Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

First published: 1984

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Philosophical and metafictional

Time of plot: Mid-twentieth century to 1982

Locale: Rouen, France; London

Principal characters

• Geoffrey Braithwaite, an amateur biographer
• Ellen Braithwaite, his wife
• Ed Winterton, an American academic
• Gustave Flaubert, a renowned French writer
• Louise Colet, Flaubert’s mistress
• Juliet Herbert, an English governess
• Enid Starkie, a literary critic
• Loulou, Flaubert’s parrot

The Story:

Geoffrey Braithwaite, an amateur biographer, is at the statue of writer Gustave Flaubert in Rouen, France. Braithwaite’s project, it seems, is to get to know as much as he can about Flaubert so that he can connect with him. He especially needs to establish which of two stuffed parrots at two rival museums is Loulou, the one who inspired Flaubert to write his short story “Un Cœur simple” (1877; “A Simple Heart,” 1903). Braithwaite notes that Flaubert had disapproved of seeking out information about authors beyond what is found in their works, but Braithwaite pursues his quest nonetheless.

Braithwaite meets Ed Winterton, an American academic, at a book fair. Winterton acquires a book they both had wanted to buy. He later writes to Braithwaite to say that he has discovered some fascinating material related to Flaubert’s life. This news intrigues Braithwaite, who imagines that based on this material he will be able publish a groundbreaking study about a hitherto unknown love affair between Flaubert and his niece’s governess, Juliet Herbert.

Braithwaite meets Winterton to discuss the discovery. Winterton tells him that the material did indeed reveal that Flaubert had an affair with Juliet, but he also tells him the material also includes a letter in which Flaubert asks that the material be burned—Winterton has done that, and Braithwaite is furious.

Flaubert had compared himself to various animals, from lizards and camels to bears. Apparently, he most liked to compare himself to a polar bear, living far from civilization. There also had been many real parrots in his life. One contemporary newspaper story told of one man’s parrot obsession, which may have been the inspiration for Flaubert’s short story “Un Cœur simple.” Talk of a parrot’s empty perch in Flaubert’s novel L’Éducation sentimentale (1869; A Sentimental Education, 1898) leads Braithwaite to discuss the way people approach the past; he also discusses a number of dogs that had appeared in Flaubert’s life and works.

Braithwaite expresses his dislike of coincidences but follows this with an account of what may or may not have been a coincidental discovery by Flaubert: that of a business card belonging to someone from his home town of Rouen, a card that turns up at the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Braithwaite then denounces literary critics for their tendency to point out authors’ errors. He especially focuses on the work of French literature specialist Enid Starkie, who comments on the color of Emma Bovary’s eyes in the famous novel by Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1857).

Braithwaite is on a ferry crossing the English Channel, commenting on seagulls, bilingual trash-can signs, misspellings of Flaubert’s name, the seasons preferred by older people, the different look of the light in France, various French customs, and Flaubert’s disdain for the notion of progress. He also notes that he has a true story he could tell about his own wife, Ellen, but instead talks more about Flaubert and then about himself, revealing that he is a doctor in his sixties who has never killed a patient; nor had he killed his wife, he says. He also muses about what books he would ban if he were literary dictator, and about the difficulty of knowing the past. He also says he finds it difficult to talk directly about himself.

Braithwaite talks about the role of trains in Flaubert’s life and works; he also talks about the books Flaubert had planned but never wrote and about the life plans he never carried out. He next defends Flaubert against a variety of charges by critics and suggests that serious admirers of authors, though they may seek to know their vices, will also seek to defend them, more so than husbands or wives will defend their spouses.

After mentioning in passing that Flaubert’s mistress, Louise Colet, had been something of a pest in her demands on Flaubert, Braithwaite muses that this may simply be because Flaubert’s version of events is all that remains. Braithwaite then imagines Colet’s version of her affair with Flaubert. He finally tells the story of his own wife, who, it turns out, was an adulterer who committed suicide. He then muses on loneliness and grief and expresses an inability to explain his wife’s adultery or her suicide. He also notes that, technically, he did kill her, because she died only after he “pulled the plug” on her in the hospital.

Finally, Braithwaite discusses the mystery of the stuffed parrots. He revisits the two museums, consults a Flaubert scholar, and goes to see the bird collection at the Museum of Natural History. The result of his searches is inconclusive.

Bibliography

Guignery, Vanessa. The Fiction of Julian Barnes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Provides an excellent assessment of Barnes’s literary works, including Flaubert’s Parrot, and presents a compilation of the interpretation of Barnes’s works by other critics. Describes Flaubert’s Parrot as a postmodernist experiment.

Holmes, Frederick M. Julian Barnes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Sees Flaubert’s Parrot as an autumnal novel about loss and displacement and also as a metafictional work about itself.

Moseley, Merritt. “Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot.” In A Companion to the British and Irish Novel, 1945-2000, edited by Brian W. Shaffer. New York: Blackwell, 2005. Argues that the novel is not postmodernist. Traces its reception, including the discussions of whether it is a novel at all, and explores what Barnes is doing in this book.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Understanding Julian Barnes. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. Provides background on Barnes, noting his longtime interest in France and Flaubert, and discusses various aspects of the novel.

Pateman, Matthew. Julian Barnes. Tavistock, England: Northcote House/British Council, 2002. Discusses the significance of the parrot quest in Flaubert’s Parrot, relating that quest to the detective genre Barnes also writes in. Sees Barnes’s novel as a narrative unifier. Also analyzes the narrator’s character.

Rubinson, Gregory J. The Fiction of Rushdie, Barnes, Winterson, and Carter: Breaking Cultural and Literary Boundaries in the Work of Four Postmodernists. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005. Considers Flaubert’s Parrot a postmodernist work of mockery, genre mixing, and intertextual references. Argues that the narrator is an ineffectual cuckold, in contrast to the stereotypical hard-boiled detective.