(With Reference to Metroland Flaubert’s Parrot, Before She Met Me Staring at the Sun, A History
of the World in 10 ½ Chapters)
Prof. Dr. Gajanan N. Katkar
Rayat
Shikshan Sanstha’s
(Maharashtra )
Introduction :
Julian Barnes as the contemporary
British novelist of the era. He has proved himself to be one of the leading
novelists of England
Life and Works :
Julian
Barnes was born in Leicester ,
England Geneva
He
married Pat Kavanagh in 1979, and now lives with her in North
London . Pat Kavanagh is a well known literary agent, and his
marriage with her seems to be out of professional interest. However, he
dedicated to her four of his novels. Besides, he has written under the
pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh, four Duffy Novels. It seems that the
pseudonym. Don Kavanagh, was derived from Pat Kavanagh, as there is apparent
similarity between the two names. In a sense, their marriage was not fruitful
as they are childless.
Julian
Barnes was brought up in the family affectionately. During his childhood he
sought education at city of London
School
His
family was orthodox. So, during his school days he had to live almost
exclusively within the family unit. He and his brother, Jonathan, developed a
‘phobic reaction’ to this orthodoxy. Julian Barnes comments about this,
“After my brother went to university he virtually
never came home again”. (Swanson. 1996:17).
His
family belongs to typical middle class of London
In
his childhood his family moved to Northland in the North Western which is London suburb, while he was educated in city of school in London Magdalene College ,
Oxford Magdalene
College , Oxford
Thus,
his family gave him education enough to enter the academic world culture of an
Englishman and made him capable of smooth worldly dealings. The education
proved to be the firm ground from where he has projected himself. During this
period he has sought help from several persons with whom he has never been
graceless. Nevertheless, he has not allowed them to over claim their help and
obligation in launching him.
Julian
Barnes has a brilliant career. While reading for graduation he served as an
English teacher at a catholic school in Rennes
in France
I took all the exams but I was getting more pleasure
out of doing a round up of four novels for provincial paper than I was out of
preparing what I might say defending some criminal. (Mosely, 1997:03)
It
seems that he was attracted towards literary work in this phase. He joined in
this phase the editorial staff of the Oxford English Dictionary that gave him
opportunity to work as a lexicographer and enter the literary world. While
working as a lexicographer between 1969 and 1972 he happened to meet several
writers of his generation like Graig Raine, the poet, and Martin Amis, the
novelist. He also shouldered the responsibility of reviewing books for the Times
Literary Supplement in 1973.
Thus,
he began his career as a journalist and he became the literary editor of the New
Statesman, and New Review in 1979. In the same year he became deputy
literary editor for the Sunday Times.
In 1975, he began to write a column in the New Review using pseudonym of
Edward Pygge. He had also been television critic of New Statesman and
The Observer and written a restaurant column for the Tatler using
as his pseudonym ‘Basil Seal’, the
name of one of Evelyn Waugh’s characters. As he was busy in freelance writing, Julian
Barnes resigned from all these activities on his 40th birthday. This
is not quite true, as he still writes reviews for various journals, including The
New York Review of Books, and has been The New Yorker’s London
As
a novelist of ideas, he was also criticized for keeping the structure loose.
Mr. Barnes has always been seen focusing on the form of the novel which is
probably regarded as his aim of novel writing. According to him, a novelist
should have an unmoving ambition and faith in the novel as a work be regarded
as a source of inspiration to experiment different techniques in his novels.
Though
he was labeled as Francophile, he has been English in analyzing scrupulously
and skeptically his own country so that he may have less disappointment when
something terrible happens. He loves beef-eating, English science, English
uprightness and pragmatism and that is being English in the real sense. He has
led the active life of 27 years in the field of writing and published ten
mainstream novels, four crime novels under pseudonym of Dan Kavanagh, two
collections of short stories, and a book of essays. Besides, he has been a TV
critic and produced Television movies. He has also produced cinemas on three of
his novels. Barnes is also a well known review and article writer who has
commented on various subjects.
Mr.
