Doom

by William Gerhardie

Despite its bleak title, Doom is William Gerhardie's most wildly funny novel. It is the story of Frank Dickin, an impoverished young novelist, and his involvement, on the one hand, with an eccentric family of Russian émigrés—in particular, their beautiful daughter Eva—and, on the other, with an all-powerful newspaper magnate, Lord Ottercove, who takes Dickin on as a lost cause. This irrepressible comic potpourri also involves a mad English lord who is bent on destroying the world, and with an outrageous sleight of hand that only Gerhardie could manage, the novel slowly slips from social comedy toward apocalypse.

Genres: Fiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

William Alexander Gerhardie (21 November 1895 – 15 July 1977)[1] was a British (Anglo-Russian) novelist and playwright.


William Gerhardie by Norman Ivor Lancashire (1927-2004). Photograph by Stella Harpley
Gerhardie (or Gerhardi: he added the 'e' in later years as an affectation) was one of the most critically acclaimed English novelists of the 1920s (Evelyn Waugh told him 'I have talent, but you have genius'). H.G. Wells also championed his work. His first novel, Futility, was written while he was at Worcester College, Oxford and drew on his experiences in Russia fighting (or attempting to fight) the Bolsheviks, along with his childhood experiences visiting pre-revolutionary Russia. Some say that it was the first work in English to fully explore the theme of 'waiting' later made famous by Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot, but it is probably more apt to recognize a common comic nihilism between those two figures. His next novel, The Polyglots, is probably his masterpiece (although some argue for Doom). Again it deals with Russia (Gerhardie was strongly influenced by the tragi-comic style of Russian writers such as Chekhov about whom he wrote a study while in College).
He collaborated with Hugh Kingsmill on the biography The Casanova Fable, his friendship with Kingsmill being both a source of conflict over women and a great intellectual stimulus.
After World War II Gerhardie's star waned, and he became unfashionable. Although he continued to write, he published no new work after 1939. After a period of poverty-stricken oblivion, he lived to see two 'definitive collected works' published by Macdonald (in 1947-49 and then revised again in 1970-74). An idiosyncratic study of world history between 1890 and 1940 ("God's Fifth Column") was discovered among his papers and published posthumously. More recently, both Prion and New Directions Press have been reissuing his works.

Reviews

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Третий роман Джерхарди крайне причудлив — такие называют whimsical, и вот на нем становится понятно, что же это значит вообще. Сначала кажется, что он пустил в ход все тот же сюжет, что знаком нам по «Тщете» и «Полиглотам» (а там он один и тот же) — с теми же поворотами, теми же русскими персонажами, но нет. Постепенно роман оборачивается постмодернистским текстом, в котором сам этот сюжет — персонаж. «Страшный суд» (это как версия, вариантов перевода может быть несколько) — сериальный роман о себе самом, где персонажи существуют одновременно на нескольких планах, в нескольких проекциях и выполняют несколько функций. Последнее, конечно, не фокус, но надо думать, что еще не все приемы Джерхарди разработаны следовавшими после постмодернистами.
Потому что роман этот — приключение не только в языке (где он мешает множество регистров и диалектов, создает отдельные и узнаваемые речевые характеристики, как и полагается всякому уважающему себя настоящему писателю), но и в перипетиях и поворотах сюжета, лишенных даже намека на шаблонность или рецептурность. Свою комедию манер Джерхарди пишет так, словно до него никакой литературы и не было (ни русской, ни английской, никакой) — как бог на душу положил, что называется. Такое ощущение, что текст изобретается у нас на глазах (и предисловие Майкла Холройда, в котором примерно рассказывается история написания романа, от такого ощущения не отталкивает, хотя, казалось бы, должно) — автор творит свой мир так же, как Спайк Миллигэн «разрабатывал ноги» героя «по ходу повествования», и свидетельствовать такому чуду стоит дорогого. Постепенно в этом непреходящем изумлении становится понятным, от чего охуевали его современники и почему все единогласно считали его гением.
Ну и да — мысль об уничтожении мира у Джерхарди (того самого, созданного по ходу повествования) посредством то ли закупорки всех вулканов, то ли подрывом их (тут наш злой гений не очень уверен), конечно, не нова, но тогда, в 1928 году, в этой идее все же была какая-то свежесть. Привет «Клубу Везувий» Марка Гейтисса, в частности.
И привет Флэнну О’Браену. Вся подобная веселуха в романе происходит до тех пор, пока этот псих Де Селби… пардон, де Джоунз — не расщепляет атом. Один-единственный. И в небесах над австрийским холмом, который только и остался от испарившейся земли, не начинают летать Херберт Уэллз (целиком) и клочья Джорджа Бернарда Шо.

