лексика, что так просто и не занырнешь. Заныривала я, считай, на...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

I could not put this down. I picked it up while staying at a friend's place and despite lots of beautiful scenery going by me on a train, or interesting places to go, I simply couldn't stop reading this book. Damn you, Stephen Fry, your book was too engaging!
I do not want to tell you a thing about it. I had no idea where it was going when I picked it up and where it went was such a lovely surprise. I'll tell you that it starts at Cambridge, features a graduate student (in history) trying to fin...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Bookguide rated it 4 of 5 stars

What if? This reminds me of a late-night student discussion of what would have happened if Germany had won WWII, what if Hitler hadn't been born, and what if you had the ability to change history. If you changed one thing, would that make the present better? In 'Terminator', somebody returning to the past changes the future for the better, but even though one butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can theoretically change events on the other side of the world, will removing one major agent for ev...more What if? This reminds me of a late-night student discussion of what would have happened if Germany had won WWII, what if Hitler hadn't been born, and what if you had the ability to change history. If you changed one thing, would that make the present better? In 'Terminator', somebody returning to the past changes the future for the better, but even though one butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can theoretically change events on the other side of the world, will removing one major agent for evil be enough to change history, and will the changes be for the better? In this novel, Stephen Fry investigates this premise, when a young man at Cambridge gets the opportunity to disrupt history and experiences a new, alternate reality.

The graduate student Michael Young seems the embodiment of a young Stephen Fry himself, with his bumbling incompetence, his self-deprecation and his assumed persona of cool dude which masks his other-worldliness. In one respect he is different, however, as he's living with his efficient and rational girlfriend. The author himself comes to mind in passages such as this where Michael says, "History isn't my business at all. I managed at least, to stop myself from describing history as my 'trade', for which I reckon I can award myself some points. History is my passion, my calling. Or, to be more painfully truthful, it is my field of least incompetence." Even though Stephen Fry was a literature graduate, I can only too well imagine him saying this. In the second half of the book, where Michael is immersed in his new reality, this is less apparent, as he exercises his brain to find his feet in a world where much seems the same and yet things have, at a day-to-day level, subtly changed, and the world stage is radically altered. It turns out that progress takes a different path if different people do not meet or different resources are available in a different place. History does not revolve around one person, however influential that person may be. One voice shouting in the wilderness cannot lead a revolution. History is not a void, and evil ideas such as the Holocaust came into existence because of the existing social and economic pressures, not simply because Hitler was a great orator.

This is very entertaining book, told with Stephen Fry's usual snippets of fascinating information, some good background information about WWII which I have to admit I read without retaining and some musings about an eclectic range of subjects. I didn't like the way in which he wrote the more action-packed sections in the form of a screenplay, as I found that more difficult to read than straight prose, and at times he slipped in more text than strictly necessary for a script, explaining the characters' feelings. It was interesting to see his portrayal of the WWI trenches and to wonder if he was assigning the roles to particular actors from the 'Blackadder Goes Forth' series; I couldn't help imagining Schmidt as the Baldrick character, the naive hero-worshipper, and Gloder as Blackadder, sending somebody else to do the hard work then taking all the credit. Blackadder came out in 1989, so 'Making History' came much later, in 1996. In the later chapters of the alternate reality, it was interesting to compare their technology with the reality of the time and to realise that the speech recognition software is probably now available to make this current reality, something which was not the case in 1996.

Having given up on Fry's 'The Hippopotamus' after only a few pages due to his insistence on bad language, I am glad to be able to read one of his novels. It was perhaps less literary than I had expected, more full of pop culture references, and I did indeed, as the quotation from the back cover suggests, let the tea go cold. Which begs the chicken-and-egg question, which came first, the cover of a cat watching a goldfish or the quotation from The Independent, "A powerful imaginative pull that keeps the pages turning while the tea goes cold and the cat gets the goldfish?

Finally, I highly recommend this video of Stephen Fry talking about 'Making History': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uom7-...(less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Paul Glover rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first Stephen Fry novel I've read. Without giving too much away, its the story in which a Cambridge student and a Professor manage to create an occurrence of an alternative history in which Hitler was never born, this plan, as you can imagine, doesn’t have quite the intended result..

Obviously everyone knows Stephen Fry as a TV personality as well as a novelist, and his famous wit and intelligence is stamped on this book from page one. Funnily I read the entire book, having Stephen Fr...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, funny, time-travel, multiple-pov

Amazing. My absolute favorite of Fry's excellent works, and one of my favorite books, period. Hilarious, it goes without saying. Intelligent, playful, silly/serious. Romantic. No one but Fry could write a book about Hitler that can make you cry with laughter.
"Sodding pants."

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Nov 13, 2012 Olga rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ранее в этом году у меня уже был неудачный опыт знакомства с Фраем по его книге "Лжец", читать что-то еще желания не было, но пришлось, из-за обязательств по книжной игре на другом сайте.

Поначалу начало "Как творить историю" так сильно напомнило мне этот небрежный стиль про студента-разгильдяя, который вроде умный, но строит из себя чуть ли не ученика ПТУ, ругается и вообще всем своим существованием оскорбляет данную ему возможность быть аспирантом. Но потом так завертелось, так закрутилась все...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Donna by: Sarah Taylor

Shelves: 2013

I really liked this book!! A friend lent it to me a week ago and I have flown through it in the last couple of days - I even put down the knitting and turned off the TV for it. It's been a while since a book has done that for me.
The premise of the story is that Michael, a Cambridge postgraduate student has written a thesis on Hitler's early life and rise to power. He meets an elderly professor whose father was in the Aushwitz concentration camps. He has built a device which can change history by...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub

Fiction, alternate universe. An ineffectual graduate student at Cambridge thinks that he can save the world from Hitler. Amusing throughout (as one would expect from Fry) but really rather grim as the author brings in the inevitable SF warning: be careful what you wish for. Writing a bit juvenile in parts actually but fortunately the reading is easy enough that you can skip right over it.

