The Shaving of Shagpat

by George Meredith

The novel is a humorous oriental romance and allegory written in the style of the Arabian Nights. Like its model, it includes a number of stories within the story, along with poetic asides.

Shibli Bagarag, a Persian barber, and Noorna, an enchantress, are given the quest of shaving the tyrant Shagpat, who by the power of his magical hair holds his city in thrall. Along the way Shibli acquires a magic sword and meets a series of exotic creatures, including a talking hawk and several genies.

Contents include: The Thwackings - The Story of Bhanavar the Beautiful - The Betrothal - Punishment of Shahpesh, The Persian, on Khipil, The Builder - The Genie Karaz - The Well of Paravid - The Horse Garraveen - The Talking Hawk - Goorelka of Golb - The Lily of the Enchanted Sea - Story of Noorna Bin Noorka, The Genie Karaz, and the Princess of Oolb - The Wiles of Rabesqurat - The Palace of Aklis - The Sons of Aklis - The Sword of Aklis - Koorookh - The Veiled Figure - The Bosom of Noorna - The Revival - The Plot - The Dish of Pomegranate Grain - The Burning of the Identical - The Flashes of the Blade.

Genres: Fantasy, Classics, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, 19th Century, Literature

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1856

About the author

George Meredith of Britain wrote novels, such as The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), and poetic works, including Modern Love (1862).

During the Victorian era, Meredith read law, and people articled him as a solicitor, but shortly after marrying Mary Ellen Nicolls, a 30-year-old widowed daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, in 1849 at 21 years of age, he abandoned that profession for journalism.

He collected his early writings, first published in periodicals, into Poems, which was published to some acclaim in 1851. His wife left him and their five-year old son in 1858; she died three years later. Her departure was the inspiration for The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), his first "major novel." It was considered a breakthrough novel, but its sexual frankness caused a scandal and prevented it from being widely read.

As an advisor to publishers, Meredith is credited with helping Thomas Hardy start his literary career, and was an early associate of J. M. Barrie. Before his death, Meredith was honored from many quarters: he succeeded Lord Tennyson as president of the Society of Authors; in 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII.

His works include: The Shaving of Shagpat (1856), Farina (1857), Vittoria (1867) and The Egoist (1879). The Egoist is one of his most enduring works.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

George^Meredith

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aleister Crowley was much taken with this work and put it on the Curriculum of the A.'. A.'. describing it as "An excellent allegory" and refers to it in his "Confessions" as "that superb magical apologue."

The book was first published in hardcover by Chapman and Hall in 1856, and there have been numerous editions since. Its importance in the history of fantasy literature was recognized by its reissuing by Ballantine Books as the seventeenth volume of the 'Ballantine Adult Fantasy' series in July 1970. The Ballantine edition includes an introduction by Lin Carter.

The second paragraph of the book provides a capsule summary of the story: "Now the story of Shibli Bagarag, and of the ball he followed, and of the subterranean kingdom he came to, and of the enchanted palace he entered, and of the sleeping king he shaved, and of the two princesses he released, and of the Afrite held in subjection by the arts of one and bottled by her, is it not known as 'twere written on the finger-nails of men and traced in their corner robes?"

Despite positive reviews, "The Shaving of Shagpat" sold poorly and the 1st edition wound up in the remainder stalls. Meredith never attempted fantasy again, but became a successful writer of modern romantic novels.

A reading hint for "The Shaving of Shagpat". The book is best if consumed in slower bits, kind of like a fine Rare Wine or Liqueur. It should be sipped and savored to be best enjoyed to allow the vapors and flavors to penetrate the reading palate. It should not be consumed like a 'Big Gulp'. It's not the easiest book to read, however, more enjoyment will be had if the book is savored. The book is extremely creative and cleaver.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

150 year old Arabian Nights pastiche -- almost unreadably florid prose. To quote from the very first page:

Now, the story of Shibli Bagarag, and of the ball he followed, and of the subterranean kingdom he came to, and of the enchanted palace he entered, and of the sleeping king he shaved, and of the two princesses he released, and of the Afrite held in subjection by the arts of one and
bottled by her, is it not known as 'twere written on the finger-nails of men and traced in their corner-robes? As the poet says:

Ripe with oft telling and old is the tale,
But 'tis of the sort that can never grow stale.

