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Julian Barnes

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A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters Paperback – November 27, 1990

by Julian Barnes (Author)

4.2 618 ratings

Part of: 白水Uブックス (108 books)

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A “playful, witty, and entertaining” book (The New York Times Book Review) that offers an exhilarating vision of the world, starting with the voyage of Noah's ark and ending with a sneak preview of heaven—from the bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending.

It's a hilariously revisionist account of Noah's ark, narrated by a passenger who doesn't appear in Genesis. It's a sneak preview of heaven. It encompasses the stories of a cruise ship hijacked by terrorists and of woodworms tried for blasphemy in sixteenth-century France. It explores the relationship of fact to fabulation and the antagonism between history and love. In short, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters is a grandly ambitious and inventive work of fiction, in the traditions of Joyce and Calvino, from the author of the widely acclaimed Flaubert's Parrot.

Part of series

白水Uブックス
Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

November 27, 1990
Dimensions

5.23 x 0.74 x 7.95 inches
ISBN-10

0679731377
ISBN-13

978-0679731375
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Noah's Ark, Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa and "an offbeat vision of the Hereafter" are some of the ingredients of this pyrotechnical work. "Admirers of Barnes are accustomed to thoroughly unorthodox approaches to the novel, and his latest, while brilliantly entertaining, certainly strains the limits of the genre," PW remarked.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Stunning … a flawless diamond.” —Chicago Sun-Times

"Playful, witty and entertaining." —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review

"Frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic and a delight to read." —Salman Rushdie, Observer

"At his best, Barnes is a dazzler." —Los Angeles Times

“It’s a book to keep the reader on his toes.” —The New York Review of Books

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (November 27, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679731377
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679731375
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.23 x 0.74 x 7.95 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #218,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,992 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #4,734 in Short Stories (Books)
- #12,469 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 618 ratings

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About the author

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Julian Barnes

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Julian Barnes is the author of nine novels, including Metroland, Flaubert's Parrot, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters, England, England and Arthur and George, and two collections of short stories, Cross Channel and The Lemon Table.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

618 global ratings

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juan e. bernal

At times humorous; at times serious commentary on "history" of the world.

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2023

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Books by Julius Barnes are always worth reading; this one is no exception. Does he really cover the history of the world? Of course not. But his look a various events (both fictional and factual) tells us much about how the tendencies of human players (the descendants of Noah and family) play out in the history of the world.

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Dexter Bradshaw

Literary and hilarious

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016

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Hilarious storytelling and satire at its best. This is a work of serious literature written with playfulness, wit, and a keen sense of humor. Like all works of its ilk, there is a serious side which challenges or pokes fun at established world views of the bible, God, heaven, heroism, and the law. The recurring theme of the nefarious woodworms just cracked me up. I will never look at those creatures the same way again. The least compelling part of the book was the Art History half of the <i>Shipwreck</i> story--it kept going on and on to no end. However, I am not a fan of Art History or its utility--blame it on my ignorance. However, I highly recommend reading the complete book. It is well-worth it. Walk with a good dictionary, though; archaic vocabulary proliferates.

6 people found this helpful

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Erin J

Loved it and hated it.

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2009

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I liked most of this book, loved some and hated others. The book is interesting.
Julian Barnes has written a work of fiction, that is not really history in the strictest sense of the word. It is more an examination of Worldviews. The book is divided up into eleven sections, with the meditation on love being the half chapter in the title. The book opens with the perspective of a woodworm that slipped onto Noah's ark and gives the story from the animal's perspective. This story is quite humorous really. The second story is about a group of history tourists being hijacked by Arabs while on a cruise. This story is much more intense and sad than the first story. It is a radical shift in tone and feel of the book. The book does this over and over. There is the story of a nuclear attack that really is not. There is the story of 900 Jews on the St. Louis during the time of Hitler and the final solution. There is a reflection on the meaning of love that is not at all sappy and is perhaps the best part of the book. There a several other stories, all of which are good, but one. The one that I did not like at all was the one about Heaven. Heaven was almost Hell in Barnes' perspective. This ending weakened the whole book.

