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David Blaize #3
David of King's
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
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About the author
E.F. Benson
1,030 books354 followersEdward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 2, 2024
Oh this wasn't supposed to make me cry in public?!
This is a book where you absolutely have to be aware of the author's lived experiences to fully appreciate and see the extent that David and Frank's evolving relationship as the emotional crux of the story.
Still episodic in nature and a coming of age novel, the emotional weight of queerness in the early 20th century is much clearer in this novel (compared to the first book) as David and his friends grow out of boyhood.
Any aspect of requited love was VERY much subtext and I think I'll have to reread passages to get the full intention.
This is a book where you absolutely have to be aware of the author's lived experiences to fully appreciate and see the extent that David and Frank's evolving relationship as the emotional crux of the story.
Still episodic in nature and a coming of age novel, the emotional weight of queerness in the early 20th century is much clearer in this novel (compared to the first book) as David and his friends grow out of boyhood.
Any aspect of requited love was VERY much subtext and I think I'll have to reread passages to get the full intention.
July 8, 2025
Loved it so so much I kind of want to cry, I can’t remember the last time I felt this much joy reading a novel. I can’t wait to write my dissertation on this, and hopefully other Benson novels. I wish there were a hundred more novels exactly like David Blaize
2025 reread: took me an embarrassingly long time to finish it this time for my diss research because I've had such a mental block when it comes to doing any substantial work on it. but every time I opened my copy and read a few pages I remembered just how much I love it. maybe not as much related to classics as I hoped for my diss but still VERY gay and so full of love
2025 reread: took me an embarrassingly long time to finish it this time for my diss research because I've had such a mental block when it comes to doing any substantial work on it. but every time I opened my copy and read a few pages I remembered just how much I love it. maybe not as much related to classics as I hoped for my diss but still VERY gay and so full of love
July 25, 2020
David of King's is about David Blaize's experience as an undergraduate at Cambridge (David Blaize is the eponymous hero of this books's prequel). It is so well written that although at times you may wonder why you should care about the trifles that make up much of the story, you quickly brush that thought away, reassuring yourself that reading about David's and his friends' exploits is time entirely well spent. The thread that connects (unobtrusively) the vignettes of college life is David's evolving friendship with Frank. Rife (even more so than David Blaize) of indirect references to sublimated same-sex desire, this forgotten gem is one of the most satisfying and delicately handled proto-queer novels I know of.
February 20, 2022
Utterly delightful and without rancour or unpleasantness. My heart sang the whole way through and I laughed out loud frequently. A lovely account of a lost world
January 5, 2022
An utterly delightful, tongue-in-cheek tale of life as an undergraduate at King's college, Cambridge in the early years of the 20th century.
June 14, 2025
this was extremely interesting and terribly boring at the same time.
let me explain.
the coming of age aspect of this was brilliant. i loved david in david blaize, loveable and endearing, charming and vivacious, and he was no different here -- throwing the whole of himself into what he loved, unreservedly, with no care for what other people thought. i was talking to my friend about this just the other day: how people think being sincere is "cringe" because you're putting too much of yourself Out There, and how i hate that the world has come to this, that loving something is deemed mortifying. we've all become too used to being haters, i think. so david unabashedly wanting to write later on in his career and making that clear to his father was very refreshing to me. (also, every father should be as eccentric yet caring as david's. "i hope i should never dislike anything on which your heart is set" had me beaming.)
every time this lulled me into a false sense of complacency, BANG, something very interesting happened. (gay tennis, for instance, in the same vein as challengers. art and patrick would be proud!)
however, it did lull me into a sense of boredom, unfortunately. multiple times, in fact. and that needs to be addressed (sigh). the most common culprits being a.g. and crowfoot. they were quirky and not uninteresting, and yet i found myself yawning whenever david interacted with either of them (especially with a.g.'s tendency to make long-winded monologues). and since i do often say the worst thing a book can be is tedious, this lost points on that front.
circling back around to the positives, though: the queer subtext has my whole heart. there's no end to the number of lines i highlighted because of how wonderfully they were written.
the long and short of it is: this was such a relaxing, comforting read! david blaize you will always be dear to me.
let me explain.
the coming of age aspect of this was brilliant. i loved david in david blaize, loveable and endearing, charming and vivacious, and he was no different here -- throwing the whole of himself into what he loved, unreservedly, with no care for what other people thought. i was talking to my friend about this just the other day: how people think being sincere is "cringe" because you're putting too much of yourself Out There, and how i hate that the world has come to this, that loving something is deemed mortifying. we've all become too used to being haters, i think. so david unabashedly wanting to write later on in his career and making that clear to his father was very refreshing to me. (also, every father should be as eccentric yet caring as david's. "i hope i should never dislike anything on which your heart is set" had me beaming.)
every time this lulled me into a false sense of complacency, BANG, something very interesting happened. (gay tennis, for instance, in the same vein as challengers. art and patrick would be proud!)
however, it did lull me into a sense of boredom, unfortunately. multiple times, in fact. and that needs to be addressed (sigh). the most common culprits being a.g. and crowfoot. they were quirky and not uninteresting, and yet i found myself yawning whenever david interacted with either of them (especially with a.g.'s tendency to make long-winded monologues). and since i do often say the worst thing a book can be is tedious, this lost points on that front.
circling back around to the positives, though: the queer subtext has my whole heart. there's no end to the number of lines i highlighted because of how wonderfully they were written.
the long and short of it is: this was such a relaxing, comforting read! david blaize you will always be dear to me.
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June 21, 2024This was such a comforting read.
I was also surprised at how clear the homoerotic themes were, especially in this book (considering the release date, of course)
I was also surprised at how clear the homoerotic themes were, especially in this book (considering the release date, of course)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews