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à Vau-l'eau
''À vau-l'eau'' (English: ''With the Flow'' or ''Downstream'' or ''Drifting'') is a novella by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, first published by Henry Kistmaeckers in Brussels on January 26, 1882. Plot Summary The work — which has little in the way of plot — tells the story of Jean Folantin, a downtrodden Parisian civil service clerk whose quest for even a modicum of happiness or material comfort always ends in failure. The book chronicles Folantin's everyday disappointments, typified by his search for a decent meal (there are numerous descriptions of the disgusting food he has to eat). At the end of the novella, Folantin pessimistically resigns himself to give up hope and "go with the flow":" realised the futility of changing direction, the sterility of all enthusiasm and all effort. 'You have to let yourself go with the flow; Schopenhauer is right', he told himself, '"Man's life swings like a pendulum between pain and boredom". So there's no point trying to speed ...
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Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". There is disagreement regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words; at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages. See below for definitions used by other organisations. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, princip ...
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The Stranger (Camus Novel)
''The Stranger'' ( , ), also published in English as ''The Outsider'', is a 1942 novella written by French author Albert Camus. The first of Camus's novels to be published, the story follows Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother's funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative before and after the killing.From Cyril Connolly's introduction to the first English translation, by Stuart Gilbert (1946) Camus completed the initial manuscript by May 1941, with revisions suggested by André Malraux, Jean Paulhan, and Raymond Queneau that were adopted in the final version. The original French-language first edition of the novella was published on 19 May 1942, by Gallimard, under its original title; it appeared in bookstores from that June but was restricted to an initial 4,400 copies, so few that it could not be a bestseller. Even though it was published du ...
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Novels By Joris-Karl Huysmans
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term ''romance''. Such romances should not be confused with t ...
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1882 French Novels
Year 188 (CLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Fuscianus and Silanus (or, less frequently, year 941 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 188 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Publius Helvius Pertinax becomes pro-consul of Africa from 188 to 189. Japan * Queen Himiko (or Shingi Waō) begins her reign in Japan (until 248). Births * April 4 – Caracalla (or Antoninus), Roman emperor (d. 217) * Lu Ji (or Gongji), Chinese official and politician (d. 219) * Sun Shao, Chinese general of the Eastern Wu state (d. 241) Deaths * March 17 – Julian, pope and patriarch of Alexandria * Fa Zhen (or Gaoqing), Chinese scholar (b. AD 100) * Lucius Antistius Burrus, Roman politician (executed) * Ma Xiang, ...
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Dedalus Books
Dedalus Books is an independent publishing company based in Cambridgeshire, England. Publisher Eric Lane has said, "We like the bizarre, the grotesque, the surreal and the clever, preferably in the same book. We call this kind of book, distorted reality. For instance David Madsen’s ''Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf'', Sylvie Germain’s ''The Book of Night'' and Vladimir Sharov’s ''Before and During''. Three perfect examples of what we are looking for." Prize-winning Dedalus writers have included novelist Andrew Crumey and translator Margaret Jull Costa. Established by Geoffrey Smith, Eric Lane and Robert Irwin, Dedalus was launched on 30 November 1983 with the publication of three novels including Irwin's '' The Arabian Nightmare'' and Smith's vampire novel ''The Revenants'' (bylined "Geoffrey Farrington")."Dedalus" in ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'' by Brian Stableford. Scarecrow Press,Plymouth. 2005. (pp. 103-4) As well as English-language literature, Dedalus publ ...
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Turtle Point Press
Turtle Point Press, founded in 1990, publishes new fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, memoirs, works in translation, and rediscovered classics. History Jonathan D. Rabinowitz established Turtle Point Press in 1990. During his tenure the press had two imprints, Jeannette Watson’s Books & Co. and the eponymous Helen Marx Books. In 2016, longtime Turtle Point Press editor and associate Ruth Greenstein took over running the press. Founding publisher Jonathan D. Rabinowitz stays on as editor-at-large. Awards and Distinctions Two books by Turtle Point Press were named by ''The New York Times Book Review'' as notable books of the year: ''Bertram Cope's Year'' by Henry Blake Fuller, which is regarded as the first American gay novel, and was originally published in 1919. The other is a 1997 memoir by Leila Hadley of her travels in India, ''A Journey With Elsa Cloud''. The latter was published under the dual imprint Books & Company/Turtle Point. Additional Turtle Point Press books ...
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Robert Baldick
Robert André Edouard Baldick, FRSL (9 November 1927 – April 1972), was a British scholar of French literature, writer, translator and joint editor of the Penguin Classics series with Betty Radice. He was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. He wrote eight books including biographies of Joris-Karl Huysmans, Frédérick Lemaître and Henry Murger and a history of the Siege of Paris. In addition he edited and translated '' The Goncourt Journals'' and other classics of French literature including works by Gustave Flaubert, Chateaubriand, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jules Verne, and Henri Barbusse, as well as a number of novels by Georges Simenon. His sons are Julian Baldick, an author specialising in Sufism, and English academic Chris Baldick. Selected bibliography * ''The Life of Joris Karl Huysmans''. (Oxford University Press, 1955; new edition revised by Brendan King, Dedalus Books 2006) * ''Dinner at Magny's'' (Victor Gollancz, 1971) * ''The Life and Times of Frédérick Lem ...
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Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to acting by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. Callow rose to prominence originating the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1979 Peter Shaffer play '' Amadeus,'' for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. Callow joined the Miloš Forman 1984 film adaptation, this time portraying Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1992, Callow won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Musical for '' Carmen Jones''. As an actor, he won acclaim for his comedic roles in '' A Room with a View'' (1985) and '' Four Weddings and a Funeral'' (1994) earning a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomin ...
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Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include ''The Stranger (Camus novel), The Stranger'', ''The Plague (novel), The Plague'', ''The Myth of Sisyphus'', ''The Fall (Camus novel), The Fall'' and ''The Rebel (book), The Rebel''. Camus was born in French Algeria to ''pied-noir'' parents. He spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood and later studied philosophy at the University of Algiers. He was in Paris when the Battle of France, Germans invaded France during World War II in 1940. Camus tried to flee but finally joined the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at ''Combat (newspaper), Combat'', an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. He married twice ...
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Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel (1884, published in English as ''Against the Grain'' and as ''Against Nature''). He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service. Huysmans's work is considered remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language, large vocabulary, descriptions, satirical wit and far-ranging erudition. First considered part of Naturalism, he became associated with the Decadent movement with his publication of ''À rebours''. His work expressed his deep pessimism, which had led him to the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. In later years, his novels reflected his study of Catholicism, religious conversion, and becoming an oblate. He discussed the iconography of Christian architecture at length in '' La cathédrale'' (1898), set a ...
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Nausea (novel)
''Nausea'' () is a philosophical novel by the Existentialism, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1938. It is Sartre's first novel. The novel takes place in 'Bouville' (homophone of ''Boue-ville'', literally, 'Mud town') a town similar to Le Havre. It comprises the thoughts and subjective experiences—in a personal diary format—of Antoine Roquentin, a melancholic and socially isolated intellectual who is residing in Bouville ostensibly for the purpose of completing a biography on a historical figure. Roquentin's growing alienation and disillusionment coincide with an increasingly intense experience of revulsion, which he calls "the nausea", in which the people and things around him seem to lose all their familiar and recognizable qualities. Sartre's original title for the novel before publication was ''Melancholia''. The novel has been translated into English by Lloyd Alexander as ''The Diary of Antoine Roquentin'' and by Robert Baldick as ''Nausea''. Ch ...
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution." Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the culture, cultural and society, social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, ...
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