'Zuleika Dobson is a highly accomplished and superbly written book whose spirit is farcical, ' said E. M. Forster. 'It is a great work--the most co...
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Sep 15, 2009
Sherwood
rated it: 
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 an More...
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 an More...
Jan 20, 2011
Evan
rated it: 
This is, without doubt, one of the most remarkable novels in the English language. There really is nothing else like it, neither in the style in which it is hewn nor in its odd blend of gentility and pitch black satire and playful authorial first-person flights of fancy. And it's hardly likely that a more frivolous book has ever been written so well. The book is overwritten not to a fault, but to its credit. The dazzling turning of the phrase is Beerbohm's great strength. Every sentence is a mar
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Dec 26, 2011
Bob
rated it: 
I read this about two years ago and forgot to make a note of it. I am now reminded of it as a couple of threads from the past month come together; Max Beerbohm was part of the late 19th century London literary and artistic milieu in which Henry James found himself immersed but not quite at ease, feeling, among other things, that Oscar Wilde and John Addington Symonds ought to have kept their urges decently under wraps. James was an established older generation contributor to Aubrey Beardsley's T
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Mar 29, 2011
Paul
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This is an oddity. It was Beerbohm's only novel and is a satire of university life at Oxford in the very early twentieth century. There is no need to worry about spoilers, the book does that for you very near the beginning. Most of the characters are as shallow as puddles. There are bursts of magic realism occasional ghosts, Greek gods and lots of style with no depth.
The story is about a young woman who is very beautiful; she has a successful conjuring act (although she is not very good a More...
The story is about a young woman who is very beautiful; she has a successful conjuring act (although she is not very good a More...
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Feb 12, 2011
Mark
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This novella is very difficult to constructively talk about to anyone who hasn’t read it. Not because of plot spoilers - there is hardly any plot - but because of joke spoilers. The book is super-arch and hyper-camp. Pretty much every paragraph has a classical reference and at least one joke. The only reason to read the book is for the style and jokes, and if I quote one, I’ll be spoiling a good joke if someone reads the book.
So, I’ll say the book is f-ing brilliant, I’ll outline the s More...
So, I’ll say the book is f-ing brilliant, I’ll outline the s More...
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Sep 24, 2010
Charles
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My copy of Zuleika Dobson was given to me by a fellow graduate student on the occasion of our graduation. I haven't read it since then. In 1998 a panel commissioned by the Modern Library called it one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century -- No. 59 to be exact. Whether it's a better novel than The Moviegoer (60), The Catcher in the Rye (64), The House of Mirth (69), or The Adventures of Augie March (81), I can't say.
In truth, I think it misleading to call Zuleika Dobson a novel More...
In truth, I think it misleading to call Zuleika Dobson a novel More...
Oct 15, 2009
El
rated it:
Maybe the way to be a successful writer is to write one really fantastic novel and then that's it. It worked for Harper Lee with To Kill a Mockingbird. And it worked for Max Beerbohm with Zuleika Dobson which made it's way onto the Modern Library Top 100 List. It's not just a list comprised of boring dead white guys. Some of them are actually pretty good it seems.
The title character is this real hot tamale who arrives in Oxford to visit her grandfather, the Warden of the college. More...
The title character is this real hot tamale who arrives in Oxford to visit her grandfather, the Warden of the college. More...
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Aug 08, 2011
Veronica
rated it:
I’ve a new author to add to my ‘must read more of’ list and his name is Sir Max Beerbohm. I would bow before this genius whose masterful skills I am in awe of yet I suppose he’d laugh and tell me to stop with such nonsense. He’s the real deal, the whole enchilada, the write stuff, etc. Enough gushing, on with the review.
Imagine the vainglorious woman so self-involved as to be blinded to reality. Add an arrogant and intentionally unavailable young man, a splash of humor and impeccab More...
Imagine the vainglorious woman so self-involved as to be blinded to reality. Add an arrogant and intentionally unavailable young man, a splash of humor and impeccab More...
Jan 16, 2011
Polly
rated it: 
I've been encountering references to this book for years--mostly to the fact that the entire undergraduate population of Oxford pitch themselves into the river and die for love of Zulieka. That's a heck of a build-up, and I was really hoping for some seriously amusing fluff. Well, it was doubtless so in the early 20th century, but sadly it isn't now. I giggled once or twice, but this (even to an extremely literate and fairly old-fashioned Anglophile) is no longer delightful, elegant or witty--al
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Mar 30, 2010
carl
rated it:
The advisors who put this book on the Modern Library Top 100 should be taken out and shot!
The fact that the Modern Library had to recently print this edition, otherwise no one would have ever
found it, shows its obscurity (now available at your local used bookstore). I mean no one reads
Ulysses and you can find that anywhere.
A tale of the beautiful, up from the working class Zuleika, granddaughter of the Oxford dean, who
visits the college and has ev More...
The fact that the Modern Library had to recently print this edition, otherwise no one would have ever
found it, shows its obscurity (now available at your local used bookstore). I mean no one reads
Ulysses and you can find that anywhere.
A tale of the beautiful, up from the working class Zuleika, granddaughter of the Oxford dean, who
visits the college and has ev More...
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Jul 27, 2011
Stan
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Zuleika Dobson is the name of a stunningly attractive young woman, a femme fatale, who manages to enter a prestigious all-male domain of Oxford University as a visitor of her grandfather, the warden of Judas College. She entices the students with her charms, but feels she can only love someone who is impervious to her. Her rejected suitors are even driven to suicide. Written in 1911, this work is still a humorous satire, but it was not a very engaging reading experience for me. Maybe I'm just n
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Jun 14, 2011
Rick
rated it:
Those busts of the old Roman emperors at Oxford knew that trouble was brewing the moment Zuleika Dobson set foot on that noble campus. If anyone had been paying attention, he would have seen those venerable marble gentlemen sweating profusely at the premonition of what was about to transpire. You see, Zuleika is no ordinary girl. She’s the sort of extraordinary girl that causes every man who comes in contact with her to fall madly in love. Unfortunately, she could never love the sort of man who
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Nov 17, 2011
Margaret
rated it:
I was told about this book, set in Oxford's Edwardian days, by a friend shortly before leaving for a trip to Oxford for the book fair. I found it at Blackwell's, the fine and huge book store in Oxford, and bought it. I didn't manage to read it during my 3 days there, but just finished it today, after returning to Chicago. The book is quite entertaining, a farce about a woman who comes to Oxford and drives scores of undergraduates to kill themselves for love of her. It was especially fun to be a
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Jan 14, 2009
Joe
rated it:
i can t say i really enjoyed reading this book as so many readers on this site did. i read it cause it is on the list of the 100 best novels of the 20th cent by random house,which list i collect and have read 87 of so far. i got a copy of it at a used book store for 25 cents,recognized the title since the only time i have heard of either the title or the author was from the list. i know it has many messages in it..don t follow the crowd..women can rule men..etc. i have a hard time with th More...
May 07, 2010
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called literary "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label
Essay #41: Zuleika Dobson, by Max Beerbohm (1911)
The story in a nutshell:
Originally published in 1911, M More...
The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called literary "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label
Essay #41: Zuleika Dobson, by Max Beerbohm (1911)
The story in a nutshell:
Originally published in 1911, M More...
Jan 04, 2012
Kim
rated it:
The title character of this satire of romantic love and life at Oxford in the early 20th century is a beautiful young woman, a talentless magician with whom all of the male undergraduates fall hopelessly in love, except for one. She immediately becomes smitten with him, if for no other reason than his resistance to her. When he falls for her, of course, she immediately loses interest. And so it goes. The series of events that follow only up the satire. A fun read.
Sep 15, 2009
Sur Cur
rated it:
An interesting book by Beerbohm but I'd never know exactly on which shelf to place it:
a treatise on manners and vanity,
an absurdity,
a science fiction novel because of the speaking apparitions, the symbolic owls and the moody pearls,
a study on religion concerning self-will and the Olympian gods,
a farce,
a love story,
a mockery of fashion, speech and nationality (especially the Scots),
or just an author grinning like mad, putting us on and and wri
a treatise on manners and vanity,
an absurdity,
a science fiction novel because of the speaking apparitions, the symbolic owls and the moody pearls,
a study on religion concerning self-will and the Olympian gods,
a farce,
a love story,
a mockery of fashion, speech and nationality (especially the Scots),
or just an author grinning like mad, putting us on and and wri
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Jan 30, 2012
Artemis
rated it:
I discovered the incorrigible Max a long time ago through his superb caricatures; in particular, Aubrey Beardsley, parodying the artist's drawing style - brilliant and funny. Zuleika Dobson is a masterpiece of mockery. A mixture of fantasy and satire of the Edwardian dandy and the idle, gilded life of Oxford. Subtitled An Oxford Love Story, the love in question is not so much that of the distinctly unlikeable characters, but for the University itself.
Dec 17, 2009
Jen
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 28, 2011
Maybe this is funny to someone who is, or knows, an Oxford stuffed shirt. I was led to believe that Max Beerbohm was the caustic wit of his generation, but you probably had to be there (Oxford in 1911) to get the in-jokes. I do love several non-Zuleika Max quotes, such as the one about how people who insist on telling their dreams are the terrors of the breakfast table. --Laurie
Oct 18, 2010
Chris
rated it:
Meh. Although I can see why this was probably a big hit when it was written 100 years ago. The modern reader will find it hard slogging through Beerbohm's prose. I actually started making a list of words I'd never seen before (and am unlikely to see again) to look them up. Short story shorter: Zuleika has made her fortune off her face and some rather basic magic tricks. When she visits her grandfather, a Warden at Oxford, all the men fall so in love with her they decide to commit group suicide i
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Mar 13, 2010
Stig
rated it:
Brilliant and funny account of the love affair between two narcissists in Oxford in the golden years before the First World War. Beerbohm is a magician with language. But it is just a little too long which makes reading the last part a bit tiresome, hence only three stars. Don't be put off, though - it is worth reading.
Mar 18, 2009
Cory
rated it:
Unless you love reading books about early 20th century England and more specifically about Oxford University, this is not the book for you. While not totally without merit, it was difficult at times to get through. The only reason I finished it is becasue it was on one of my "Top Books lists"
Mar 19, 2011
Daryl
rated it:
Zuleika is a very beautiful young woman who manages to capture the hearts of almost every man she meets. One of the men, once she rejects him, declares that he will die for her. Others fall in line, vowing the same. And things get a bit stranger from there.
May 19, 2007
ifjuly
rated it:
loved it. really entertaining. made me crack a real, physical smile every other page. later i read the puzzleheaded girl by christina stead and the whimsical portrayal of pretty macabre/dreadful-on-the-face-of-it social events echoed. got the same feeling recently reading boris vian. there ought to be a tidy term for this--when bizarre and kind of grotesque events and interactions are told in a totally innocent oddly straightforward tone. hipster ish bard lyricism for the hot nerdy colleg
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Oct 14, 2011
Miriam
rated it:
I listened to this book online, which was an adventure in itself. What a silly book, but sharp and painful, too. People are sheep, historians make up stuff, and academics hate youth, even as teaching is (supposedly) one of their main reasons for existence. It's funny and ridiculous, but also deeply pessimistic--about people's ability to make decisions for themselves or to understand or empathize truly with other human beings, and about their tendency to regard the rest of the world as constru
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Mar 16, 2011
Megan
rated it:
A strange Oxfordian satire. Beware the femme fatale. Out of all the Oxford undgergraduates, only one duke escapes, and sees through Miss Dobson's pettiness, but he ends up dying anyway.
Aug 15, 2010
Meaghan
rated it:
This is a bit of a peculiar anachronism. The pompous characters and ludicrous plot were somewhat amusing, though probably not so much as they were in 1911 when the book was published. I particularly liked the part where the Oxford dons barely seemed to notice that the entire student body had vanished.
I would recommend this to people who like books from the late Victorian/early Edwardian period. And also to those who want to increase their vocabulary -- the dialogue is full of difficu More...
I would recommend this to people who like books from the late Victorian/early Edwardian period. And also to those who want to increase their vocabulary -- the dialogue is full of difficu More...
Jan 15, 2010
Ann
rated it:
Another classic I'd never heard of before, but found in the public domain to download to my e-reader. It's an entertaining caricature of a very self-absorbed young woman and the men she bewitches. Some sections get a bit long, but in the main it's quite fun. If you're familiar with Oxford (England), it would be even more fun.
Dec 08, 2011
SOS
rated it:
A remarkable, classic piece of literature. Full of satire, wit- written in beautiful prose. I love this book.
