Julian Barnes Knihy

Všetky ľúbostné príbehy sú príbehmi žiaľu. Ak nie hneď spočiatku, tak neskôr. Ak nie pre jedného, tak pre toho druhého. A niekedy pre oboch. Dielo zložené z troch častí je príbehom silnej lásky aj hlbokého smútku, prenikavou meditáciou nad vecami, ktoré nás vyzdvihujú do výšok – a to doslova ako teplovzdušné balóny alebo emocionálne ako láska – a nad udalosťami, ktoré nás strhávajú k zemi – ako smrť milovaného človeka. V prvej časti - Zhrešenie výškou - nás Julian Barnes zavedie do 19. storočia medzi priekopníkov balónového lietania a k portrétnemu fotografovi Nadarovi, ktorý ako prvý odfotografoval zem z vtáčej prespektívy. Druhý príbeh - Na rovine - rozpráva fiktívny príbeh lásky dôverčivého a zasneného anglického plukovníka Freda Burnabyho a francúzskej herečky Sarah Bernhardt. Tretia, najosobnejšia časť - Strata hĺbky - je silnou výpoveďou človeka, ktorý náhle stratil milovanú ženu. Spojíte dve veci, ktoré dovtedy nik nespojil. A svet sa zmení. Ľudia si to v tej chvíli nemusia všimnúť, ale to nič. Svet sa zmenil aj tak.

Kniha je súborom 10 príbehov, ktoré sú zdanlivo samostatné, ale spája ich vzájomné myšlienkové prepojenie a metaforický prístup. Základným motívom je potopa sveta, Noemova archa a záchrana „vyvolených“.

Anthony Webster je šesťdesiatnik. Žije sám, je holohlavý, triedi odpad, udržiava byt v čistote a zveľaďuje ho, aby nestratil hodnotu. Anthony si neničí pneumatiky na aute neopatrnou jazdou a dobrovoľníči v nemocnici. Sám seba považuje za znášanlivého a vraví, že čas je na jeho strane. Už je vo veku, keď sa zvykne rekapitulovať. A spomínať viac ako predtým. Anthonymu sa pred očami odvíja príbeh o dávnom stredoškolskom priateľstve štvorice chlapcov, ktorého dôsledky postupne začínajú ovplyvňovať aj hrdinov dnešok. Mudrovali vtedy o zákonitostiach fungovania všehomíra i o všeličom inom. A najmä: túžili po láske mladých žien. Osud im prihral Veroniku z Chislehurstu. Meandre Anthonyho pamäti nadobúdajú nový tvar i hĺbku, voda v nich kalnie. Vynárajú sa staré zážitky. Nasvietené v súčasnosti prebiehajúcimi udalosťami získavajú inú farbu, inú chuť aj iný zápach. Svet je zvláštny. Život tiež. A ľudia najzvláštnejší. Víťazná kniha Man Booker Prize 2011.

Julian Barnes vo svojom diele – ostatne, britská kritika ho označila za jeho najlepšiu knihu – Arthur & George ponúka čitateľovi kriminálny román, ktorý sa zakladá na skutočných udalostiach. V edwardovskom Anglicku bola táto kauza známa ako Výčiny v Great Wyrley. Julian Barnes oživí tento dávno zabudnutý prípad so zmesou intenzívneho výskumu a živej predstavivosti, no ponára sa aj do sveta týchto veľmi dvoch odlišných mužov. Je to román, v ktorom udalosti spred storočia vyvolávajú okamžité súčasné ozveny, román o podlom zločine a hlbokej spiritualite, vine a nevinnosti, identite, národnosti a rase. Väčšina z toho je prenikavá a dojímavá úvaha o osudných rozdieloch medzi tým, v čo veríme a čo môžeme dokázať.

V máji roku 1937 stojí pred výťahom v jednom z leningradských obytných blokov muž s kufríkom, pripravený opustiť a tým aj ochrániť svoju rodinu. Takto začína britský spisovateľ Julian Barnes svoju najnovšiu knihu Šum času/The Noise of Time, ktorej hlavným hrdinom je Šostakovič. Román Šum času je poctou anglického spisovateľa a novinára Juliana Barnesa hudobnému géniovi, konformistovi, hračke v rukách moci a tiež sugestívnym popisom praktík, aké sovietska moc využívala počas najtvrdších rokov kultu osobnosti aj chruščovovského odmäku. Ruský hudobný skladateľ Dmitrij Dmitrijevič Šostakovič (1906 – 1975), svetoznámy a oceňovaný a zároveň zakazovaný a zatracovaný. Stalinov chránenec, skladateľ, ktorý úspešne reprezentoval totalitnú moc v zahraničí a ktorého tá istá moc trýznila a označovala za nepriateľa ľudu. Šostakovič je ústrednou postavou knihy, ktorá si nenárokuje byť biografiou, ale plnohodnotným románom a ktorá krátko po vydaní vyvolala rozporuplné reakcie medzi muzikológmi a obdivovateľmi Šostakoviča.

Chceli by ste radšej viac ľúbiť a viac aj trpieť, alebo menej ľúbiť a o to menej trpieť? Touto dilemou začína štrnásty román anglického spisovateľa Juliana Barnesa, držiteľa Man Bookerovej ceny za titul Pocit konca. V prvej, druhej aj tretej osobe rozpráva o láske medzi devätnásťročným mladým mužom a štyridsaťosemročnou ženou.

Príbeh konzervatívneho historika Grahama Hendricka a jeho mladej manželky, ktorá pácha cudzoložstvo na filmovom plátne. Celuloidová ilúzia postupne ovládne jeho svet a Graham podlieha zhubnej žiarlivosti.

Neil je neúspešný herec a študent predmetu Kultúra a civilizácia, ktorý vedie profesorka Elizabeth Finch. Medzi učiteľkou a žiakom vznikne zvláštne puto, ktoré však v ničom neponáša na typickú „love story“. Najnovší román Juliana Barnesa, jedného z najvýznamnejších súčasných britských autorov, skvele reprezentuje jeho doterajšiu tvorbu. V knihe Barnes kombinuje príbehovú líniu o platonickej, intelektuálnej, no intenzívnej láske s esejistickou časťou. A práve esejistická časť je tento raz možno ešte hlbšia a radikálnejšia, ako v jeho doterajších dielach. Autor v nej v rámci štúdie o rímskom cisárovi Juliánovi Apostatovi uvažuje o kresťanstve, paralelnej histórii a o roztrieštenosti súčasného sveta. Okrem filozofickej roviny ponúka toto dielo aj pozoruhodné postrehy o učení a o tom, ako môže tento proces ovplyvniť vzťah učiteľa (v tomto prípade učiteľky) a žiaka.

Adámek s otcom pozorujú lastovičky, ktoré odlietajú na druhý koniec sveta. Mohol by som sa dostať taky tak ďaleko, až budem veľký? pýta sa Adámek. Určite, a možno aj ďalej, hovorí otec. Ale čo keď padne noc, čo keď sa zdvihne veľký vietor? Čo keď sa stratím alebo sa budem cítiť osamelý? Jedna za druhou poodhaľujú Adámková otázky obavy z neznámej cesty, ktoré my dospelí hovoríme život. Otecko Adamov strach netlmí. Vysvetľuje, svojimi slovami mu dodáva odvahu a sebadôveru, aby sa nebál objavovať svet, aby hľadal krásu všade a vo všetkom, aby svoju loďku riadil po svojom a práve takou rýchlosťou, aká mu bude vyhovovať. Tatínkovy odpovede upokojujú, oslobodzujú a predovšetkým uisťujú chlapčeka o otcovom ničím neohrozene láske. Rovnako ako u Mám ťa rada a Mám ťa rád sestrička, jednoduché ilustrácie perfektne sprevádzajú silný, dojemný a pozitívne vzkaz deťom i dospelým. V úvode knihy sú opäť pripravené prázdne riadky, do ktorých môžu oteckovia napísať svojmu dieťaťu venovanie.

The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending takes us on a rich, witty tour of Belle Epoque Paris, via the life story of the pioneering surgeon Samuel PozziIn the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days’ shopping. One was a Prince, one was a Count, and the third was a commoner with an Italian name, who four years earlier had been the subject of one of John Singer Sargent’s greatest portraits.The three men's lives play out against the backdrop of the Belle Epoque in Paris. The beautiful age of glamour and pleasure more often showed its ugly side: hysterical, narcissistic, decadent and violent, a time of rampant prejudice and blood-and-soil nativism, with more parallels to our own age than we might imagine.Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, society doctor, pioneer gynaecologist and free-thinker, a rational and scientific man with a famously complicated private life.The Man in the Red Coat is at once a fresh and original portrait of the French Belle Epoque – its heroes and villains, its writers, artists and thinkers – and a life of a man ahead of his time. Witty, surprising and deeply researched, the new book from Julian Barnes illuminates the fruitful and longstanding exchange of ideas between Britain and France, and makes a compelling case for keeping that exchange alive.