Barnes, who is a soggy story teller, has a scholarly attitude which pervades
through all his works. As a keen Observer of the life around him, he
never writes about the fields unless he thoroughly ventures them. The scope of
Mr. Barnes’ knowledge can be seen in his works as various branches of knowledge
like History, Psychology, Philosophy and Science and they are seen to be
handled with great skill in his novels. Common element in Barnes work is a
sustained interest in serious ideas and
willingness to engage them in his fictions, to call a work “a novel of
ideas” is sometimes to imply a deadening book, a distinguished treatise, a
forum for disembodied figures little more than authorial puppets to exchange
the author’s thoughts with each other for the reader’s benefit. Julian Barnes
never writes a book answering this description yet he does write novels of
ideas. As a modern liberal thinker aware of complexity, he writes books richer
in the exploration of serious ideas than in the delivery of finality and
doctrinaire answers.
As
a contemporary novelist, Julian Barnes has shown tremendous interest in
handling various subjects from simple suburban life to overthrow of regime.
Throughout his career he has had professional attitude with which he made no
compromise.
Personally,
Julian Barnes is a man of company and man of friends. He is a source of support
and assistance both moral & financial to his family members and relatives.
Though he is childless, he has proved to be a warm and good hearted uncle to
his nieces in London
Being
a moralist, he thinks that a job of a novelist is to understand a wide variety
of people & put them in situations where there isn’t any necessarily an
easy answer. At the same time he is of the view that any life has both sides
good & ugly.
He
has been writing novels in the postmodern vein canvassing his stories in multinational
settings. However, France
Julian
Barnes loves good quality in everything. He is very meticulous in dealing with
messiness of life. His life seems to be highly academic but based on practical
view.
As
mentioned earlier, Julian Barnes is a living writer whose ten novels have been
published until now. Julian Barnes wrote 10 mainstream novels. Metroland
(1980). Before She Met Me (1982) Flaubert’s
Parrot (1984) Staring at the Sun
(1986). A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters (1989). Talking It
Overs (1991). The Porcupine (1992) England ,
England
In
addition, to these ten mainstream novels, he has also written four detective
novels centered around the central character. Duffy, however, for these novels Mr. Barnes has taken the pseudonym
Dan Kavanagh.
There
are Duffy (1980) Fiddle City
He
has also written two collections of short stories entitled cross channel (1990) and The
lemon Table (2004).
In
addition, there are three collections of essays based on his life in London
They
are letters from London
Awards and Prizes :
As
a writer Julian Barnes has won number of awards in his career like Somerset
Maugham Award for Metroland in 1981, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Flaubert’s
Parrot in 1985 and Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2004.
Besides, he has also won the French Awards
like Prix Medicis Award for Flaubert’s Parrot in 1986, Gutenberg Prize
in 1987, and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des letters in 1988.
His
versatility can be seen in his winning of the awards like Prix Femina Etranger
Award for Talking It Over in 1992 and in 1995, he won Officer de l’Ordre
des Arts et des letters Award. He has also won the Italian Awards like Premio
Grinzane Cavour for Flaubert’s Parrot in 1988.
In
this way, Mr. Barnes has been felicitated in his own country and abroad. His
greatness can also be proved in his successful attempt to receive the awards
and prizes like Shakespeare Prize (Germany) in 1993, Commonwealth Writer’s
Prize (Eurosia Region, Best Book) for Arthur
and George in 2006 and E.M. Forster Award (American Academy of Arts and
Letters) in 1986.
He
has received the prestigious Man Booker Prize for his novel ‘The sense of and
Ending’ 19th Oct. 2011 and three of his novels were short-listed for
it, this may be regarded as a proof of his writing genius.
Themes in the novel Metroland
So
far as the themes in Metroland are concerned, the bourgeois is the
central theme of the novel which is supported by the other themes like love,
sex and marriage.
Christopher
Lloyd, the protagonist, is seen to enjoy the lifestyle of typical middleclass,
ironically this type of lifestyle he has hated to live during his adolescence.
When
Christopher Lloyd, the narrator and main character of Barnes’ first novel, Metroland,
finally reaches “adulthood”, he finds himself enjoying the very same
“bourgeois” things that he had formerly sneered at as an adolescent : marriage,
home, parenthood, career, mowing lawns and playing golf. (Sesto : 13)
It
is noted that Christopher Lloyd is seen to dislike Sunday mornings, when the
seemingly endless peeling of church bells and the heavy clanking of railroad
cars from nearby East wick terminal would rip-saw through his drowsy
early-morning reveries. By the time, he reaches thirty; however, these very
same Sunday morning sounds and activities create a comforting senses of
well-being for him. He is seen to mow his lawn every Saturday afternoon also.
