The British Museum is Falling Down

by David Lodge

Literature is mostly about having sex and not having children. Life is the other way around...

And that, precisely, is the dilemma that preoccupies Adam Appleby as he begins another day of research in the Reading Room of the British Museum. Adam is a graduate student in literature and a practicing Catholic in the days before the Pill. He is also married, has three children, and is not looking forward to the possiblity of a fourth.

On this foggy day in London, however, work and life conspire against him. As Adam makes his bumbling way through a series of misadventures that do little to alleviate his anxiety, the reader is treated to a hilarious and heartfelt tour of academia that only David Lodge could have created.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, British Literature, Contemporary, Comedy, Novels, 20th Century

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

David John Lodge was an English author and critic. A literature professor at the University of Birmingham until 1987, some of his novels satirise academic life, notably the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988). The second two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another theme is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays. After retiring, he continued to publish literary criticism. His edition of Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1972) includes essays on 20th-century writers such as T.S. Eliot. In 1992, he published The Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on literary techniques with illustrative examples from great authors, such as Point of View (Henry James), The Stream of Consciousness (Virginia Woolf) and Interior Monologue (James Joyce), beginning with Beginning and ending with Ending.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

The heart of this novel is the old British Library, whose reading room was then at the centre of the British Museum. A great blue dome of thought that was long since incapable of stretching over the all the book held treasures of human learning. There, in that library, our hero, a post-graduate student working on his thesis with a young wife and a number of very young children, works away. At home the prospect of his wife being perpetually pregnant or of unstinting abstinence looms for the youthful couple as they work through all the permitted methods of birth control allowed by the Catholic Church on the eve of Vatican II - this to be understood in conjunction with the previous sentence and in particular the use of the plural of child as the joke goes: Q: what do you call people who practise the rhythm method of contraception? A:parents. chances are that I learnt that joke from this book.

We follow him through a happily crisis filled day in his life happy for the reader starting with burning his underpants on the grill in the morning. Sections of the novel are written in the style of different authors to fine effect (for example Kafka is invoked for a scene in which the hero tries to renew his precious British Library reading room card).

And indeed for many years I used to carry around my own time expired British Library card in my wallet, a brief check suggests I've got rid of it now, I don't recall having given it a proper Viking Ship Burial as would have been appropriate sigh , as a talisman, or perhaps in the hope that in the event of fatal accident that I would have been borne back to the library to utter my last words 'I think I'll need an extension on the books I've borrowed' before expiring to the certain hope of a better and yet more bookish world ie that if my karma is right I'll be reborn as a printing press.

And I had won my ticket in a virtual rerun of the twelve labours of Hercules except with more clothes on, and far fewer murdered children, divine parentage was also not involved in this case it was only after a savage battle of wits that I was able to seize my reader's card from the slatherning jaws of Cerberus himself, incidentally I also had to carry the weight of the sky on my shoulders and steal the golden apples of eternal youth and it was awkward doing that at the same time but that is an unnecessary digression from my point - it was difficult to get a ticket and keeping it up to date a task worthy of many a hero.

He, the hero due to being as I mentioned a young married Catholic is also obsessed with contraception and the unsurprising conception that everybody else must be having firstly more sex and secondly sex of a far better quality, he has a friend a fellow English Literature PhD student who is obsessed with toilets and bowel functions. A running joke is that the hero's obsession is socially unacceptable in polite conversation while his friend's meets with barely hidden delight, visible behind mock outrage. This here is only a hint of what I feel is Lodge's typical theme - the cultural fissures in British life in the second half of the twentieth century. A good novel for a rainy day or an unexciting journey. this book has a Ted score of three, meaning, good to know about, but not to seek out and read

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Now I know what you're going to say that the novelist still has to invent a lot but that's just the point. There've been such a fantastic number of novels written in the last couple of centuries that they've just about exhausted the possibilities of life. So all of us, you see, are really enacting events that have already been written about in some novel or other. Of course, most people don't realize this - they fondly imagine that their lives are unique....jus as well too, because when you do tumble to it, the effect is very disturbing."