"A memoir on mortality as only Julian Barnes can write it, one that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. If the fear of death is "the most rational thing in the world", how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty and an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for, against, and with God, and at his own bloodline, which has become, following his parents' death, another realm of mystery. Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis."--Descripción del editor

Account of love's vicissitudes begins as a comedy of misunderstanding, then slowly darkens and deepens.

In his widely acclaimed new collection of stories, Barnes addresses what is perhaps the most poignant aspect of the human condition: growing old. The characters are facing the ends of their lives--some with bitter regret, others with resignation, and others still with defiant rage.

Barnes's prize-winning novel has charmed readers since its first publication in 1984 - 'A tour de force' Germaine Greer; 'A book to revel in' Joseph Heller; 'A delight' John Fowles; 'An intricate and delightful novel' Graham Greene - and has become a classic. Our narrator is Geoffrey Braithwaite, a retired doctor with a passion for Flaubert. As he leads us on an investigative trip through France and through the past, we are offered a glimpse of the writer who so fascinates him. At the same time the layers of Braithwaite's own past are peeled away to reveal someone infinitely more troubled than he first seemed.

The bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending traces the life of a seemingly ordinary woman with an extraordinary disdain for wisdom in this “marvelous literary epiphany” (The New York Times Book Review). In this wonderfully provocative novel, Barnes follows Jean Serjeant from her childhood in the 1920s to her flight into the sun in the year 2021, confronting readers with the fruits of her relentless curiosity: pilgrimages to China and the Grand Canyon; a catalogue of 1940s sexual euphemisms; and a glimpse of technology in the twenty-first century (when The Absolute Truth can be universally accessed). Elegant, funny and intellectually subversive, Staring at the Sun is Julian Barnes at his most dazzlingly original.

Discusses choosing and caring for pet puppies, including information about their physical characteristics, behaviors, and health requirements

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.

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending and one of Britain’s greatest writers: a brilliant collection of essays on the books and authors that have meant the most to him throughout his illustrious career. • "[A] blissfully intelligent gathering of literary essays." —Financial Times In these seventeen essays (plus a short story and a special preface, “A Life with Books”), Julian Barnes examines the British, French and American writers who have shaped his writing, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling’s view of France to the French view of Kipling, from the many translations of Madame Bovary to the fabulations of Ford Madox Ford, from the National Treasure status of George Orwell to the despair of Michel Houellebecq, Julian Barnes considers what fiction is, and what it can do. As he writes, “Novels tell us the most truth about life: what it is, how we live it, what it might be for, how we enjoy and value it, and how we lose it.”

The updated edition of Julian Barnes' best-loved writing on art, with seven new exquisite illustrated essays'Flaubert believed that it was impossible to explain one art form in terms of another, and that great paintings required no words of explanation.

Bi-sexual ex-cop, Duffy, investigates a murder at a large country house belonging to a shady acquaintance from his past.

Since 1990 Julian Barnes has written a regular ‘Letter from London’ for the New Yorker magazine. These already celebrated pieces cover subjects as diverse as the Lloyd’s insurance disaster, the rise and fall of Margaret Thatcher, the troubles of the Royal Family and the hapless Nigel Short in his battle with Gary Kasparov in the 1993 World Chess Finals. With an incisive assessment of Salman Rushdie’s plight and an analysis of the implications of being linked to the Continent via the Channel Tunnel, Letters from London provides a vivid and telling portrait of Britain in the Nineties.

As Julian Barnes notes in his introduction to Alphonse Daudet’s La Doulou, the writer, who lived from 1840 to 1897, was once celebrated as a leading literary figure. Henry James referred to him as “the happiest novelist” and “the most charming story-teller” of his time. However, Daudet was also part of a tragic group of nineteenth-century French writers afflicted by syphilis. In the Land of Pain—notes toward an unwritten book—Daudet offers a poignant response to his illness. With quick, incisive strokes, he details his symptoms, describing pain as a “one-man-band” and his treatments as “morphine nights” filled with sleeplessness and existential void. He reflects on his fears, seeking meaning in pain and urging it to be his philosophy and science. Daudet shares observations of fellow patients at spas, noting the cultural contrasts in their experiences, and he contemplates the deceptive nature of death, which seems to merely thin out life. Barnes’s translation captures the essence of these notes, creating a record that is both shattering and lighthearted, haunting yet beguiling. This work reveals the dual nature of physical suffering—its banality and transformative power—while celebrating the complex resilience of the human spirit.

