Chapter 15, And the Parrot... Summary

It takes Geoffrey almost two years to solve the mystery of the two parrots. The letters he wrote after he returned from Rouen gave him no useful information and some weren't even answered. Geoffrey thinks that the people he wrote to probably thought him a crank or senile. He thinks about how when older people commit suicide they are thought to have a softening of the brain but when younger people do, it's an act of courage and social revolt. While on the topic of suicide, Geoffrey refutes the idea that Flaubert committed suicide. A man named Edmond Ledoux spread the rumor that Flaubert killed himself. Geoffrey thinks this runs counter to Flaubert's personality and that Ledoux's account of Flaubert's suicide is absurd. Ledoux argued that Flaubert hanged himself in the bath. But, Geoffrey argues, the doctor...