Arthur & George

Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize

American Book Tour Schedule

Arthur and George grow up worlds and miles apart in late 19th century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Catholic Edinburgh, George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, George a Birmingham solicitor, is happy in hardworking obscurity. But as the new century begins, they are brought together by a sequence of events that made sensational headlines at the time as The Great Wyrley Outrages. With a mixture of intense research and vivid imagination, Julian Barnes brings into sharp focus not just this long-forgotten case but the inner workings of the two men and the wider psychology of the age. Arthur & George is a novel in which the events of a hundred years ago constantly set off contemporary echoes. It is a novel about low crime and high spirituality; guilt and innocence; identity, nationality and race; and thwarted passion. Arthur & George explores what we think, what we believe, and what we know. Release Dates     Jonathan Cape July 2005 Random House Canada October 2005 Alfred A. Knopf January 2006 Publisher's Website Publisher's Website Publisher's Website   Man Booker Prize The Man Booker Prize Website 'Barnes and Smith Make Booker List.' BBC News, 8 September 2005. Booth, Jenny. 'Booker Shortlist Delivers Snub to Some Literary Lions.' Times (London), 8 September 2005. Crown, Sarah. 'Former Winners Absent from Booker Shortlist.' 8 September 2005. Ezard, John. 'Vintage Year for Booker ... But No McEwan.' The Guardian, 9 September 2005. Malvern, Jack. 'Big Names Are Left on Shelf as Booker Judges Go for an Intellectual Climax.' Times (London), 9 September 2005. Reynolds, Nigel. 'Booker's Big Names Fall at the First.' The Telegraph, 9 September 2005. Robinson, David. 'Conan Doyle Detective Tale Favourite for Man Booker.' Scotsman, 9 September 2005.		'This novel is Barnes at his best.' -- P. D. James Read an Excerpt from the Novel
An Excerpt from Arthur & George George and his father pray together, kneeling side by side on the scrubbed boards. Then George climbs into bed while his father locks the door and turns out the light. As he falls asleep, George sometimes thinks of the floor, and how his soul must be scrubbed just as the boards are scrubbed. Father is not an easy sleeper, and has a tendency to groan and wheeze. Sometimes, in the early morning, when dawn is beginning to show at the edges of the curtains, Father will catechize him. "George, where do you live?" "The Vicarage, Great Wyrley." "And where is that?" "Staffordshire, Father." "And where is that?" "The centre of England." "And what is England, George?" "England is the beating heart of the Empire, Father." "Good. And what is the blood that flows through the arteries and veins of the Empire to reach even its farthest shore?" "The Church of England." "Good, George." And after a while Father will begin to groan and wheeze again. George watches the outline of the curtain harden. He lies there thinking of arteries and veins making red lines on the map of the world, linking Britain to all the places coloured pink: Australia and India and Canada and islands dotted everywhere. He thinks of blood bubbling though these tubes and emerging in Sydney, Bombay, the St. Lawrence Waterway. Bloodlines, that is a word he has heard somewhere. With the pulse of blood in his ears, he begins to fall asleep again.

Reviews and Interviews

Jonathan Cape Edition

Adams, Tim. 'Show Me the Way to Go, Holmes.' Observer, 26 June 2005: 15.

Kemp, Peter. 'Conan Doyle to the Rescue.' Sunday Times (London), 26 June 2005: 37.

Robinson, David. 'Ideal Holmes Exhibition.' The Scotsman, 2 July 2005: 14.

Walter, Natasha. 'Our Mutual Friends.' The Guardian (London), 2 July 2005: 26.

Crumey, Andrew. 'Stranger Than Any Fiction.' The Scotland on Sunday, 3 July 2005: 6.

Moore, Caroline. 'A Far from Elementary Novel.' Sunday Telegraph (London), 3 July 2005: 11.

O'Hagan, Simon. 'The Game's Afoot!' Independent on Sunday (London), 3 July 2005: 23.

Goring, Rosemary. 'The Whole Sleuth.' The Herald (Glasgow), 4 July 2005: 6.

Sexton, David. 'Facts Behind the Fiction.' The Evening Standard (London), 4 July 2005: 63.

