A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
| A History of the World in 10½ Chapters | |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Julian Barnes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (United Kingdom), Alfred A. Knopf (United States), Knopf Canada (Canada) |
| Publication date | October 7, 1989 (United States) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 307 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-224-03190-2 (First Edition, hardcover), ISBN 0-394-58061-3 (First American Edition, hardcover), ISBN 0-394-22121-4 (First Canadian Edition, hardcover) |
| Preceded by | Staring at the Sun |
| Followed by | Talking It Over |
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (August 2010) |
A History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a novel by Julian Barnes published in 1989. It is a collection of short stories in different styles; however, at some points they echo each other and have subtle connection points. Most are fictional but some are historical.
Contents |
[edit] Background
One of the many recurrent motifs in the book is the portrayal of ships. This alludes to Noah's Ark — the subject of the first chapter — which plays a dominant role in the Abrahamic religions as an example of God's judgment. The woodworm who narrates the first Chapter questions the wisdom of appointing Noah as God's representative. The woodworm is left out of the ark, just like the other "impure" or "insignificant" species; but a colony of woodworm manage to enter the ark as stowaways and thus to survive the Great Deluge. The woodworm goes on to become one of the many connecting threads, appearing in almost every chapter, implying processes of decay, especially of knowledge and historical understanding.
[edit] Plot
"The Visitors" describes the hijacking of a cruise liner, similar to the incident of the Achille Lauro.
"The Survivor" is set in a world in which the Chernobyl disaster was "the first big accident". There have been reports that the world is on the brink of nuclear war. The protagonist escapes by boat to avoid a nuclear holocaust.
The chapter "Shipwreck" is devoted to the analysis of Géricault's painting of the incident of The Raft of the Medusa. The first half narrates the incidents leading to the shipwreck and the survival of the crew members. The second half of the chapter analyses the painting itself. It describes Géricault's "softening" the impact of crude reality in order to preserve the aestheticism of the work, or to make the story of what happened more palatable.
The "Three Simple Stories" describe a survivor from the RMS Titanic, the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale, and the Jewish refugees on board the St. Louis in 1939.
"Upsteam!" consists of letters from an actor who travels to a remote jungle for a film project similar to The Mission. His colleague is drowned in an accident with a raft.
The "half-chapter" is titled "Parenthesis" and is inserted between chapters 8 and 9. It is different in style to the other chapters: they are short stories but here a narrator addresses his readers and offers a philosophical discussion on love. The narrator is called "Julian Barnes", but, as he himself states, we cannot be sure that his opinions are those of the author. A parallel is drawn with El Greco's painting Burial of the Count of Orgaz, in which the artist confronts the viewer. The piece includes a discussion of lines from Philip Larkin's poem An Arundel Tomb ("What will survive of us is love") and from W. H. Auden's September 1, 1939 ("We must love one another or die").
The chapter "Project Ararat" tells the story of fictional astronaut Spike Tiggler, based on astronaut James Irwin. The final chapter imagines New Heaven.
[edit] List of chapters
- The Stowaway
- The Visitors
- The Wars of Religion
- The Survivor
- Shipwreck
- The Mountain
- Three Simple Stories
- Upstream!
- Parenthesis (unnumbered "half chapter")
- Project Ararat
- The Dream
[edit] External links
- Julian Barnes Website (A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, with extensive bibliography of translations and scholarly articles.
- Brian Finney Article
- The Search is All?: The Pursuit of Meaning in Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot, Staring at the Sun and A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Wojciech Drag
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