This quotation comes two thirds of the way through this great little book and it just tickled my fancy though the actual plot of this novel would be of purely historic interest. Its main theme is of a committed catholic couple trying desperately not to get pregnant whilst not using artificial conception but instead reverting to the contortions and skewed thinking that saw 'natural family planning' with its thermometers and calendars and 'yep you're clear for entry sir' (obviously not quite how the Vatican would phrase it but.....) as a more loving and nurturing road for a couple.

Thus that is what I mean when I say that it is of largely a purely historic interest as far as its topicality is concerned. Looking around at the average size of catholic families in 2014, either NFP has improved no end since myself and baby bro were additional gifts to my parents on top of the three they already had whilst they used it or catholics are opting for a more secure method.

David lodge writes a marvellously affectionate and yet clearly frustrated account of the 'Vatican roulette' era. Adam and Barbara struggle to be good catholics whilst at the same time being ordinary young people with drives and yearnings and the perfectly natural desire to make love to your partner because you love them. Adam is the main driving force of the book, he is a not failed author..... yet, but he struggles to keep his mind focused on anything beyond 'is she pregnant again'. We move with him through one day and meet fellow writers, a mildly racist teacher, business men, back stabbing academics, scary hairy butchers and a nymphomaniac daughter.

All of this swirling concoction is held together with a number of wonderfully written parodies of other writers. In my edition the introduction, written by Mark Lawson, very helpfully tells the reader where they can be found. This was useful for me, though I could spot the Woolf, Greene, Lawrence and Joyce I have to say that one or two of them, the CP Snow and Henry James especially would otherwise totally have escaped me.

Great book, funny and well worth a look, not for its historical value maybe but for its cleverness. And this cleverness did not strike me as being clever for clever's sake but just an intelligently witty man sharing in an intriguing way his love of the written word and its long history.

[Anni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage David Lodge novel - always entertaining, even if unavoidably somewhat dated now.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has a lot of common with Lodge's later novel, How Far Can You Go?. Like that book, this is a comic novel about British Catholics. And if Catholicism seems self-evident tripe to you, Lodge provides enough context to help understand his hapless characters. One feels genuine pity for the hero's wife who spends much of the novel stuck full of thermometers and studying graphs, all to try and predict a safe time for a shag.

Watching this whole wrong-headed world going about its business is what makes the novel so oddly fascinating - like listening to the people who think giant lizards are secretly running the planet. The same might be said of the pathetically stupid parish Priest, who warns the hero that the Pill is a Communist plot - he has proof if you're interested - to undermine Western morale.

I never realised Lodge was such a gifted parodist. There are some laugh-out-loud sections that parody (so far as I can tell) Lawrence, Hemingway, Conrad and Kafka and do so with enviable skill.

[Zedder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This contains a wonderfully accurate description of the loneliness and despair of the dissertation writer.

[Lorenzo Berardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear David,

I hope this review finds you well.
You will be delighted to know that I've just finished to read "The British Museum is Falling Down" that juvenile novel of yours which, although widely ignored back in 1965, later became one of the most successful books you wrote.

Dave, you know how much I like pretty much everything you wrote (apart from literary criticism, but that's my Achille's heel) and I would like to be frank with you as I've always been: this novel disappointed me.

Perhaps, it's more my fault than yours. I assume I just read "The British Museum is Falling Down" too late. If I had not become familiar with books of yours such as Paradise News, "Nice Work", "How Far Can You Go?" and the whole epic of professors Swallow and Zapp in the meantime, I would have probably enjoyed far more this third novel you wrote.

Alas! Being a big fan and a proud owner of most of your novels, I cannot say I liked this one. I hope you will take my humble opinion not as mere criticism, but more as a friendly reprimand.
In your afterword, you call "The British Museum is Falling Down" your "comic" and your "experimental" novel.
Very well, but I'm afraid that both aims were not fully fulfilled here.

On the one hand, this novel is funny but never very funny. There is satire, yes, and there is farce, I reckon, but always in a very mild manner without going as far as you could (and you did 15 years later in "How Far Can You Go?", hence the title).
The most plausible aspect of the protagonist, Adam Appleby, is - oddly enough - his own name. We never know how Adam manage to feed and clothe his own family including a housewife and three kids without having any sort of job so that his spasmodic seek for an occupation at the end of the book, doesn't really makes sense. Are four kids so much dearer than three, I wonder?

