Flaubert's Parrot, a History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters: Introduction by Sarah Churchwell

An Everyman's Library hardcover omnibus edition of two of the Booker Prize-winning author's earliest and most admired novels, neither of which has been available in hardcover for more than two decades. With full-cloth binding, a silk ribbon marker, a chronology, and a new introduction.

Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes's breakthrough book--shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984--is the story of Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired doctor who is obsessed with the French author and with tracking down a stuffed parrot that once inspired him. Barnes playfully combines a literary detective story with a character study of its detective, embedded in a brilliant riff on literary genius. A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is a mix of fictional and historical narratives of voyage and discovery--ranging from a woodworm's perspective on Noah's ark to a survivor from the sinking of the Titanic--that question our ideas of history. One of his most inventive works, it was praised by Salman Rushdie as "frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic, and a delight to read."