'The Only Story' by Julian Barnes

1. The Only Story
-Julian Barnes
Introductory presentation by
Nirali Dabhi
Gopi Dervaliya
Gayatri Nimavat
Ghanshyam Katariya
15/1/2024

2. Points to Ponder
❖ Key Facts
❖ Context (About Author and text)
❖ Character Study
❖ Plot Overview
❖ Major Themes
❖ Research Articles
❖ Learning Outcomes
❖ References

3. Author:- Julian Barnes
Type of work:- Novel
Genre: - Memory novel
Original Language: English
Published:- 1st February 2018
Publishers:- Jonathan Cape
Setting:- "stockbroker belt" outside London, 1960s
Narrator:- Paul Roberts
Parts:-Three
Pages:- 213
Key Facts

4. Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes: Official Website
Also Known As: Julian Patrick Barnes, Edward
Pygge, Dan Kavanagh
Born: January 19, 1946 (age 77) Leicester, England
Occupation: Writer
Genre: Novels, short stories, essays
Literary movement: Postmodernism
Spouse: Pat Kavanagh(m. 1979, Died: 2008)
Notable Works: ‘Elizabeth Finch’
‘The Sense of an Ending’
‘The Only Story’
‘The Man In the Red Coat’
‘The Noise of Time’
‘Keeping an Eye Open’
‘Levels of Life’

5. ● Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was
educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen
College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with
honours) in 1968,
● After graduation, he worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English
Dictionary supplement for three years. In 1977, Barnes began working as a
reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and the New Review.
From 1979 to 1986 he worked as a television critic, first for the New Statesman
and then for the Observer. Barnes lives in London.
● Julian Barnes has written numerous novels, short stories, and essays. He has
also translated a book by French author Alphonse Daudet and a collection of
German cartoons by Volker Kriegel. His writing has earned him considerable
respect as an author who deals with the themes of history, reality, truth and
love.

6. Awards
Barnes has received numerous awards and honours for his writing, most
recently the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2011, the 2011 Man Booker
Prize, the 2021 Jerusalem Prize, and the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award.
Also in 2021, he was awarded the Jean Bernard Prize, so named in memory of
the great specialist in hematology who was a member of the French Academy
and chaired the Academy of Medicine.
Three additional novels were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize (Flaubert's
Parrot 1984, England, England 1998, and Arthur & George 2005).
Barnes's other awards include the Somerset Maugham Award (Metroland 1981),
Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (FP 1985); Prix Médicis (FP 1986); E. M. Forster
Award (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1986); Gutenberg
Prize (1987); Grinzane Cavour Prize (Italy, 1988); and the Prix Femina (Talking It
Over 1992).

7. Context of Novel
● The novel unfolds in the early 1960s, a period of immense social and cultural
change in Britain. The post-war era brought a sense of liberation and challenged
traditional values, including those around marriage and relationships.
● The sexual revolution was in full swing, with free love and experimentation
becoming more common. This backdrop significantly impacts the societal
response to Paul and Susan's unconventional relationship.
● Age-gap relationships, especially ones with a significant power imbalance like Paul
and Susan's, were frowned upon in the conservative social milieu of the time.
Susan's married status and the presence of children add another layer of
complexity and stigma to their relationship, prompting social disapproval and
raising questions about morality and responsibility.
● Barnes often draws inspiration from classic authors and philosophical ideas. The
novel explores the nature of memory, perception, and storytelling, questioning the
objective truth of a single narrative.

8. Learning Outcomes
● By learning about the author's life, one can "decode" their work in
fresh ways.
● Analyze the author's language choices and voice, and how they
contribute to the overall atmosphere and meaning of the story.
● Analyze the societal reaction to Paul and Susan's romance, and
reflect on how such relationships were perceived in the 1960s.

9. Character Study

10. Main Characters
❏ Paul Roberts (Protagonist)
❏ Susan MacLeod (Old woman)
❏ Gordon MacLeod (Susan’s Husband)
❏ Martha MacLeod (Susan’s Daughter)
❏ Clara MacLeod (Susan’s Daughter)
❏ Joan (Susan’s Tennis Partner)
❏ Eric (Paul’s University Friend)
❏ Anna (Paul’s letter Girlfriend)

11. Paul Roberts Susan MacLeod Gordon MacLeod Martha MacLeod
Eric Anna Joan Clara MacLeod

12. Character Chart
Paul Roberts
(Protagonist)
Susan
MacLeod
Gordon
MacLeod
Martha
Macleod
Clara
Macleod
Anna
(Girlfriend)
Joan
(Friend)
Eric
(Friend)

13. Minor Characters
❏ Mrs. Dyer (Maid at susan’s Home)
❏ Jack (Gordon’s Father)
❏ Cindy (Paul’s Ex)
❏ Uncle Humph and Aunt Florence (Susan’s Aunt & Uncle)
❏ Dr. Kenny (Susan’s Psychiatrist)

14. ● The Narrator
● A Man Defined by Youthful Passion
● Flawed but Relatable
● A Symbol of Memory and Time
● A Journey of Self-Discovery
● A Woman Unbound by Convention
● A Complex Mix of Strength and
Vulnerability
● A Victim of Societal Constraints
● An Ambiguous and Elusive Figure
Susan MacLeod
Paul Roberts