On the other hand, the characters who pop up in "A Day in the Life of Adam Appleby" (which had this novel being written in 1967, would have been a perfect title) are drawn in a very childish way.
Argentinean butchers? A man named Camel? (Catholic symbolism? If so, where is the eye and where is the needle?) A Catholic society discussing contraceptives? A seventeen years old girl molesting a married man? (what feminists said?).

My dear Dave, let me tell you that you could have done so much better!
It's not that all these people are not funny in their own way, it's just they don't really fit here and fade with others you created as a novelist.

You were young when you wrote this novel, Dave, therefore some naivety can be understood and even forgiven (I know how much you like this verb), but then if what you wanted to deliver was merely a comic novel, why making it heavy with a stream of consciousness at the end, I wonder?

In that afterword of yours, you wrote that you were trying to find a literary stratagem for finishing the book "with a climactic parody in a single stroke". But, Dave, Barbara here is no Molly Bloom and the only thing these two women have in common is that they had their period, as you stated. Well, honestly Dave, do you think this coincidence justify your choice? I don't think so.

All that said, David my lad, you managed to make me smile even here but mostly in a primary school style (Kingsley Anus! C.P Slow!) than in the scholar fashion you are so good to dismantle with wit.

I am sorry if this review of mine sounds too harsh, Dave.
I hope you will understand what led me to give "The British Museum is Falling Down" only a pass degree.
I am now looking forward to hearing more from you.

Cheers and take care
Lorenzo

PS: Have you heard the last joke on ol' Benny the 16th? Oh, it will amuse you!

[catjohmar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really know what I expected… but not whatever that was

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that I suspect is going to have a higher average ranking and more accolades from other reviews than myself. I feel like I ought to have liked it better than I did. It is not because I do not appreciate “zaniness”, or “mimicry”, or any of the other elements that comprise this book, but as a whole I was unimpressed.

I am giving it a “2.5” rating, which because there is no such star pattern means that I have to list it as a “2” or a “3”. I’m opting for a “2’ to emphasize my point.

It is a slim volume: my copy is a mere 176 pages of small-faced type into which the author packs a whole day. Because it was small and light, I packed it up and flew it halfway around the world and back at the end of 2011 and then again on more mundane trips to Ohio and Texas in March neither time getting to read it.

I’ve owned it for at least a couple of years, courtesy of a “friends of library” used book sale. After unpacking it for the last time I left it out and finally opened it up a couple of weeks ago. For various reasons I only read it in very short snatches and this may have contributed to my lack of warmth for this book, but in my defense if I had been more interested I probably would have made time for it (as I have done for many others once I got started.) Furthermore, there have been plenty of other books that I read in the same manner (five minutes here, five minutes there) that I rate much more highly.

My copy has a thirteen page introduction (written 15 years after the original publication) which I read first and now wonder if it would not have been better to do so afterwards. I believe that it was published as a foreword and not and an afterword in the hope that it would make the book more ‘approachable” for less literary readers and (perhaps) give it a wider popular audience.

The book is clever; “terribly clever” as he, himself, might say. In fact because he structured it to ape the styles of many famous authors (borrowing forms, phrasing, and structures) it is like a series of “Easter Eggs” that must be solved by the reader. The author recounts how after its original release many reviewers missed several of the pastiches even though the “structure” was leaked. Bundled within this cleverness is humor. Sometimes it is easily recognizable and other times is requires the reader to look deeper to find the absurdity or contradiction.

I won’t go into too much detail (most of it is probably summarized in every reference or blurb, anyway). The book takes place within a single day. The main character is an impoverished graduate student with a wife and children who although learned (read erudite) is not fully grounded in the real world. He doesn’t quite make the “absent-minded professor” grade, but he is definitely of the “hapless intellectual” stereotype.

Because the book jams everything into one day (like Joyce did in “Ulysses”) and this book is short, the pace is frenetic and feels “compressed”. It reminds me of watching “Fawlty Towers” (which I liked!) But at the same time, it reminds me of watching the same episode of “Fawlty Towers” (it does not matter which one) over and over again non-stop. No matter how excellent the story, jokes, and acting after a while it wears on you and that it some of what I felt as I worked my way through this book. (So please no nastygrams about “FW”: John Cleese is a comic genius, “FW” was a wonderful programme, and I hugely enjoyed watching it.)

So why I am spending so much of my time (and yours) writing about a book that at best I barely appreciated? Good question. The best answer that I can give is that I feel it has merit and I ought to have liked it better. I know that I did not necessarily pickup on exactly which author was being aped at each turn (although I did recognize several) and at times the humor stuck out incongruously as I worked my way through the plot. I think that a second reading could give me a better appreciation for the book, but it could also convince me that while an intellectual success it is a failure for readers.

If you have read it and have serious ideas about what it is and where I’ve gone horribly wrong, I’d like to know your opinion. Or, if you have similar thoughts (and can spare the time) ditto. I you have never read it but like medium-to-heavy weight fiction, then you might care to pick it up.

BTW - the publishing info & date of this edition match my copy, but I have a different cover. More monochomatic (blues and greens) with the main entrance to the BM on a tilt.

[Yani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otro autor nuevo para mí… y otra vez la sensación de estar eligiendo un lugar incorrecto por donde empezar. Si bien la novela no es mala y presenta temas de debate de una forma más liviana, no me generó asombro. Sí hubo una especie de identificación cuando se hacían referencias al ámbito académico, pero eso ni agrega ni quita puntos al libro. Por ende, me llevo poco de él.

Adam Appleby es un joven que en los años 60 trabaja en su tesis de doctorado sobre Literatura Inglesa, no tiene trabajo y sospecha que su familia está a punto de agrandarse otra vez (ya tiene tres hijos). Él y su esposa Barbara son católicos y no pueden ir en contra de la concepción pero, al mismo tiempo, mantener otro hijo les resulta sofocante. Ese es el gran dilema de la obra, además de la incompatibilidad de la vida doméstica con las actividades de un hombre de Letras y la hipocresía detrás del discurso de la familia numerosa y feliz.

A pesar de que las críticas a ciertas prácticas religiosas podrían ofender a los católicos, me pareció que el libro es bastante respetuoso (o tal vez yo esperaba algo peor). Hay muchas alusiones al sexo, absurdos, equívocos y situaciones hilarantes que a mí, sinceramente, me causaron más pena que gracia. Disfruté más las descripciones del Museo Británico que las idas y vueltas de Adam sobre del embarazo de su esposa, a quien compadezco infinitamente. Ah, y me gustó el último capítulo. No puedo contar el motivo.

Los personajes en The British Museum is Falling Down no son una innovación y, en algún punto, son caricaturescos (como los carniceros o el padre Finbar). Representan ciertos ámbitos que Adam frecuenta pero los que realmente hacen avanzar la trama son unos pocos. Los demás (los pedantes) sólo se encargan de proponer o de debatir ideas, a veces con seriedad, a veces con sarcasmo. Mientras lo leía me acordé mucho de ciertos personajes de películas o series que andan rondando actualmente.

Extrañamente, no soy adepta a las novelas o cuentos que tienen a la Literatura como eje principal, giran alrededor de él, mencionan autores o libros cada párrafo y medio y los dan por conocidos. Me ocurrió algo parecido con La misteriosa llama de la reina Loana, de Umberto Eco, y creo que selecciona lectores. Más allá de eso, la narración es simple y no genera problemas… siempre y cuando una no se pregunte quién está escribiendo. El “pastiche” literario termina siendo más interesante que las aventuras de un hombre sobrepasado por una vida que no puede controlar, pero tampoco es algo que me den ganas de aplaudir.

Como ya dije antes, no se lleva más estrellas porque no me dejó nada en particular. Es entretenido (en este caso, no es lo mismo que “divertido”) y presenta una óptica distinta para alguien que no está muy al tanto de los problemas de los matrimonios católicos, pero si parte del objetivo era hacerme reír, no cumplió con él. Y es posible que a mí me falte humor y no tenga una buena relación con esta clase de novelas. Me abstengo de recomendarla porque su temática es muy específica y todo depende de qué tan dispuestos estén a identificarse y/o a ofenderse.

[kiubert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Llegué a este libro por una recomendación, y lo empecé a leer casi totalmente a ciegas (sólo vi que tenía un promedio decente de estrellas acá y listo). Me sorprendió bastante, y superó mis expectativas.

Es un libro breve, que cuenta la historia de un día en la vida de un hombre británico, católico practicante y que dedica sus días a leer en la biblioteca del Museo Británico para poder terminar su tesis doctoral, y a la vez, intenta no tener hijos en la época previa al Concilio Vaticano Segundo, cuando la anticoncepción era considerada un pecado aún más terrible que lo que es hoy por la iglesia. En resumen, es la historia de un tipo fracasado que intenta que algo le salga bien en su vida.

Lo divertido es que a la vez es un libro sobre otros libros (súper meta, de hecho cada capítulo es una imitación del estilo de algún escritor famoso, a la rápida se identifica a Kafka y a Joyce), sobre lectores, y sobre bibliotecas, pero sin irse demasiado en una volá densa, cosa que se agradece en un libro con pretensiones humorísticas.

[Albano Carneiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma abordagem aos problemas dos casais católicos nos anos 60 face à questão da contracepção feita com humor ainda que britânico

[Jade Heslin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt I should have loved this book but it just didn’t do it for me. David Lodge’s ‘comic’ satire of the worlds of academia and Christianity just wasn’t that good. Perhaps, being written in the ‘60s, it was a bit old-hat, perhaps most of the jokes went over my head, or perhaps it just wasn’t funny at all. Either way, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anybody.

Being a Graduate of English myself, I really thought I would be able to relate to our protagonist, Adam Appleby. He lives his life through the pages of the books he reads and has a literary comparison for everything. To be honest, this book made me feel a little stupid.

I have read elsewhere that throughout its pages this novella contains a pastiche of ten different authors (Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, D.H. Lawrence, F.R. Rolfe, C.P. Snow & Virginia Woolf). Every single one of these managed to pass me by (although admittedly, of these authors I have only had dabblings in Kafka, James & Lawrence – and I’ve never even heard of Rolfe & Snow!).

I think that recognition of these literary nods must be essential to one’s enjoyment of this tale, as without them, the story line is pretty damn boring. It all takes place in one day. It is all very ordinary. During one of the conversations in the story, Lodge does make reference to the fact that whilst all classic literature involved slaying dragons, the modern novel can revolve around the day of an average person – and the fact that so many books like this are being written means that people nowadays must be living lives already lived by characters in books). Although he does have a point, when you really think about it, it doesn’t actually mean anything. He’s like a bloody Fall Out Boy lyric. “Oh wow – that’s so deep… Actually, sod off mate – you’re not exactly Confucius”.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if I was better educated. But if this is the sort of novel that educated people deem “Brilliantly funny” – I’m not sure I want to be one of those people.

I suppose this book would have been enlightening for people who don’t know much about the Roman Catholic faith. Seeing as I went to a Catholic School for a good few years, I was already well versed in the Vatican’s stance on birth control (killjoys!). All Adam did was moan & moan. In the end, the Applebys’ plight was really starting to grate on me. If you hate it that much, renounce your faith!

So yeah, I got absolutely nothing from this novel.

[Pioup · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I began to suspect the presence of pastiche within the text quickly enough (my edition doesn't mention that anywhere until you get to the afterwords by the way). That was a problem in my enjoyment of the book however: I could see there were shifts in the narration, but apart from three cases, I didn't know the author "pastiched" well enough (or often enough, at all) to recognise it and appreciate the effort. Which is too bad because it's the kind of intertextuality that I rather like, when I can understand it ^^;
Here is the list of authors the novel mimics according to the afterwords:

Joseph Conrad
Graham Greene
Ernest Hemingway
Henry James*
James Joyce
Franz Kafka*
D.H. Lawrence
Fr. Rolfe#
C.P. Snow#
Virginia Woolf*

(*: I've read at least one book by them
#: I don't even know them by name)

If anyone has a list of which bit makes reference to which author, that would be great since I only got Virginia Woolf and Kafka, who were easy enough, and Joyce, because while I haven't read Ulysses, I did read the stream of consciousness chapter in lit class: lucky me that the only part I knew was the one referenced here.

