Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes, is a fictionalized account of a real-life occurrence (The Great Wyrley Outrages; apparently quite famous, though I was ignorant of the events until I read the book): George Edalji was falsely accused of a brutal crime, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories) took up the case in an attempt to prove George’s innocence.

The book begins with short, alternating biographies of Arthur and George as they mature, and the sections slowly lengthen as the men age. Barnes seems to have done some exceptionally thorough research (and, for the most part, added his fictionalizations judiciously).

Among other themes (prejudice, love, Victorian/British chivalry, family bonds, et cetera), the novel delves into concepts of time and metaphysics, and these two subjects endure until the novel’s final words.

The metaphysical elements are especially intriguing because the protagonists’ personalities and views are disparate: Arthur is very imaginative, George is not.

Barnes plays some interesting games with tense: Arthur’s sections are in the past-tense until he meets the love of his life, when he decides that ‘”Their love is different. It has no past, and no future that can be thought about; it only has the present.” (p. 204 in the Vintage Canadian trade edition); and George’s sections are in the present-tense until he is judged guilty of the crime, which destroys his carefully constructed world-view.

Barnes did a marvelous job of creating atmosphere, and the two main characters are well drawn. I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction, and it wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but it’s a wonderfully conceived book.

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