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David Blaize #1
David Blaize
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1916
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About the author
E.F. Benson
1,028 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 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 13, 2020
Hovering between three and four stars, despite my ideological objections to public schools, and my bewilderment at Benson’s coy (perhaps hypocritical?) homoeroticism. This book would definitely be a goldmine for a queer studies course.
It is charming, frequently amusing, and ends in an adroit tugging of the heartstrings. A quick and pleasant read, if somewhat outside of modern concerns. The book was a bestseller for Benson in its day (out of print now) and he delivered two sequels featuring the David Blaize character.
Fairly episodical in structure, the novel follows David’s career as a schoolboy from Prep school to public school and ends just before he leaves for university. There is a fair amount of cricket, nowhere near as successfully integrated from a literary point of view as in ‘The Go-Between’ (so easily skimmed, result).
Thematically it is very much about burgeoning homoerotic feelings. David and his friend Frank have a full-blown bromance, very much minus sex, viewed as ‘beastly’. Another friend of David’s is expelled for carnality, but by the end of the novel we hear he has reformed and he’s made it into a military academy.
I wondered about Benson’s decision to write a schoolboy novel at this particular point in his career. It perhaps could be he was responding to a vogue: Arnold Lunn had published ‘The Harrovians’ in 1913 - a huge bestseller and apparently the first book to lift the lid off public school abuses. In this sense ‘David Blaize’ (1916) could be Benson’s attempt at a correction or a defence of the public school system. In 1917 the teenage Alec Waugh published ‘The Loom of Youth’ which explicitly referenced Lunn and presented homosexuality as traditional in public schools. Again, the book was wildly controversial but enormously successful for the young author - however both he and his father had to remove themselves from the school’s old boy association and younger brother Evelyn had to attend a different school.
It is charming, frequently amusing, and ends in an adroit tugging of the heartstrings. A quick and pleasant read, if somewhat outside of modern concerns. The book was a bestseller for Benson in its day (out of print now) and he delivered two sequels featuring the David Blaize character.
Fairly episodical in structure, the novel follows David’s career as a schoolboy from Prep school to public school and ends just before he leaves for university. There is a fair amount of cricket, nowhere near as successfully integrated from a literary point of view as in ‘The Go-Between’ (so easily skimmed, result).
Thematically it is very much about burgeoning homoerotic feelings. David and his friend Frank have a full-blown bromance, very much minus sex, viewed as ‘beastly’. Another friend of David’s is expelled for carnality, but by the end of the novel we hear he has reformed and he’s made it into a military academy.
I wondered about Benson’s decision to write a schoolboy novel at this particular point in his career. It perhaps could be he was responding to a vogue: Arnold Lunn had published ‘The Harrovians’ in 1913 - a huge bestseller and apparently the first book to lift the lid off public school abuses. In this sense ‘David Blaize’ (1916) could be Benson’s attempt at a correction or a defence of the public school system. In 1917 the teenage Alec Waugh published ‘The Loom of Youth’ which explicitly referenced Lunn and presented homosexuality as traditional in public schools. Again, the book was wildly controversial but enormously successful for the young author - however both he and his father had to remove themselves from the school’s old boy association and younger brother Evelyn had to attend a different school.
May 24, 2017
This is an odd little novel by modern standards, a schoolboy Bildungsroman in which the adventures of the title character are mostly internal and emotional. There's really no overarching plot or structure, it's just the growing pains of the title character. (Growing pains plus way too much cricket for any non-Commonwealth reader to understand.) But these growing pains are genuinely affecting, sometimes funny, sometimes sweet, sometimes skirting the edges of a dimly-sensed abyss.
And that abyss, of course, would be homoeroticism, because this is the all-male world of British public school. It's only referred to in a sidelong manner, but it is certainly, deliberately, there. There is hero worship and there is jocular contempt and there is, ultimately, the close bond-brotherhood of boys who have been through something shoulder-to-shoulder (a la Rosemary Sutcliff's works), but under all of this is the suggestion of a lurking temptation that must be resisted. (One minor character apparently fails to resist, and is expelled; Frank overcomes an unspecified feeling upon seeing David exiting the bath, and ever after fervently thanks David, in his heart, for "making him good". It's amazing how much implicit gay there is, with zero actual mention of gayness anywhere.)
But there is also a lot of gentle humor (the chapter in which Frank executes a scheme to stop David's class from cheating on their translation work is particularly hilarious) and a lot of affection. The scenes with David and his sister Margery are a delight, and so are the parts of the book in which David realizes that his teachers and the headmaster are real people, and grows to care about them as well. I found the book surprisingly readable and enjoyable, though I admit I skimmed the cricket scenes; so alas I will never be quite sure what, exactly, made David a bowler of the googliest type.
