Published Paper Details:

Julian Barnes is a postmodern novelist who employed the postmodern techniques such as Fragmentation, Pastiche and Intertextuality in his novels. Barnes rejected the ideas and theories of Enlightenment. Barnes believed that absolute truths are fragmented ideas and there is no ultimate reality. Like his Man-Booker Prize winning,2011 novel The Sense of an Ending, The Only Story has a protagonist who baffles over the meaning of existence. In the beginning of novel, The protagonist Paul who is also the narrator of the novel puts forward a very philosophical question: ''Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more, or love the less, and suffer the less?'' The paper explores the only love- story of Paul which becomes the defining event of his life as he falls in love with a woman who is much older than him. By falling in love with her, he embarks on a daring, and long-lasting love affair. The novel The Only Story presents an account of how romantic love empties itself of color and meaning. As being in love, Paul develops a conflict with himself and while struggling for his love, he becomes distanced and diffused from himself.