What one reviewer said about Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm:
ZD is a young lady who has become a celeb on the vaudeville circuit as a magician. Her tricks are stupid but her looks are dazzling. So dazzling that when she visits her Oxford-don Granpapa, all the undergraduates fall in love. But ZD, who wants to love someone, does not want to love someone who loves her. The undergrads vow to throw themselves into the Thames. Will they follow through?--you'll have to read the book to find out!
In ways the novel is more about an elitist-ly promising young Duke and his inner turmoil, turmoil caused by Zuleika's love and not-love and by being the one who inspires the undergrads to make their vow.
There are elements of caricature and farce, as well as tenderness--but the mixture doesn't quite work. It would have worked better if Beerbohm had gone more over-the-top AND tender, and had not smoothed it all with his prose. He brings in ghosts and cognizant statues and his own narrator self (dispatched from Zeus with omniscient powers), and the end, of course.... I think I'm frustrated only because the novel comes close to being a perfect read but fails. (Fails at perfection, what kind of criticism is that?)
This was Beerbohm's first novel, after making his name as a caricaturist (drawing) and funny essayist. There's actually a nice-and-simple story underneath, and for long stretches it is paced admirably; and the characters, though caricatures, are not at all thin. His novel would have been improved if he had focused more on story-telling and structure.
Be prepared for some untranslated Latin and French, some obscure English, some Oxford nuances and philia, some Ancient World allusions, an unpretty American, a bit of Edward Gorey, youth! youth! youth!, and many well-written paragraphs.
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