And that abyss, of course, would be homoeroticism, because this is the all-male world of British public school. It's only referred to in a sidelong manner, but it is certainly, deliberately, there. There is hero worship and there is jocular contempt and there is, ultimately, the close bond-brotherhood of boys who have been through something shoulder-to-shoulder (a la Rosemary Sutcliff's works), but under all of this is the suggestion of a lurking temptation that must be resisted. (One minor character apparently fails to resist, and is expelled; Frank overcomes an unspecified feeling upon seeing David exiting the bath, and ever after fervently thanks David, in his heart, for "making him good". It's amazing how much implicit gay there is, with zero actual mention of gayness anywhere.)
But there is also a lot of gentle humor (the chapter in which Frank executes a scheme to stop David's class from cheating on their translation work is particularly hilarious) and a lot of affection. The scenes with David and his sister Margery are a delight, and so are the parts of the book in which David realizes that his teachers and the headmaster are real people, and grows to care about them as well. I found the book surprisingly readable and enjoyable, though I admit I skimmed the cricket scenes; so alas I will never be quite sure what, exactly, made David a bowler of the googliest type.
September 21, 2022
just a joy to read. I honestly was shocked at the overt level of queerness this had for something that was published in 1916, and I was overjoyed to see the love and friendship between David and his friends (particularly Frank, "that friend of his heart") that was, on the whole, regarded as perfectly normal and accepted in the environment they were in. I was very nervous that there was going to be a bury your gays-esque tragedy to negate it all, and was very pleasantly surprised when there wasn't. and it was lovely to see David realise that adults/teachers are humans too, and that Ancient Greeks were people just like us: “Up till now it had not been real to him that the people who wrote these tedious or difficult things which he had to learn were once as alive as himself, or that beauty had inspired them to make plays and statues ... They had all become people who went to the theatre like anybody else, and went to Olympia, just as anybody now might go to the Oval, and had play-writers like Aristophanes who made just the same sort of jokes as people make nowadays”
And these kids were making the same sort of jokes as people make nowadays too--teenage boys have just always been Like That, I guess.
although I read this purely as a precursor to the follow-up, David of King's, for a potential dissertation, I'm so happy that I read this one first. as well as making notes on all the queer overtones, I ended up just loving the way benson crafts a sentence. I hope some confused queer kid in the early 20th century found some solace in this, just like I did
And these kids were making the same sort of jokes as people make nowadays too--teenage boys have just always been Like That, I guess.
although I read this purely as a precursor to the follow-up, David of King's, for a potential dissertation, I'm so happy that I read this one first. as well as making notes on all the queer overtones, I ended up just loving the way benson crafts a sentence. I hope some confused queer kid in the early 20th century found some solace in this, just like I did
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July 1, 2020About the slashiest of all the boarding school stories.
December 8, 2024
A low stakes collection of different slice of life moments that are woven together as we see David grow up and the bonds he forms at school. The characters (and their humour) are where this story shines though: David, Maddox, and Bags filled my heart with SO much joy.
I wish there wasn't so much sex negativity/internalised homophobia, but this is a proto-queer novel written in 1916 so it's pretty par for the course. I did love how explicit the story was with Maddox and Bags's feelings towards David.
This isn't a typical 5 star novel, but I absolutely love the characters and know I won't be able to stop thinking about them.
I wish there wasn't so much sex negativity/internalised homophobia, but this is a proto-queer novel written in 1916 so it's pretty par for the course. I did love how explicit the story was with Maddox and Bags's feelings towards David.
This isn't a typical 5 star novel, but I absolutely love the characters and know I won't be able to stop thinking about them.
October 28, 2012
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself. - Gore Vidal
written during World War II, David Blaize is E.F. Benson's nostalgic coming-of-age tale about school life, friendship and growing up in the late 19th century.
filled with humor, wit and rich detail, this eponymous novel relates our protagonist's experiences from prep school to Marchester College - his trials and triumphs and especially his relationship with Frank Maddox.
the homo-eroticism is so subtle that what David and Maddox had going on could hardly be labeled as romance but it is there all the same. perhaps, what makes it really different and special between David and Frank is that it remains purely platonic all throughout the story. Frank, being older, exercises restraint and David, clueless at first, learns to be comfortable about the whole affair later.
although the abundant sections on cricket matches tried my patience as i read, i would consider this novel an engaging story. it was also an idyllic trip down memory lane to a time where life held so much promise and beauty as it did for David Blaize.
