Flaubert's Latest

THE STORY: Felix, a blocked novelist, and his noticeably younger lover, Colin, are estranged but still in love. Felix, you see, is so obsessed by his admiration for the nineteenth-century master of French letters, Gustave Flaubert, that he fails to take any interest in either Colin's burgeoning choreography career or their relationship. Their friends Ursula (a nutty summer stock actress, writer and part time spiritualist) and her husband, Howard, arrive for an outing, but while practicing her spiritual channeling Ursula accidentally conjures up Flaubert himself along with his faithful mistress of many years, Louise. They tell their startled twentieth-century hosts that they, too, have been fighting on and off about the way Flaubert neglects Louise and instead locks himself away to write for months at a time. Colin immediately sympathizes with Louise and he confides in her that he's been hoping to start an affair with a very attractive and flirtatious gardener named Jace. Eventually, because Felix and Flaubert have been spending all their time with each other discussing art and writing, tempers explode and Louise takes a shot at Flaubert, accidentally wounding Felix. Hurt feelings all around, Ursula is called back to the country house and returns Flaubert and Louise to their century. Having come through the worst, and his writer's block gone, Felix makes up with Colin, and the two begin their lives anew.Parnell, Peter is the author of 'Flaubert's Latest ', published 1993 under ISBN 9780822213284 and ISBN 0822213281.