11 people found this helpful

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Anton Matytsin

I think this is one of the best novels/short story collections written in the last 30 years

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014

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I think this is one of the best novels/short story collections written in the last 30 years. It is a pleasurable and deep reflection on human nature, on memory, on love, and on how we, as a species, try to grapple with the complexity of the surrounding world. The author writes beautifully (I have read pretty much all of his work, and would say this is his best). It will make you laugh a lot, it will make you think a lot, and you will come away with a definite sense of satisfaction and unease.
Obviously this is not a whole history of the world (some of the reviewers seem surprised by this, failing to grasp the self-deprecating irony of the project), but a collection of interwoven reflections from a variety of perspectives (human and animal alike). The change of narrative voice is perhaps the most interesting thing about this book, as the reader constantly encounters a new perspective and, at times, has a hard time distinguishing "fact" from "fiction." This is, of course, Barnes's very point. The author's own narrative voice finally comes to us in the half chapter between 8 and 9 where he reveals (or seems to, anyway,) his own view of history: "History isn't what happened. History is just what historians tell us. There was a pattern, a plan, a movement, expansion, the march of democracy; it is a tapestry, a flow of events, a complex narrative, connected, explicable. One good story leads to another."

21 people found this helpful

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rosie p

a history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2012

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I loved this book and want to read it again; curious, funny and thought provoking. Although each chapter is in a different time and place, there is always a quirky link. Julian Barnes is a confident and intelligent writer. His understanding of the human nature and his provocative essays, take the reader to a different and challenging sphere. He tackles some non PC issues such as religion and dying. Only read if you are prepared to challenge your paradigm.

One person found this helpful

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S. Glicken

More than the sum of its parts...

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2001

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I respectfully and totally disagree with the misinformed reader who gave this book only 2 stars. I'd list it as one of the great books of the twentieth century for many reasons. It appears at first glance to be made up of disconnected stories, histories, journal entries, and fables. But what is so masterful in the writing style is the way that, with a little work from the reader, these disparate elements reorganize themselves into an organic whole. I find many qualities of Barnes' work "musical', perhaps none more so than his singular use of leitmotifs. Words, phrases and themes echo from one chapter to the next, linking ideas, characters and symbols to the very end of the book. What leitmotifs? Some examples: Noah, the Ark and the Flood; historiography; shipwrecks; pilgrimage; G-d as destroyer; the eventual and inevitable corruption/destruction of all art and history.
Barnes IS in love with his own prose and loves to play with the reader to prove his own erudition, but never entirely without a point. I have several favorites among the chapters, particularly the first and last. In both, the identity of the narrator is crucial to the overall structure of the book. Both address "the oldest story in the world." Both are mildly to wildly comic in degree and both address head-on why we go on, why we remain dedicated to the struggles of this life (and, perhaps, the next.) From proto-Biblical narrative, to art criticism, to pseudo-history, to parable we're led on to the secret of it all. I thought it was just a jim-dandy read.

12 people found this helpful

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Kody Simpson

Best book great seller

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2020

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I NEEDED this book more than anything. If you have read this book you know that finding this book means more than anything. I borrowed it from someone who bought it in Spain and they wanted it back and I was only on chapter 5. I got this in excellent timing an I can’t say anything more than thank you!!

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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PauL L.

Nice

Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2023

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Good

Caterina Fortuna

An inventive and engaging read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2019

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This is one of the most inventive and quixotic books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The ‘history’ of the title is unfurled around a number of themes which are repeated across the chapters in a surprising way, sometimes treated with high comedy, sometimes touching upon deep human questions.
The book does have an uneven quality and I can imagine that every reader will find here something to love and something to hate. To my mind, the most engaging part was the chapter on the Raft of the Medusa. I am conversant with the sources that Barnes has drawn on for this, but he has transformed them in such a way that, somewhere between art history and humanist speculation, the writing has the power to move in a profound way. I would buy the book for this chapter alone.

8 people found this helpful

Ajuram k salim

Good

Reviewed in India on December 18, 2017

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Good

7727elke

Tolles Buch!

Reviewed in Germany on December 15, 2014

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Kannte das Buch schon! Habe es verliehen und nie zurück bekommen! Deshalb wieder bestellt, weil großartig!!! So was von witzig und außergewöhnlich!

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Ropena

A post-modernist classic

Reviewed in France on March 30, 2013

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This is a very interesting "novel". I suggest one read (before or after) an essay on the themes Barnes explores in this entertaining way: religion, history, the meaning of remembering the past and how sure "things happened as we think, imagine, are told they happened, and many other interesting questions not always answered.

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