Flaubert's Parrot

Written by Julian Barnes

Narrated by Simon Vance

Julian Barnes pens a kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar’s search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert, and the obsession of this detective, whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert’s characters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781980082859

Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes (Leicester, 1946) se educó en Londres y en Oxford. Está considerado una de las mayores revelaciones de la narrativa inglesa de las últimas décadas. En Anagrama se han publicado sus novelas Metrolandia (Premio Somerset Maugham 1981), Antes de conocernos, El loro de Flaubert (Premio Geoffrey Faber Memorial y, en Francia, Premio Médicis), Mirando al sol, Una historia del mundo en diez capítulos y medio, Hablando del asunto (Premio Fémina a la mejor novela extranjera publicada en Francia), El puercoespín, Inglaterra, Inglaterra, Amor, etcétera, Arthur & George, El sentido de un final (Premio Booker), Niveles de vida, El ruido del tiempo, La única historia, Elizabeth Finch, Despedidas, los libros de relatos Al otro lado del Canal, La mesa limón y Pulso, el delicioso tomito El perfeccionista en la cocina, el libro memorialístico Nada que temer y los ensayos Con los ojos bien abiertos, El hombre de la bata roja y Mis cambios de opinión. Ha recibido también, entre otros galardones, el Premio E. M. Forster de la American Academy of Arts and Letters, el William Shakespeare de la Fundación FvS de Hamburgo y el Man Booker, y es Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Reviews for Flaubert's Parrot

[C Vaughan Howard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The perfect dessert after reading Flaubert's short story "A Simple Soul". Julian Barnes's fictional character embarks on a quest to locate the actual stuffed parrot Flaubert used for the story. It is witty and wistful, sardonic and sincere, jocular and melancholic. Simon Vance is the ideal narrator for this delightful book.

[col2910_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Blurb......... Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor haunted by an obsession with the great French literary genius, Gustave Flaubert. As Geoffrey investigates the mystery of the stuffed parrot Flaubert borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help research one of his novels, we learn an enormous amount about the writer's work, family, lovers, thought processes, health and obsessions. But we also gradually come to learn some important and shocking details about Geoffrey himself.


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Always a sucker for a smart cover, and add in the fact that it had been enjoyed and praised by no less than the likes of John Irving and Graham Greene, with a price tag of a whopping 30p in whatever charity shop I was browsing about 10 years ago and it was pretty much a given that I would be reading this sometime in the distant future.


After a previous start, stall, stop attempt to read this some years ago, I reopened it with a new found determination to read it start to finish and hopefully at the same time enjoy it.


Well in places it was okay, amusing and informative. In other places it was dull and tedious and though it is classed as a novel, it has a strange structure to it. One of the plus points was it was relatively short!


I’ve found some detail out about Gustave Flaubert that I previously didn’t know; a French author of the 19th Century, who’s first published work – Madame Bovary - brought him and his publisher up on immorality charges, of which he was acquitted. Flaubert is regarded by some as one of the greatest novelists of Western Literature. He never married, he took on average about five years or so on each book, plus he at some time borrowed a stuffed parrot.


I haven’t been inspired to go and seek out anything from Flaubert to form my own opinion on his value as a great exponent of Western prose. Similarly neither have I been encouraged to seek out much else that Barnes has penned, apart from his recent book - A Sense Of An Ending - which I’ll get to sometime, though it might be another 10 years or so.


On reflection, it was probably a bit better than a 2 from 5, but not quite a 3, but in the process of rounding up 3 from 5 it is.


As indicated earlier, I bought this copy second-hand.

[catherinestead · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a strange amalgam of fictionalised biography, literary criticism and novel, with a light sprinkling of authorial philosophising. It is also considerably more entertaining than I expected.However, it almost seems unable to decide what it wants to be, and some of the comments by the narrator about his own history seem intrusive and out of place. The format of the book is somewhat unorthodox, and I couldn't decide whether it was a success in experimental literature or whether the author was trying to be bold and experimental and just ended up coming across as pretentious. I can't decide what I think about the book - but I shall certainly continue to think about the book even now that I've finished it.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There is a story here, but if you blink, you’ll miss it. On its surface this book reads like a literary analysis, biography, and trivia about Gustave Flaubert. Every now and then the first-person narrator drops tidbits of personal information about his marriage and his late wife that gradually take shape into a tragedy. Parrots appear frequently enough to serve a symbolic purpose, but not so often that the symbolism seems heavy-handed. It’s hard to find the line between fact and fiction in this novel. It works for me, but it might not work for everyone.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best biographies I've ever read, and it's not 100% a biography in any case. It's like a collection of essays about Flaubert - his life, his work, his thought - all wrapped up as if it were a novel. For me, it works beautifully, though it helps that I'm familiar with some of Flaubert's books...

[Paco Garrido · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Books give meaning to life."