Everyone knows a bit of petty theft goes on in the freight business at Heathrow - it is fiddle city, after all. But things have gone beyond a joke for Roy Hendrick and he suspects someone who works for him is helping themselves to more than they should. That's when he sets Duffy on the case. A bisexual ex-policeman, Duffy runs a struggling security firm, has an obsessive attitude to cleanliness and can often be found propping up the bar at the Alligator. Duffy agrees to work for Hendrick and goes undercover to try and root out the culprit. But things aren't all they're cracked up to be. What's the story behind the imperious HR manager Mrs Boseley with her permanently frosty demeanour? And is Hendrick really as honest as he claims to be? Duffy's up to his neck in it.

Exploring the complexities of changing one's mind, Julian Barnes delves into how our perceptions shift regarding politics, literature, and personal memories. He examines the belief that such transformations signify growth and maturity, challenging the notion that change always leads to improvement. Through engaging essays, Barnes invites readers to reflect on the nature of belief and the factors that influence our evolving perspectives on various aspects of life.

Beginning with an unlikely stowaway's account of life on board Noah's Ark, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Noah disembarks from his ark but he and his Voyage are not forgotten: they are revisited in on other centuries and other climes - by a Victorian spinster mourning her father, by an American astronaut on an obsessive personal mission. We journey to the Titanic, to the Amazon, to the raft of the Medusa , and to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin... This is no ordinary history, but something stranger, a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination. Ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious, this is the work of a brilliant novelist.

In these seventeen essays (and one short story) the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner examines British, French and American writers who have meant most to him, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling's view of France to the French view of Kipling, from the many translations of Madame Bovary to the fabulations of Ford Madox Ford, from the National Treasure Status of George Orwell to the despair of Michel Houellebecq, Julian Barnes considers what fiction is, and what it can do. As he writes in his preface, 'Novels tell us the most truth about life: what it is, how we live it, what it might be for, how we enjoy and value it, and how we lose it.' When his Letters from London came out in 1995, the Financial Times called him 'our best essayist'. This wise and deft collection confirms that judgment.

The Pedant in the Kitchen is a perfect comfort for anyone who has ever been defeated by a cookbook. The Pedant's ambition is simple. He wants to cook tasty, nutritious food; he wants not to poison his friends; and he wants to expand, slowly and with pleasure, his culinary repertoire

In the grimy underbelly of London, private detective Duffy takes on an extortion case and finds himself pitted against one of the city’s most dangerous crime lords Rosie McKechnie was alone when the two men entered her home, tied her to a chair, and cut her with a switchblade. It was a message for her husband, Brian. To outside appearances, Brian McKechnie is just a businessman. But to Big Eddy Martoff, London’s underworld kingpin, McKechnie is a big fat mark. With a history of crooked business deals and extramarital affairs, McKechnie is the perfect target. To beat back the blackmail, McKechnie needs someone who understands lowlifes like Martoff—and Nick Duffy knows lowlifes. Duffy was a copper until four years ago, when malicious rumors about his sex life ripped through the force. Now he is in private security, and McKechnie’s case is one he cannot refuse. Duffy, no stranger to his city’s seedier offerings, dives into a world of prostitutes, hoods, and porn moguls. Can he find a way to put the pinch on Big Eddy before Soho swallows him whole?

I cannot remember when I enjoyed a first novel more' Daily Telegraph

A collection of stories, in which a divorcee falls in love with a mysterious European waitress, a widower relives a favourite holiday, two writers rehearse familiar arguments, and, a couple bond, fall out and bond again over flowers and vegetable patches.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2011 From the hairdessing salon where an old man measures out his life in haircuts, to the concert hall where a music lover carries out an obsessive campaign against those who cough in concerts; from the woman who reads elaborate recipes to her sick husband as a substitute for sex, to the woman 'incarcerated' in an old people's home beginning a correspondence with an author that enriches both their lives - all Barnes' characters, in their different ways, square up to death and rage against the dying light.