As
an adolescent, he falls in love with Annick, a French girl, in Paris Marion
The
central theme - bourgeois mediocrity is supported by the theme of love.
Christopher Lloyd falls in love with Annick, a French girl during his stay in Paris Marion
The
theme of sex is associated with the theme of love and marriage. Young
Christopher and Toni, during their adolescence are seen to discuss sex. Their
motto is to rebel against the bourgeois mediocrity. Living in France Marion Marion
The
novel is about an ordinary young man who thinks himself to be an extra ordinary
artist. Christopher Lloyd grows into an adult and marries Marion Marion
Themes Before She Met Me
There
are various themes which can be interpreted in Before She Met Me.
Retro-jealousy, unlike its more familiar siblings,
habitually broadens out into a wider obsession. That previous affair, that
earlier lover turn out to be mere nominees for wider areas of baffled
resentment : a kind of foolish rage against the immutability of the past, and a
metaphysical whinge that things can actually happen despite your absence.
(Observer, 1983 : 22)
It
is out of this jealousy that Graham kills Jack Lupton, his novelist friend,
with whom Ann has an affair, whom Graham has seen patting the bottom of Ann in
a party. After killing Jack he ends his own life too. The love triangle has the
shades of Shakespeare’s Othello. While she is married to Graham Ann is innocent
of adultery like Desdemona of Othello. Graham’s jealousy is aroused by views
Ann’s sex scene. Jack is the Cassio figure in the novel.
Barbara
is also a victim of Jealousy as she is an aggressive woman who thinks that
things are under control until Graham exposes his decision to leave her. She is
hurt and makes an enormous tragedy of his leaving by including many demands on
him financially and a canny campaign to turn his daughter against him.
Persuation of Graham to take Alice
The
theme of jealousy moves parallel with the theme of sex in Before She Met Me.
Ann,
Graham’s second wife, is a third grade actress of some obscure films. She has
had affairs with her co-stars in the past. When Graham comes to know about
this, he has the illusionary visuals of the sexual events of Ann’s past. The
sex which Ann has done with her costars in sometimes spontaneous as well as
disgusting as she is in her early twenties. The disgusting side of sex is given
in Buck’s confession as :
I’d get me down there and start eating her out; I
mean, it was carryout lunch counter as far as I was concerned. Then I’d sorta
slide down a bit further, and I’d feel her suirm, and that current went rant
through her body. Then I’d eat some more, then slide back to her ass. I’d chew
it some and diddle my tongue around, and then when she was all wound up, I’d
jest plunge my tongue right in, and when I did that she’d explode. (95)
The
themes of adultery and cuckoldry are also the supportive themes to the central
theme that is jealousy. But the adultery and cuckoldry in Before She Met Me is
more associated to the past to influence the present. Ann has acted in number
of films as a part time actress. Most of her roles have sex scenes on the
screen and interestingly she enjoys sexual relations with good looking actors.