An essay about the French novelist who created the eternal Madame Bovary, narrated in an engaging and biting manner by Julian Barnes from the perspective of Geoffrey Braithwaite, an amateur yet incredibly meticulous biographer of the French writer's life. It is an enthusiastic and crazily documented exercise that shows us Flaubert's romantic, passionate, literary, and social life.

The book is narrated in a literary biography style that deliberately structures itself with episodes that do not adhere to typical memoirs. At times it is truly interesting and hard to put down, while at other times it dips significantly in interest. It uses a bestiary to introduce the letters and presents them in a very original way.

Flaubert's Parrot is a good novel-essay-biography of the French writer. A short work recommended for readers interested in Flaubert, but also for those looking to discover the intricacies of life and writing. Brilliant at times and weak at others, but generally speaking, I liked it. (Translated from Spanish)

[larryking1-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a strange little novel. At first glance, it is a compendium of chapters, many of them arranged about singular characteristics about this great French author. (I like to say that I know everything there is to know about women because I have read Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, thereby allowing me to occupy the position in life that I hold today!) After awhile, however, the readers of this most literary tome finds themselves preoccupied with a sense of disquiet. Just who is the unknown voice describing his obsession with this dead literary giant? And which parrot is which? No spoilers here!

[dimi777-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a book about Flaubert's books (mainly Bovary), very clever with a very particular style which in some points makes it boring, but if you read it up to the end you are rewarded. Barnes reveals the Flaubert's Parrot secret closing his eye to the reader. In life we believe as true what we want to believe. Truth is subjective.

[Proserpina · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

They are two intertwining stories. On one hand, an addict reader of Flaubert begins a journey, or several, in search of the true preserved parrot of the renowned writer, a parrot that plays a ritualistic role in A Simple Heart. For this reason, he travels back and forth across the geography of the Normandy coast, visiting the places where Gustave Flaubert was born, grew up, lived, and loved. There is also his own journey, his intimate journey, in which he seeks the precise words to express a pain and a secret. Exquisite. (Translated from Spanish)

[Pico1974 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Those unfamiliar with Flaubert's work should refrain. (Translated from Spanish)

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barns was both a difficult and strange read for me. It is a combination of a literary critique of Gustave Flaubert as well as a novel that deals with the mystery of obsession and betrayal. Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor and appears to on a quest to examine all things “Flaubert”. He seems determined to find the answer to obscure things such as which of two stuffed parrots was Flaubert’s actual inspiration for one of his stories or why Flaubert kept changing the color of Emma Bovary’s eyes. Unfortunately the doctor is such a colorless character that I easily lost interest in him and found he faded into the pages.

I may have done this book a disservice as I haven’t read anything by Flaubert so many observations and quotes went over my head but overall I found Flaubert’s Parrot to be a bizarre and pointless alternative biography. I have read and enjoyed Julian Barnes in the past and I know he has a great sense of witty humor but with all the strange quirky facts about Flaubert that are stuffed into this book, I couldn’t help but wonder if we, the readers are the butt of his joke.

Flaubert’s Parrot was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and many people love this book, but for me this particular piece of metafiction just didn’t work.

[Tirso (Sweet) · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent complement for those who enjoy metaliterature. The work may seem simple, despite being an excellent piece of craftsmanship. (Translated from Spanish)

[Megl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved it! It's easy to read, entertaining, and you learn a lot about Flaubert's life.
Be careful, if you haven't read at least Madame Bovary and ideally another work by Flaubert, I don't see any point in it.
If you like Flaubert, I definitely recommend it. (Translated from Spanish)

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic and enjoyable novel providing musings and alternate narratives of Flaubert's life.

[mariannehusbands · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have not read Madame Bovary so it took me a while to ' twig ' this story. That said I loved it and I am most definitely going to read Madame Bovary as a result of my experience in this read. I love any bookish or literary stories and so this one was perfect with an introduction to Flaubert and his work and Barnes easy style. I did keep forgetting this was a novel and not a biography which probably confused the issue for me a bit but all in all a very encouraging read which leaves me wanting more of Flaubert and possibly more of Julian Barnes.

[stef7sa-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing. Superficial faits-divers about Flaubert, presented by a fictional character, instead of the author himself. Why? It adds to the uncertainty about what is authentic and what is not, which is the message of the book: you cannot know the past. Message repeated over and over again. Dull. The best parts are the citations of Flaubert, so better read his work instead!

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor who calls himself an amateur Flaubert scholar. His life is actually pretty consumed by Flaubert. He seeks out any information on the author, professional or private, delving into Flaubert's worst moments of cruelty, doubt and financial hardships. Braithwaite really enjoys passing on all the gossip, yet he accepts Flaubert's faults and even champions characteristics that other would see as negatives.

