Flaubert’s Parrot. Which of two stuffed parrots was the inspiration for one of Flaubert’s greatest stories?. Why did the master keep changing the colour of Emma Bovary’s eyes?. In Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes spins out a multiple mystery of obsession and betrayal (both scholarly and romantic) and creates an exuberant enquiry into the ways in which art mirrors life and then turns around to shape it.