written during World War II, David Blaize is E.F. Benson's nostalgic coming-of-age tale about school life, friendship and growing up in the late 19th century.
filled with humor, wit and rich detail, this eponymous novel relates our protagonist's experiences from prep school to Marchester College - his trials and triumphs and especially his relationship with Frank Maddox.
the homo-eroticism is so subtle that what David and Maddox had going on could hardly be labeled as romance but it is there all the same. perhaps, what makes it really different and special between David and Frank is that it remains purely platonic all throughout the story. Frank, being older, exercises restraint and David, clueless at first, learns to be comfortable about the whole affair later.
although the abundant sections on cricket matches tried my patience as i read, i would consider this novel an engaging story. it was also an idyllic trip down memory lane to a time where life held so much promise and beauty as it did for David Blaize.
March 8, 2021
Written in 1916 and set some years earlier, this chaste tale of affection and love between young David Blaize and his older companion at a British boarding school bewitches readers not just with its characters but with a subtle eroticism so adroitly written that readers all but forget that one of the boys openly confesses his physical attraction to the other.
I was charmed by the nostalgia, the gentle humor and the simple good-heartedness of a progressive, optimistic era before the terror and madness of the 20th century wrought havoc upon the collective mind of mankind, and turned boys like these into ghosts. And when I finished the story I wondered if the world within it had ever been real, or if it were but a ghostly apparition somewhere in the heaven of Benson's thoughts.
I was charmed by the nostalgia, the gentle humor and the simple good-heartedness of a progressive, optimistic era before the terror and madness of the 20th century wrought havoc upon the collective mind of mankind, and turned boys like these into ghosts. And when I finished the story I wondered if the world within it had ever been real, or if it were but a ghostly apparition somewhere in the heaven of Benson's thoughts.
September 11, 2010
This is a corrected edition of the classic schooldays novel by E. F. Benson. I found the new layout excellent to read. This Viewforth edition, printed and distributed by createspace.com, contains an excellent introduction and literary notes by Dr. Craig Paterson. It is, I think, the best and yet cheapest edition available.
I highly recommend it to all Benson fans. Viewforth, according to the back text, is going to publish David of King's and The Babe. B.A.
I highly recommend it to all Benson fans. Viewforth, according to the back text, is going to publish David of King's and The Babe. B.A.
September 30, 2016
A delightfully funny and insightful British schoolboy novel. Benson is very good at depicting the tumult of adolescence, and especially the desperate pursuit of looking and acting the right way among your peers, no matter that what's "right" changes from year to year and from school to school.
I generally prefer less internalized homophobia in my narratives, but for a book originally published in 1916, this was a very fun read.
I generally prefer less internalized homophobia in my narratives, but for a book originally published in 1916, this was a very fun read.
May 2, 2011
An enjoyable bit of Anglophilia, although the detailed descriptions of cricket matches are unintelligible to this reader on the western side of the pond.
" 'But what he likes best of all is reading.'
'That's queer,' said David."
" 'But what he likes best of all is reading.'
'That's queer,' said David."
November 29, 2017
Anime writers should take lessons in queer baiting from E.F. Benson...
August 6, 2025
Just when I thought there might be a plot or a theme...off they go and play cricket.
July 1, 2020
Public schools settings are overrepresented in English same-sex themed novels. A fixture of this sub-genre seems to be a fixation with detailed descriptions of cricket matches. David Blaize is no exception in this respect. However, it is also one of the most satisfying of public school romances (though not so good as 'Lord Dismiss Us' -- as far as it might make sense to draw comparisons, that is).
David and Frank (who is three years David's senior) have a mutual boy-crush that threatens to become sexual on Frank's part. But the older boy follows David's lead (though, obviously, not quite as effortlessly) in sublimating his desire. The intimate (non-sexual) scenes, and the way the boys gush over each other, are rather endearing. So are the ways in which Benson unobtrusively slips in homoerotic topoi -- such as an appreciation of hellenism, Swinburne, and Shelley.
In the book, consummation of same-sex desire, though never mentioned, features -- in the boys' own words -- as 'filth': if one falls prey to it, one should give it up or at least outgrow it. That's the official line, at least; but David and Frank are pictured as so thoroughly wholesome that the reader is left with a vague impression that any physical relationship between them would participate in that wholesomeness, rather that defile it.
Since on goodreads one is allowed to be irrelevant, let me add that once I saw a picture of Benson at 22, David's features automatically modelled themselves in my mind on the writer's (very dishy) own.
