I am reading this two volume work for the third time. Arthur Inman was the scion of two prominant Atlanta families and grew up with a degree of affluence most of us can only imagine. At an early age, perhaps 22, he dropped out of college and became an invalid. Part of his disability was that he could not stand bright lights and so spent much time in a darkened room. Arthus was addicted to doctors and spent a fortune being treated by them. He never worked and his parents supported him to the end. Arthus started to write his diary to amuse himself. Later he began to pay people to come and read to him and talk to him. He was especially fond of women and liked to fondle them in the dark. Arthur married his wife, Evelyn, when she was about 23. Evelyn is the heroine of the story. The diary itself is huge, 155 volumes and 14 million words. It is a fascinating read. Arthur had strong opinions on many subjects. For instance, he believed in slavary (with himself as a master) and thought black inherently inferior to whites. The story ends in 1963 when Arthus kills himself. I am reading this book for the third time because it's a great read. Arthur grows on you and I have come to see him as a friend. I think you will too. Enjoy.

You won't be forgotting this one anytime soon. I'd like to see the full version released one day, that is, the 65 volumes, which are apparently stored at Harvard. As it is, this is one of the greatest reading experiences you will ever have. Arthur Inman is a worthy competitor of Hannibal Lecter.

When this two volumne set was first published, it was sold in shrink-wrap plastic and did not allow potential readers to get any sense of it's content. It was an expensive gamble that I wasn't prepared to take. But I always remembered a fascinating review in the NY Times, and some years later I bought a used (although evidently un-read) copy in a second-hand book store. For the next two months I became immersed in the bizarre world of Arthur Inman, unable to put the book down for more than a few hours at a time. Through a lifetime of reading, I have never encountered such a unique document. Arthur, the Monster; Arthur, the Bigot, Arthur, the Insufferable Egoist; Arthur, the would-be chronicler of the American Century; Arthur, the Hypochondriac Extrodinaire, Arthur, the Listener, paying strangers to share their lives in the annoymous dark; Arthur, the bedridden Sex Experimenter... etc., etc. Doggerel Poet, Psychological Tyrant, Racist, hateful Historian, Rich Cry-Baby, Cruel Deviant: Arthur is the Great American Armchair Monster of Boston...But there is so much more. Very much more to this quirkiest ghoul of enormous literary ambition. Daniel Aaron is a brilliant editor, whose great gift to American letters must be this singularly unique reading experience. In the end you come to love Arthur, and to admire his strange, beautiful, insane creation. Almost impossible to describe, this book is so full of decades of American life that you can lose yourself in its novelistic, labyrinthian, and always human stories.

This book is one of the bleakest books I have read. The diarist has developed a notion that his eyes are delicate(among other psychosomatic diseases) so he lies in a darkened room most of the day. He has cut himself off from society, the only people with whom he associates are his paid staff: Doctors, talkers, helpers and wife. The talkers read and talk about themselves to Arthur who eventually beds them, grows emotionally dependent on them and lavishes them with presents to keep them. Even with his wife it's this way. Arthurs ambition is to chronicle every thought and not censor himself, and while he is mentally ill and thus deludes himself on a number of issues, he does succeed in being brutally honest especially on the members who has left his fold. I challenge anyone to find any positive human values in this book, it certainly does show the dark side of human nature.

Arthur called his diary, "... pure crap... out of the rectum of a rotting shadow and of no possible interest to anyone save a psychologist concentrating upon the disintegration of a person." Although he was a somewhat nasty, prejudiced man, I think his diary was fascinating. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of his relationships with his female employees and the narratives of their lives. This is a book for specialized tastes--not for everyone

I hope someone else out there has actually read this book -- its worth it, in many ways. While hidden away in his room during the whole of his lifetime with a medical condition no doctors could ever diagnose, the author kept a painstaking diary of his everyday "experiences". He paid for people to come sit with him and tell stories of their lives -- appealing, tragic, often sordid. He usually entered into intimate relationships with these people, all the while dissecting them within the thousands of pages of his diary. Arthur blackmailed his millionaire parents to subsidize him, viciously tormented his servants and wife and eventually committed suicide. But not before he left for posthumous publication his eerie, hateful, yet fascinating world view.