322: Literary Seminar

"The 19th Century through Modern Eyes: Contemporary Neo-Victorian Novels"

WS 2008/09

Narrative Technique in

Julian Barnes′ Arthur & George:

Negotiating Truth and Fiction

Olivia Frey

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Table of Contents

1.

Introduction 1

2.

The Structure: Where Truth Begins and Ends 1

2.1. Real and Imaginary Beginnings and Endings 2

2.2. The Metafictional and Metaphorical Dimension 5

3.

Narrator and Characters: Does Anybody See the Truth? 7

3.1. Narratorial Omniscience and Limitation 7

3.2. Dialogues: Negotiating the Truth 8

3.2.1. Guilt vs. Innocence: One Man′s Truth Is Another Man′s Lie 9

3.2.2. The Uncertainty of Love 10

3.2.3. In Search of Spiritual Truth 11

4.

Intertextuality: Multiple Truths Under Construction 12

4.1. Arthur & George: Real or Fictional Characters ... or Both? 12

4.2. The Edalji Case: A Contested and Unfinished Story 14

4.2.1. The Police Make Up a True Story 15

4.2.2. "Who George Really Is" According to Other People′s Stories 16

4.2.3. Sherlock Holmes Investigates the Truth 17

4.2.4. The Ultimate, Yet Ambiguous Truth 19

5.

Conclusion 21

6.

Bibliography 23

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1. Introduction

In his novel

Arthur & George

Julian Barnes not only recreates the lives of his two eponymous

characters, but also minutely reconstructs the historical incident that made their lives intersect.

In the long-forgotten and unsolved case of the Great Wyrley1 Outrages in 1903, George Edalji

(1877-1953), a half-Indian Birmingham solicitor, was wrongly convicted of animal mutilation

and imprisoned. It was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), the famous writer and inventor

of Sherlock Holmes, who slipped into the role of a detective to investigate the truth behind the

case and to help undo a miscarriage of justice.

On the one hand, the novel provides "the conventional pleasure of historical fiction"

(Walter, par. 4) because it revolves around real-life figures and is based on a real incident.

Applying his investigative skills, Barnes carefully researched their biographies and history,

and represents them faithfully and meticulously. On the other hand, it has to be borne in mind

that it is nevertheless a fictionalized representation shaped by Barnes′ creative and

imaginative skills. Thus, the "novel mixes reality and imagination so that the book is part

history, part biography and part fiction" (Guignery 129). In terms of genre,

Arthur & George

could hence be classified as faction, "a work that is on the borderline between fact and fiction,

concerned primarily with a real event or persons, but using imagined detail to increase

readability and verisimilitude" (Hawthorn 64).

It is exactly this delicate relationship of proven facts and fictional creations Barnes

plays with throughout the novel in order to expose "[t]he tenuous nature of reality and the fine

line between truth and fiction" (Ball, par. 5). Therefore,

Arthur & George

could even be

categorized as a postmodern novel which authentically represents history, while being aware

of its own artificiality and questioning the dichotomy of fact and fiction as well as the claim to

one objective truth. In this context, it is worth examining in how far this is reflected on the

level of surface content as well as on the level of textualisation, particularly in terms of

narrative technique, including discursive devices such as structure, narrative situation, modes

of speech, thought and consciousness representation, intertextuality and metafiction.

2. The Structure: Where Truth Begins and Ends

Basically, the novel′s surface structure is divided into four chapters, which are headed

"Beginnings" (Julian Barnes2 1-64), "Beginning with an Ending" (65-287), "Ending with a

Beginning" (289-451) and "Endings" (453-501). They literally take the reader from the

1 Great Wyrley is a parish and village in the county of Staffordshire, England.

2 In parenthetical references Julian Barnes′ full name is given in order to distinguish it from "Jon Barnes."

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beginnings of the two protagonists′ biographies until the end of Arthur′s life. Each of the four

chapters contains several sub-sections, which are headed mainly "Arthur," "George, "George

& Arthur" or "Arthur & George," and alternate primarily between the two protagonists′

respective points of view. Furthermore, there are constant shifts between present tense and

past tense, whereby the lines between endings and beginnings of different phases in life, and

between past or historical truth and present or current representation are blurred. The reader

might therefore get the impression that the topics addressed are of contemporary concern.

We view the stories and their world as through a telescope, at once vividly present, yet

infinitely distanced. [...] But the problems that preoccupied George and Arthur [...] ­

guilt and innocence, the operation of the criminal justice system, divided loyalties,

prejudice, religious belief and the reality of death ­ engage us still and are unlikely to

be solved [...]. (James, par. 11)

2.1. Real and Imaginary Beginnings and Endings

Although the ampersand in the title might create the illusion that Arthur and George are

together throughout the novel, the narrative is kept divided for more than half of the story. In

the first chapter, "Beginnings," Arthur′s and George′s life stories are traced in parallel, but

apart ­ they are completely unaware of each other. As if the pieces of two puzzles were put

together one after the other, the steps in their personal developments, from their childhood to

the beginning of Arthur′s career as ophthalmologist and writer, and George′s professional life

as solicitor are presented methodically and chronologically in quickly alternating one- to

three-page narrations, which are headed either "Arthur" or "George." However, this parallel

unfolding of their lives is not a historical fact and works only in Barnes′ fictional universe.

The narration actually shifts back and forth between two periods because Arthur was born

eighteen years before George in 1859 (see Guignery 127). This constant use of analepses and

prolepses is highlighted by the use of the past tense for Arthur and the present tense for

George, whose story therefore becomes more immediate and more vivid.

