The funeral of Harald of Norway brings together in Oslo this Wednesday, September 9, a large portion of European royalty. The last farewell to the late king who died on August 28 is expected to be an international conclave, with leaders ranging from Donald Trump to the very Charlene of Monaco, who will break her golden rule and accompany Prince Albert II. Of course, our Royal Family, represented by Queen Sofia, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, will be accompanying Queen Sonja and the new King Haakon VIII. And upon their arrival in the capital, there was a detail that did not go unnoticed.
The night before the funeral, that is, Tuesday, September 8, Haakon VIII and Mette-Marit hosted their illustrious guests with a dinner at the royal palace, the first they celebrate as the monarchs of Norway. Hours earlier, representatives of the various European monarchies arrived by bus at the hotel where they were staying and, there, one could see Queen Letizia entering the lodging with a book under her arm: The Parrot of Flaubert, by Julian Barnes.
What the Queen’s Choice Means: A Book by the New Princess of Asturias Award for Literature
A choice that is by no means casual. Everyone knows Queen Letizia’s love of literature: she has a special fondness for quotes related to letters, and at each edition, she attends the Madrid Book Fair. At this latest edition, the queen took an interest in Barnes’s work, and it is said that this classic by the British writer was one of the gifts she received at the publisher’s stand. As if that weren’t enough, the author of The Parrot of Flaubert has been awarded this year the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature and will be at the ceremony in Oviedo next Friday, October 23.
The Princess of Asturias jury stressed last June, when the prize was announced, that Barnes’s work “reworks, with a European-centric perspective, the history of literature, art, music, and even gastronomy, until it achieves a unique style that sets him apart within a generation of especially brilliant British authors who have shaped contemporary literature.”
“I am delighted to receive the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, which I had known about for many years. The worth of an award always lies in the quality of those who have received it before, and I feel greatly honored to join this list of such distinguished people from around the world,” the writer said in a statement released by the Princess of Asturias Foundation.
What Letizia’s Book Is About
Considered Barnes’s most important work, the book Letizia chose for her arrival in Oslo is considered one of the most representative works of postmodern fiction, a narrative that “challenges the boundaries between biography, literary criticism, and fiction.” A dazzling work that, as Aloña Fernández-Larrechi emphasizes, “is praised for its great technical boldness and its elegant virtuosity.”
But what is The Parrot of Flaubert about? The plot alternates fiction with real events arranged in an imaginative manner and in it are woven portraits of life and art, sex, or death. Throughout the novel, an “enigmatic narrator whose life and secrets are gradually revealed,” as Fernández-Larrechi, MUJERHOY’s head of Culture, defines it, unravels what the inner journey of Geoffrey Braithwaite really is, a mature and widowed English physician, obsessed with the life and work of the renowned French novelist Gustave Flaubert.
The trigger of the plot is as absurd as it is revealing: upon visiting two different museums dedicated to Flaubert, the protagonist finds in each one a differently preserved parrot, with both places claiming to possess the original specimen that inspired the writer for his story A Simple Heart. This search for the true parrot becomes the central metaphor of the novel about the impossibility of knowing with absolute certainty the past or the essence of a person.
Throughout the novel, Braithwaite’s scholarly obsession with Flaubert is depicted, though in reality it can be understood as a defense mechanism and evasion of the unbearable pain caused by the suicide of his wife Ellen. Thus, as the protagonist delves into the dilemmas of the author of Madame Bovary, he tries to escape the mysteries of his own life and uses that obsession as a protective shield against his grief, guilt, and incomprehension.
