Flaubert's Parrot

This chapter is titled “Examination Paper” and is split into two sections. The first section is titled “Literary Criticism” and is broken into two parts. The first discusses the examiners understanding that “candidates are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between Art and Life” (159) and advises against quoting Logan Pearsall Smith, an American-born British essayist and critic. Then, a series of statements are given and the candidate must “consider the relationship between Art and Life suggested by any two” (159). What follows are quotes by Flaubert, historical facts, excerpts from his letters, and excerpts from Du Camp. The second part requires candidates to “trace the mellowing of Flaubert’s attitude towards critics and criticism” with regards to another series of statements, derived from similar sources.

The second section of the paper contains a series of headings: Economics, Geography, Logic (with Medicine), Biography (with Ethics), Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Philately, Phonetics, Theatrical History, and History (with Astrology). Each of the subjects provides a relevant statement and asks the candidate to discuss it in detail. Under Economics, for example, the candidate is asked to “consider the probable effect on [Flaubert and Bouilhet’s] writings and reputations if their finances had been reversed” (162). In Psychology, a few facts are listed about two characters whose lives follow similar paths. They are revealed to be Emma Bovary and Eleanor Marx, who wrote the first English translation of Madame Bovary. The candidate is asked to discuss this comparison.

The final chapter begins with the question “and the parrot?” (167). Geoffrey admits that it took him “almost two years to solve the Case of the Stuffed Parrot” (167). A scholar named Edmond Ledoux suggests that Flaubert was engaged to Juliet Herbert and that he committed suicide. Both notions are dismissed by Geoffrey, though his dismissal brings the suggestion that Ellen killed herself, as she “chose the exact dosage” (168). Geoffrey admonishes Ledoux’s biography, claiming that Ledoux “wasn’t an authority on anything” (168).

Geoffrey’s investigation into the parrots is frowned upon by many academics, but someone gives him the name M. Lucien Andrieu. Geoffrey travels to Rouen in 1982. He lays in bed, thinking of the parrot, “a fluttering, elusive emblem of the writer’s voice” (169). The next day, he visits again the first stuffed parrot. The guide shows Geoffrey “two preserved human heads” (170); they were the heads of executed criminals, preserved by an associate of Flaubert’s father. Geoffrey photographs the stuffed parrot and the guide assures him that the other is “an imposter” (171). He shows evidence from the museum which originally leant the parrot to Flaubert. It has been marked as returned by the writer.

Geoffrey leaves disappointed but visits the other parrot anyway. This parrot also bears a mark from the museum and Geoffrey assures the owner that he believes it to be real. Then, he goes to lunch and visits Flaubert’s grave. He compares his photographs of the parrots to an excerpt from Un Coeur Simple; the first parrot seems undoubtedly authentic. He calls M. Lucien Andrieu and explains his interests “in a general way” (172). They meet the next day. Andrieu is 77, dressed almost entirely in tweed, and in possession of a “rather fragile” (173) head. Eventually, they discuss the parrots. Andrieu tells the story of the museum in Croisset that acquired the parrot in 1905. The parrot came from the same natural history museum that Flaubert had borrowed the stuffed bird from and featured in his book. However, the natural history museum possessed “fifty parrots” (174). The owners of the Flaubert museum tried their best to find a parrot matching the book’s description. A similar thing occurred forty years later, when the other museum tried to acquire Flaubert’s parrot. Andrieu is “non-committal” (174) about which parrot is the true parrot. Geoffrey asks whether “either of them could be the real one? Or, quite possibly, neither?” (175).

Geoffrey leaves. He is “pleased and disappointed at the same time. It was an answer and not an answer; it was an ending and not an ending” (175). Geoffrey says his goodbyes to the three statues of Flaubert, giving an update on their conditions. He visits the natural history museum and they take him to a small room. Inside, he can see “shelf after shelf of birds” (176); among them are three remaining Amazonian parrots. Geoffrey stares a while and then leaves, thinking “perhaps it was one of them” (176).