Julian Barnes, Arthur and George

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Julian Barnes’ tenth novel

Arthur & George

was published to wide public and critical acclaim in 2005, culminating in the nomination for the 2005 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. With his previous publications, most notably

Flaubert’s Parrot

of 1983 and

The History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters

of 1989, Barnes had made a name for himself as a high post-modernist writer, experimental in particular in his approach to historical narrative. Geoffrey Braithwaite, the narrator of

Flaubert’s Parrot

famously asks “How do we seize the past?” (Barnes 1985: 90), a question that is symptomatic for Barnes” early fiction in general, as it is characterised by self-referential commentaries particularly about history, often concluding that history is something intangible, incomplete, never to be…

2161 words

Citation: Berberich, Christine. "Arthur and George". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 July 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22981, accessed 28 March 2024.]

22981 Arthur and George 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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