Flaubert's Parrot

Flaubert's Parrot is the German title of the novel by Julian Barnes, who appeared in the original under the title of Flaubert 's Parrot and in 1984 nominated for the Booker Prize.

Content

The novel tells the thoughts of the hobby experts Geoffrey Braithwaite about the life of Flaubert and his own life as he tries to identify those stuffed parrot that had once inspired the great author.

The British widower and pensioner Geoffrey Braithwaite visited France, where the different places that are connected with Flaubert. During the visits of several small Flaubert museums it is striking that two of them argue each issue those stuffed parrot that stood a short time on Flaubert's desk. While he tries to find out which is the right parrot, Geoffrey must discover that it may neither of them is, but also one of fifty other can be kept in a large French Natural History Museum last.

The main narrative line follows the search for the originality of the parrot, but the book contains many chapters that exist independently and Geoffrey's thoughts on topics such as Flaubert's love life, and how this was influenced, for instance by trains, or on the animal images in Flaubert's works and the animals with which Flaubert identified himself, about the bear.

Narrative technique

One of the main features of the novel as a whole is the postmodern subjectivism. The novel brings example, one behind the other three biographies of Flaubert: the first is optimistic about leading his successes, the second is pessimistic, renames the deaths of his friends and lovers, his failures and diseases, and the third is a collection of quotes that Flaubert his diary has written at different times of his life. Another example can be found in the repeated viewing of the eyes Emma Bovary, where three different colors are attributed to Flaubert.

Trying to find the real Flaubert is reflected in the attempt to find his parrot, and it ends just as fruitless.