This adulterous morally corrupt past has nothing to do with her present as she
has been loyal to her husband since they are married. But Graham can not
control himself in watching her films and roaming mentally in an illusionary
world of Ann’s infidelities. The only relation he witnesses is between Ann and
Jack Lupton. In a party he finds Jack trying to kiss Ann after patting her
bottoms. This is the only present proof of Ann’s adultery otherwise she has
told Jack to end their affair. Bruce Sesto, a learned critic, mentions similar
view as :
In Before She Met Me, illusion gradually
becomes the constitutive force of Graham’s reality, as the boundaries between
art and life shift and eventually dissolve in his mind, allowing his wife’s
screen image to assume an increasingly dominant role in his emotional and
perceptual experience. Soon lurid scenarios of sexual promiscuity involving his
wife and her male leads take shape in his mind; his imagination, inflamed by
suspicion, becomes a battlefield of film images and reality. (Sesto,
2001 : 27)
In
Before She Met Me, Graham Hendrick both embodies and diverges from the
paradigms of cuckold. Usually the cuckold is an elderly man whose loss of
sexual potency does not deter him from marrying a young woman or sometimes he
is the man of honour, the husband who is admired for his attitude and action in
the face of his wife’s infidelity. At times Graham resembles the cuckold,
especially in his feeling of inadequacy when he is making love to Ann, who,
while not totally unsatisfied with Graham as a lover, has had enough prior
sexual experience to intimidate him. According to Millington
The anxiety which Graham feels about
his relation with Ann appears to derive firstly from his feeling of being a
cuckold or anticipating that danger …., and secondly ….. from fear of her
sexuality. This second area has its roots in her strong, independent past : she
has known other men before Graham and therefore may have points of comparison
by which to judge Graham, and she has experience that will allow her to take
the initiative in their sexual relations. (Millington, 1992 : 19)
Themes in the novel Flaubert’s Parrot
Flaubert’s
Parrot contends with three stories, first about Flaubert, second about
Ellen and the third about Braithwaite. All these stories have been bound
together by incorporating a central theme that is quest for truth. Braithwaite,
a retired British physician, finds a stuffed parrot during a trip to France ’s Normandy village
of Croisset Rouen
As the novel unfolds and Braithwaite continues his
investigation, Barnes’ eponymous parrot begins to take on a multiplicity of
meanings, referring by turns to felicites beloved bird, a kind of architectural
structure, a restaurant named after a parrot, language (parrots being the birds
which imitate human speech without knowing the meaning of what they imitate),
and finally the pursuit of truth itself (for just as there are many parrots by
the end of the novel, so are there many ways of apprehending the truth or,
better still, many truths to be apprehended) : (Sesto, 2001 : 37)
The
central theme, quest for truth, is subordinated to another theme that is
fidelity. In the novel, the protagonist Braithwaite is obsessed with the parrot
and his wife, Ellen’s infidelity. It is his pain and evasiveness regarding
Ellen’s betrayals force him to take interest in Flaubert. The story of Ellen is
a running, usually completely implicit counterpoint to the story of Flaubert.
The
idea of fidelity further links Flaubert’s Parrot with other Barnes
fiction upto 1984. In its permutation of infidelity, or adultery, this fidelity
means more than not committing adultery. Braithwaite demonstrates a great deal
of fidelity to Gustove Flaubert who demonstrated fidelity to his art. In this
novel the most important examination of fidelity has to do with fidelity to
fact or truth.
Themes in the novel Staring at the Sun
Staring at the Sun is a story of a brave
woman, Jean Serjeant, whose life is that of an ordinary woman but in reality
she dares to face her dramatic life courageously. So, courage is the central
theme which is supported by the theme of sex in the novel. It seems that Mr.
Barnes has made an intentional effort to write a novel on courage. In an
interview he expresses his view as :
I began to think about a book on courage in war, in
facing life alone and in front of the big questions that bother us all. (Bruckner, 1987 : 3)
In
Staring at the Sun, the courage or
lack of courage figure prominently in the novel and take up several forms.
Military courage and the lack of it are epitomized by Prosser who is judged as
brave by Jean during her teenage but on the other hand his RAF ground crew and
his widow consider ‘windy’. Uncle Leslie is despised by his family for having
run away from the war, being a bit of spir. On his deathbed he confesses :
‘I was always a bit windy … Always running away.
Always running. I was never brave’. (129)
The
courage shown by the protagonist, Jean Serjeant, is really admirable as she
dares to leave her husband after twenty years of marriage when she is pregnant
and brings up her child on her own. When she meets Gregory’s, girlfriend, she
goes to bed with her. It is the courage that can be seen in the way Jean seems
to stare at death at the end of the book while Gregory, her son, is crying. The
courage can be sensed in Sun-Up Prosser’s intention to rise his plane
vertically to stare at the sun. He ends up committing suicide in his aero plane
staring at death and sun. Uncle Leslie also courageously faces cancer and
death. According to Mr. Barnes, the courage is of different types, he explains
:
We do not tend to think of courage as a male virtue,
as something that happens in war, something that consists of standing and
fighting. But there are 85,000 other sorts of courage, some of which come into
the book – banal forms of courage – to live alone, for example, social courage.
