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Grave Example
"Fifteen cadavers lay on fifteen soapstone slabs." So begins Barnaby Dogbolt's most appropriately named novel. Such an introduction might seem to indicate the opening of a thriller or perhaps an exercise in the grotesque, but quite the contrary is the case! The setting is a medical school of a Southern University, where two comic themes weave around each the struggles of the Dean's attractive young daughter to escape the marriage designed for her, and the controversy among the Faculty over the Dean's portrait in the grand manner. Brimming with sharp transatlantic humor, GRAVE EXAMPLE delivers the original wit readers expect from a Barnaby Dogbolt work.
252 pages, Paperback
Published February 2, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
August 18, 2026
Grave Example is a book by the brilliantly named Barnaby Dogbolt. I'll admit I had no idea what this was about or who the author was; this was a sweet find in the brilliant Ginkgo Bookshop in Virginia. Check it out if you're ever in the neighbourhood; I could happily have stayed there forever!
Anyway, I digress. Grave Example is a comedy set in a medical school in America. The story has two tracks; the first follows the bumbling Dean Nimblewit, who is trying to commission a ludicrously expensive portrait of himself to compete with a rival. The second follows his daughter as she tries to escape from a badly planned marriage, with a little help from one of the father's professors and his new housemate, the artist Rembrandt Bigginson. Think P.G. Wodehouse, but with less butlers and more doctors.
The characters are what make this story work so well. Rembrandt, Susan and Rufus are superbly written and are the Blackadders of the story, the only smart people in the room. They are supported by a superb cast of misfits, losers and idiots who make the laughs. It's hard to explain why I loved this book so much. There's nothing life-changing about the story, but it is so packed with fun set pieces, wild characters, and outrageous events that it was hard to put down, and as I look back on it, I remember more things that made me smile.
I'm 100% going to dig more into Dogbolt's back catalogue; despite it all being out of print for decades, I enjoyed this so much. Check it out if you can find a copy.
Anyway, I digress. Grave Example is a comedy set in a medical school in America. The story has two tracks; the first follows the bumbling Dean Nimblewit, who is trying to commission a ludicrously expensive portrait of himself to compete with a rival. The second follows his daughter as she tries to escape from a badly planned marriage, with a little help from one of the father's professors and his new housemate, the artist Rembrandt Bigginson. Think P.G. Wodehouse, but with less butlers and more doctors.
The characters are what make this story work so well. Rembrandt, Susan and Rufus are superbly written and are the Blackadders of the story, the only smart people in the room. They are supported by a superb cast of misfits, losers and idiots who make the laughs. It's hard to explain why I loved this book so much. There's nothing life-changing about the story, but it is so packed with fun set pieces, wild characters, and outrageous events that it was hard to put down, and as I look back on it, I remember more things that made me smile.
I'm 100% going to dig more into Dogbolt's back catalogue; despite it all being out of print for decades, I enjoyed this so much. Check it out if you can find a copy.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review