Flaubert's Parrot Summary
Julian Barnes

Flaubert's Parrot Summary

Flaubert's Parrot tells the story of Geoffrey Braithwaite, an English doctor who is obsessed with Gustave Flaubert. Geoffrey states that he has three stories to tell: Flaubert's, his own, and his wife Ellen's. The novel is comprised partly of fiction and partly of literary criticism, as the book traces Geoffrey's search for the "facts" about Flaubert and his work. Geoffrey discovers that two museums containing items of Flaubert's claim to own the stuffed parrot that Flaubert once borrowed from the Museum of Natural History. Geoffrey discovers, in the last chapter, that the museums each choose one parrot from a collection of fifty, not knowing which parrot Flaubert had really borrowed.

In his search for Flaubert, Geoffrey discovers that the great author was involved with Juliet Herbert, although Ed Winterton destroyed the evidence of their affair. Geoffrey learns about the lives that Flaubert did not lead and the books that he... View more of the Flaubert's Parrot Summary