Apart from that, the book was enjoyable enough, but I found the main character neither that likeable nor that interesting, so I wasn't left with much enthusiasm. I was also a little bit frustrated with the attitude of the characters about the ban of contraception in the Catholic church and kept mentally screaming at them "just use a condom, who cares, not Jesus that's who!". But that's just me and my not-strict-at-all Catholic education I guess.

[Vanja Šušnjar Čanković · Rating 4 out of 5]

Britanski humor za mene predstavlja pouzdanu vrijednost. Britanski muzej propada je vrlo duhovit roman, pun izuzetnih parodija i aluzija na poznata djela svjetske književnosti. Najočiglednija i, možda, najsmješnija je u samom epilogu koji završava poput Džojsovog Uliksa.

Inače, glavni lik je dvadesetpetogodišnji postdiplomac Adam Eplbi, nezaposleni otac troje djece, preopterećen mogućnošću da mu je žena ponovo trudna. Vaspitan pod okriljem strogih pravila rimokatoličke vjere koja ne dozvoljava upotrebu sredstava za kontracepciju u svrhu kontrole rađanja, protagonista je suočen sa ozbiljnim moralnim dilemama. Kao, po treći put svježa, majka, ali i nekadašnji postdiplomac lako sam se mogla poistovjetiti sa razmišljanjima i ličnom borbom predstavljenim na jedan vrlo lucidan i osvježavajući način.

Posebno mi se sviđaju ideje o izmjenama zakonodavstva iz različitih oblasti poput one o vožnji službenog automobila, kao i druge zanimljive maštarije glavnog junaka uključujući i neodoljivu želju gotovo svih ozbiljnih doktoranata da objave potpuno originalnu i inventivnu tezu kojom će se proslaviti i obogatiti. Vrlo zabavno i kratko štivo zagarantovanog kvaliteta koje će se naročito svidjeti svim istinskim ljubiteljima književnosti i takozvanih modernih klasika, ali i svima onima koji vole zdrav britanski humor koji ne preza ni pred čim.

Ako vas moj opis ne podstakne na čitanje, ovaj čuveni citat bi mogao: „Književnost se bavi uglavnom seksom, a ne rađanjem dece. U životu je obrnuto.“ Inače, pravi knjigoljupci, bez djece, mogu ovaj pitki roman pročitati za manje od dva sata. Uživajte!

[Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor Adam Appleby has several problems. First and foremost, he and his young wife are faithful Roman Catholics, which means that no matter how earnestly they adhere to the Rhythm Method, all their poring over calendars and temperature-taking has not prevented three children they can't afford and, horror of horrors, a possible fourth is on the way. Second, Adam's future career in academe is highly dubious unless he finishes his long-overdue thesis on English Literature, with which he wrestles aimlessly day after day in the library of the British Museum. Third, these problems have made Adam so addled that the boundaries between reality and literature are beginning to get a bit fuzzy -- as life increasingly begins to imitate art, poor Adam is never quite sure whether or not he's stepped out of his front door that morning to find himself plopped in the middle of a novel by Kafka, James, Conrad, Hemingway or James Joyce. David Lodge delivers an entertaining, energetic bit of brain candy, pleasantly reminiscent of both an early Evelyn Waugh satire and Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, with an amusing sprinkling of literary pastiche thrown in for good measure.

[Wajiha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deserves better. I feel it should deserve better but somehow it stops you from falling for it. It's so clever you miss it. I missed the literary references too, except Virginia Woolf and DH Lawrence. It is an exercise in cleverness but in the process it looses the less erudite readers, like me. It's funny yes, understatedly so, which is possibly the most difficult style of humour to do. Here, it works some of the times, but doesn't at others. The comic appeal of Natural Law and obsessing about sex and pregnancies got old soon. It does get better as the book progresses. Crossed phone connections, cheese sandwich corpse, promiscuous Virginia & Pond's procreation superstitions are some of the better bits. I will call this a slice-of-time book too (refer to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore review) but this didn't manage to age all that well. Nevertheless it has it's charm.

[Song · Rating 1 out of 5]

这本书不值一读。

首先，写作背景是1965年，避孕药片也才刚刚被发明出来不久，西方社会的性解放和嬉皮士运动还没有大行其道，所以，小说内容里写的天主教廷反对信徒采取人工避孕措施，而导致信徒夫妻合法婚姻生活充满性压抑和怀孕焦虑。这种事情在当代读者看来陈旧迂腐得极其可笑，完全无法引起共鸣。一个避孕套解决的问题，至于嘛。使用避孕套是科学，是礼貌，是常识。连这个也反对是有毛病吗？

其次，作者根本没有什么写小说的才能。靠的是一种所谓“戏仿拼贴”的手段来创作，简单说，就是一个只会学习的人读了过多的书，手舞足蹈自以为是地东抄西拼，模仿各种作品的片段，很有“智慧”地写成一本小说。更要命的是，作者还以为自己非常幽默，兼具智慧和幽默，简直是英国社会价值观里的的翘楚了。对了，这种非常博学但根本没有什么原创力的作者，好像都跟英国、大英博物馆，大英图书馆沾点边。

不要误解。我不是说知识无用，或者读书可耻。恰恰相反，阅读和知识都是人生的美德和幸福。但是，小说创作需要比百科全书更多的努力和天分。百科全书包含所有的知识，但它并不是小说，没有人把百科全书当小说读。据说钱钟书先生喜欢读词典，但《管锥编》也不是小说啊！小说的灵魂是人物，人物的塑造永远处于小说创作的核心位置。优秀的作者赋予小说里虚构人物血肉，灵魂，让读者与他们共鸣，同感，一起经历小说人物所经历的。蹩脚的作者，往往旁征博引，戏仿拼贴，插科打诨，说学逗唱，十项全能，就是写不出一个血肉丰满的小说主角，只能写脸谱，写纸片人。这基本也是马伯庸的毛病：把学识和幽默跟小说创作混为一谈。小说不是上课考试能学到的那种东西，它需要小说家燃烧自我，挖掘本质，深深地沉入世俗，再把最原创最独特的见解，透过虚构人物的经历体现出来。正因为如此，百科全书永远成不了小说，它有知识，全部的知识，唯独缺了生活的世俗和人味儿。

读完 John Irving（《盖普眼里的世界》，《苹果酒屋的规则》），John Williams （《斯通纳》，《奥古斯都》），石黑一雄这些文学巨星的雄浑作品，再看这位戴维·洛奇可笑单薄的“拼贴戏仿”，真是他妈是“倒塌了”。

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

2015 LBC Bingo: Fanfic/Pastiche

This book has a fascinating premise: a scholar studying in the British Museum is so affected by what he is reading, his narrative of a day in his life takes on the style of what he is currently reading. According to the afterward, the author mimics: Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, Fr. Rolfe, C.P. Snow and Virginia Woolf. I have to admit that evidently my knowledge of British literature is rather poor because I noticed exactly zero of those influences. However, the book is charmingly British and highly comedic so even the unlearned can still enjoy this quick and fun read.

[Roderick Mcgillis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description of a student's life as a researcher in the BM Reading Room resonates with me, even to the homage to Karl Marx. I remember my days in the BM well and this book captures the experience meticulously. As a bonus, the novel is also funny. The parodies are fine and the situations hilarious. Oh those fumbling but menacing butchers. The days of criticism versus scholarship seem mostly past now, and so the book carries a nostalgia softly. Even the Beatles sort of show up. And don't let me forget the contraceptives

[Bob R Bogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fellow Joycean recommended this book to me; whom I don't recall.

The British Museum is Falling Down: timidly parodical, quirky British humor mimicking Modern literary styles while betraying scrimpy style of its own. Faintly quaint, or quaintly faint. A cross-pollination of problems attendant upon questions of human fertility, religion and esoteric literary research that is perfectly appealing if that particular three-way intersection holds out a compelling interest. Otherwise think of a sort of mild-mannered academic Londoner-Catholic version of a Woody Allen tale.

Like that.

[Deborah Quazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny British humor about the failure of catholic “rules” on procreation and against birth control and the academic world of sad jobs - Adam goes to the British museum every day to research a failed book about a failed British author

[Delphine · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest books by Lodge. With a wonderful passage of Martian chronicles at the beginning of the novel.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

More fun in Midlands UK - this time, it's a book that takes place in one single day in the 1960s. Ace!

