Flaubert's Parrot is an exceptionally erudite blend of fiction and literary history.
The story of Dr. Braithwaite and a commentary on the life and work of Gustave Flaubert co-exist in a way which makes the work both highly entertaining and enormously informative. It also raises questions (many more than it answers) about the ethical implications of critiquing either a work of literature or its author's life. Perhaps the biographer does, invariably, do violence to an author's life; perhaps the critic does destroy the vitality of the author's work.
Barnes' outlook, however, is not entirely pessimistic; he does not advocate a moratorium on literary scholarship. Instead, he calls the reader's attention to the inadequacy of history and memory, to point out that all writing is, in a way, creative, and that each reader and every.....
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