The alternating narrations also emphasize the differences of Arthur′s and George′s

characters and ways of life right from the beginning: "[h]is novel begins as a pair of

alternating biographies, a tale of opposites" (Adams, par. 3). In fact, they inhabit completely

different worlds. George is realistic, rather unimaginative, expected to be truthful, and told to

believe in Biblical stories, which his father considers as "the way, the truth and the life"

(Julian Barnes 5), while George himself is convinced to find truth in the science of law (see

89-90). By contrast, Arthur appears to embody imagination, and trusts the truths conveyed in

chivalric stories and medieval romances like the Arthurian legends, "designed to teach him

the distinction between right and wrong" (5). These different notions of truth-telling and

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story-telling already reflect the uncertain status of truth as well as its ambiguous relationship

to fiction. It is not entirely clear where truth can actually be found, but the solutions offered

here imply that, for some people, it is conveyed by fictional stories in which they believe.

The second chapter, "Beginning with an Ending," continues the alternations between

Arthur and George3, and offers a full account of the prosecution against George from 1903 to

1906, as well as insights into the developments in Arthur′s private and professional life

between 1887 and 1906. As to George, the "Beginning" presumably refers to the first animal

mutilations in 1903, which then lead to his arrest, trial and incarceration, while the "Ending"

alludes to his release in 1906. The sections about George are told in the present tense until

"the last normal twenty-four hours of his life" (129), but from his arrest onwards, his narrative

switches to the past tense until his release. This change of tense probably indicates that "the

progress of his life, as he sees it, comes to an unscheduled stop [...]" (Rafferty 3).

As regards Arthur, beginning and ending are very likely to refer mainly to his

extramarital, yet platonic relationship with Jean Leckie starting in 1897 and to the death of his

first wife Touie in 1906 respectively. However, this new stage in Arthur′s life only sets in in

the last sub-section of this chapter (see Julian Barnes 225-287), which goes back to 1897.

From this point onwards, Arthur′s narrative always changes to the present tense when Jean

turns up, most likely to indicate that his love for her marks the beginning of a new chapter in

his life, and "has no past, and no future [...]; it has only the present" (237).

Due to this analepsis from 1906 back to 1897, "the chronology of events is [...]

disrupted" (Guignery 128), which is confirmed, for example, by the fact that in one of the

sections about George,

The Hound of the Baskervilles

is alluded to by "the footprints of a

gigantic hound" (Julian Barnes 119), and George in prison in 1904 reads "a tattered cheap

edition" (164) of this novel. Thus, traces of Arthur can already be found in George′s life, and

they actually constitute first glimpses of their intersecting lives. However, it is only ninety-

two pages later, in the part about Arthur, that the narrator mentions the composition of this

book in 1901: "he resuscitates Sherlock Holmes and despatches him in the footprints of an

enormous hound" (255-256). Nevertheless, at the end of this chapter the two parallel

narrations coincide temporally for the first time, when Arthur receives a letter from George in

1906, in which he asks him for help (see 287).

Among these alternations mainly between George and Arthur, this chapter includes a

section called "George & Arthur" (100-102), which establishes a link between the two

3 Except for the sections on Inspector Campbell, the man at the head of the police investigation (see Julian

Barnes 104-113, 119-126, 130-138).

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protagonists for the first time without directly referring to them, and therefore without their

being aware of it. Using a camera-eye technique, this sub-chapter consists of a rather neutral

description of a man who crosses a field at night and goes towards a horse, to which he does

something, and then disappears. "The reader is meant to think that this person doesn′t sound

like either George or Arthur, so it′s probably someone else. Yet on the other hand, it says,

"George & Arthur" there on the page. This must mean the incident has something to do with

both of them, and is a tip-off that they will eventually meet" (Schiff 67). It also gives the

reader a first hint to

what

will ultimately link their lives inextricably ­ the animal mutilations.

Thus, in fictional or even metaphorical terms, the intersection of their lives starts at this point

in 1903, while in historical terms, their paths cross only in 1906, that is at the end of the

second and the beginning of the third chapter.

The third chapter, "Ending with a Beginning," basically traces Arthur′s involvement in

George′s case from 1906 to 1907. The heading implies circularity: an ending obviously

means a new beginning, the beginning of a new story or episode in life. In this particular

context, the "Ending" obviously refers again to George′s release from prison, while the

"Beginning" marks the beginning of their intersecting lives and of George′s life as a free man.

It is probably also an allusion to Arthur′s intention to "go back to the very beginnings of the

case" (316) in order to find out the truth about the Great Wyrley Outrages and to prove

George′s innocence.

Headed "Arthur & George" (291-306), the first sub-section mirrors the novel′s title and

makes Arthur′s and George′s lives intersect directly for the first time, when Arthur agrees to

take up the case. The two strands of narrative are finally brought together. At this point, the

novel has obviously reached some sort of climax, which is emphasized by the use of the

present tense. This chapter mainly4 features narrations in which the foci of Arthur and George

alternate within one sub-section, supposedly to draw attention to their relatedness. Moreover,

these sections are characterized by a slow and unstable shift from the past to the present,

which probably marks the difficult beginning of George′s life in freedom. "George & Arthur"

(415-427) relates their second meeting, in which George subtly criticizes Arthur′s way of

investigation5, still using the past tense. This encounter is actually invented by Barnes to show

that their relationship was not always positive and "to make this actual crossing point between

their lives slightly longer and richer than it was" (Schiff 66). The narration then moves to the

present tense like in "Arthur & George" (427-441), in which George is granted the important,

4 Apart from three sections alternating between Arthur (see Julian Barnes 306-366, 392-415) and Captain Anson,

the Chief Constable of Staffordshire (366-392).

5 See chapter 4.2.3. (p. 18).

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