[Anna Piranha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of a single, ordinary day told as a series of pastiches. Like Ulysses, only actually FUN TO READ.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully funny with a charming epilogue. Each chapter is a parody of another novelists' style.

[Amylovdahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love David Lodge's earlier books. They are very funny.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Για κάποιο λόγο τα βιβλία του Λόντζε πλησιάζουν το ιδανικό ανάγνωσμα αλλά δεν το αγγίζουν. Και αυτό γιατί, παρόλο που τα θέματα που διαπραγματεύονται είναι άκρος ενδιαφέροντα από κάποιο σημείο και μετά καταλήγουν να γίνονται κωμωδία καταστάσεων. Και δεν είναι ότι έχω κάποιο θέμα με την κωμωδία, ίσα ίσα θα ήθελα περισσό��ερα κωμικά βιβλία στην αναγνωστική μου καριέρα, αλλά το θέμα είναι εδώ ότι αυτού του είδους η κωμωδία θα ταιριάζει περισσότερο στην οθόνη παρά στο χαρτί. Για παράδειγμα τα γεγονότα του ένατου κεφαλαίου με την τσίτσιδη ξαναμμένη κοπέλα που κυνηγάει τον σεμνότυφο καθηγητή είναι κλασσική σκηνή 60's - 70's έργου (μπορώ χαλαρά να φανταστώ την Madeline Smith να τρίβεται στον Oliver Reed) όπως επίσης και το παιχνίδι κατασκόπων με τον Αμερικανό επισκέπτη στο μουσείο. Και είναι κρίμα καθώς το κυρίως θέμα του βιβλίου (η επίδραση της απαγόρευσης της αντισύλληψης στα νέα ζευγάρια από την Καθολική Εκκλησία) θα μπορούσε να δώσει υλικό για περισσότερο σαρκασμό. Ένα άλλο ακόμα που με ενόχλησε κάπως είναι ο πρόλογος του συγγραφέα στον οποίο αναφέρει την επιρροή γνωστών ονομάτων της λογοτεχνίας σε κάθε κεφάλαιο του βιβλίου, δλδ αναφορά κάποιων αστείων σκηνικών σε ογκόλιθους της λογοτεχνίας. Λυπάμαι κ. Λότζ αλλά ένα αστείο όταν το εξηγείς μάλλον δεν είναι τόσο αστείο.

Πάντως άσχετα με τα παραπάνω, πρόκειται για ένα πολύ ευχάριστο βιβλίο, ιδανικό για ελαφρά αναγνώσματα.

[WF · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, this book started really well, and ended on just the right note. Certain points in between, however, sagged a little. I paused for weeks at the two-thirds point and read other things, which sort of cleansed my palate, metaphorically, then I read Adam's final attempts at shenanigans and the whole of Barbara's closing interior monologue with great enjoyment.

It was quite fun on the whole, mainly because I had not read anything amusing yet literary for quite some time...It was also interesting to read the author's Afterward, describing the book's conception, birth and reception more than fifty years ago.

Definitely recommended for those on self-isolation or home quarantine, who might not otherwise be willing to spend time on a literary pastiche.

[Asa · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai mis du temps à rentrer dans ce livre, j'ai trouvé la première moitié assez ennuyeuse. La suite est plus dynamique, l'humour plus percutant (à mon goût). Le personnage semble enchaîner les faux espoirs et les déconvenues pour revenir à son point de départ, ce qui qui m'a agacée au début, c'était était trop systématique pour moi. La suite m'a semblé plus piquante, ce qui m'a permis de retrouver une lecture plus confortable. L'atmosphère de l'Angleterre des années 60 est agréablement dépaysante. Je pense qu'avec de bons acteurs, et une mise en scène enlevée, il y a de quoi faire une bonne comédie.

[Lieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The subject of Adam's thesis had originally been, 'Language and Ideology in Modern Fiction' but had been whittled down by the Board of Studies until it now stood as 'The Structure of Long Sentences in Three Modern English Novels'. The whittling down didn't seem to have made the task any easier. He still hadn't decided which three novels he was going to analyse, nor had he decided how long a long sentence was.”