Complex life of Arthur Conan Doyle captured in novel
(“Arthur & George” by Julian Barnes, Alfred A. Knopf, 386 pages, $24.95). This brilliantly accomplished novel is a smooth mixture of fact and fiction, of history and imagination, and this reader has not been so entrapped by a novel since Shirley Hazzard’s “The Great Fire” and Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner.” It begins with brief chapters about the early lives of the two boys of the title, Arthur and George. George, a quiet lad, is the son of a Scottish mother and the local Anglican vicar, who was born a Parsee in India. He becomes a solicitor and, while living in his parents’ home, travels each day to an office in Birmingham. Arthur, the son of an alcoholic father who dies early in Arthur’s life, studies to be an oculist, travels widely and creates a memorable fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.
The boys do not know one another, but they are brought together in the novel, as in real life, some years later, after some criminal happenings in the small Staffordshire village of Great Wyrley, where George and his family live. A series of farm mutilations has baffled the local police. At the same time George and his family begin receiving anonymous letters, some threatening. The local police suspect George is writing the letters and that he is part of a gang that has been mutilating the animals.
After his arrest, George is found guilty when some evidence is faked, and after a supposedly professional handwriting expert has testified that George had written the letters. George’s surname, Edalji, and his brown skin have no doubt played a part in his arrest and the verdict. There were numerous protests, and George’s seven- year sentence was ultimately reduced to three. But George Edalji wanted a pardon and his law license returned. After his release, he sent a letter to the now famous writer, Arthur Conan Doyle, setting forth the facts of the trial. Doyle is angry at the injustice and declares to George, “I am going to make a great deal of noise.“
And he does. His fame and popularity give him access to the news-papers and to some of the trial’s main figures, and in time, despite the refusal of officials to admit they were wrong, George Edalji is given a limited pardon. One of the outcomes of the case was the establishment of an appeals court of sorts, something that had not been available in Edwardian England.
The Edalji case and Doyle’s role in it are historically true, and Julian Barnes has brought it all to life in this remarkable novel. One almost sees Doyle, the crusader for justice, in the guise of his creation, Sherlock Holmes. He has the same thirst for the truth, the same distrust of authority, and the same methods of deduction. And he even has a perceptive Dr. Watson-type in his assistant, Alfred Wood.
Doyle’s life is captured in all of its complexity: An early and somewhat sad marriage that ended with his wife’s death, a happy second marriage, a mother who was strong and wise, and his lifelong fascination with spiritualism. An “Author’s Note” at the end tells readers how the lives of the real-life characters continued after Doyle’s death. George Edalji practiced law for long years and died in 1941.
A wonderfully satisfying novel.
Charles Stephen is co-host of "All About Books," heard weekly on NET Radio.
The boys do not know one another, but they are brought together in the novel, as in real life, some years later, after some criminal happenings in the small Staffordshire village of Great Wyrley, where George and his family live. A series of farm mutilations has baffled the local police. At the same time George and his family begin receiving anonymous letters, some threatening. The local police suspect George is writing the letters and that he is part of a gang that has been mutilating the animals.
After his arrest, George is found guilty when some evidence is faked, and after a supposedly professional handwriting expert has testified that George had written the letters. George’s surname, Edalji, and his brown skin have no doubt played a part in his arrest and the verdict. There were numerous protests, and George’s seven- year sentence was ultimately reduced to three. But George Edalji wanted a pardon and his law license returned. After his release, he sent a letter to the now famous writer, Arthur Conan Doyle, setting forth the facts of the trial. Doyle is angry at the injustice and declares to George, “I am going to make a great deal of noise.“
And he does. His fame and popularity give him access to the news-papers and to some of the trial’s main figures, and in time, despite the refusal of officials to admit they were wrong, George Edalji is given a limited pardon. One of the outcomes of the case was the establishment of an appeals court of sorts, something that had not been available in Edwardian England.
The Edalji case and Doyle’s role in it are historically true, and Julian Barnes has brought it all to life in this remarkable novel. One almost sees Doyle, the crusader for justice, in the guise of his creation, Sherlock Holmes. He has the same thirst for the truth, the same distrust of authority, and the same methods of deduction. And he even has a perceptive Dr. Watson-type in his assistant, Alfred Wood.
Doyle’s life is captured in all of its complexity: An early and somewhat sad marriage that ended with his wife’s death, a happy second marriage, a mother who was strong and wise, and his lifelong fascination with spiritualism. An “Author’s Note” at the end tells readers how the lives of the real-life characters continued after Doyle’s death. George Edalji practiced law for long years and died in 1941.
A wonderfully satisfying novel.
Charles Stephen is co-host of "All About Books," heard weekly on NET Radio.
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