A unique book, one that forces the reader to jump between subjects and writing styles, and between fiction with a lot of non-fiction strewn about too. The text is littered with actual quotes or diary entries within the story. There's a chapter of Braithwaite discussing a professor named Dr. Enid Starkie, whom he'd heard lecture and whom he disliked because of her opinions on Flaubert. I looked her up to see if this was a fictional character, but nope, she was a real person.
I'm glad I came across the group read of this, otherwise who knows when I would have gotten to this one. It's really a smart, and fun, book.

[theampersand · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had planned to read "Flaubert' Parrot" after I'd read a good quantity of Flaubert, but, three or four years after I'd bought a copy of this novel, that didn't seem so likely. I went ahead and read it anyway, sans Flaubert. It isn't a bad read, even for someone who knows nothing about that particular mustachioed French author, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to recommend it, either. While many novels are political tracts in disguise, and many others read like lightly doctored diaries, "Flaubert's Parrot" is something a little rarer: the literary essay as novel. It's an affectionate collection of musings, jokes, opinions, theories, and rather good thoughts about someone's favorite author, the nineteenth century, and French things in general. Sure, there's a character involved here somewhere -- a widowed English doctor -- but his experience hardly seems essential to the novel. Some readers will likely to be moved to want to ask Barnes why he couldn't have made "Flaubert's Parrot" a collection of short essays and left it at that. Heck, I might, too. But Barnes's writing is fine: flowing and easy, like a good Philip Roth, so reading it is unlikely to do anyone any harm. I'm a bit mystified why it came close to taking home a Booker Prize, but that's a discussion for another day. Otherwise, this is a fine, if somewhat shaggy, collection of literary ephemera, the product of one man's love for and dedication to a favorite author. Many bibliophiles, I expect, will look upon it sympathetically.

[sushicat-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found the reading quite enjoyable, as it seemed to approach the main subject of the book from all sorts of different perspectives and paint a picture of him by focussing on various aspects of his life in detail, allowing the portrait to emerge without recounting his life in full. Towards the end of the book the focus started to shift to story of the Geoffrey Braithwaite, who is doing the research on Flaubert.

I liked the changing way the story is presented and the different ways in which the reader is engaged into the two lives presented, the way truth and fiction blur in the presenting.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well...that was different. Still I contend that this was more meta than fiction. The story comes rather late, but packs a fair wallop when it finally arrives. I can see how people might get frustrated with this book, my advice would be to hang in with it; it has a unique approach and interesting ideas to savor. I can't imagine being disappointed with it when one is done. Have faith there is a point to all the rambling about Flaubert's life, that is a fictional point, as opposed to philosophic or literary.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this work but not because it is a good novel. If you want to read a straightforward story this would not be a good choice. I would describe this as a book that is many things. It is a biographical story of Gustave Flaubert. It is a discussion of literary techniques and writing and within these aspects is the story of Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired doctor who is traveling around France searching out truths of Gustave Flaubert. It starts with the Parrot, the stuffed parrot that was borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help with writing one of Flaubert’s novels and the discovering that there is more than one stuffed parrot. Which is the real parrot? But there is something else that is driving Geoffrey besides his obsession with Flaubert. There is another mystery besides the parrot. Slowly the reader is given bits and pieces of information of Geoffrey. We know his wife is gone. He even says to us “you think I killed her” I really enjoyed the discourse on literary mistakes, choices of endings (happy/unhappy, half and half, modernist, end of the world, cliffhanger, surrealist, opaque, dream. And as always, I like books about grieving and death. So in many ways this earned four stars for me though I expect I will be in the minority.

[sogamonk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extraordinary study of Flaubert by the brilliant Julian Barnes.
Insightful,funny at times, sad at others.
A great read for lovers of good literature

[jayne.winn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have never been more relieved to have finished a book (excpet maybe when I read Bleak House in a few days for university)

Barnes is clearly talented and I assume there is something about this book I just don't get. It wasn't really my sort of this but I read it for my course. it was written well, it just wasn't interesting to me.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

SPOILER ALERT! Het duurt even voor je door hebt waar dit boekje eigenlijk over gaat: je hebt eerst de indruk dat Barnes ons laat delen in zijn passie voor de 19de eeuwse Franse schrijver Flaubert; we treden in zijn voetsporen tijdens een bezoek aan Rouen en omgeving en maken er onder meer kennis met het mysterie van de twee opgezette papegaaien, waarvan er zeker 1 (nou ja) gedurende enkele weken op het bureau van Flaubert model heeft gestaan voor een kort verhaal. Geleidelijk aan wordt duidelijk dat niet Barnes zelf, maar een dokter, Geoffrey Braithwaite, de auteur is van deze roman, en dat hij behoorlijk worstelt met de dood van zijn vrouw. Intussen vernemen we allerlei grote en kleine, interessante en wansmakelijke wetenswaardigheden over Flaubert, op zeer verschillende manieren.
Het boekje is best onderhoudend en - in postmoderne zin - leert het ons dat het bijna onmogelijk is de echte Flaubert te pakken te krijgen, terwijl dokter Braithwaite moet toegeven dat hij ook zijn vrouw niet echt kende. Terzijde worden literatuurrecensenten over de hekel gehaald, krijgen we allerlei mijmeringen over kunst en realiteit voorgeschoteld, en worden de Britse en de Franse ziel blootgelegd. Best boeiend en met veel humor verteld, al zijn er ook een paar zwakke passages.
Een heel fijnbesnaarde roman, geschreven in - voor mij - prachtig Engels.

