Beatrice and Virgil (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Write a summary of the plot or a synopsis of this book.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Henry, the Novelist: The protagonist. Henry is a successful author whose latest manuscript has been rejected. He's taking a sabbatical in an unnamed big city.
• Beatrice: A gentle donkey who is one of the main characters of the taxidermist whose play the protagonist is assisting with.
• Virgil: A howler monkey who is one of the main characters of the taxidermist whose play the protagonist is assisting with.
• Henry, the Novelist: The protagonist. Henry is a successful author whose latest manuscript has been rejected. He's taking a sabbatical in an unnamed big city.
• Henry, the Taxidermist: A sullen, seemingly rude taxidermist who asks Henry the Novelist for help with his play.
• Mendelssohn: Henry (the novelist) and Sarah's cat.
• Erasmus: Henry the Novelist's dog, who often accompanies Henry to the taxidermy shop.
• Mendelsson: Henry the Novelist's cat.
• Sarah: Henry the Novelist's wife, who is pregnant.
• Julian: The main character in an allegory about animals and murder that Henry receives to read, The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator by Gustave Flaubert.
• Theo: Henry the novelist's baby son.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Creative block is no laughing matter, or only to those sodden spirits who've never even tried to make their personal mark. It's not just a particular endeavour, a job, that is negated, it's your whole being. It's the dying of a small god within you, a part you thought might have immortality.”

  Henry the Novelist, thinking about the taxidermist's play (and perhaps himself?)

• “To my mind, faith is like being in the sun. When you are in the sun, can you avoid creating a shadow? Can you shake that area of darkness that clings to you, always shaped like you, as if constantly to remind you of yourself? You can't. This shadow is doubt.”

  Virgil

• ““As for fame, fame felt like nothing. Fame was not a sensation like love or hunger or loneliness, welling from within and invisible to the outside eye. It was rather entirely external, coming from the minds of others. It existed in the way people looked at him or behaved towards him. In that, being famous was no different from being gay, or Jewish, or from a visible minority: you are who you are, and then people project onto you some notion they have.””

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• if you are pitched into misery, remember that your days on this earth are counted and you might as well make the best of those you have left.

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• Life and death live and die in exactly the same spot, the body. It is from there that both babies and cancers are born. To ignore death, then, is to ignore life.

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• “Reality escapes us. It’s beyond description, even a simple pear. Time eats everything.”

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• English’s drive to exploit the new and the alien, its zeal in robbing words from other languages, its incapacity to feel qualms over the matter, its museum-size overabundance of vocabulary, its shoulder-shrug approach to spelling, its don’t-worry-be-happy concern for grammar—the result was a language whose colour and wealth Henry loved.

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• Stories identify, unify, give meaning to. Just as music is noise that makes sense, a painting is colour that makes sense, so a story is life that makes sense.”

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• Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting—that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art—and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to.

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• Once you’ve been struck by violence, you acquire companions that never leave you entirely: Suspicion, Fear, Anxiety, Despair, Joylessness. The natural smile is taken from you and the natural pleasures you once enjoyed lose their appeal.

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• “Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it’s true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths. As for nonfiction, for history, it may be real, but its truth is slippery, hard to access, with no fixed meaning bolted to it. If history doesn’t become story, it dies to everyone except the historian. Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.”

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• The reader pays closer attention, because he or she has no preconceptions about rhinoceros dentists—from Bavaria or anywhere else. The reader’s disbelief begins to lift, like a stage curtain. Now the story can unfold more easily. There’s nothing like the unimaginable to make people believe.

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• A work of art works because it is true, not because it is real. Was there not a danger to representing the Holocaust in a way always beholden to factuality? Surely, amidst the texts that related what happened, those vital and necessary diaries, memoirs and histories, there was a spot for the imagination’s commentary.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Flaubert
• Holocaust
• Canada
• The Taxidermy Shop: A shop where Henry meets the Taxidermist. He visits often as they read and discuss the play which the Taxidermist has written.

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• The Holocaust: Describe this theme.
• Storytelling

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Yann Martel (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR9199.3.M3855 B43 2010
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

This deals with very violence against animals and humans. I would recommend for no one less than 16.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( M ) › Martel, Yann
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Canadian
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Beatrice and Virgil- official page: Commentary, reviews, links and authors notes.

More Books Like This edit see section history