Zuleika Dobson

Zuleika Dobson
by Sir Max Beerbohm
read: 2012
Modern Library #59, Guardian 1000 Novels

A synopsis in song (spoiler alert):

I liked this book; the humor holds up fairly well for being 101 years old.

There's an interesting diversion about halfway through where the narrator explains why he is able to render the story in third-person omniscient.  Short version: the Clio, the Greek Muse of history, becomes jealous of the fiction writers and their ability to relate stories with detail and the internal thoughts and feelings of characters.  Zeus, who has apparently had a thing for Clio for a while, grants her the ability to designate one historian to tell one story one time.  She chooses Beerbohm, and Zuleika Dobson is the result.  You gotta admit, it's pretty creative.