And it never, ever lets up.

(Also I couldn't help but notice that although the story is obviously Arabian Nights, the cover illustration is very distinctly Indian in character.)

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"O Youth, thou hast been thwacked!"

It's lines like that which convinced me to read this. I like the whole "Arabian Nights" style - the story-within-a-story, although this only happens twice, if I remember correctly (which is okay, the s-w-a-s thing usually gets taken too far no! whatever you do, don't ask him to tell you a story!)Yeah, I liked it. Meredith did pretty well for a white guy. It was spiced with little dashes of poetry, embellished with fal-de-rals and funiculars, arabesques of geniis and viziers, superlatively beauteous damsels disguised as wrinkled old hags, temptations to vanity and power and lust - all that lovely stuff that is really quite faithful to our experience of life. You work really hard to become the Master of the Event, but your pride trips you up and you get thwacked. You pick your sorry self up, and someone beautifully sympathetic and understanding comes along and encourages you - straight into a trap, and you get thwacked. So you pick yourself up, and who do you run into next but the Eclipser of Reason...

Exactly.
And really it's all about some barber (with the most awesome name of "Shibli Bagarag")who has been destined to shave the head of some guy "Shagpat" - which seems a very mundane destiny (again, faithful to life)but is compelling nonetheless. And in pursuit of which Event Bagarag becomes a hero. (Oh, and Shagpat is extremely hirsute. But it's only one particular hair that matters.)
See?
You should probably read this. It's a trip.


"Fortune in this mortal race
Builds on thwackings for its base;
...'Tis the thwacking in this den
Maketh lions of true men!"

[Edward Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Victorian psychedelia, at times wearying in its Arabian Nights conceit, but on the whole surprisingly entertaining.

"…for the mastery of an Event lasteth among men the space of one cycle of years, and after that a fresh Illusion springeth to befool mankind, and the Seven must expend the concluding half-cycle in preparing the edge of the Sword for a new mastery."

[Eric Orchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with wild, magical imagery. I really enjoyed this book but found it difficult to follow. The baroque/comic Arabian Nights language can be hard to unravel but definitely worth the effort.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming Arabian Nights fantasy in which a barber discovers he is the chosen one destined to carry out the title feat and remove a mystic talisman of great power from Shagpat's hirsute face. Lush, colorful language adds to the fun, though Meredith (whose previous book had been poetry) has a few too many poems in.

[Neema · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride. Beautiful prose, noteworthy poetry, and gripping narrative. As other reviewers have stated, it is very Arabian Nights-esque, but the (2) short stories are fun and interesting (unlike many in the Arabian Nights).

I highly recommend reading this, even though it may take some getting used to Meredith's prose. Many of the scenes in the novel are obvious parodies of traditional archetypes in this form of literature, which make it just absolutely hilarious at times.

[Sandoz Delsyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noorna-bin-Noorka is Shibli's HGA. She helps him fulfill his true will. When Shibli deviates from her guidance he gets thwacked. That is my Thelemic perspective on the book.

[パットリク · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meredith's imagination is much more powerful a lot of his contemporaries, and seems to be so overpowering that he is often distracted from the narrative to describe even the most banal details of his world. Frequently writers of the Victorian era (Thackeray, Eliot, Dickens) wrote in a style we'd now accuse as purple, and I am loath to follow suit. Extravagant, trippy imagery aside, the Shaving of Shagpat might be a better expression of poetry than prose. It makes Meredith's inclusion of excerpts from "the Poet" seem useless.

That said, wow what a book. In spite of the antique language and Orientalism, I could appreciate how modern this story felt. Shibli Bagarag is a barber with the ultimate dream of shaving the largest beard known in the land: that of Shagpat. Shagpat's beard is so large that the whole land reveres him, despite not having noble blood, and even names his city after him. Gaining the help of a wise sorceress named Noorna, his uncle Baba Mustapha, and a double-crossing Jinni named Karaz, Shibli must acquire three magic charms (the truth-telling waters of Paravid, the taming hairs of the horse Garraveen and the dispelling Lily) and the Sword of Aklis to shear Shagpat's facial hair. This is a journey many have made but one that Shibli must complete.