15. ● Susan's Husband
Gordon MacLeod Joan
● Exploring the character of John and her
struggles.
● John's story narrated through Susan and
Paul's perspective

16. Martha & Clara
MacLeod
● Nicknamed "Miss G" (Miss. Grumpy)
● Reserved and serious
● "Miss N.S." (Miss. Not-So-Grumpy)
● Open and friendly
● Understanding the complexity
Martha Clara

17. Anna
● Described as a younger woman
● Represents a more conventional
romantic
● Highlighting one of the crucial
themes of the novel the concept of
‘The Only Story.’
Eric
● Reliable, practical, and level-
headed.
● Represents stability and normalcy
● Unwavering friendship
● Functions as a counterpoint

18. Learning Outcomes
● Identifying and comprehending the novel’s themes, such as love, loss
and the passage of time.
● Readers can enhance their critical thinking skills by evaluating the
character’s choices, actions and the consequences of their decisions
within the context of the story.
● Engaging the character’s experiences allowing readers to see the world
from different perspectives and understand the impact of personal
relationships.
● Analyzing different narrative voices within the novel helps readers
understand how the author uses perspective and tone to convey the
story.
● Developing skills in literary analysis involves examining the author’s
style,narrative techniques, and symbolism to discern the layers of
meaning embedded in the novel.

19. Plot Overview

20. Plot Overview

21. Part One
● First person Narrative
● The story begins in the leafy suburbs of Surrey, England, during
the early 1960s.
● Paul Roberts is nineteen, an undergraduate at University,
returning to his parents’ home for the summer.
● Paul has learned to look down on the comfortable suburban
conformity of his parents and their neighbors: the last thing he
wants is a “tennis wife.”
● He becomes infatuated with Susan Macleod, a troubled forty-
eight-year-old married woman attractive but shy, troubled, and
married.
● Their passionate love affair defies societal norms, revealing the
complexities of their relationship.
● Paul is introduced to Susan's family and her former tennis partner,
Joan, setting the stage for a narrative that challenges conventional
expectations.
● Paul meets their children, Martha and Clara.

22. Part Two
● First person Narrative + Second person Narrative
● Paul and Susan move to London after Susan leaves her abusive
husband, Gordon.
● Paul starts studying law, hoping for a legal divorce. However, Susan's
escalating alcoholism strains their relationship.
● Despite Paul's efforts to curb her drinking, Susan's decline leads to
dementia-like symptoms.
● When their affair is discovered, they are expelled from the tennis
club.
● Their move to London signifies a turning point, unraveling the fabric
of their once passionate connection.

23. ● This chapter is all about Susan's madness. Paul's other girlfriend Anna,
and Anna's attitude toward Susan. And woman of his own age, but the
relationship never satisfies Paul.
● He moves back with Susan and takes on the work of caring for her.
After some years, Susan’s daughter Martha agrees to take over Susan’s
care.
● Paul’s parents are outraged. He returns to university, but Susan has
become the center of his life.
● Their relationship undermines his studies and his social life, but
although Paul realizes that his love for Susan is taking a toll on his life,
perhaps changing its course forever, he cannot relinquish her.
● When Paul graduates, Susan leaves Gordon.
● This part ends with "But you begin to wonder-not for the first time in
your life if there is something to be said for feeling less.”

24. ● Second person Narrative
● The third part emphasizing Paul's evolved perspective on sex and
highlighting the theme of memory.
● Paul becomes an office manager and settles in a rural village,
establishing the "Frogworth Valley Artisanal Cheese Company.”
● As the drinking gets worse, it causes Susan to suffer dementia-like
symptoms of paranoia, mood swings, and forgetfulness.
● He never has another serious relationship or children.
● Describing himself as an “absolutist for love,” Paul devotes himself to the
memory of his relationship with Susan.
● Yet, gradually he forgets the body he once fetishized: “Things, once gone
can’t be put back; he knew that now. A punch, once delivered, can’t be
withdrawn. Words, once spoken, can’t be unsaid. We may go on as if
nothing has been lost, nothing done, nothing said; we claim to forget it all;
but our innermost core doesn’t forget, because we have been changed
forever.”
Part Three

25. ● Most of the things belong to Paul's Diary
entries.
● This part opens about every character like
what might happen with other characters
like Mr. Macleod-his death.
● Ending part is very interesting, here is the
hidden mystery unfolded by the narrator
and we came to know what had happened
with Susan, the condition of Paul.

