 First edition | |
| Author | Sebastian Faulks |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Hutchinson |
Publication date | 2007 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 9780099458272 |
| Preceded by | Human Traces |
| Followed by | Devil May Care |
Engleby is a 2007 novel by the author Sebastian Faulks. It tells the tale of a working-class boy who wins a place at an esteemed university and becomes a suspect in a murder investigation after the disappearance of a girl from a nearby college. [1]
Mike Engleby attends an 'ancient university', studying English at first, but switching over to natural sciences after he begins to doubt the legitimacy of the subject. He is infatuated with a girl named Jennifer Arkland, whose name he only discovered on posters advertising her running for a society committee. He begins to attend the society in order to meet her and attends her history lectures, in a different faculty, despite not studying history.
He does not perform as well as expected on his second year exams but takes part in the production of a student film in Ireland involving Jennifer. While there he reads Jennifer's letters and begins to reflect about his past.
He remembers his working-class upbringing in Reading, his dad's death and his subsequent scholarship to Chatfield – a public school for the children of navy servicemen.
At Chatfield he was bullied by the prefects and by other students, gaining the name "Toilet Engleby" by asking for permission to go to the toilet rather than "lavatory" during a lesson. One prefect, Baynes, steals a cake sent to him by his mother and later forces Engleby to take a bath in cold water. Engleby begins to steal, at first to pay for letters to his sister, but he soon escalates to frequent theft and begins to buy cigarettes to sell on to other pupils.
Engleby assaults Baynes who suffers from head injuries and broken leg in the attack which is staged to look like an accident. Engleby meets a boy named Stevens to whom he takes an immediate dislike. Stevens is outgoing, enthusiastic, plays rugby and is liked by his year. Engleby's final memory of Chatfield is of forcing Stevens to take a cold bath, just as Baynes had done to him previously.
Jennifer Arkland disappears half-way through her final year after a party attended by Engleby, who at some point stole Jennifer's diary, which he begins to read and memorise. Engleby is questioned by the police about the disappearance of Jennifer and claims that Jennifer is his girlfriend. Other students have also been interviewed, some making statements that Engleby is homosexual, which doesn't tally up for the investigating officers. His alibi fails to stand up but no concrete evidence against him is found and the investigation is suspended.
Engleby fails to attain a first in his final exams. He moves to London and makes a living by drug dealing, eventually becoming a journalist. He assumes the name Michele Watt as the left-wing paper he writes for is seeking to have more female writers. After a while he changes his assumed name to Michael Watson, as he claims he no longer needs to pretend to be a woman and it was convenient for him to keep a similar name.
He reveals that during his time at university he began to have panic attacks and that he has been taking 'blue pills' on the advice of a doctor at a mental health hospital he was taken to, after collapsing during a panic attack.
He meets and starts a relationship with a woman working at the same paper, Margaret, whom he then moves in with.
Years later, Jennifer's body is unearthed and the police track down Mike for questioning. It is revealed that a shirt the officers took from his college rooms during the investigation was checked using newly developed DNA techniques and was shown to have Jennifer's blood on it.
Mike pleads guilty to the murder of Jennifer Arkland. He explains that he murdered Jennifer as she came home from a party, offering her a ride and refusing to let her get out. He drove to a remote location and, when she offered to do anything to be let go, he killed her. He adds that he also may have murdered a German woman called Gudrun Abendroth in London and that he had attacked Baynes while at Chatfield, causing injuries, then thought to be accidental, which contributed to Baynes' premature death some time later.
He pleads limited responsibility and after analysis by psychiatrist Dr. Exley he is diagnosed with a personality disorder and is sent to a mental institution. He is never released but eventually attains a sense of peace, teaching many of the other patients various basic skills.
The narration is from the perspective of Engleby himself, and he often obscures or misrepresents the events around him. This is most noticeable in the disappearance of Jennifer, to which he gives no indication of his involvement until very near the end of the novel.
Engleby has numerous panic attacks throughout the course of the novel and takes medication to prevent symptoms of anxiety. He occasionally alludes to feeling isolated, but rejects the idea that he has depression. Late in the novel, a psychological professional diagnoses him with schizoid personality disorder and some narcissistic tendencies, while maintaining that he does not have any biological mental illness like schizophrenia.
Engleby idolizes Jennifer throughout the novel. He stalks her by following her into lectures and attending her societies. He is frustrated when she pleads to leave the car when he presumes to give her a lift home and deliberately takes a wrong turn to prolong their time together. He later kills her, apparently for accidentally threatening his sexual potency after he drives her off into a secluded area. He appears to consider women fundamentally different from men, and dismisses demands for sexual equality as 'flak from grumpy feminists', calling ideas of female equality 'lies'.
Reviews of the novel were mixed, with many critics citing the almost unlikable narrator as a negative factor.
Phil Hogan of The Observer said, "The character of Engleby's oddness, though, is harder to fathom. His prose has that flat, stilted quality familiar to the modern reader as a sign of moral vacuity, but does he have to be so uninteresting with it?" He went on to say, "The eventual arrival of men in white coats – a welcome introduction of sane voices – heralds the most successful section of the book. Relieved of the burden of faux suspense, ideas kept at the fringe by passing ephemera are foregrounded, themes blossom. This, you sense, is what Faulks has been waiting for – the chance to engage more directly with his subject. His prose, freed from the shackles of a troubled mind, starts to shine too. The trouble is it shines too late." [2]
Jane Shilling of The Daily Telegraph said, "Like Human Traces , Engleby is distinguished by a remarkable intellectual energy: a narrative verve, technical mastery of the possibilities of the novel form and vivid sense of the tragic contingency of human life." [3]
Terrence Rafferty of The New York Times said, "At one point, near the end, when both the character and his creator seem to be getting slightly desperate, Engleby throws out the possibility that the 'idea of self' may be no more than a 'necessary fiction.' Maybe it is. 'Engleby' isn't." [4]
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing and is often cited as one of the greatest works of world literature.
