Max Beerbohm (1872–1956)
Author of Zuleika Dobson
About the Author
Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was born in England in 1872. In his twenties, Beerbohm became part of the literary circle of Oscar Wilde, and in 1898 he became the drama critic for the Saturday Review. His predecessor George Bernard Shaw recommended Beerbohm for this position supposedly because of show more Beerbohm's attacks on Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, one of Shaw's own works. It was also Shaw who gave Beerbohm the nickname The Incomparable Max. Beerbohm was known primarily for his sharp wit, often expressed in parody and satire, His first book The Works of Max Beerbohm was a collection of essays in a mock-scholarly format. Other essay collections include Yet Again, And Even Now, Around Theatres, and Mainly on the Air, which was based on a series of radio broadcasts. His fiction includes one novel titled Zuleika Dobson: An Oxford Love Story and numerous short stories. Many of his short stories have been published in such collections as The Happy Hypocrite, Seven Men, and A Variety of Things. Beerbohm's flair for humor and parody was carried over into his art. He was a gifted caricaturist and was as well known for his drawings as for his writing. His drawings have been published in the collections Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Second Childhood of John Bull, A Book of Caricatures, Fifty Caricatures, Rosetti and His Circle, and Things Old and New. Beerbohm resigned from the Saturday Review in 1910 when he married Florence Kahn, an American actress, and they retired to Rapallo, Italy. The Beerbohms returned to England for several years during World War II, but in 1947 they returned to Rapallo where Beerbohm died in 1956. Beerbohm was knighted in 1939. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
1. Max Beerbohm, poet and author.
2. Max Beerbohm, 'Bootstrap 4'
Image credit: Photo by Alvin Langdon Coburn, Jan. 15, 1908, London
Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery
(image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery
(image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Max Beerbohm
Max and Will: Max Beerbohm and William Rothenstein: Their Friendship and Letters, 1893-1945 (1975) 12 copies
Caricatures of twenty-five gentlemen 3 copies
The Mote in the Middle Distance 2 copies
Meditations of a refugee 2 copies
Ten Years Ago ... [short fiction] 2 copies
Six Stories 1 copy
The poet and his books 1 copy
AROUND THEATRES, Volume ii 1 copy
Around Theatres Vol. 1 1 copy
'Savonarola' Brown 1 copy
La Reliqia (Racconto) 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 929 copies
Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890s: An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose (1981) — Contributor — 175 copies
The Golden Argosy: A Collection of the Most Celebrated Short Stories in the English Language (1947) — Contributor — 137 copies
The Dedalus Book Of English Decadence: Vile Emperors And Elegant Degenerates (Decadence from Dedalus) (2004) — Contributor — 52 copies
The New Forget-Ne-Not : A Calendar — Contributor — 3 copies
About Time: The Forerunners of Time Travel and Temporal Anomalies in Science Fiction and Fantasy (2008) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Uncertain Element: An Anthology of Fantastic Conceptions — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Beerbohm, Max
- Legal name
- Beerbohm, Henry Maximilian
- Birthdate
- 1872-08-24
- Date of death
- 1956-05-20
- Burial location
- St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England, UK
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Place of death
- Rapallo, Italy
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Rapallo, Italy
Oxford, England, UK - Education
- Oxford University (Merton College)
Charterhouse School - Occupations
- parodist
caricaturist
novelist
essayist - Relationships
- Tree, Herbert Beerbohm (half-brother)
Tree, Iris (niece)
Tree, Viola (niece)
Kahn, Florence (wife) - Organizations
- Abinger Chronicle (editor)
- Awards and honors
- Knight Bachelor (1939)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Foreign Honorary ∙ Literature ∙ 1943) - Disambiguation notice
- 1. Max Beerbohm, poet and author.
2. Max Beerbohm, 'Bootstrap 4'
Members
Reviews
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Quitting at 18%. I find the strange writing style with constantly inverted word order annoying, the tone irritating and the 'plot' slow to develop.
He's an engaging, albeit dated prose stylist, and he can be very amusing. But this book proceeds to it's conclusion, and then kind of meanders around for several more chapters. There are odd bits of business, like the ghosts of George Sand and Chopin dropping in on a central character's piano recital. Actually ghosts abound in this book. If you like Wodehouse you'll find things to like here, but it's reputation as a timeless classic is a little much.
Maybe even 4½ stars... This satire of undergraduate behavior is still hilarious over 100 years after it was written! The basic story is about how the young men of Oxford react when Zuleika Dobson, the beautiful niece of the college Warden, arrives in their midst.
2.5*
These short Christmas stories are well written but not what I had been wanting to read. I was looking for holiday cheer and/or sentiment; these are essentially parodies of various authors' writing styles. For those authors that I was familiar with (Kipling & Galsworthy to name two), the parodies were extremely apt. I would consider rereading this sometime when I am in a different mood (& now that I know what to expect).
These short Christmas stories are well written but not what I had been wanting to read. I was looking for holiday cheer and/or sentiment; these are essentially parodies of various authors' writing styles. For those authors that I was familiar with (Kipling & Galsworthy to name two), the parodies were extremely apt. I would consider rereading this sometime when I am in a different mood (& now that I know what to expect).
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Statistics
- Works
- 82
- Also by
- 44
- Members
- 3,257
- Popularity
- #7,854
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 63
- ISBNs
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- Favorited
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