King Cophetua

by Julien Gracq

Overview

It is All Saints' Day, 1917. Our narrator, a former soldier, recalls the events surrounding his arrival at the home of Jacques Nueil, an aviator and avant-garde composer. The Great War is leading up to images of the Russian Revolution, and from Nueil's villa the narrator hears the sounds of bombs dropping in the distance. This carefully paced, mysteriously atmospheric novel is inspired by vivid memory and by two images, Goya's engraving entitled La Mala Noche and Burne-Jones's painting King Cophetua and the Beggar Girl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781885586865
Publisher:	Turtle Point Press
Publication date:	04/01/2000
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	4.70(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Julien Gracq (1910-2007), born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, was one of the greatest French writers of the twentieth century. His work included essays, criticism, fiction and journalism. He won but refused the Prix Goncourt in 1951 for his novel Le Rivage des Syrtes (The Opposing Shore). This retiring and misunderstood figure said he wrote "to settle a score with expression itself, to give form, stability, precision to things that are vague in the mind."

Editorial Reviews

"A slender beautifully written work takes us into the war-torn French countryside in 1917...its theme of anxiety created by a distant media driven war proves an apt metaphor for our time."—East Bay Express

From the Publisher