Journal (August–September 1870)
Fragments from the 1870 Journal.
French Literature
Essays
Portrait of Baudelaire
A tragic and visionary dandy, Baudelaire transformed the misery and splendor of Paris into poetry where the abyss becomes beauty.
Book Reviews
Resonances of the Fragmented Violin
A nineteenth-century novel that, with introspective prose, criticizes the commodification of art via an obsession with a symbolic violin.
Book Reviews
‘Mouchette’: Against all interpretation
A short and radical novel about the last days of a teenager excluded from a hostile rural environment, with prose devoid of psychology, focused on the meticulous description of inevitable events.
Essays
Albert Camus’ Carnets (1935-1951)
Rebellious existentialism, moral integrity, and resistance to the absurd through notes, quotes, and reflections.
Book Reviews
A Farewell
‘I’m Gone’ by Jean Echenoz, Goncourt Prize winner of 1999, bids farewell to the 20th century through Félix Ferrer, an art dealer navigating personal trials in a dehumanized world.
Essays
Venerable images: 60 years after ‘Les Choses’
In ‘Things’, Georges Perec creates a domestic utopia for a young couple, a refuge of books and dreams in a world of unattainable aspirations.
Loose Pages
A chair and a demon for ‘Un Coup de dés’
‘Un Coup de dés’ represented an impossible challenge for Odilon Redon, who was unable to fully translate abstract silences into images.