Julian Barnes - Arthur and George

Arthur and George is a fictional recreation of the great injustice done to George Edalji, a half-Indian solicitor who is accused of slaughtering farm animals. George is tried, convicted and sent to jail, where he spends three years engaged in menial activities and reading books. When he is released, he begins a campaign to clear his name, which includes writing a letter to the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's most popular literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur takes up the fight, throwing himself into the cause of clearing George's name.

Barnes is a skilled wordsmith. He carries the story along with ease, never saturating the text with flashy word choices or overly elaborate metaphors. The beginning of the novel, which is structured rather heavily around a series of disjointed chapters alternately titled 'Arthur' and 'George', focus on the upbringing and maturity of the two main characters. Barnes' writing serves these chapters well, as the quiet, mannered sentences ease us into what we expect will be a provoking, interesting and historically accurate portrayal of a forgotten period of Britain's past.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. There are early signs of difficulty in the novel as a whole. 'Arthur' goes on to become Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a tremendously popular author for his time, and one whose main creation - Sherlock Holmes - has well and truly resonated in the mind of his readers and continues to resonate in our current period. And yet, his literary development is left largely alone, we are told he has published books and is gaining fame and success, but that is all. This leads us to believe that Arthur's life is a charmed one, one of little hardship or difficulty.

So be it. That is easy enough to swallow, if we are to believe that Arthur is the great saviour of George's life. But George, too, is unattractive. He is a quiet, withdrawn young man, but beyond that we know very little. There is never an extensive examination of his psyche, which would allow us to understand the person he is and sympathise with his eventual downfall. Instead, we learn very little about him, and come to agree with the police that he is odd, a queer fellow who is difficult to root for.

So we have, approaching 100 pages into the novel, an unsympathetic character about to be placed into a situation designed to tug at our heartstrings, and an equally unappealing main character about to rescue him and save the day. But, again, Barnes shies away from creating a sense of dramatic urgency by waxing eloquently over Arthur's wife's illness, and his subsequent affair with a much younger woman, Jean. Because Arthur is not a wholly sympathetic character, is it difficult to care much for his marital difficulties. Fortunately for Arthur, these difficulties are only those of time, as his wife seems fairly content to plod along with consumption until she passes away.

The major problem with the story that is being told is that it is not a story. It is a recreation of something that actually occurred, and as with most things in life, there are no neat endings or beginnings. But, because we are reading a novel, it is expected that there will be some semblance of dramatic impact, particularly when Barnes struggles his best to convey an upcoming major event or revelation for a character. George is eventually proclaimed innocent of wrong-doing, but it is a stale, grey sort of innocence - the government was not interested in justice so much as saving face. Were it a Hollywood style production, there would be a grand magnanimous display of righteous justice for all, but because we are dealing with actualities and not fantasy, there is nothing for the reader but dissatisfaction.

The novel is constructed around the artifice of Arthur and George actually having a relationship. They don't, they share nine months together, and even then, it is in a purely professional sense. Arthur is not overly affected by it, though George, perhaps to move the story to its inevitable conclusion, is. There are tantalising hints of a great story between two men who made an important step towards free and great justice for all, but these hints never materialise. We are left with a limping, struggling novel that is pulled ahead only by the confidence of Barnes' words, not the positive qualities of his protagonists.

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British Authors