Jeffries, Stuart. 'Inside Story: "It's for self-protection".' G2: The Guardian (London), 6 July 2005: 8. [Profile and interview]; Reprinted as 'It's Hot under the Magnifying Glass', The Irish Times, 22 July 2005: 12.

Arditti, Michael. 'New Fiction.' Daily Mail (London), 8 July 2005: 60.

Hanks, Robert. 'Elementary, My Dear Barnes' The Independent (London), 8 July 2005: 20-21.

Martin, Andrew. 'Whodunit Gives Clues on the Real Holmes.' The Express, 8 July 2005: 50.

James, P. D. 'Ideal Holmes Exhibition.' The Times (London), 9 July 2005: 7.

Smee, Sebastian. 'The Curious Case of the Slashed Horse.' The Spectator, 9 July 2005: 34.

'The Law Was Blind, and Sir Valiant Too.' The Economist (U.S. Edition), 9 July 2005.

Cribb, Tim. 'Arthur & George.' South China Morning Post, 10 July 2005: 5.

Jackson, Lorne. 'Elementary Dear Barnes.' Sunday Mercury, 10 July 2005: 6.

Winder, Robert. 'Bumps in the Night.' New Statesman, 11 July 2005.

Taylor, Andrew. 'A Secret Mystery of History.' The Independent (London), 15 July 2005: 24.

Aspden, Peter. 'Loyal Supporter.' Financial Times (London), 16 July 2005: 14.

Farndale, Nigel. 'Shifts in the Ether.' The Age, 16 July 2005.

Williams, John. 'Even Sherlock Holmes Couldn't Solve This One.' Mail on Sunday (London), 17 July 2005: 66.

Hanks, Robert. 'Watching the Detective.' The Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia), 23 July 2005: M07.

Cornwell, Jane. 'Shades of Sherlock, But Not At All Elementary.' The Australian, 30 July 2005: 9.

Gurria-Quintana, Angel. 'Remaking History.' Financial Times (London), 30 July 2005: 32.

Matthews, David. 'Mordant Fragments.' The Australian, 6 August 2005: 11.

Thorpe, Vanessa. 'Julian Barnes: Mystery Man.' The Observer, 14 August 2005: 23.

'Julian Barnes: Arthur & George.' The New Zealand Herald, 21 August 2005 [includes interview].

Clark, Blanche. 'Tale of Pony Outrage.' Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), 27 August 2005: W28.

England, Katharine. 'Elementary Brilliance.' The Advertiser, 27 August 2005: W16.

Ball, Magdalena. 'Nothing Elementary about Julian Barnes.' Reviews: Culture and the Media, November 2005.

Tourniaire, Laurence. 'L’éventreur du Staffordshire.' Sitartmag.com, November 2005.

Random House Canada Edition

Renzetti, Elizabeth. 'Down at the Pub with Julian.' Globe and Mail, 6 October 2005 [Interview].

Donnelly, Pat. 'A Pretty Good Bet.' The Gazette (Montreal), 8 October 2005: H1 [Interview].

Donnelly, Pat. 'Arthur Is a White Knight and George a Marked Man.' The Gazette (Montreal), 8 October 2005: H4.

van Herk, Aritha. 'Booker Front-Runner.' The Calgary Herald (Alberta), 8 October 2005: F7 [Very positive review with extended interview].

McNamara, Tim. 'Conan Doyle's on the Case in Satisfying Novel.' Edmonton Journal (Alberta), 9 October 2005: E12.

Wigston, Nancy. 'Mismatched Pair Made Legal History.' The Toronto Star, 9 October 2005: D6.

Burns, John. 'Arthur & George.' Straight.com, 13 October 2005.

Fulford, Robert. 'The Original Man of Mystery.' National Post (Canada), 18 October 2005: AL1.

Schiefer, Nancy. 'Holmes' Creator Takes a Case.' London Free Press (Ontario), 23 October 2005: D8.

Marchand, Philip. 'In the Spirit of the Time.' Toronto Star, 26 October 2005: F3.

Wigod, Rebecca. 'Case of the Forgotten Victorian.' Vancouver Sun, 29 October 2005: F19.

 

 

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