[Mientras Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me lo he pasado francamente bien con esta novela

[Lahierbaroja · Rating 1 out of 5]

No he conseguido entrar en esta historia que se las prometía divertida y entretenida. En mi caso, para nada ha sido así.

Una pena.

[Ben Simpkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found out about this book in the funniest way- I was reading The Digging Leviathan by James Blaylock, and one of the characters in the story was reading Doom. I know Blaylock has interesting taste in classics (and I was overdue to read a good old classic), so I gave it a shot.

I have to admit that it took a few pages before I felt the humor and magic. Having Frank read his serial right off the bat was a interesting way to open the story, but it definitely didn't have the effect of pulling a reader in like we expect these days. Also, I was very concerned about keeping up with the large batch of characters and backstories that were fired at me so quickly in Frank's story. However, it seemed after the fact like a lot of these stories, which were being conveyed by some eccentric Russians living in Austria, were just fired off so quickly to reflect the craziness of the characters. Once I realized the nature of the humor, and wrapped my head around all the characters, the book became a real treat.

This book may be one of the most quotable books I ever read. Once you get into the main part of the story the prose is absolutely gorgeous and brilliant all the way up until the end. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for not noting so many of these quotable bits that I feel like I need to read it again to get those out.

Anyways, if you're a patient reader who is interested in wit and humor that takes a little unraveling of the text to appreciate, I highly recommend this. I've never read a book like it, and think it should stands nicely among the other classics of the early 20th century, despite the fact it was never widely regarded as one.

[Tom Leland · Rating 2 out of 5]

As E.B. White said of James Joyce, "It takes more than genius to keep me reading a book."

Gerhardie was certainly brilliant -- and way ahead of his time...in essence, predicting WWII in this 1925 book. However as a story -- as a work one has to read page by page, perhaps it would be captivating in its day, but I kept at it solely through stubbornness, a mild curiosity as to how it would end, and the few brilliant and comic flashes throughout.

Favorite passage: "There is a limit to an intelligent person's enjoyment of the irony of being regarded as an imbecile by fools. And it is soon reached."

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd read I found it a little tiresome at first and wondered whether I would pursue it to its fullest...it seemed just a satire on polite society.
About half way in however it engaged me the characterisation had hit and the shift in the closing chapters and it's apocalyptic vision ..well they worked for me.
An odd little book then but An enjoyable enough one.

[Ana Galvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow! weird!

[Biblioteka Wydziału Neofilologii UW]

N.15985

[Federico Freydell · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Fantasymundo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Hecatombe” consigue ser una lectura adictiva y divertida con unas tramas ágiles y desenfadadas, con diálogos ingeniosos; está repleta de enredos, que generan situaciones cómicas, en especial con los diferentes matrimonios, divorcios y Seguir leyendo

[Dermot O'Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much of its time, an odd mix of madcap farce and science fiction. There are the louche Bohemians of Michael Arlen, the cleverness for its own sake of the early Aldous Huxley, and then pen portraits of Lord Beaverbrook and of the author. There's a pervasive deeply pessimistic view of society, though this novel, that a "Great War" is something each generation must undergo to prove itself: "Glorious manhood! Only waiting for the word of command to set off for the enemy." Disputes are again emerging in Europe and countries are taking sides: "The new war was broadly (and amicably) conceived on these lines, and the British Government, declaring that it could not countenance another war in Europe, plunged into it, so as to prevent it." The prevailing vies of society is that it's so fractured as to be unfixable. The way forward is to destroy what exists and begin again. This is a theme a decade later in Orwell's "Coming up for Air." This apocalyptic view forms the final part of Doom, where an eccentric scientist uses Einstein's theories to start a chain reaction where matter starts to unravel.