Rapti Saha

This book revolves around a 52 year old University professor, David Laurie, who is a regressive, complicated, self-centred and sometimes delusional person. His actions are highly influenced by 2 factors, the first being his constant zeal to replicate the romantic life of Baron Byron, an everlasting name in romantic literature, which allows him to pursue highly controversial, sometimes non-consensual relationships with women. Be it a sex worker, his colleagues, his student which results in his career destruction and his daughter's friend. The second factor is his rigidness to accept change which results in his lack of credibility for his actions. Another protagonist is his daughter, Lucy Laurie. Her character shows little depth and development throughout the book and it is evident by her reaction of sexual assault which is very impractical and subdued. To quote her own words in the book, she is just a side character in the plot of her father's life. Lastly, I think the reason this book didn't become a classic it a cult favourite, despite it's literal enrichment and positive reception in its time, is because of the stressing of career failure and sexual exploitation becoming "Disgrace" instead of the lapse of moral judgement. The hint of sexist and racist ideals with no sense of empathy or improvement can also be seen. Another reason is lack of David's character development. During the middle chapters his character showed pivotal change but his rigidness could be clearly seen by reading the last line of the book.