When it comes to death, is there ever a best case scenario? In this disarmingly witty book, Julian Barnes confronts our unending obsession with the end. He reflects on what it means to miss God, whether death can be good for our careers and why we eventually turn into our parents. Barnes is the perfect guide to the weirdness of the only thing that binds us all.Selected from the book Nothing to be Frightened Ofby Julian BarnesVINTAGE MINIS- GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world's greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series-Calmby Tim ParksDrinkingby John CheeverBabiesby Anne EnrightPsychedelics by Aldous Huxley

In his latest novel, Julian Barnes, author of Talking It Over and A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters , trains his laser-bright prose on the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Stoyo Petkanov, the deposed Party leader, is placed on trial for crimes that range from corruption to political murder. Petkanov's guilt -- and the righteousness of his opponents -- would seem to be self-evident. But, as brilliantly imagined by Barnes, the trial of this cunning and unrepentant dictator illuminates the shadowy frontier between the rusted myths of the Communist past and a capitalist future in which everything is up for grabs.

A collection of essays on France from Julian Barnes. Written over a 20 year period, the topics Barnes covers range from landscape to literature, food to flaubert, film and song to the Tour de France.

From the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comes an enthralling set of short stories. from the last days of a reclusive English composer, the beef consuming 'navvies' labouring on the Paris-Rouen railway to a lonely woman mourning the death of her brother on the battlefields of the Somme.

Dan Kavanagh's third novel featuring Duffy. This time Duffy investigates the troubled world of England's Third Division football while also facing questions of his possible encounter with AIDS.

Booker Prize Finalist "Wickedly funny." --The New York Times Imagine an England where all the pubs are quaint, where the Windsors behave themselves (mostly), where the cliffs of Dover are actually white, and where Robin Hood and his merry men really are merry. This is precisely what visionary tycoon, Sir Jack Pitman, seeks to accomplish on the Isle of Wight, a "destination" where tourists can find replicas of Big Ben (half size), Princess Di's grave, and even Harrod's (conveniently located inside the tower of London). Martha Cochrane, hired as one of Sir Jack's resident "no-people," ably assists him in realizing his dream. But when this land of make-believe gradually gets horribly and hilariously out of hand, Martha develops her own vision of the perfect England. Julian Barnes delights us with a novel that is at once a philosophical inquiry, a burst of mischief, and a moving elegy about authenticity and nationality.

Лауреат Букеровской премии Джулиан Барнс — один из самых ярких и оригинальных прозаиков современной Британии, автор таких международных бестселлеров, как «Шум времени», «Предчувствие конца», «Артур и Джордж», «История мира в 10½ главах», «Попугай Флобера» и многих других. Своим первым опытом в жанре эссе об искусстве Джулиан Барнс называет главу нашумевшего романа-антиутопии «История мира в 10½ главах» (1989), посвященную картине Теодора Жерико «Гибель плота Медузы». Именно поэтому, уже как самостоятельное произведение, в сборнике «Открой глаза» она оказывается первой из семнадцати увлекательных коротких историй о художниках и их работах, приглашающих читателя проследить путь изобразительного искусства от начала XIX века до современности. В этих эссе есть все, что традиционно присуще прозе Барнса: великолепное чувство стиля, виртуозное равновесие едкой иронии и утонченного лиризма, сарказма на грани цинизма и веселого озорства. Но еще, это собрание тонких, остроумных и, порой, неожиданных наблюдений, дарящих не только литературное удовольствие, но и богатую пищу для ума.

W kolejnej części bestsellerowej serii Miłość Archibald opowiada o swoim domu, który bardzo lubi, choć czasem go zostawia, żeby zobaczyć, jak mieszkają inni. Zawsze jednak z chęcią wraca - może jego dom nie jest największy ani najpiękniejszy, ale przecież nie o to chodzi

