In 1906, Doyle was petitioned by a George Edalji, a Staffordshire lawyer, who had been convicted of mutilating a horse and sending threatening letters to himself.

And just as easily, I can see how it would be the first book to get knocked off the list when the time came to choose the winner, because of all of the things it doesn't try to do at all.īarnes' novel is a fictionalization of an episode in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur & George, in other words, is the sort of book I could easily see placing on the shortlist for a major award, in recognition of everything it does right. And then there are all the adjectives I can't use to describe the book-words like 'grand', 'exciting', 'passionate'. 'Precise' might be another-every word in its place, and each one doing exactly what Barnes intended it to do, no more and no less.

'Accomplished' might be a good word-without resorting to flowery and interminable description, Arthur & George is an impressive and convincing recreation of its era. Julian Barnes' Arthur & George is a novel that sent me scurrying to the thesaurus, searching for just the right adjective to describe it.

Barnes julian arthur & george