As I remarked on my twitter recently, this book breaks from the confinements of the Arabian Nights as soon as the hero's journey begins. Suddenly they're out of the cities of Oolb and Shagpat and in Aklis, an enchanted land full of traps, detours, and challenges. That said there are stories within stories too, but mostly in the books first half. The story of Bhanavar the Beautiful is a massive highlight in the story: a story of a femme fatale who uses her beauty to gain a jewel from a serpent, only to kill others in order to sustain this beauty and her power.

Subtext abounds on the illusion of power, legitimacy and of a society turned upside down. Beauty dependent on blood, contentment on tricks. In the realm of queen Rabesqurat, Shibli is under a spell and thinks that he's already shorn Shagpat. But with the Shibli is able to dispell her machinations. This Orientalist focus on this metaphysical truth reminds me of the opening words of the "Thief and the Cobbler," where the narrator talks about the outward world being only that of a sheen painted on an inward reality.

[The Usual · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Victorian pastiche of the Arabian Nights, and as these things go it isn’t half bad. It doesn’t, true, live up to its initial promise as parody but, having read, waded and occasionally floundered through much of Burton’s translation of the Nights themselves, I can say that he’s imitating the fun bits not the boring ones. I can also say, having read, waded and quite definitely floundered through The Egoist that the language here is not difficult. It’s a light, fun (but 19th century) read.

And yet…

And yet, I’m not sure I really want to read it again. That could be a result of having read it on a screen rather than in paper format, of course. I’m rather wedded to the idea of a book being a lump of dead tree kicking about the place, and it genuinely adds something for me to own a hardcopy. This is, I grant you, an appallingly old-fashioned notion and one that clutters up the house no end, but we all of us have our foibles. Nevertheless I think there’s only so much fairytale and inset poetry I really want in one go. Archaisms I can cope with. There are some who can’t cope with archaisms and I’m not going to judge them. Lightweights.

Where was I?

Yes: Shagpat starts out as humorous parody, drifts into pastiche, and ends up, in the last chapter or two, swamped with the kind of frenetic, almost hallucinatory weirdness you might almost expect from The Book of Revelation. Think the last chapter of The Man who was Thursday.

Worth reading, but possibly not twice.

[Judith Shadford · Rating 3 out of 5]

We didn't get to the shave until p 272, leaving the previous 271 pages for the labors of Shibli (which I kind of liked because there's a great Syrian man at the Cathedral named Shibli), working far harder than Hercules ever thought of working. Probably the most fascinating element in Meredith's craft is how he imagines elaborate banquets, gardens, even landscapes in minute detail. It's way too much for our nanosecond age, but the guy sat there with his pen and was so careful in eliciting a 360 degree scene that he gets amazing credit for his work. This isn't something dashed off to the publisher in 10 days. Lots of genii, some good, some, not so much. Flying gorgeous women who get cursed into age and ugliness. Greed. Corruption. Kind of contemporary, actually.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truthfully if you ask me the events of the last hundred pages, I would be hard-pressed to answer, and the final forty or so were read just out of spite for the thing, to refuse defeat in the face of overdone styling and a disregard for straightforward storytelling. And I must admit skipping most of the couplets inserted into dialog for effect.

Curiously, Meredith does the story-within-a-story trick of Thousand and One Nights by inserting "The Story of Bhanavar the Beautiful" which has Shaving's structure in miniature, as a moral fable rooted in tragedy. It too makes a weird transition that seemingly spirals out of control and where the internal rules change without warning or plan.

[Δκнғ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reads like a JRPG where in the beginning you're picking apples, and at the end, you're fighting God

[Wysire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some great moments but by the last 3rd it needed more edited out by the sword of Aklis.

[Mitch Dubeau]

dnf

[AID∴N]

The forced archaism heavily distracts from a novel that is otherwise rich in quirky marvels.

I'm not usually one to complain about a little verbosity or empurpled prose but even I strained to get through this one. It may have some historical value, sure, but The Shaving of Shagpat has aged about as well as old yogurt.