![]() But Barnes plainly wishes to elevate Elizabeth to a moral leadership role he feels British society is sorely lacking. Whether all this philosophy makes Neil a better person is an open question he mentions two divorces, but the exes, and the reasons for the splits, are entirely off-screen. ![]() Neil’s investigations send him deep into the life of the Roman emperor Julian, a fierce critic of nascent Christianity, and the book’s middle section is consumed by a somewhat drowsy contemplation of Julian’s life. What kind of past and inner life produced, as he puts it, “the most grown-up person I have known”? Upon her death nearly two decades after the course, he has an opportunity to find out: Though their relationship since the class was limited to occasional lunches, she’s bequeathed him her library and papers to puzzle through. Neil, the narrator, is her eager pupil, entranced by her intellectual rigor and self-possession. The Elizabeth of the title is a professor teaching a continuing education class called Culture and Civilisation, with a particular focus on the conflict between Greco-Roman and Christian philosophy. This slim, contemplative, modestly successful novel blends those two themes. ![]() ![]() Late-period Barnes novels have either been tales of doomed love ( The Only Story, 2018) or intellectual persecution ( The Noise of Time, 2016). A man processes his crush on a former teacher and the impact of what she taught. ![]()
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