The love is what I would call Platonic love, but he calls it Romantic-Stoic. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.Įlizabeth Finch is an enigmatic lecturer who the narrator falls in love with. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and three books of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and The Man in the Red Coat, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Duff Cooper Prize. Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story.

It's a moment to reflect and to gently explore our own theories and assumptions. It's a loving tribute to philosophy, a careful evaluation of history, an invitation to think for ourselves. And underpinning them all is the story of J - Julian the Apostate, her historical soulmate and fellow challenger to the institutional and monotheistic thinking that has always threatened to divide us. Her ideas unlock the philosophies of the past, and explore key events that show us how to make sense of our lives today. With careful empathy, she guided her students to develop meaningful ideas and to discover their centres of seriousness.Īs a former student unpacks her notebooks and remembers her uniquely inquisitive mind, her passion for reason resonates through the years.

And that task becomes the more urgent when the past cannot be corrected.'Įlizabeth Finch was a teacher, a thinker, an inspiration - always rigorous, always thoughtful. 'The task of the present is to correct our understanding of the past. We invite you to take her course in Culture and Civilisation.īut she will change the way you see the world.

We'd like to introduce you to Elizabeth Finch.

Elisabeth finch barnes