[phredfrancis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book supports my increasing belief that I am most likely to enjoy those books about which I know the least. Of course, I do need to know enough about a book or its author to choose it in the first place. Otherwise, I'm likely to stumble into one unappealing literary relationship after another. There has to be a vetting process of some kind.

In this case, there was a well-respected literary author with a long-in-print postmodern novel. It made reference to a long-dead author whom I've never read. And that was enough to allow me to fall into the book and not to question its unusual structure, its overall intent, or its specific critical reception. I just flat-out enjoyed it. It was unusual, yes, and it defied my narrative expectations. It flirted with the notion of uncovering a few minor historical mysteries of no more than academic consequence. But it amused and intrigued me. It seemed possessed of a mature point of view. It didn't fret and agitate and strive the way many contemporary books of my recent acquaintance have done. It did not come floating into my life on a tide of giddy adulation that made me think, by God, I'd better love the hell out of this if I'm going to make conversation about it amongst the very few readers I know.

None of that tells you very much, which is probably a good thing if you think you might read the book as well. Maybe you will like it a lot. Or maybe it will annoy you with its refusal to shovel ready answers at you or to make a full-throated declaration about its seriousness and its relevance and its undeniable claim to your rapt attention. For me, the lack of those things made the book all the more welcome. Revelations needn't be earth-shattering and ambiguity needn't be dispelled. Leave that to movies and television.

I will definitely return to read this book again, which is a rare thing for me to declare. If I'd read it when it was first published, who knows if I'd have said the same thing. Books can be that way. When you read them can be as important as what they contain. If you adore FLAUBERT'S PARROT a bit less than I did, perhaps you can chalk it up to a problem of timing. Or perhaps I've oversold it, and now it can't fail to disappoint. In that case, I'm sorry I mentioned it, but something needed to be said.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an odd book to review. Not quite a novel, it is more a biography of Gustave Flaubert, filled with some very interesting rants about literary critics, truth in fiction and with a tiny bit of a mystery thrown in. I thought some of the commentary about writing and the types of novels was clever and interesting, but seemed more appropriate as an article in a literay magazine. The essays are intermingled with a LOT of detail about Gustave Flaubert - more than I am personally interested in knowing. Not sure why this made the Booker prize short list or 1001 books to read before you die. It was well written, but seemed to ramble.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A curious experimental examination and tribute to a Great Master of the early novel - Flaubert. Briefly pretends to be a bit of fiction, but instead launches into a multi-pronged investigation and defense of the man Flaubert.

I'm sure a lot of us bookish types have at least one author we could obsess over and defend against all critics, learning every little detail of their lives, collecting their works, and every 'dripping' from their pen.

[limelite_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gregory Braithwaite is a long married and now retired doctor who has taken an obsessive amateur’s interest in Gustave Flaubert after discovering what is purportedly the taxidermied remains of the parrot that the author kept in his study while writing Madame Bovary. Then he discovers a second parrot, also supposedly the inspirational bird.

What follows is a close examination of Flaubert’s life as pursued by Braithwaite, fascinating in itself, but less fascinating than the revelations about Braithwaite that emerge unintentionally on the part of the narrative voice. It is the death of his wife, Ellen, that is the major revelation that fuels our understanding that Braithwaite, like Flaubert, suffers from debilitating loneliness.

Lovely, ingenious, witty, rich, and “wallowy” in spite of its brevity. This is a literary novel in every sense of the word, including a scolding of literary critics. Thoroughly enjoyable.

[jeanned_14 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel tries to be, and is, many things: an exploration of the relationship between writer and reader; a treatise on postmodern life; a view of history as reflections in a rippling pond; a story about the displacement of grief through intellectual exercise. While ultimately I appreciated the fractured presentation, I found this Booker Prize nominee and New York Times Editors' Choice to be a difficult and unsatisfying read. I rate it at 6 out of 10 stars.

[amydross · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining, thought-provoking, sometimes hilarious. I'm somewhat interested in Flaubert, but I don't know that it was necessary -- with a narrator this charming and witty, I'd listen to him talk about anything. Except his wife -- I didn't hate the more personal, "novelish" sections, but I wasn't convinced they added much to the book. Nevertheless, a great read.