Notes on this edition: First American edition – New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. $13.95.
Barnes’s third literary novel Flaubert’s Parrot was a great success in the U.K., thus ensuring hardback publication in the U.S. Riding the wave of the novel’s success, paperback editions of his previous two novels soon appeared on the market.
Peter Brooks of The New York Times ended his review of the novel with: “His book is a great success, humane and generous, full of insight and wit, rich and even prodigal in its verbal inventiveness: a book Flaubert would have scorned to write, a book well worth writing.”
On February 17, 1985 (shortly before publication of the novel), Barnes published his essay “The Follies of Writer Worship” in The New York Times. The essay is a non-fiction piece about the nature of writer worship, which is a theme underlying the narrator’s search for truth in the novel.
Descriptive Bibliography:
Title Page: JULIAN BARNES | [double rule line] | Flaubert’s | Parrot | [Knopf device] | ALFRED A. KNOPF New York 1985
Copyright Page: THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK | PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. | Copyright © 1984 by Julian Barnes | All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright | Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, | Inc., New York. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York. | Originally published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, Ltd., London. | “Flaubert’s Parrot” was first published in the London Review of Books, | and “Emma Bovary’s Eyes” first appeared in an edited form, in Granta. | Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data | Barnes, Julian. Flaubert’s Parrot. | 1. Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880, in fiction, drama, | poetry, etc. 2. Parrots—Fiction. I. Title. | PR6052.A6657F56 1985 823’.914 84-48550 | ISBN 0-394-54272-X | Manufactured in the United States of America | FIRST AMERICAN EDITION | A NOTE ON THE TYPE | The text of this book was set in a digitized version of Bembo, a well- | known Monotype face. Named for Pietro Bembo, the celebrated | Renaissance writer and humanist scholar who was made a cardinal | and served as secretary to Pope Leo X, the original cutting of Bembo | was made by Francesco Griffo of Bologna only a few years after Co- | lumbus discovered America. | Sturdy, well-balanced, and finely proportioned, Bembo is a face of | rare beauty, extremely legible in all of its sizes. | Composed in Great Britain | Printed and bound by Fairfield Graphics, | Fairfield, Pennsylvania. | Binding design by Marysarah Quinn.
Collation: 21.2 x 14.3 cm. Untrimmed pages. Pp. [i-ii, 1-11] 12-22 [23] 24-37 [38] 39-48 [49] 50-65 [66] 67-73 [74] 75-81 [82] 83-106 [107] 108-114 [115] 116-125 [126] 127-136 [137] 138-152 [153] 154-159 [160] 161-170 [171] 172-179 [180] 181-190. [i]: blank. [ii]: ‘by the same author | METROLAND | BEFORE SHE MET ME’. [1]: ‘Flaubert’s | Parrot’. [2]: blank. [3]: title page. [4]: copyright page. [5]: ‘To Pat’. [6]: epigraph. [7]: [contents]. [8]: ‘Note | I am grateful to James Fenton and the Salamander Press for per- | mission to reprint the lines from ‘A German Requiem’ on page 115. | The translations in this book are by Geoffrey Braithwaite; though he | would have been lost without the impeccable example of Francis | Steegmuller. | J.B.’. [9]: ‘Flaubert’s | Parrot’. [10]: blank. [11]-190: text.
General description: Binding 22 x 15 cm. White boards, gold blocked on green spine. Gold stamped ‘JB’ on front board. White endpapers. Grey dust jacket lettered in red (title) and blue (author). Cover image ‘Félicité Sleeping with Parrot’ by David Hockney. Photograph of the author by Jerry Bauer located on back flap.