Then, the sort of sexual courage that we see in the relationship of the two
women, Jean and Rachel. (Patrick, 1987 : 21)
The
theme of courage is supported by the theme of love and sex in Staring at the Sun. The concept of love
has not been romanticized in the novel. During her childhood, Jean comes across
Uncle Leslie and there creates a bond of friendship and mutual trust. They are
seen playing the tricks like screaming loudly and shoelace game. The
relationship is purely based on love between the two innocent lives. Prosser
enters in Jean’s life when she is in her teens. Her relation with Prosser is
also that of two friends not more than that. It is the entry of Michael that
brings shivers in Jean’s heart. She easily gets attracted to get married. The
relation ends after twenty years as Jean finds Michael dull and boring.
There
is another type of love that is a mother’s love for her child. Jean gives birth
to Gregory when she is forty years old and both of them live together for sixty
more years. During this time span, she tries to protect Gregory as a caring
mother. Being a courageous woman, she dares to face every challenge in their lives.
Gregory is afraid of death but Jean is always ready to convince him that he is
safe and secure. When Gregory is sixty years old, a century old Jean is seen to
answer every type of riddles to Gregory. Besides this, young Gregory has an
affair with Rachel, he loves her like any teenage romantic lover.
Like
the previous novels of Julian Barnes, the theme of marriage has also been
introduced in this novel. Mr. Barnes seems to be very sensitive and honest to
describe this theme. In Metroland, the protagonist doesn’t believe in
the system of marriage at first, but later on he gets involved like any middle
class person. Before She Met Me is a
bold attempt of the writer to picturise the dark side of marriage.
In
Staring at the Sun, Jean Serjeant
gets married to Michael but later on she finds it less romantic and
adventurous. She does her duties as a married woman but that is more for an
adjustment than a spontaneous activity which comes from the bottom of the
heart. As a result when she is pregnant, after twenty years, she decides to
leave her husband. In this way, Jean herself lives her life with her child,
Gregory.
The
theme of sex can also be seen in Staring
at the Sun. The sex is not dominant as compared to the sex in Metroland and
Before She Met Me.
He climbed into bed, kissed her on the cheek, rolled
on top of her, pulled up her winceyette nightdress and tugged at the pyjama
cord he’d only just tied. Sex-hyphen, she suddenly remembered. (58)
It
seems that she loses interest in Michael. So her relation with him becomes just
a formality. It is probably the reason why she decides to end her relation.
They do not enjoy sex anymore, it becomes a mechanical activity. A proof of
being married and being together. After leaving Michael, she meets Rachel, a
girlfriend of her son. She very frankly discusses sex and lesbianism with her. Once
they share a bed at Rachel’s flat. It is described as:
Jean went to the bathroom, cleaned
her teeth, washed, climbed into bed and turned out the light. She lay facing
away from the middle of the bed. She heard Rachel’s steps, then the weight of a
body landing close. Thump Like Uncle Leslie in the sloping medow behind the
dogleg fourteeth. (126)
Themes in the novel
A History of the World in 10 ½
Chapters
A History of the World in 10 ½
Chapters has a major theme-history as the novel is an attempt to focus on
an aspect of history. In the ten chapters the history of different world famous
events have been narrated using variations in the technique. In the novel,
history has been clearer; moreover it is wider. A History of the
World in 10 ½ Chapters is a wholeheartedly postmodernist work, with the
radical skepticism about knowledge, truth, and referentiality that implies. The
ten chapters demonstrate some of the shifty qualities of history. The woodworms
story of Noah suggests that history is the story told by the winners which
means our sacred history is but one story among many, one point of view among
many, points of view.
In ‘The Survivor’, Kath Ferris is the
only survivor of a nuclear disaster, and the conversations she seems to be
having with a doctor are figments of her imagination. The doctor is just as
sure that Kath is delusional, that the nuclear disaster was averted, that she
is suffering psychosomatic illnesses. Kath’s illness is the outcome of the
historical event. Salman Rushdie, a noted, comments in review as :
A history characterizes it
as the novel as footnote to history, as subversion of the given, as brilliant,
elaborate doodle around the margins of what we know we think about what we
think we know. This is fiction as critique.