26. ● Age Difference in love
● Understand and explain the significance of the novel's three-part
structure and how it contributes to the overall storytelling.
Learning Outcomes
(Sushmita Sen Rohman Shawl)

27. Thematic Study

28. ❖ Love, Loss and self delusion
● Age and Love: Barnes explores how love evolves over time, particularly focusing
on the central character's relationship with an older woman and the societal
perceptions and challenges they face due to the age gap.
● The Protagonist Paul, a 19-year-old university student; Susan, a 48- year-old
married woman and a mother of two.
● Their love was by its very nature disruptive, cataclysmic; but then, if it were not,
it may not have been love, would it have?
● The Only Story explores themes of first love, loss, and self-delusion. It also paints
a portrait of a generation-Barnes's own-whose ideals have floundered over the
course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The novel was generally
well received by critics, who found it a "somber but well-conceived character
study".
"In love, everything is both true and false; it's the one subject on which it's
impossible to say anything absurd." (P-169)

29. ❖ Pain & Fulfillment
In the story's examination of the various contradictions and challenges
inherent within the concept of love, the narrative seeks to utilise Paul and
Susan's relationship as demonstrating how fulfillment and suffering are not
only inevitable in a romantic relationship, but are also often simultaneous
phenomena. The narrative first introduces this idea by opening the novel as
follows:
"Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and
suffer the less?” .(Barnes)
In this way, the narrative immediately draws a thematic connection between
fulfilment and suffering that underlies the story of Susan and Paul's
relationship. At first, the narrative highlights the passion and complete
fulfilment that Paul experiences in the early stages of the relationship:
"I was nineteen, and I knew that love was incorruptible, proof against time
and tarnish".(Barnes)

30. Theme Of Memory
● Part Three is a fictional construction of the narrator's past life
by the help of his memory. Paul in part three reconstructs his
memory through his imagination.
● This enables him to transfigure his memories into what he
desired to have.
● He experiences a different kind of love which is based on
shared singularity.
● He finally accepts the differences between himself and Susan.
Thus, he tries to remember Susan's happy time: "Susan
happy, Susan optimistic…”

31. Research Articles

32. ● Julian Barnes’s latest novel is narrated by an older man
puzzling over the meaning of existence.
● Each also has a similarly melancholy, intimate tone, a fine line
in rhythmic, elegant, understated prose, and plenty to say
about time, love and the slippery nature of memory.
● in The Only Story come from its psychological acuity, especially
about how we remember. In Paul’s narrative, experiences
deconstruct themselves and personalities decay in a
devastatingly convincing way. (Clanchy)
The Only Story by Julian Barnes review – an
exquisite look at love -
Kate Clanchy

33. ● The present paper shift the focus from the story of love to the
manner in which this story is remembered by the narrator, Paul.
● Using Paul Ricoeur's work on the narrative self, this paper draws
on details of the novel and its sujet, in particular, to suggest that
the protagonist does not deliver, or even wish to deliver, an
accurate account of the events that shaped his life, but rather he
attempts to come to terms with the latter through storytelling."
● For Paul, this is 'the only story,' not because it grasps entirely
the lives of its protagonists, who could undoubtedly tell other
stories, but because it is the only one that matters to him. (MELNIC)
Not The Only Story: Narrative, Memory,
and Self-becoming in Julian Barnes’ Novel
- Diana Melnic

34. Postmodern Absurdist Critique of Julian
Barnes’s The Only Story
-Arshad Nawaz
● Barnes is completely mindful of the plight of men who are
living in the contemporary society, lost to values, higher ideals,
and even God, not discovering sustenance in time-worn
convictions and customary feelings.
● The Only Story (2018) happens in the fifties, sixties, and
seventies at the core of the Sexual Revolution when profound
desire and enthusiastic delicacy was turned into the request for
the day and ultimately led towards Absurdism of life
● For the modern man, the consciousness of absurdism develops
a sense of isolation and terror. In Barnes’s point of view,
everything is destined to an end, and all endeavors planned for
keeping up what is known and natural are insignificant. (Nawaz)

35. Learning outcomes (Ghanshyam)
● Exploring Complex Themes such as Love and Age Gape.
● Trying to root it and find familiarity with it .

36. References
● Barnes, Julian. The Only Story, Jonathan Cape, 2018.
● Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Julian Barnes". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Jan. 2023,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julian-Barnes. Accessed 15 January 2024.
● Clanchy, Kate. "The Only Story by Julian Barnes review an exquisite look at love." The Guardian, 26
January 2018, https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/26/the-only-
story-julian-barnes-review. Accessed 15 January 2024.
● Julian Barnes: Official Website, https://www.julianbarnes.com/. Accessed 15 January 2024.

37. ● MELNIC, DIANA, and VLAD MELNIC. "NOT THE ONLY STORY: NARRATIVE, MEMORY, AND SELF-
BECOMING IN JULIAN BARNES NOVEL." Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia 66.2
(2021).https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=959288
● Nawaz, Arshad, Muhammad Ijaz, and Khalid Mehmood Anjum. "Postmodern Absurdist Critique of Julian
Barnes's The Only Story." Global Language Review, VI.II (2021): 94-100 Print.
https://www.glrjournal.com/jadmin/Auther/31rvIolA2LALJouq9hkR/PYyYOiR5nn.pdf
● NAYEBPOUR, Karam, and Naghmeh VARGHAIYAN. "Reconstructed Memory of Love in Julian Barnes's
The Only Story." December 2021, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/979900 "The Only
Story Summary," SuperSummary, https://www.supersummary.com/the-only-story/summary/. Accessed

38. Thank You