Elizabeth Finch

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Barnes, Julian, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	Due 04-29-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Barnes, Julian	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., London, in 2002.
"From the award-winning novelist, a compact narrative that turns on the death of a vivid and particular woman, and becomes the occasion for a man's deeper examination of love, friendship, and biography. This beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch. Neil, the narrator, takes her class on Culture and Civilization, taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this private, withholding yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil's grasp, Elizabeth's application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her death, in a way that nothing else does. In Neil's story, we are treated to everything we cherish in Barnes: his eye for the unorthodox forms love can take between two people, a compelling swerve into nonfictional material (this time, through Neil's obsessive study of Julian the Apostate, following on notes Elizabeth left for him to discover after her death), and the forcefully moving undercurrent of history, and biography in particular, as nourishment and guide in our current lives"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Disappointing submitted by cdunlop on March 11, 2023, 5:45pm Julian Barnes' 25 previously-published books have included a truly awful memoir and, and a somewhat engaging novel. "Elizabeth Finch" is superior to the former, but not by much. This novel is narrated by Neil, who idolizes his adult-education "Culture and Civilisation" teacher, Elizabeth Finch (whom he sometimes calls "EF"). EF was intellectually rooted in the views of the ancient Romans, whose objections to monotheism she readily endorsed, once giving a public lecture to that effect, for which she was roundly scorned in the popular press. A very bright and articulate woman, she assigned only "suggested" readings; her primary aim was to get her students to think for themselves. Neil eventually befriended her, and for twenty years they regularly had lunch together. After EF died, he learned that she had bequeathed him her books and papers, which he thought might provide some insight into the mysteries of her personal life. There are no major revelations, but Neil does discover that EF was enamored of Julian the Apostate, an early Roman emperor, who favored polytheism, and inspired her belief that the ascension of Christianity was responsible for the decline of Western culture. Seeking to redeem himself for the paper that he had failed to hand in as a student, Neil writes a long essay on Julian; that composition, which is excruciatingly dull, unfortunately comprises the middle-third of Barnes' novel.

Part III of the book recounts Neil's ongoing efforts to probe into EF's personal life. He spends some time with her brother, Chris, and an old classmate, Anna, but neither provides a key to unlock any secrets that EF's may have harbored. From Chris, Neil learns of a brief encounter between EF and an unidentified man in a public square; he imagines the two as romantically involved, but he can find no evidence to buttress that idea. Nevertheless, he keeps EF alive in his memories, at one point suggesting that a person continues to exist only as long as s/he is remembered: There is the "moment when the last living person to remember you has their very last thought about you. There ought to be a name for that final event, which marks your final extinction." Ultimately, Neil is simply left with his memories, and his unpublished manuscript of musings about EF, himself, and the meaning of life, which may leave some future investigator wondering about him and his connection with his elusive professor. But maybe his manuscript wasn't unpublished after all; it seems to exist as a book with Elizabeth Finch as its title, although officially authored by a latter-day Julian.