Flaubert's Parrot
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3.1 • 8 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor haunted by an obsession with the French literary genius, Gustave Flaubert.
As Geoffrey investigates the mystery of the stuffed parrot Flaubert borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help research one of his novels, we learn an enormous amount about the writer’s work, family, lovers, thought processes, health and obsessions. But we also gradually come to learn some important and shocking details about Geoffrey himself.
A compelling weave of fiction and imaginatively ordered fact, Flaubert's Parrot is by turns moving and entertaining, witty and scholarly, and a tour-de-force of seductive originality.
‘Unputdownable... A mesmeric original’ Philip Larkin
‘Delightful and enriching...a book to revel in!’ Joseph Heller
‘A wry and graceful book... Unfailingly sharp and often very funny’ Sunday Times
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR TO MARK THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST PUBLICATION
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barnes's contemporary classic follows loosely in the footsteps of acclaimed 19th-century French novelist Gustave Flaubert, serving as capsule biography, work of critical art, record of cross-generational authorial jealousy, and a portrait of obsession. As the protagonist meditates on Madame Bovary, while giving us quick glimpses into the source of his own fixation on the novel like Emma, his own wife was unfaithful and committed suicide Richard Morant keeps pace, following Barnes as he dips and dives through a dizzying variety of styles. A Vintage paperback.