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Nov 02, 2012 Dimitris Hall rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"I don't know why I find it intensely erotic to stand naked before an open fridge, but I do. Maybe it's something to do with the expectation of a hunger soon to be satisfied, maybe it's that the spill of light on my body makes me feel like a professional stripper. Maybe something weird happened to me when I was young. It is an alarming feeling, mind, because all those assembled food-stuffs put ideas in your head you're on the rise. Stories of what you can do with the unsalted butter on ripe melo...more "I don't know why I find it intensely erotic to stand naked before an open fridge, but I do. Maybe it's something to do with the expectation of a hunger soon to be satisfied, maybe it's that the spill of light on my body makes me feel like a professional stripper. Maybe something weird happened to me when I was young. It is an alarming feeling, mind, because all those assembled food-stuffs put ideas in your head you're on the rise. Stories of what you can do with the unsalted butter on ripe melons or raw liver, they crowd your head as the blood begins to rush.
"I spotted a big slab of Red Leicester and pulled off a piece with my hands. I stood there chewing for some time, buzzing with happiness.
"Thas was when the idea came to me, full born.
"The force of it made me gape. A mashed pellet of bread fell from my open mouth and at once the blood flew upwards to the brain where it was needed, leaving my twitching excitement below with nothing to do but shrink back like a started snail."

No wonder this man can write so eloquently and wittily about penises. It's a great thing it's not just them he can write like that about.

Stephen Fry is some sort of homo universalis: a modern day Leonardo Da Vinci, only much funnier. He's an actor, a humourist, a TV show preseneter, a walking encyclopedia, an activists for gay rights, a linguist... an intellectual all around. I had no idea he was a writer on top of all that but it comes as no real shock. One can't resist but nod silently, in contemplation and agreement to Mitchell & Webb's "who doesn't want to be like Stephen Fry?".

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the book I had picked from Politeia, just because it had "Stephen Fry" and "History" written with large playful letters on the cover where it also had a picture of a cat, had to do with WWII and alternate history. I was thrilled! It's been some time since I last read a 500-page book in less than 10 days.
It was a good page-turner, not too memorable or original, but for a lover of good alternate history and for one that wouldn't turn down well-written science fiction, it was rather good.

I know that the best part of such stories, at least for me, is finding out the little details of the "fictional" worlds that have branched out differently. Therefore, I shall not disclose anything but what's necessary to whet your appetite: if Hitler had never been born, how can we be sure that the evil he was responsible for would have been equally prevented? Would Rock & Roll have ever been born? Would Orwell live to write 1984? What would the computers look like in 1996 -- the year the book was written? Stephen Fry in his signature cerebral style includes real historical tidbits on many personalities of the past as well as science and cultural background that make the thing more believeable. It seems only right that a man with a broad range of interests such as himself would be the perfect candidate to write such a demanding genre as alternate history.

I'll roll this review up leaving you with this: at one point of the book, the protagonist decides that the format of a novel is not enough to convey the action; the book promptly switches to telling the story by means of being a film script, only to switch back when the heavy action's suddenly over:"I fade from Hollywood screenplay format to dull old, straight old prose because that's how it felt. That's how it always feels in the end.

Exquisite.
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Jul 15, 2012 Graham Tapper rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Be careful what you wish for."

This is one of Fry's earlier novels. The basic premise of the story is, "What if you could go back in time and change history?" In this story, the question is, if Hitler had never existed, what would the outcome have been? Would there still have been a WWI (undoubtedly; Hitler had little influence in that conflict)? Would there still have been a WWII (probably; the causes of that conflict go way beyond the effect of Hitler's leadership)?

Fry weaves a story around o...more

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Feb 25, 2010 unnarrator rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This may even be a four-starred read...I encountered it while just finishing up my exams, though, and I worry that I'm not a reliable narrator on how good it actually is--that as with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, it may just be that I'm a slut for all novels set in Cabbage (as Trezza Azzopardi used to call it, based on their being a roadsign off the motorway that directed one toward "Camb'ge"). Hell, I even like Dusty Answer. When there are SOMEDAY decent novels about the Greak Books...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, great-ideas, 4-stars, almost-masterpiece, occasionally-clunky, page-turner, time-travel, slow-start, surprisingly-funny, weak-ending, suddenly-nazis, well-defined-characters

A book filled with wit, humour, sparkling prose, rich research, and memorable characters, but it's not entirely without problems.

Some of the early passages, and especially the final act, come across as a little self indulgent on the author's part. Some subplots don't quite gel the way they should. Some of the historical riffing gets a bit dull, just when the main plot is starting to kick off.

But all that pales against the energy, confidence, the sheer command of the English language, and the hum...more

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Dec 28, 2007 Todd A rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

can I give a book zero stars? or negative stars? this was one of the worst books I've ever read. complete crap. and made worse by the fact that Fry's first two novels are absolute classics. don't read this. it's not even funny-bad.

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About Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, writer, actor, humourist, novelist, poet, columnist, filmmaker, television personality and technophile. As one half of the Fry and Laurie double act with his comedy partner, Hugh Laurie, he has appeared in A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. He is also famous for his roles in Blackadder and Wilde, and as the host of QI. In addition to writing fo...more

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Quotes from Making History

“Hell, I am young. I am free. My teeth are clean. The sun shines. To hell with everything else” — 100 people liked it

“Self-consciousness, that's what it is. Always my abiding vice. I keep seeing myself. Me watching myself watching others watch me. How do you lose that? What's the trick?” — 73 people liked it

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