The Sonnets: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lennard J. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001

In this darkly satirical novel, a Columbia University English professor's life is turned upside down when it starts to follow the plot of Shakespeare's sonnets.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A literature professor who has written about growing up as the child of deaf parents, Davis (My Sense of Silence) puts his insider knowledge of academic imbroglios to entertaining (if occasionally shameless) use in this campus novel. Will Marlow, a 40-year-old Columbia University professor of Shakespeare, lives comfortably with his wife, Anne, and their two children in a university apartment overlooking Riverside Park, until his sex life begins to assume curious parallels with that of the Bard. A former student, Christopher Johnson, arrives at his doorstep bleeding from a self-inflicted wound; Marlow is smitten by the youth's neediness and strange feminine beauty. Then a combative Marxist-feminist student in Marlow's Sonnets graduate class, Chantal Mukarjee, convinces him to allow her to feel his face for a re-creation of a musical portrait done by a blind composer. Anne catches them and, enraged, moves out. Chantal and Will embark on an affair, which ends disastrously upon Chantal's circulation of a preposterous 10-page screed accusing Will of sexual harassment. Meanwhile, Will has taken in zoned-out Christopher and finds an exhilarating sexual fulfillment with the youth. Davis writes in terse, frequently humorous prose, though his narrator's cerebral insistence on analysis sometimes overburdens the tale. Despite the correlation with Shakespeare's personal life, Davis doesn't make Marlow's transformation from conservative, married professor to sexual adventurer entirely believable; however, there are numerous excellent jabs at the "post-colonially minded" university environment, especially in the persons of Chantal and boorish, horny New Zealand poet-in-residence Norman Goldman. Academics will nudge each other with scandalous pleasure at this unusual ivory tower love story.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

"A fascinating and disquieting look into deepest postmodern academia, through the lenses of Shakespeare's sonnets, deconstructivist dark ladies, fair young men, and much more besides in this riveting page-turner of a narrative. Little did we know that beneath the mild-mannered appearance of Lennard Davis the scholar and department head beat the heart of an in-your-face novelist!" -- Gerald Graff, author of Beyond the Culture Wars "Lyric reverie, philosophical reflection, and savage satiric portraiture are linked seamlessly in an academic novel that transcends the genre. Constantly compelling, lucid, and brilliant--one of the best reading experiences I've had in some time." -- Frank Lentricchia, author of The Music of the Inferno

"Davis writes beautifully, has a keen ear and eye for textual detail, and rings some new changes on the standard mid-life crisis." -- Michelle A. Massé, author of In the Name of Love: Women, Masochism, and the Gothic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr; First Edition edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791449777
• ISBN-13: 978-0791449776
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,714,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and believable, January 2, 2002

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sonnets: A Novel (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading this book and was constantly nodding my head in agreement about how awful teaching and academia can be.

Will Marlow was a sympathetic character who seemed to be making all the wrong choices, dictated by the programmatic nature of Davis' plot, which follows the "plot" of Shakespeare's sonnets to an exacting degree, and sometimes spins out of control. You groan at some of the references, such as the "second-best bed," but just as often you chuckle at Davis' dilemma and the kooky ways he comes up with to match his academia plot with the Elizabethan one. Our previous reviewer is also correct about the sex scenes which for once are genuinely sexy, sharply observed, well done. Hooray for Marlow, Davis, and disgrace!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespeare in New York, July 8, 2001

By 

Eileen Galen (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sonnets: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a comedy of manners, an academic novel, and a spoof on a variety of modernisms. Despite the fact that the Editorial Review above contains what are nearly plot spoilers, there were plenty of surprises, puzzles, sly and enjoyable literary references and plays on words - plus dozens of opportunities for outright guffawing. This is a very, very funny book.

I picked up "The Sonnets" hoping to not need to dutifully flip through Shakespeare's 154 sonnets (plus "A Lover's Complaint") as I went, since - in contrast to the novel's clever and passionate - but comically self-deprecating narrator - I have neither read nor "taught the Bard so long that his thoughts had become mine." I hoped to read one book, not two. I think it went okay. You don't need to have Shakespeare alongside this novel in order to enjoy the goings-on, be appalled at times, delighted at others - and to laugh a lot.

Protagonist Will Marlowe is a readily recognizable fiftyish English professor. He's a smart world-wise guy, a dyed-in-the-wool left-winger with an impeccable intellect, and a freight of desires. He is by turns vexed and thrilled by his wife, his kids, his dull or clever and beautiful students, aspects of work, domestic life, sexuality, and urbanity. He is seducible and cynical at once: he falls for a thing, an idea, a person - but watches himself - carefully. He checks his back.

He has got the soul of the poet combined with a reporter's eye for detail. He is most definitely of this world. Academic life engages him at times, but often gets on his nerves. A colleague has received a MacArthur grant, an endowed chair, "so successfully had he pulled the New Zealand wool over the eyes of the administration," and it stings. Marlowe sniffs, " Meanwhile I remained unacknowledged, occupying a small oak and leather chair that had no name other than that of its manufacturer - the Acme Furniture Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts. I like to think of myself as the Acme Furniture Professor of Shakespearean Studies."

Whether it's a bad dinner guest, scenes of discovery and betrayal, modern manners, urban life, the contents of gourmet food shops, fabulous scenes of love and varieties of endearingly realistic sexual encounters (originally, convincingly, unegomanically and successfully described), an obnoxious colleague, post-modern hijinks and linguistic acrobatics - or a quirky and funny approach to some psychoanalytic themes - all are handled well by Davis.

His protagonist screws things up in ways that are absurd, sometimes reference back to Shakespeare's sonnets, often deeply affecting - and are often laugh-out-loud funny.

An academic novel that is a lot of fun.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, if a Little Thin, August 21, 2004

By 

richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Sonnets: A Novel (Paperback)

A quick and fun novel. William Marlowe is a professor of Shakespeare at Columbia University, with a wife named Anne and a couple of kids. While immersed in a seminar on the sonnets, he meets a Dark Lady and a handsome and pale young man. Hijinks follow in New York City. Readers of Shakespeare will recognize the parallels with Shakespeare's own life. Professor Marlowe unselfconsciously, in both senses, follows the trajectory of the narrative of the sonnets. It is a fun read, perhaps a bit thin and brief, but well-written.