- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; 5th edition (1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679731369
- ISBN-13: 978-0679731368
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.3 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #706,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quaint, quirky, literate ,& ultimately, vastly entertaining,
By
This review is from: Flaubert's Parrot (Paperback)
This may be the most unusual book I've ever read.Sort of a philosophical treatise on art, writing, Flaubert, the French, compulsion and love presented under the guise of a very arcane literary detective story. Barnes is a very quixotic and imaginative writer with a definitely skewed view of the world and an engaging and witty writing voice. The musings of the narrator are well formed and allow the reader move along at a brisk pace. It helps that Flaubert himself was a wacky and iconoclastic figure-one of those people we've all heard of but don't really know anything about unless you are some sort of 19th century French literature freak. This was the first Barnes novel I read and it was so good I have been slowly working my way through his other books, which has proven to be an altogether delightful experience. All of his novels are good-this one stands out from the pack.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
What color are Loulou's wings?,
By
This review is from: Flaubert's Parrot (Vintage International) (Paperback)
You have to have read Madame Bovary (or maybe Cliff's notes on Madame Bovary) to understand the plot. You don't have to have read "Un Coeur Simple" but you probably will after reading this. It's not until three-quarters of the way through that you suddenly realize there's a plot. Until then it's a series of very clever biographical essays about Flaubert. Then you understand why the narrator it obsessed with Flaubert. Then you get equally clever essays about the nature of love and grief. Wonderful insight into the poignancy of bereavement combined with sharp and erudite wit. It may be too erudite and clever for some. It demands a certain amount of francophilia and anglophilia, and understanding phrases like "I might let the TLS have it." I'd always thought it was Nabokov, not Starkie who accused Flaubert of getting mixed up about the color of Emma's eyes. I think he did get get mixed up about the color of Loulou's wings in Un Coeur Simple- at least in the English translation I read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clever Introduction to Flaubert,
By Ethan Cooper (Big Apple) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Flaubert's Parrot (Vintage International) (Paperback)
This idea-driven novel is filled with brilliant observations, especially in the later chapters, that make me want to read Flaubert. But, in my opinion, the brilliance of these observations is not credibly attributable to personality of the narrator or the power of his trauma. As a result, the essayist Julian Barnes, as well as extensive comments from Flaubert ("With me, friendship is like the camel: once started, there is no way of stopping it.") seemed to carry the narrative load. Regardless, this is a very entertaining book that broadened this reader's horizons. Highly recommended.
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