Making History [Paperback]

Stephen Fry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

What if hitler had never been born?

In Stephen Fry's most seriously ambitious novel to date, he creates a futuristic fantasy that becomes a thriller with a funny streak. Tackling one of history's darkest episodes, he poses the question: What if Hitler had never been born? An unquestionable improvement, no doubt. Michael Young, an earnest young history graduate student, has just finished his dissertation, an exploration into the roots of evil and the early life of Adolf Hitler. When he meets up with an aging German physicist, they concoct an idealistic experiment that involves time travel to prevent the conception of the Fhrer. It will change the course of history, but will it create a better world? With characteristic brilliance and wit, Fry presents a thought-provoking alternate history that is both trenchant and deeply affecting.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-A time-travel tale, of sorts, this novel by a British comedian is alternately funny and thought-provoking. The protagonist, Michael Young, is a trendy, somewhat vapid graduate student at Cambridge who is just finishing his dissertation on the early years of Hitler. Fry alternates chapters describing Michael's actions with sections of his dissertation, allowing a glimpse into the environment that spawned the rise of the Fuhrer. Upon Michael's meeting with physics professor Leo Zuckermann, the nefarious plot thickens. What if Hitler had never been born? What would a world without the Holocaust be like? The two men send male-sterility pills back in time to the water supply used by Hitler's parents. Instantly, Michael finds himself, British accent and all, as an American student at Princeton in an entirely different world. Is it a better world? The novel is full of surprises, with the outcome not even remotely as pristine as Michael had hoped. This is a strange book, full of dry British humor and quips. It also deals with the Nazi "final solution," a topic at the far extreme from laughable. It takes readers into a world of ironic possibilities fraught with disaster, resulting from the best of intentions. YAs will find this an easy read that will stretch their imaginations, entertain them, and leave them thinking about the possible outcomes of the "road not taken."-Carol DeAngelo, Garcia Consulting Inc., EPA Headquarters, Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Michael Young, a Cambridge graduate student who has just completed his dissertation on Adolf Hitler's childhood, and German physicist Leo Zuckermann, inventor of a machine that can look into the past, come up with a way to prevent Hitler from ever having been born. Apparently unfamiliar with the Awful Warnings of the time travel genre, Michael and Leo don't hesitate to change history, and the results of their successful experience certainly make a difference. In this clever, thought-provoking, and very funny novel, Fry ably and convincingly imagines a world that never knew Hitler. This intelligent and gripping tale is even better than Fry's witty The Liar (LJ 4/15/93) and should appeal to a wider audience. Highly recommended.
-?Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569471509
• ISBN-13: 978-1569471500
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting speculation but nothing new, December 11, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (sfsite) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making History: A Novel (Hardcover)

British author Stephen Fry is most well known as actor who has appeared in "Blackadder", "Jeeves & Wooster" and "Peter's Friends." Making History, however, is his third novel, so he can be considered something of a novelist as well. This particular novel is an alternate history, although Fry classifies it as an alternate reality.

Michael D. "Puppy" Young is a graduate student reading history at Cambridge. His recently finished thesis is on the childhood of Adolf Hitler, a person who has always fascinated Young, not because of who he was, but because of the simple coincidence that they were both born on April 20. A chance meeting with Leo Zuckerman, a refugee whose father was at Auschwitz, provides the impetus of the adventure. Zuckerman has a feeling about Young and shows him a device that Zuckerman has invented which can transmit shadowy images from the past. Zuckerman has it tuned to the day his father arrived at Auschwitz. The two men work to build a transmitter so they can send a permanent male contraceptive pill which Young's girlfriend has developed, to poison the water supply in Brunau, in time to stop Adolf Hitler from being born.

The first half of the novel, which sets the scene, varies between being tedious and interesting. Several of the chapters show Hitler's parents or Hitler in World War I and introduce us to a person who will figure prominently in the second part of the novel, Rudolf Gloder. Strangely enough, the interesting parts cannot be said to belong only to the present-day sequences or the historical sequences. They vary without regard to the characters. One of the techniques which Fry uses repeatedly, however, writing three of the chapters as movie scripts, is probably where the novel bogged down the most, especially the final segment where Fry began introducing a lot of background and action which was not germane to the plot, or even a strong sub-plot.

The second half of the novel is when Fry really hits his stride. Apparently successful in ridding the world of Adolf Hitler, Young has found himself as an American student at Princeton. Much of this part of the book is spent with Young trying to figure out who he is and later, what the history of this new twentieth century is. As with the first section of the book, Fry returns to World War I and we get to witness Rudi Gloder's rise in the absence of Adolf Hitler.

Very little that Fry does is unique or surprising to anyone who has read a fair amount of alternate history. This novel, however, is being marketed in the mainstream, however, and will hold a certain amount of appeal to the readership which found Harris's Fatherland an intriguing read. Fry does handle his material well, and even if he doesn't deliver many full-fledged surprised, the moment when the reader realizes where Fry is going with the pieces of the novel is worth the price of admission.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nearly a winner, but lacks speed in the finish, May 3, 1998

By 

digerati "digerati" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Making History: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having read all of Stephen Fry's earlier works, it came as no surpise to experience Fry's usual laser-guided wit and aplomb. While the book certainly earns its place in the top 5% of popular novels for 97/98 [Why oh why did it take so long to release this book in the USA? I had to get my mates in Britain to send me a copy], it lacks some of the style, pace and out-and-out cleverness of his earlier novels.

In short, I enjoyed "The Liar" and "The Hippopotamus" more, and I would encourage anyone who hasn't read Stephen Fry to buy this one first and then work backwards.

The main problem with the book is that Fry seems to lose his way once the main character wakes up in his alternate reality. The pace drags and it seems that the main character mirrors Fry's own fumblings to find a way out of the situation. The solution, when it comes, is rather too trite and the ending sugar coated.

That said, Stephen Fry remains one of the most talented authors around: fighteningly intelligent, excoriatingly funny and endowed with an unfashionable generosity (in literary circles, it seems) that ensures his readers have a good time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, June 2, 2002

By 

Amerigo Vespucci (Fairbanks, Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making History (Paperback)

This novel is well-written in the finest tradition of British humor. The classic premise that when we change things we sometimes make them worse is the basis for the novel, and it is served very well, with vivid descriptions and color. I highly recommend this book, but I think that it takes a certain type of off-color personality to really appreciate it.