David and Frank (who is three years David's senior) have a mutual boy-crush that threatens to become sexual on Frank's part. But the older boy follows David's lead (though, obviously, not quite as effortlessly) in sublimating his desire. The intimate (non-sexual) scenes, and the way the boys gush over each other, are rather endearing. So are the ways in which Benson unobtrusively slips in homoerotic topoi -- such as an appreciation of hellenism, Swinburne, and Shelley.
In the book, consummation of same-sex desire, though never mentioned, features -- in the boys' own words -- as 'filth': if one falls prey to it, one should give it up or at least outgrow it. That's the official line, at least; but David and Frank are pictured as so thoroughly wholesome that the reader is left with a vague impression that any physical relationship between them would participate in that wholesomeness, rather that defile it.
Since on goodreads one is allowed to be irrelevant, let me add that once I saw a picture of Benson at 22, David's features automatically modelled themselves in my mind on the writer's (very dishy) own.
March 11, 2018
-A PLEASANT READ
-LADEN WITH 'HERO WORSHIP'
-READS LIKE A DIARY RATHER THAN A PLOTTED STORY
'David Blaize' follows the titular character as he moves from prep to public school, detailing his schoolboy exploits and friendships with Crabtree and the 'god-like' Frank Maddox.
This is a very pleasant read, typical of public school novels. David is a very likable character and his near-homoerotic relationship with Maddox is dealt with subtly considering the time of publication. The diary-style plotting means that a few points in the novel feel out-of-place, particularly the 'horse' incident in the final chapter.
Overall, a pleasant read!
-LADEN WITH 'HERO WORSHIP'
-READS LIKE A DIARY RATHER THAN A PLOTTED STORY
'David Blaize' follows the titular character as he moves from prep to public school, detailing his schoolboy exploits and friendships with Crabtree and the 'god-like' Frank Maddox.
This is a very pleasant read, typical of public school novels. David is a very likable character and his near-homoerotic relationship with Maddox is dealt with subtly considering the time of publication. The diary-style plotting means that a few points in the novel feel out-of-place, particularly the 'horse' incident in the final chapter.
Overall, a pleasant read!
November 2, 2025
If you are a gay writer, how do you get a thinly disguised memoir about your public school days detailing the love between boys published in 1913? Benson accomplished this by surrounding that love in a nostalgic case of mischievous pranks, the retelling of athletic triumphs, and all-around golly decent British behavior. He walks right up to the precipice, but always turns away before it gets too explicit.
August 12, 2022
Took me a while to get through, simply because it's so unendingly sweet. Also could Benson be more obvious about the boys being in love with each other and yet not have anything happen? Understand looking at it from a modern perspective but absolutely maddening in a book in which there really isn't any central conflict/drama.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2024
I loved this coming-of-age/male friendship book.
January 8, 2023
Naturally, E.F. Benson published three books in 1916. Most of his books took him three weeks to write. He described himself as “uncontrollably prolific.” His biographer suggests that the whole Benson family’s prodigious output is due to mania. I say, a preferred kind of mania if you could pick and choose.
I read David Blaize many years ago. This is today one of Benson’s most popular novels. It is a boarding school story. I enjoy those, and it has everything you want in one, including terrifying but secretly kind headmasters, beatings, cricket, and lots of pranks. The heart of the story is the friendship that the title character develops with an older boy named Maddox. The most memorable part is when I think you could read every book on the planet and never find a more striking example of an author desperately trying to repudiate sexual feelings and at the same time elevate the purity of love between two boys. When I read David Blaize as a young person it just made me roll my eyes, but as a withered-up middle-aged person I find it very touching and a bit sad.
According to Benson’s biographer Brian Masters, David Blaize was the first positive treatment of a romantic friendship at a boy’s school and while it was a critical success it was “dangerously new.” E.F. Benson’s brother Arthur wanted him to leave all that stuff out but Fred didn’t listen. So Fred received lots of fan mail about the book, including one from the Front saying “the lads in the trenches are sharing it and passing it around.” Masters says Fred would “not have been pleased to learn that the novel is still on the list of homosexual book clubs” and that “it does not belong there.” (This biography was written in 1991.) So Masters and I have opposite ideas about how Fred would feel if he were re-animated, and that is because *no one knows.* (Who is this guy Brian Masters anyway? He also wrote biographies of a serial killer and necrophiliac, a wicked zoo owner, British dukes, and Marie Corelli.)
Years later Fred said, “I have had more correspondence about [David Blaize] than any other book I ever wrote. That I think has been because there was no ‘book-making’ about it, but it was a genuine piece of self-expression.” And now we have a pleasing moment where I actually agree with both Brian Masters and the guy who wrote the introduction to Freaks of Mayfair, Christopher Hawtree. They both say that 1916 was a turning point in Benson’s development as an artist, as he stopped writing those unconvincing sentimental romances centering on a man and a woman, and began writing the comedies he is now known for. I think it is the fact that Benson is writing about things he actually cares about (in his peculiar way) that makes both David Blaize and Freaks of Mayfair so appealing and yet painful. (I don't mean peculiar in a bad way. He is one of a kind. He sort of has no heart, but usually in a kindly way, and how can someone be kindly with no heart? So it must be there but he is very coy, plus clearly he is not motivated by the same things as most other people. You go read some E.F. Benson and you'll see.)
Two years earlier Benson’s brother Hugh (the Catholic one) died of pneumonia, and in 1916 his sister Maggie died of heart troubles. Based on Final Edition, one of E.F. Benson’s memoirs that he completed just days before his own death, it looks like during 1916 all the extant members of his family were suffering from mental illness or just about to die themselves. So it’s really remarkable that Benson could be so funny and was only about to get funnier.
I’m going to read Final Edition and the slightly annoying biography more carefully instead of just skimming for the good bits. And I should probably read at least one of his other memoirs too. Then I’ll be fully ready for his two novels of 1917. I’m glad I have many more years with E.F. Benson before he dies of throat cancer in 1940. His best books are yet to come!
I read David Blaize many years ago. This is today one of Benson’s most popular novels. It is a boarding school story. I enjoy those, and it has everything you want in one, including terrifying but secretly kind headmasters, beatings, cricket, and lots of pranks. The heart of the story is the friendship that the title character develops with an older boy named Maddox. The most memorable part is when I think you could read every book on the planet and never find a more striking example of an author desperately trying to repudiate sexual feelings and at the same time elevate the purity of love between two boys. When I read David Blaize as a young person it just made me roll my eyes, but as a withered-up middle-aged person I find it very touching and a bit sad.
According to Benson’s biographer Brian Masters, David Blaize was the first positive treatment of a romantic friendship at a boy’s school and while it was a critical success it was “dangerously new.” E.F. Benson’s brother Arthur wanted him to leave all that stuff out but Fred didn’t listen. So Fred received lots of fan mail about the book, including one from the Front saying “the lads in the trenches are sharing it and passing it around.” Masters says Fred would “not have been pleased to learn that the novel is still on the list of homosexual book clubs” and that “it does not belong there.” (This biography was written in 1991.) So Masters and I have opposite ideas about how Fred would feel if he were re-animated, and that is because *no one knows.* (Who is this guy Brian Masters anyway? He also wrote biographies of a serial killer and necrophiliac, a wicked zoo owner, British dukes, and Marie Corelli.)
Years later Fred said, “I have had more correspondence about [David Blaize] than any other book I ever wrote. That I think has been because there was no ‘book-making’ about it, but it was a genuine piece of self-expression.” And now we have a pleasing moment where I actually agree with both Brian Masters and the guy who wrote the introduction to Freaks of Mayfair, Christopher Hawtree. They both say that 1916 was a turning point in Benson’s development as an artist, as he stopped writing those unconvincing sentimental romances centering on a man and a woman, and began writing the comedies he is now known for. I think it is the fact that Benson is writing about things he actually cares about (in his peculiar way) that makes both David Blaize and Freaks of Mayfair so appealing and yet painful. (I don't mean peculiar in a bad way. He is one of a kind. He sort of has no heart, but usually in a kindly way, and how can someone be kindly with no heart? So it must be there but he is very coy, plus clearly he is not motivated by the same things as most other people. You go read some E.F. Benson and you'll see.)
Two years earlier Benson’s brother Hugh (the Catholic one) died of pneumonia, and in 1916 his sister Maggie died of heart troubles. Based on Final Edition, one of E.F. Benson’s memoirs that he completed just days before his own death, it looks like during 1916 all the extant members of his family were suffering from mental illness or just about to die themselves. So it’s really remarkable that Benson could be so funny and was only about to get funnier.
I’m going to read Final Edition and the slightly annoying biography more carefully instead of just skimming for the good bits. And I should probably read at least one of his other memoirs too. Then I’ll be fully ready for his two novels of 1917. I’m glad I have many more years with E.F. Benson before he dies of throat cancer in 1940. His best books are yet to come!
March 10, 2022
Homoeroticism at its finest, though the story is still very much in line with the whole Tom Brown business, which is not a great thing.
July 29, 2011
Very jolly cricket bats. Almost reads like a pastiche of a public school novel. Very little in the way of plot and not much of the famous Bensonian humour.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews