''The Narrow Waters'' () is a 1976 essay collection by the French writer

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; born Louis Poirier; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their dreamlike abstraction, elegant style and refined vocabulary. He ...

. The topic of the book is

Èvre The Èvre () is a long river in western France, left tributary of the Loire. Its source is at Vezins, northeast of the village. It flows into the Loire at Le Marillais, east of the village. The Èvre flows through the following communes in t ...

, a left

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the river

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

, located close to where the author grew up. The book was published by

José Corti José Corti is a bookshop and publishing house located in Paris, France, and was founded in 1925. It is named after its founder, José Corticchiato (14 January 1895 – 25 December 1984). José Corticchiato started his business by publishing the ...

. An English translation by Ingeborg M. Kohn was published in 2004.

Reception

Christine Thomas of '' SFGate'' wrote in 2004: "Gracq's literary associations abound, whether remarking that 'the deep black Evre resembled that bewitched ocean in "MS. Found in a Bottle, The Manuscript Found in a Bottle"' by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe, or discussing a relation to Jules Verne's novel ''The Steam House, The House of Steam''. He also alludes to Gérard de Nerval, Nerval, Honoré de Balzac, Balzac, Paul Valéry, Valery and even Chinese painting and the work of Johannes Vermeer, Vermeer. Short, willful and celebratory, this meditation on nature and intellect is both a beginning and ending, a contained image with many brilliant facets to be digested slowly and purposefully."

References

External links

''The Narrow Waters''
at the French publisher's website
''The Narrow Waters''
at the American publisher's website 1976 non-fiction books French essay collections French-language non-fiction books Works by Julien Gracq {{essay-stub