Anthony "Tony" John Soprano, portrayed by James Gandolfini, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO crime drama television series The Sopranos. He is a member of the Italian-American Mafia and, later in the series, acts as the boss of the fictional DiMeo crime family of North Jersey. The character was conceived by Sopranos creator and showrunner David Chase, who was also largely responsible for the character's story arc throughout the series.
Sebastian Charles Faulks is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray.
Birdsong is a 1993 war novel and family saga by the English author Sebastian Faulks. It is Faulks's fourth novel. The plot follows two main characters living at different times: the first is Stephen Wraysford, a British soldier on the front line in Amiens during the First World War, and the second is his granddaughter, Elizabeth Benson, whose 1970s plotline follows her attempts to recover an understanding of Stephen's experience of the war.
Along Came a Spider is a crime thriller novel, and the first novel in James Patterson's series about forensic psychologist Alex Cross. First published in 1993, its success has led to twenty-six sequels as of 2021.
In the Woods is a 2007 mystery novel by Tana French about a pair of Irish detectives and their investigation of the murder of a twelve-year-old girl. It is the first book in French's Dublin Murder Squad series. The novel won several awards such as the 2008 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, the 2008 Barry Award for Best First Novel, the 2008 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel, and the 2008 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In the Woods and The Likeness, the second book of the Dublin Murder Squad series, are the inspiration for the BBC and Starz's 2019 Dublin Murders, an eight-episode series.
Cat Among the Pigeons is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 November 1959, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1960 with a copyright date of 1959. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6), and the US edition at $2.95.
Rose Red is a 2002 American television miniseries scripted by horror novelist Stephen King, directed by Craig R. Baxley, and starring Nancy Travis, Matt Keeslar, Julian Sands, Kimberly J. Brown, David Dukes, Melanie Lynskey, Matt Ross, Emily Deschanel, Judith Ivey, and Kevin Tighe. It was filmed in Lakewood, Washington. The plot focuses on a reputedly haunted mansion located in Seattle, Washington, named Rose Red. Due to its long history of supernatural events and unexplained tragedies, the house is investigated by parapsychologist Dr. Joyce Reardon and a team of gifted psychics.
Debra Charlotte Morgan is a fictional character created by Jeff Lindsay for his Dexter book series. She also appears in the television series, based on Lindsay's books, portrayed by Jennifer Carpenter. In Lindsay's novels, she first appeared in Darkly Dreaming Dexter and was featured in every novel in the series. Debra is the sister of the series' antihero protagonist Dexter Morgan.
Rex Balsom is a fictional character from the American daytime drama One Life to Live, portrayed by John-Paul Lavoisier from May 9, 2002, to the show's finale on January 12, 2012.
Devil May Care is a James Bond continuation novel written by Sebastian Faulks. It was published in the UK by Penguin Books on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond. The story centers on Bond's investigation into Dr. Julius Gorner, a megalomaniac chemist with a deep-seated hatred of England.
"Return to Sender" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American television drama series Dexter, which first aired on November 5, 2006 on Showtime in the United States. The episode was written by Timothy Schlattmann and was directed by Tony Goldwyn. In the episode, Dexter Morgan investigates a murder scene where one of his own victims has returned after he disposed of the body. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Rita Bennett tries to prevent her husband Paul from attending their daughter's birthday party, and Lt. María LaGuerta considers adopting a young witness of the murder whom she finds at the crime scene.
The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, on 4 August 2002. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Amiee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a local resident and school caretaker, Ian Kevin Huntley, who subsequently murdered them – likely via asphyxiation – and disposed of their bodies in an irrigation ditch close to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The bodies were discovered on 17 August 2002.
Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.
Cormoran Strike is a series of crime fiction novels written by British author J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The story chronicles the cases of the fictional British private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. Seven novels have so far been published in a planned series of ten. The seventh novel, titled The Running Grave, was released on 26 September 2023. As of February 2024, the series has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and was published in more than 50 countries, being translated into 43 languages.
The Moment is a 2013 American psychological thriller film directed by Jane Weinstock, written by Gloria Norris and Weinstock, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Martin Henderson, Alia Shawkat, and Meat Loaf. Leigh plays a war photographer who, suffering from PTSD, becomes unsure whether she is responsible for her ex-boyfriend's disappearance.
On January 29, 2011, Bethany Anne Decker left her grandparents' home and returned to her apartment in Ashburn, Virginia. Her then-boyfriend, Ronald Roldan, claimed he saw her there later that day. She has not been seen since.
Turtles All the Way Down is a young adult drama novel written by American author John Green published on October 10, 2017, by Dutton Books. It is Green's fifth solo novel and his seventh overall. The novel debuted at number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in the category of "Young Adult Hardcover Books" and stayed at the top for 15 weeks and remained on the list for 62 weeks.
Jennifer Dulos was an American woman who went missing on May 24, 2019. Authorities believe that she was killed in an attack at her home in New Canaan, Connecticut, United States. Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, and his girlfriend, Michelle Troconis, were arrested on charges of tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in connection with Jennifer's disappearance. Later, the two – along with Fotis's attorney Kent Mawhinney – faced additional charges related to Jennifer's murder.
Therapy is a psychological thriller and the debut novel by novelist Sebastian Fitzek published in 2006. The novel has already sold eight million copies worldwide. In addition, the novel held the number one spot on the German magazine Spiegel's bestseller list for several weeks. In 2023 it was adapted into a TV series titled Sebastian Fitzek's Therapy.