| Alien Hearts Contributor(s): de Maupassant, Guy (Author), Howard, Richard (Translator), Howard, Richard (Preface by) |
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ISBN: 1590172604 ISBN-13: 9781590172605 Publisher: New York Review of Books OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 2009 Annotation: "Alien Hearts,"" "originally published as "Notre coeur "in 1890, was the last novel that Guy de Maupassant completed before succumbing to the effects of tertiary syphilis of which he was to die at forty-three. It is the most original and surprising of his novels and the one in which he attains a truly tragic perception of the wounded human heart. "Alien Hearts "is the story of three lovers bound by bitterness as much as passion. Maupassant's artist hero falls for a woman of the world, a glacially dazzling beauty whose past with an abusive husband leads her to hold him-and everyone-at arm's length. He seeks solace with his doting mistress, but remains racked by pointless infatuation. Richard Howard's new English version of this complex and brooding psychological novel reveals the final, unexpected flowering of the great French realist's art. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Romance - Historical - Victorian |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2009004537 |
| Series: New York Review Books Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.43" H x 5.28" W x 7.94" (0.44 lbs) 200 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Alien Hearts was the last book that Guy de Maupassant finished before his death at the early age of forty-three. It is the most original and psychologically penetrating of his several novels, and the one in which he attains a truly tragic perception of the wounded human heart. Andr Mariolle is a rich, handsome, gifted young man who cannot settle on what to do with himself. Madame de Burne, a glacially dazzling beauty, wants Mariolle to attend her exclusive salon for artists, composers, writers, and other intellectuals. At first Mariolle keeps his distance, but then he hits on the solution to all his problems: caring for nothing in particular, he will devote himself to being in love; Madame de Burne will be his everything. Soon lover and beloved are equally lost within a hall of mirrors of their common devising. Richard Howard's new English translation of this complex and brooding novel--the first in more than a hundred years--reveals the final, unexpected flowering of a great French realist's art. |