Structured along Classical Line Narrative Trope Unreliable Narrator – Paul Roberts Narration drifts from first person to second and third person Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings

1. Narrative Pattern in
The Only Story
Julian Barnes
• Structured along Classical Line
• Narrative Trope
• Unreliable Narrator – Paul Roberts
• Narration drifts from first person to second and
third person
• Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings

2. Narrative structured along classical line
• Novel: A small tale, generally of love. (Dr. Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of
the English Language [1755])
• The Only Story, Barnes’s thirteenth novel, does prove to be in many
respects a contemporary exemplar of Johnson’s definition.
• It is “small” in the sense of intimate and specific focus—one man’s
recollected story—and it is “small” in length, weighing in at well
under three hundred pages, though spanning more than three
decades in time. As for “generally of love,” the narrator Paul’s re-
examination of his “only story” does indeed meet this prerequisite.
This is his story of a life-changing, life-defining love affair, from
innocence to experience, from youth to age, from infatuation to
weariness.

3. Classical technique of direct address to the reader
• Barnes not only frames our expectation with Dr. Johnson’s iconic definition, he
goes on to employ a classic novelist’s technique of direct address to the reader.
Often throughout the book, narrator and protagonist Paul steps to the edge of
the proscenium and soliloquizes, musing to himself and speaking to us.
• He poses this question on the first page, presaging all that follows: “Would you
rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less?
That is, I think, finally the only real question.”
• He continues, “You may point out—correctly—that it isn’t a real question.
Because we don’t have a choice.” Does Paul himself agree with his emphatic
denial of choice and agency? Not entirely, not consistently, at least not in these
pages, which he explains are only his latest iteration of his oft-told and re-told
“only story.”
• Throughout the novel, he explores questions raised by his experience, questions
of choice versus inevitability, responsibility versus blamelessness, predestination
versus roads not taken. In telling his one story he looks back, still struggling with
persistent dilemmas and conflicts.

4. • His will be, he’s advising us, a story with a time
line and an arc: happy first things first, upswing,
downswing. He hints, and we expect, narrative
structured along classical lines: a beginning,
middle, and an end. Which is exactly what Paul
delivers.
• Dr. Johnson would be pleased with this careful
three-part structure.
• The narrative proceeds—in flash-back from
distant to recent past—along a chronological
trajectory, formally divided into three separate
sections titled: One, Two, and Three.

5. Narrative Trope : Retrospective |
Woven into Wrap and Weft
• The issue of temporal point of view, retrospect, is key here. Paul is,
as he tells us, re-visiting (and, he admits, inevitably if
unintentionally, revising, re-visioning) personal history and
emotional experience. His is not a retrospective vantage point of
tranquility; his distance does not clarify. Paul claims neither wisdom
nor accuracy.
• Another time-honored narrative trope is
in play here, a technique woven into the
weft of story-telling from the earliest oral
tradition. (Campbell, “The Only Story, by Julian Barnes.”)
• Illustrate from the study of ‘Timeline of Narration’

6. Unreliable Narrator
• Paul is a very vested teller; he’s telling a subjective truth, he’s
arguing his case again, with himself and with us. He’s an unreliable
narrator. Paul warns the reader early on, in a conversational aside:
• “You understand, I hope, that I’m telling you everything as I
remember it? I never kept a diary, and most of the participants in
my story—my story! My life!—are either dead or far
dispersed…Memory sorts and sifts according to the demands made
on it by the rememberer.”
•Later on he says: “I said I never kept a diary. This isn’t
strictly true.”
• So reader, beware! His one story, events and details, is seen through
the warping, colored, protective lens of memory (Campbell, “The Only Story, by
Julian Barnes.”)

7. Drifting Narration: From First Person to Second
and Third Person
• The narration drifts from Ist person in Part One to IInd person in Part
Two to IIIrd in Part Three.
• As ‘The Only Story’ is reflection on narrator Paul Roberts on his story
of passion and suffering, this narrative pattern symbolizes his drifting
away from his ‘Love’ (Susan), as well as ‘Self’.
• His self-reliance is shattered. He finds a ‘coward’ within him. By the
end of the narration, which is in third person, he is full of remorse
and guilt ridden.
• The drift from First Person to Third Person represents Paul’s
dissociation, not only from his ‘only story’, but also from his ‘own
self’.

8. Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings
• If we see Thomas Hardy in ‘Tess’, we find him making a lot of comments
on the ongoing events.
• His ‘authorial comments’ are philosophical.
• These philosophical comments provides an insight to look at the human
predicament in the story being narrated.
• When we come to Julian Barnes, we see that his is an altogether different
way of making philosophical comments.
• If Thomas Hardy’s philosophical comments are like a pinch of salt in the
story; Julian Barnes’s philosophical broodings are so detailed that it seems
that the story is a pinch of salt.
• In Julian Barnes’s narrative pattern, it seems he is telling story for the sake
of philosophy rather than the other way around.

9. Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings
• Illustrations from the novel ‘The Only Story’ - The Beginning:
• “Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer
the less?
• That is, I think, finally, the only real question. You may point out – correctly – that
it isn’t a real question. Because we don’t have the choice. If we had the choice,
then there would be a question. But we don’t, so there isn’t.
• Who can control how much they love? If you can control it, then it isn’t love. I
don’t know what you call it instead, but it isn’t love.
• Most of us have only one story to tell. I don’t mean that only one thing happens
to us in our lives: there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories.
But there’s only one that matters, only one finally worth telling. This is mine.
• But here’s the first problem. . . .” Read pg 1, 2

10. Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings
• “Here was an entry – a serious one – which he hadn’t crossed out in
years. He couldn’t remember where it came from. He never recorded
the writer or the source: he didn’t want to be bullied by reputation;
truth should stand by itself, clear and unsupported. This one went: ‘In
my opinion, every love, happy or unhappy, is a real disaster once you
give yourself over to it entirely.’ Yes, that deserved to stay. He liked
the proper inclusivity of ‘happy or unhappy’. But the key was: ‘Once
you give yourself over to it entirely.’ Despite appearances, this wasn’t
pessimistic, nor was it bittersweet. This was a truth about love spoken
by someone in the full vortex of it, and which seemed to enclose all of
life’s sadness.”

11. Authorial Comments - Philosophical Broodings
• “The sadness of life. That was another conundrum he would
occasionally ponder. Which was the correct – or the more correct –
formulation: ‘Life is beautiful but sad’, or ‘Life is sad but beautiful’?
One or the other was obviously true; but he could never decide
which. Yes, love had been a complete disaster for him. And for Susan.
And for Joan. And – back before his time – it might well have been so
for Macleod as well. He skimmed through a few crossed-out entries,
then slid the notebook back in the drawer. Perhaps he had always
been wasting his time. Perhaps love could never be captured in a
definition; it could only ever be captured in a story.”

12. Conclusion
• Thus, in the narrative pattern of Julian Barnes, we can
have quite an interesting range of points to ponder
upon.
• From classical narrative style to postmodern
unreliable narrator, Barnes displays a unique mastery
over narrative technique.
• Finally, we can also see that Barnes interestingly
experiments with the mingling of narration – which
switches from first to second to third narration.

13. Works cited:
• Bookish. Book Review The Only Story by Julian Barnes, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAm8qUQNCa8.
• Campbell, Ellen Prentiss. “The Only Story, by Julian Barnes.” Fiction
Writers Review (blog). Accessed January 31, 2022.
https://fictionwritersreview.com/review/the-only-story-by-julian-
barnes/.