THE SALT SMUGGLERS: History of the Abbe de Bucquoy (Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth)

Gérard de Nerval [Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth]

ISBN 10: 0980033063 / ISBN 13: 9780980033069

Edité par Archipelago Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2009

A propos de cet article

First impression of the first edition in English. Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth. Black and white frontispiece of: 'Evenement des plus rares, ou L'histoire du Sr abbe Cte de Buquoy.' ***Near fine in illustrated French style textured self-wraps. No inscriptions. No tears. Pages clean. Spine tight. Edges of wrapper slightly rubbed. Wrappers bright and clean. ***280 x 216 mm. 147 pages. ***''First published as a feuilleton in a left-wing newspaper in 1850, The Salt Smugglers provides a political satire of the waning days of France's short-lived Second Republic. With nods to Diderot and Sterne, this shaggy-dog story deals less with contraband salt smugglers than with the subversive power of fiction to transgress legal and aesthetic boundaries. By writing what he claimed was a purely documentary account of his picaresque adventures in search of an elusive book recording the true history of a certain seventeenth-century swashbuckler, Nerval sought to deride the press censors of the day who forbade the serial publication of novels in newspapers - and in the process he provocatively deconstructed existing distinctions between fact and fiction. Never before translated into English and still unavailable as a separately published volume in French, The Salt Smugglers is a pre-postmodern gem of experimental prose. Richard Sieburth's vibrant translation and illuminating afterword remind us why Gérard de Nerval's blend of sly irony and acerbic social criticism proved so inspiring to authors as various as Baudelaire, Proust, and Leiris.' ***'Poet, storyteller, autobiographer, translator, and visionary, Gérard de Nerval (1808-55) explored the blurry boundaries between dream and reality, fact and fiction, imagination and madness in his groundbreaking writings. Nerval was a pioneering modernist, a precursor of the French Symbolists, and a vital influence on writers such as Marcel Proust, Andre Breton, and Antonin Artaud.' (Quotes taken from the front and back wrappers). ***First impression of the first edition in English. Uncommon in the UK. ****For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

N° de réf. du vendeur 6838x

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: THE SALT SMUGGLERS: History of the Abbe de Bucquoy (Translated from the French by Richard Sieburth)
• Éditeur: Archipelago Books, Brooklyn, New York
• Date de parution: 2009
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0980033063
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780980033069
• Reliure: Original Wraps
• Édition: First Edition In English
• Impression: First Impression
• État de l'article: Near Fine
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket, as Issued
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literature
  • First Editions
  • Literature in Translation

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

First published as a feuilleton in a left-wing newspaper in 1850, The Salt Smugglers provides a political satire of the waning days of France’s short-lived Second Republic. With nods to Diderot and Sterne, this shaggy-dog story deals less with contraband salt smugglers than with the subversive power of fiction to transgress legal and esthetic boundaries. By writing what he claimed was a purely documentary account of his picaresque adventures in search of an elusive book recording the true history of a certain seventeenth-century swashbuckler, Nerval sought to deride the press censors of the day who forbade the serial publication of novels in newspapers – and in the process he provocatively deconstructed existing distinctions between fact and fiction. Never before translated into English and still unavailable as a separately published volume in French, The Salt Smugglers is a pre-postmodern gem of experimental prose. Richard Sieburth’s vibrant translation and illuminating afterword remind us why Gérard de Nerval’s blend of sly irony and acerbic social criticism proved so inspiring to authors as various as Baudelaire, Proust, and Leiris.

À propos de l?auteur

Poet, storyteller, autobiographer, translator, and visionary, Gérard de Nerval (1808–55) explored the blurry boundaries between dream and reality, fact and fiction, imagination and madness in his groundbreaking writings. Nerval was a pioneering modernist, a precursor of the French Symbolists, and a vital influence on writers such as Marcel Proust, André Breton, and Antonin Artaud. His works include Voyage en Orient ( Journey to the Orient), Sylvie – which Umberto Eco deemed a "masterpiece," Les Filles du Feu (The Daughters of Fire), Les Illuminés (The Illuminati), and Aurélia – which opens with "Dream is a second life." Richard Sieburth’s translations include Gérard de Nerval’s Selected Writings, Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hymns and Fragments, Walter Benjamin’s Moscow Diary, Henri Michaux’s Emergences/ Resurgences and Stroke by Stroke, Gérard de Nerval’s The Salt Smugglers, Michel Leiris’ Nights as Day, Days as Night, and Gershom Scholem’s The Fullness of Time: Poems. His edition of Nerval’s Selected Writings won the 2000 PEN/Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize. His recent translation of Maurice Scève’s Délie was a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize and the Weidenfeld Prize.