On the first day of class, Elizabeth outlines her pedagogical method: “I shall not attempt to stuff you with facts as a goose is stuffed with corn this would only lead to an engorged liver, which would be unhealthy.” Neil is besotted. The narrator is her student, the somewhat dimwitted but diligent Neil.

The siren is Elizabeth Finch, a teacher of adult education courses in London two decades ago. These qualities may not scream “racy” or “seductive” or “exotic” to you, but you are not the narrator of Julian Barnes’s 25th book. A discreet brooch pinned to her blouse, a formal manner of speaking, a keen interest in antiquity and a tendency to suffer from migraines.

A woman dressed in brown suede brogues and a below-the-knee skirt, her legs obscured by stockings.

$26.Īre you prepared for a vision of sizzling sexuality? Picture this. Then I think about what meaning would have changed, to me and in a given context, and I understand what other associations I'm making.ELIZABETH FINCH By Julian Barnes 178 pages. I like to approach these things by imagining how I would have written it myself. A passage like this is meant to provoke curiosity each word adds meaning, including your own.īecause of your readings, I realised after your last post that you might have been checking word usage, but your question was so insightful that I didn't realise I apologise if my answer to it was a bit inappropriate! I would say that you have read the phrase perfectly here, though. I think that, when you post oddities in the book here, you're correctly identifying mystique, and so you're asking great questions :) The language of the book is ambiguous in order to allow for all kinds of meaning, including contradictions. The sentence, by itself, doesn't actually mention 'love', so, taken as worded, it allows for much more, including other pursuits. Many historians are fascinated by most of history, but expertise (and a professorship) means focusing on one small subject rather than everything else. If you go into an academic specialty, you rarely have time for much else. Which lines up with the very academic 'specialised'. EF pursued only unattainable and undesirable, but never both at the same time.

EF pursued the unattainable, or the undesirable, it isn't clear which.But, yes, 'either the unattainable or undesirable' is very pointed, since it suggests that: So, EF's meaning is unclear and more about connotations. The meaning he suggests directly links back to 'narrative'. The narrator says, yes, this might just be EF being private about her love life, but he thinks it's suggestive of something more important. This is an example of her telling you what she thinks about her life, but not what events led her to conclude that. She’d give you the conclusion but not the narrative.

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes