Elizabeth Finch (from The Booker Prize-winning Author Of The Sense Of An Ending)

By (author) Barnes, Julian
Short description/annotation

We''d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch.

We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation.

Her ideas are not to everyone''s taste.

But she will change the way you see the world.

''The task of the present is to correct our understanding of the past.

Description

We''d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch.

We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation.

She will change the way you see the world.

''The task of the present is to correct our understanding of the past. And that task becomes the more urgent when the past cannot be corrected.''

Elizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration - always rigorous, always thoughtful. With measured empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centres of seriousness.

As Neil, a former student, unpacks Elizabeth''s notebooks, and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years. Her ideas unlock the philosophies of the past, and explore key events that show us how to make sense of our lives today. And underpinning them all is the story of J - Julian the Apostate, her historical soulmate and fellow challenger to the institutional and monotheistic thinking that has always threatened to divide us.

This is more than a novel. It''s a loving tribute to philosophy, a careful evaluation of history, an invitation to think for ourselves. It''s a moment to reflect and to gently explore our own theories and assumptions. It is truly a balm for our times.

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This book has been printed with two different colour designs, blue and yellow. We are unable to accept requests for a specific cover. The different covers will be assigned to orders at random

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[Barnes] is always clever, often original and unusually funny... Elizabeth Finch...offers plenty to chew on...with barely a sentence in it that doesn''t have some nutritional value.
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A singular tale.
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Everything Barnes writes changes everything... Barnes''s latest novel, must be read at least twice for the full force of its voltage to be felt... A cryptic crossword of a novel, Elizabeth Finch is a tricksier and even brainier version of Flaubert''s Parrot.
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The book''s central and most enthralling section...deals with a figure EF esteemed as a kindred spirit: Julian the Apostate... A bravura exercise in nimbly handled erudition... [Elizabeth Finch] also celebrates the cast of mind Barnes most prizes. A connoisseur and master of irony himself, he fills this book with instances of its exhilarating power.
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Elizabeth Finch ranks alongside Barnes'' best.
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A new novel from Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes is always a literary event, and Elizabeth Finch...is not different. Wistful, thought-provoking stuff.
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This is...Julian Barnes...in his best ambitious high concept mode, serious and playful at once.
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A surprisingly compelling novel... a thought-provoking book that plays with the relationship between author and reader.
Biographical note
Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Not