(Rushdie, 1991 : 241)
A History of the World in 10 ½
Chapters is what the title suggests that is a fictional history of the
world or the gospel. It is not the history, but a history which means there are
only histories. These histories are largely fictional, planned and executed as
a whole piece. One chapter about Theodore Gericault’s 1819, painting usually
called ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ while one is based on facts about the ill-fated
ships the Titanic and St. Louis
The theme of history is supported by the
theme of love. The half chapter in the novel is mostly about love, a
face-to-camera sort of confession of Barnes’s own love and a celebration. While
there is considerable debunking of popular myths that love makes people happy,
for instance, his endorsement of love is very powerful. The love that is
mentioned in ‘Parenthesis is a demanding love for human beings. It should have
the virtuous qualities like truth, sacrifice and commitment. The love is based
on trust and belief among the human beings. It also preaches that we must
believe in objective truth – no matter how strongly the evidence may be against
it. Salman Rushdie, a noted novelist, expresses his opinionion regarding the
theme of history and love as :
Barnes’s view of history
(Voices echoing in the dark, etc. : near meaninglessness upon which we try to
impose meanings) is, finally, what lets this book down : it’s just too thin to
support the whole fabric : but his view of love almost saves the day. (Rushdie
: 242)
The argument Barnes makes in ‘Parenthesis
is very influencing. The concept of love is placed in a section called
‘Parenthesis’ which is accorded half chapter status and it is not the end of
the book as it is followed by chapters nine and ten. This technical deviation
is an intentional effort to intensify the significance of the half chapter. The
narrator gives an account of love as :
Love makes you happy? No.
love makes the person you love happy? No. Love makes everything all right?
Indeed no. I used to believe all this, of course. Who hasn’t (who doesn’t
still, somewhere below decks in the psyche)? It’s in all our books, our films,
it’s the sunset of a thousand stories. What would love be for if it didn’t
solve everything? (231)
Mr. Barnes tries to expose the chemistry
of love between a couple. If a couple love each other but they are not happy
means one of them doesn’t really love other. It is the love that makes him
happy and her too. Love and truth are vitally connected. It is due to the love
one can see the truth. History is also truth as it takes place in the past but
it is also true that we believe in the history told by the historians. On the
other hand, love is what one does or feels. It is anti-mechanical, anti-materialist
so bad love is still good love. It is love which is bounding of heart, clarity
of vision and moral clarity.
It can be noted that the love is not
restricted only to the body of a woman, if it is, then it is not love but lust.
The love, on the other hand, is a
spiritual element that is related to heart. It is love that is a source to
shape one’s life. A villain may be transformed into a gentle person due to the
power of love. The narrator describes it as :
We must be precise about
love. Ah, you want descriptions, perhaps? What are her legs like, her breasts,
her lips, what colour is that hair? (Well, sorry) No, being precise about love
means attending to the heart, its pulses, its certainties, its truth, its power
and its imperfections. After death the heart becomes a pyramid (it has always
been one of the wonders of the world); but even in life the heart was never
heart-shaped. (244)
In this way, the theme of love is at
the centre of the novel, though a history is its main theme. The half chapter
‘Parenthesis’ is the blurb of the novel.
Conclusion :
Thus, the themes in his novels reflect the problems of the
contemporary urban society. The globalisation has influenced the standard of
living in general; it also has affected the emotional world of the human
beings. The themes of the novels of Julian Barnes are varied. He is ‘chameleon’
of the British novel. However, some of his themes are recurrent. The recurrent
themes are love, death, art, and the value of life.
Moreover In his novels, love is instable. It
leads to triangular and adultery. It is dynamic instead of the static symmetry
of marriage.and The theme of obsession leading to self-discovery and personal
suffering seems to recur in his novels.
References
¨
Metroland. London : Picador (in association with Jonathan Cape
¨
Before She Met Me. London : Picador (in association with Jonathan Cape
¨
Flaubert’s Parrot. London : Picador (in association
with Jonathan Cape
¨
Staring at the Sun. London: Picador (in association with Jonathan Cape
A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters. London : Picador (in
association with Jonathan
Cape
¨
Interviews