Grandios erzählte Kunstgeschichten von Julian Barnes – in einer um sieben Essays erweiterten Taschenbuchausgabe. Ein Buch voller Kunstgeschichten: über Maler und ihre Exzentrik, über ihre Modelle, Musen, Bilder und Eskapaden. Ein Buch für Kenner und Laien gleichermaßen mit Texten über Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Degas bis zu Lucian Freud. Mit der Malerei befasste sich Julian Barnes bereits in seinem berühmten Buch »Eine Geschichte der Welt in 10 ½ Kapiteln«, in dem er zum Beispiel Géricaults Bild »Das Floß der Medusa« und die grausame Geschichte des Schiffsbruchs beschrieb. Auch dieses Buch ist voller Geschichten. Über die Künstler und ihre Exzentrik, über die Modelle und deren oftmals kompliziertes Verhältnis zu ihren Malern, über Autoren, die sich mit den Malern beschäftigen. Durch Julian Barnes’ Kenntnisreichtum und durch sein Wissen um menschliche Schwächen und Laster entsteht eine Art erzählende Kunstgeschichte – lehrreich, unterhaltsam und überaus erhellend, und das nicht nur für Kunstkenner, sondern auch für Menschen, die nicht viel über Kunst wissen.

Julian Barnes heeft kunst en literatuur zelf moeten ontdekken, en dat gebeurde pas op latere leeftijd. Op een dag bezocht hij het Musée Gustave Moreau, zonder precies te weten wie de schilder was, en werd getroffen door zijn ongewone, weelderige werk. De mystiek van de schilderijen in combinatie met het feit dat hij een `eigen ontdekking¿ had gedaan, zette hem in vuur en vlam. Julian Barnes weet hoe kunst je hart kan veroveren en hoe dat op de lezer over te brengen. Hij neemt de lezer mee op ontdekkingsreis langs de romantiek, het realisme naar zijn favoriete stroming, het modernisme. Gepassioneerd en uitnodigend leert hij ons het werk kennen van grote schilders als Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Degas, Redon, Bonnard, Magritte, Howard Hodgkin en Lucian Freud.

"Il y a à parier que toute idée publique, toute convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand nombre". Exergue du Dictionnaire des idées reçues - oeuvre inachevée aux multiples manuscrits -, cette maxime de Chamfort en donne le ton incisif. "Actrice", "mélancolie", "pédantisme", "voyageur", "candeur", "duel", "laboureurs", "religion"... Sur des sujets aussi variés, Flaubert y relève en effet pensées figées et lieux communs, traquant la vacuité avec une ironie mordante.

Quando le cronache ufficiali descrissero l’impresa di Noè, sorvolarono su una serie di episodi poco edificanti che, se fossero stati rivelati, avrebbero potuto ridimensionare il valore mitico dell’epopea. Nessuno, però, sapeva che un animaletto, salito a bordo da clandestino, era stato testimone di quei retroscena non proprio eroici, e aveva deciso di raccontarli. Come si conclusero i processi ecclesiastici celebrati nella Francia medievale contro quei tarli accusati di avere rosicchiato gli arredi sacri? Che cosa capitò a Spike Tiggler, l’astronauta che, dopo aver portato un pallone sulla luna, svelò il mistero del Monte Ararat? E quale fine fece l’unicorno che godeva di cosí tante attenzioni da parte della moglie di Noè? Rimbalzando di continuo tra epoche e situazioni diverse, Julian Barnes ripercorre le grandezze e le follie dell’umanità, lanciando una sfida ambiziosa alla fantasia del lettore: immaginare un mondo completamente nuovo.

Beginning with an unlikely stowaway's account of life on board Noah's Ark, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Noah disembarks from his ark but he and his Voyage are not forgotten: they are revisited in on other centuries and other climes - by a Victorian spinster mourning her father, by an American astronaut on an obsessive personal mission. We journey to the Titanic, to the Amazon, to the raft of the Medusa , and to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin... This is no ordinary history, but something stranger, a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination. Ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious, this is the work of a brilliant novelist.

Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single, until she meets Mr Neville.

Итак, познакомьтесь с Элизабет Финч. Прослушайте её курс «Культура и цивилизация». Она изменит ваш взгляд на мир. Для своих студентов-вечерников она служит источником вдохновения, нарушителем спокойствия, «советодательной молнией». И вот десятилетия спустя Нил (бывший актёр, неудавшийся ресторатор, «Король Заброшенных Проектов») разбирает её записные книжки, пытаясь найти ключ к неуловимому образу человека-загадки по имени Элизабет Финч — харизматичного, эксцентричного мыслителя, апологета методичности, точно знающего, в какой миг «история пошла не тем путём»: когда потерпел поражение Юлиан Отступник, последний языческий император Древнего Рима…

Nachw. Barnes, Julian. 125 S.