To Say Nothing of the Dog
by Connie Willis
List Price:
Our Price: $3.78
You Save: $4.21 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.39 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Connie WillisEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-12-01
ISBN: 0553575384
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of To Say Nothing of the Dog
Book Review: Time Has a Sense of Humor
Summary: 5 Stars
When Ned Henry begins to pet Mr. Spivens and wax poetic about the role dogs have played as Man's Best Friend throughout the centuries, he suddenly finds himself yanked out of 1940 and back in the year 2057. Ned is a time traveller. He also has a serious case of time-lag--Mr. Spivens is not a dog. Time-lag is the wonderful after effect of extraneous time travel with little to no sleep or rest in between. It renders its victims confused and sleepy; if you are suffering any of the following symptoms: Difficulty Distinguishing Sounds, Blurred Vision, Slowness in Answering, a Tendency to Maudlin Sentimentality, then you may be time-lagged. The only cure is rest.
Unfortunately for Ned, he works directly under Lady Schrapnell--an American woman who's taken it upon herself to commandeer every available time travel agent and send them through the Net and across time in her obsessive attempt to rebuild Coventry Cathedral, in Oxford. Her schedule is rigorous and unforgiving. The consecration is in seventeen days and Ned's just been prescribed two weeks of bed rest. To complicate matters even further, he's been sent back to 1888 Victorian England where he's supposed to fix a possible incongruity for Mr. Dunworthy, avoid Lady Schrapnell, find some rest and relaxation, and not worry about finding the Bishop's bird stump until after his new mission's completed. The only problem is he can't remember what he's supposed to do, with whom, or where. At least the Maudlin Sentimentality will help him fit right in.
Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog combines elements of Science Fiction, Mystery, and Historical Fiction with a healthy dose of British humor. Part of what makes this book work so well are the diversions of dialogue between characters in which Nothing Gets Done. The characters themselves are hilariously depicted, sweet caricatures of the Spoilt and Silly Girl, the Distracted Father, the Butler, and the Fainting Mother that argue around each other in comical displays of affection that somehow manage to keep the plot rolling in suspense and plodding along delightfully. It's a novel built around Flaubert's idea that, "God is in the details." Willis masterfully takes that quote and constructs a theme that sprouts marvelous allusions, showing readers her ability to create one of the most complicated and enjoyable mysteries I've ever read.
There's many references to the namesake, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men In a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog. I'm not familiar with it and, after having read through Willis' book, don't think it's necessary to know anything about it (but it's out there somewhere for recommended further reading). It's more important to take the references into context with the rest of Willis' novel and see how the jumble of seemingly incongruous pieces begin to make sense as a working whole. Mr. Mering and Professor Peddick are constantly discussing the details affecting various important moments in history, coming to the conclusion that it's always the minor and least expected thing that must have altered history to bring contemporary events about. Mr. Dunworthy has sent Ned on this mission in deep worry one of those niggling details will forever change the outcome of one of the worst wars in history. There is always a Big Idea, to Say Nothing of the Details which, as we all know, are just as important. The forest would be nothing, if not for the trees, right?
Jerome K. Jerome is not the only author with works prestigious (or related) enough to earn multiple allusions in To Say Nothing of the Dog. Most of the Romantics (Tennyson, in particular, with my favorite poem,"The Lady of Shallott," which is under Terence's constant scrutiny) make appearances; Shakespeare, various romantically tragic couples, and some hilariously phonetic Middle English words are there as well. My favorite two phrases would have to be, "Tha kahna bay" (p. 396) and "Guttgottimhaben" (p. 397). If you've ever tried to read Middle English (i.e. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) and had trouble contorting your palate to articulate the words on the page your brain was telling you look one way with familiar letters, but are not pronounced in contemporary ways at all, then you might be grateful for Willis' clever and helpful spellings. You might even, as I did, literally laugh out loud at her handiwork in appreciation for her efforts to make a trip into the Middle Ages as least stressful and reminiscent of English class as possible. Having loved my Middle English courses (I originally and still want to get my MA in Medieval Literature, a little bit) with little to no problem reading and understanding non-translated Chaucer, I still found myself laughing.
Don't worry if the Middle English bothers you at all--I focus on a small portion of the book, a few pages really. To Say Nothing of the Dog was so much fun to read that even if that makes you hesitant, Willis' wit will win you over and have you smiling before long. It's a lovely and absurd book filled with precious characters, sublime settings, and picaresque landscapes. But the characters, they really steal all the attention. I became so invested in the Victorians (an odd bunch of manner and decorum-driven individuals) that I was disappointed when Ned had to switch through various times. What complicates the mystery so much is the time-travel and Willis' convoluted yet simple explanations of How It All Works (this is also what made it so riveting for me). Despite figuring out who the elusive Mr. C was pretty early on in the book, I found myself enjoying the ride anyway.
Overall, it's a frabjous book with one of the most romantic lines I've ever read, talented writing and story-telling, Victorian exclamations, but to top it all off: it has kittens. I had a hard time putting this book down. I do have a warning, though: the humor is mostly subtle. If you like to get your laughs in other, mysterious ways, consult a medium and have the Other Side direct you in the proper direction. Also: I still can't find a definition for "fenoxidils." Is it some type of facial hair?
Summary of To Say Nothing of the Dog
From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel...Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier.
But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself.
To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science-fiction fantasy in the guise of an old-fashioned Victorian novel, complete with epigraphs, brief outlines, and a rather ugly boxer in three-quarters profile at the start of each chapter. Or is it a Victorian novel in the guise of a time-traveling tale, or a highly comic romp, or a great, allusive literary game, complete with spry references to Dorothy L. Sayers, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle? Its title is the subtitle of Jerome K. Jerome's singular, and hilarious, Three Men in a Boat. In one scene the hero, Ned Henry, and his friends come upon Jerome, two men, and the dog Montmorency in--you guessed it--a boat. Jerome will later immortalize Ned's fumbling. (Or, more accurately, Jerome will earlier immortalize Ned's fumbling, because Ned is from the 21st century and Jerome from the 19th.)
What Connie Willis soon makes clear is that genre can go to the dogs. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a fine, and fun, romance--an amused examination of conceptions and misconceptions about other eras, other people. When we first meet Ned, in 1940, he and five other time jumpers are searching bombed-out Coventry Cathedral for the bishop's bird stump, an object about which neither he nor the reader will be clear for hundreds of pages. All he knows is that if they don't find it, the powerful Lady Schrapnell will keep sending them back in time, again and again and again. Once he's been whisked through the rather quaint Net back to the Oxford future, Ned is in a state of super time-lag. (Willis is happily unconcerned with futuristic vraisemblance, though Ned makes some obligatory references to "vids," "interactives," and "headrigs.") The only way Ned can get the necessary two weeks' R and R is to perform one more drop and recuperate in the past, away from Lady Schrapnell. Once he returns something to someone (he's too exhausted to understand what or to whom) on June 7, 1888, he's free.
Willis is concerned, however, as is her confused character, with getting Victoriana right, and Ned makes a good amateur anthropologist--entering one crowded room, he realizes that "the reason Victorian society was so restricted and repressed was that it was impossible to move without knocking something over." Though he's still not sure what he's supposed to bring back, various of his confederates keep popping back to set him to rights. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a shaggy-dog tale complete with a preternaturally quiet, time-traveling cat, Princess Arjumand, who might well be the cause of some serious temporal incongruities--for even a mouser might change the course of European history. In the end, readers might well be more interested in Ned's romance with a fellow historian than in the bishop's bird stump, and who will not rejoice in their first Net kiss, which lasts 169 years!
Action & Adventure Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Action & Adventure Books
Polar Shiftby Paul Cussler Clive & Kemprecos
Penguin; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.30
The Call of the Wild (Children's Classics)by Jack London
Penguin Audio; Published: 1997-08-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $11.00
Pelican Briefby John Grisham
Trafalgar Square; Published: 1993-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.19
Price in other shops:
Stardustby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.54
Price in other shops:
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.21
Price in other shops:
Sandstormby James Rollins
Harper; Published: 2005-04-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
No Man's Landby G.M. Ford
William Morrow; Published: 2005-06-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.50
Price in other shops:
Forever Odd - Signed Proofby Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Preyby Michael Crichton
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2003-08-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.95
Sharpe's Waterloo (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #20)by Bernard Cornwell
Harpercollins; Published: 1998-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Similar Books and other products
The Windup Girlby Paolo Bacigalupi
Night Shade Books; Published: 2010-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.29
Price in other shops:
A Deepness in the Skyby Vernor Vinge
Tor Books; Published: 2000-01-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.71
Price in other shops:
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellowby Jerome K Jerome
SMK Books; Published: 2010-01-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Passageby Connie Willis
Bantam; Published: 2002-01-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.77
Price in other shops:
Lincoln's Dreamsby Connie Willis
Bantam Books; Published: 1992-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.08
Price in other shops:
Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog...)by Jerome K. Jerome
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-10-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
Bellwetherby Connie Willis
Spectra; Published: 1997-06-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.26
Price in other shops:
All Clearby Connie Willis
Spectra; Published: 2011-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Blackoutby Connie Willis
Spectra; Published: 2010-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Doomsday Bookby Connie Willis
Spectra; Published: 1993-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops: