To Say Nothing of the Dog

by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog  
published December 1st 1998 by Bantam
first published 1997
binding Mass Market Paperback
isbn 0553575384   (isbn13: 9780553575385)
pages 512
literary awards Hugo Award for Best Novel (1999); Locus Award for Best SF Novel (1999)
description To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science-fiction fantasy in the guise of an old-fashioned Victorian novel, complete with epigraphs, brief outline...more
date added
02-07-07



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1568)



Chris
Chris rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
02/20/08

bookshelves: science-fiction, time-travel, top-shelf
Read in February, 2008
Yes, it's a Connie Willis Time Travel Double Feature! And in this book, we are introduced to the lighter side of time travel - something that was sorely lacking in The Doomsday Book. I mean, it's not that the Black Death didn't have its lighter side, it's just the overall it's not so much fun.

This book is a follow-up to The Doomsday Book. Not a sequel, really, but it's in the same world, and some of the main characters make appe...more
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Belarius
Belarius rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
02/10/08

Read in November, 2006
recommends it for: People Who Consistently Travel Forward In Time
If you're like me, you hate Jane Austen, not because she's a bad writer but because you want to throttle all of her characters. You could say that Jane Austen wrote smart depictions of an era of profuse ignorance and stupidity. So imagine my delight when author Connie Willis comes to the rescue with To Say Nothing Of The Dog, a razor-sharp time-travel-themed comedy that playfully takes the stupidity to task.

The premise behind the story is a technology that allows operatives to be inserted ...more
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Brownbetty
Brownbetty rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
08/12/07

bookshelves: not-to-be-parted-from
Read in January, 2006
recommends it for: anyone
A marrow is a sort of squash; imagine a zucchini. I mention this because you may otherwise be distracted from the delightful opening of this book. I wouldn't spoil you on the mystery of Mr. Spivens. When you discover it, you will feel delighted at having been deceived. But I'm fairly certain there was not meant to be any mystery about the marrows.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is my favourite novel written by Connie Willis. I love almost everything she writes, so this is not faint praise. The bac...more
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  2 comments

SCIENCEFICTION SQRL
04/26/08

bookshelves: 100-books-2008, allfred, ees-book-chat, fiction, iencesay-ictionfay, recommended
Read in April, 2008
recommended to SCIENCEFICTION SQRL by: Evil Editor
recommends it for: anyone
I vacillated between four and five stars for this one, and eventually settled on four. Not because it's not a brilliant, warmly hilarious book--because it is. But because it didn't also thrill me with its scientific ideas and a sense of peril like Passage.

This book brims over with humour, affection for its characters, and that underlying sense of compassion that's often found in Willis's writing. Modest historian Ned Henry is trying to track down a mysterious item called "the ...more
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Claire
Claire rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
03/19/07

bookshelves: elves-witches-vampires-and-the-like, five-stars, my-happy-books
recommends it for: People too rational to have survived in Victorian England.
If you know a lot about Victorian England from literature, this book will be a hundred times funnier. I haven't read Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men In a Boat," to which this book apparently owes a great deal, but it's still plenty hilarious. I cannot overstate the comedy genius of this story about a snarky time traveler forced for research purposes to live in Victorian England, amid seance-crazy mothers, jumble sales, idiot village curates, and swoony young men smitten with nitwit gir...more
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Michael
Michael rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/29/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008, science-fiction, to-be-read-challenge
Read in July, 2008
Not exactly a sequel to "Doomsday Book" but a novel set in the same universe with the appearance of several minor characters from the original Ned is suffering from time lag, a condition brought about by making too many jumps to the past to try and find the bishop's bird stump. In the future, a rich benefactor is restoring the Covington Cathedral at great expense and wants every detail perfect. She has promised the University funding if she can utilize their time travel technology t...more
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Siria
Siria rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
03/30/08

bookshelves: 20th-century, american-fiction, historical-fiction, scifi
Read in March, 2008
Wonderfully witty and breezy, To Say Nothing of the Dog is an unusual mixture of historical fiction, scifi fantasy, pastiche, mystery and romance. The plot revolves around Ned Henry, a 21st century time traveller whose attempts to rescue the fabulous artefact known as the bishop's bird stump from WWII-era Coventry leave him with a bad case of time lag. Sent back to late 19th century England to recuperate, he ends up in a sort of comedy of errors with another time traveller as they attempt...more
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Malinda
Malinda rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
03/08/08

Read in January, 2004
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Hannah Grace
Hannah Grace rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
02/02/08

bookshelves: history-historical-fiction
Read in January, 2003
recommended to Hannah Grace by: John
This is my absolute favorite book. A perfect blend of sci-fi, historical fiction, mystery, comedy, mistaken identity and romance; this book has it all.

Its the not-too-distant future, but time-travel has been around for awhile. Oxford historian Ned Henry is trying desperately to find a hideous Victorian object, the Bishop's Bird Stump, shuttling back and forth between World War Two and the Victorian Era. Meanwhile, another historian, Verity Kindle, accidentally brings something back from the...more
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Brigid
Brigid rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
06/22/07

Read in January, 1999
Amazon.com
To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science-fiction fantasy in the guise of an old-fashioned Victorian novel, complete with epigraphs, brief outlines, and a rather ugly boxer in three-quarters profile at the start of each chapter. Or is it a Victorian novel in the guise of a time-traveling tale, or a highly comic romp, or a great, allusive literary game, complete with spry references to Dorothy L. Sayers, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle? Its title is the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerom...more
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Ellen
Ellen rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
08/13/08

Read in July, 2008
I finished reading this book for a second time, and I enjoyed it even more than last time. This inspired to write my own fantasy time travel novel featuring students of history. When I re-read it, I found myself marking all the spots where Willis described how her universe worked and specifically how time travel worked. It was very educational for me.

But this book just rolls along with light drama and comedy and some of the silliest characters I've read in modern literature. The title of...more
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Argent
Argent rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
02/19/08

Read in January, 2000
Droll time-travel adventure.

Witty science fiction romp, inspired by the Victorian-era comic novel Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome, about an academic time traveler whose tedious project for a wealthy university patron -- trying to determine the fate of a family heirloom lost during the firebombing of Coventry in 1942 -- leaves him unexpectedly trapped in Victorian England, confused, off-balance, and exhausted beyond words. The first half of th...more
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Alissa
02/02/08

Read in February, 2008
connie willis has this density to her writing that i can't quite explain but that reminds me of the way dreams can be a bit a blur but also so full of detail. it takes a little while and a little close reading to get engaged but then it is a familiar place. (i find jane austen to be the same way.)

i love this book. it is funny and a mystery and a love story. the characters are simply trying to figure their world out, sometimes by along bumbling, sometimes by being brilliant. the author loves ...more
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Bill Purdy
Bill rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
03/01/08

Read in September, 2003
recommended to Bill by: I am trying to read all of the Hugo Award Winning Novels
recommends it for: Fans of science fiction, British comedy, and elaborate plots
This is the first of Willis's books I read, and though it is nowhere near as good as the Doomsday Book (which is a masterpiece of the genre), it's still pretty fun.

Willis uses a time travel storytelling device in her novels, where near-future academics travel back in time to research historical events. This creates a bifurcated story line, wherein the researcher who travels into the past is immersed in an adventure, and his or her colleagues in the near future scramble to figure out how to g...more
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Mary
Mary rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/26/08

bookshelves: read-recently
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Mary by: John and Hannah
recommends it for: fantasy fans, time travelers, historians
A dense, unevenly-paced yet brilliant book. The concepts of time travel for personal projects, time lag, incongruities set in Victorian England presents rich possibilities for juxtaposing the frenetic life of our historian hero from the future against the slowly-moving Oxford of the past. Even though packed with references that I didn't have the background for, Willis keeps the threads of her story together and weaves them into a laugh-out-loud funny narrative of the insignificance of human ac...more
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Susan
Susan rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
04/14/07

Read in June, 2006
recommends it for: lit geeks and fans of "Three Men in a Boat", time travel
I got this for my father who, normally reserved, laughs 'till he weeps when he reads Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog). I heard this book described as sci-fi, which he's not fond of, so I read it before giving it to him to make sure it wasn't too techie. It's delightful. Funny, quick, a little romantic. The plot, whil...more
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Holly
Holly rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/01/08

bookshelves: sci-fi-or-alt-reality
Read in July, 2008
I've read a few reviews that say this book is repetitive, obvious, and filled with holes.

Pish posh. Rubbish. Pshaw. Also, clap trap.

Willis brilliant at setting a scene--"The waterlillies had pink cup-shaped blossoms, and the rushes were topped with nosegays of purple and white. Iridescent blue-green dragonflies darted between them, and monstrous butterflies flitted past the boat and came to rest momentarily on the overbalanced luggage, threatening to topple it over. Off in the dista...more
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Danica
Danica rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
06/22/08

Brainy, action-adventure comedy about bumbling, time-traveling historians. Fucking ace.

This is the second novel I've read in as many weeks about Britain (*Victorian-era* Britain no less) that's turned out to be A+++++ excellent. albeit in a different way from Foreign Affairs. I love it! I love the cuddly animals! The time traveling! The twisty, turny plot that's liable to give you seasickness it's so filled with sudden about-faces and wtfuckery! Can I just say right here that, in co...more
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Jeffrey
Jeffrey rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
06/23/08

Read in April, 2008
My favorite book so far this year. It is set in that pseudo-rural England of estates and vicars and class that in my head at least spans 1820-1920; in other words Jane Austin to P.G. Wodehouse. Structurally, it is a time travel mystery as the protagonists run about Victorian England trying to avert the end of the universe by making sure history happens the way "it was supposed to...more
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thefourthvine
thefourthvine rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
06/04/07

Read in January, 1998
First, know that I am deeply biased when it comes to this book: it's got time travel, which I love with a love that is more than love, and it's got Cyril, who I love with a love that makes my time travel love look like a Tuesday afternoon romance. Plus, it's inspired by - and references, oh my god, REFERENCES! - one of my favorite books, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.

So, you know, I won't even attempt a qualitative review. I'll just say that this is fun, and funny, and it hi...more
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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 4.28 (1183 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 4.27 (1135 ratings)
number of reviews: 197