Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980
Description
The tales that make up Seven Men and Two Others start out as a set of "faux" memoirs set amid London literary life in the precious fin de siecle era and proceed into deliciously absurd fantasy. With a sense of fun, a hint of nostalgia, razor-sharp satire, and pitch-perfect parody, Beerbohm tugs at the affected nature of the whole literary scene--lamentable authors, wily agents, and preposterous weekend salons.
User reviews
LibraryThing member PhileasHannay
This book started out life as 'Seven Men' - the 'Two Others' were added to a later edition and have stayed ever since. It's a collection of humorous stories, mostly about the London literary scene of the 1890s, the 'decadent' Yellow Book set. The stories purport to be character portraits of people
'Enoch Soames' is the standout story, both the funniest and the most ingenious. It's one of the best stories I've read. If I'd read it many years ago perhaps I would have made my way across the world to the reading room of the British Museum on June 3rd, 1997, to join the other Max Beerbohm aficionados who no doubt showed up there at 2pm, in homage to this story.
Another outstanding story is 'A.V. Laider'. It is, more or less, about the lengths an unsocial Englishman will go to to avoid having to spend time with another man, when they discover they are the only two Englishmen in a foreign hotel. As an unsocial man, I found it very self-affirming. It's also very funny, especially the last bit. Then there is '"Savanarola" Brown', about a would-be playwright's would-be masterpiece, an hilarious pastiche of Shakespeare.
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the author knew at the time, and so he appears in each as a character, sometimes unintentionally becoming a major influence in the life of his acquaintance. 'Enoch Soames' is the standout story, both the funniest and the most ingenious. It's one of the best stories I've read. If I'd read it many years ago perhaps I would have made my way across the world to the reading room of the British Museum on June 3rd, 1997, to join the other Max Beerbohm aficionados who no doubt showed up there at 2pm, in homage to this story.
Another outstanding story is 'A.V. Laider'. It is, more or less, about the lengths an unsocial Englishman will go to to avoid having to spend time with another man, when they discover they are the only two Englishmen in a foreign hotel. As an unsocial man, I found it very self-affirming. It's also very funny, especially the last bit. Then there is '"Savanarola" Brown', about a would-be playwright's would-be masterpiece, an hilarious pastiche of Shakespeare.
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LibraryThing member shikari
Wonderful, wonderful Max Beerbohm. Seven better than Zuleika Dobson!
LibraryThing member Pauntley
Five stars for two at least of the Seven Men: Enoch Soames and 'Savonarola' Brown, literary miniatures about two failed poets of sublime incompetence. Enoch Soames is a tale of Faustian time travel into what was, for Beerbohm, the barely imaginable future - which is now our well remembered past.
Go! Pad thy calves!
Then might'st thou just conceivably with luck,
Capture the fancy of some serving wench.
Beerbohm had perfect pitch.
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Marvellous plot. But the plot is only the vehicle for Soames' delicately awful poems. Brown's tragedy, 'Savonarola', in Shakespearian blank verse, is another kettle of fish entirely. Splendidly declaratory. Here is the magnificently scornful Lucretia Borgia to infatuated Savonarola, after he abandons his habit and makes his appearance in the guise of a Renaissance nobleman, to woo her: Go! Pad thy calves!
Then might'st thou just conceivably with luck,
Capture the fancy of some serving wench.
Beerbohm had perfect pitch.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
xiii, 240 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
0192815121 / 9780192815125