| The Shape of a City Contributor(s): Gracq, Julien (Author) |
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ISBN: 1885586396 ISBN-13: 9781885586391 Publisher: Turtle Point Press OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2005 Annotation: Julien Gracq, the most important writer in France, is also the only living writer whose complete works appear in a volume of the prestigious "Pleiades" editions. The most original of his later works is this book about Nantes, which is Gracq's personal and profound response to Proust's synthesis of memory, reverie, and realism. The work begins with a quote from Baudelaire: "The shape of a city, as we all know, changes more quickly than the mortal heart." The author writes of a child's experience of the hierarchy of urban spaces: the radial avenues walked during school recreation periods, the districts between the axes, and the relationship to Nantes of those who lived there, including Breton and Rimbaud. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Collections | Essays - Travel |
| Dewey: 843.914 |
| LCCN: 2004113838 |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5" W x 8" (0.55 lbs) 216 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A literary travel essay on the city of Nantes by the great 20th century French novelist, essayist, critic and geographer, Julien Gracq. The most original book of Julien Gracq's later output is about Nantes. It begins with a quotation from Baudelaire that Gracq repeats and distorts: "The shape of a city, as we all know, changes more quickly than the mortal heart." Gracq's later work, set provocatively in verifiable land- and cityscapes, seems profoundly challenged by Proust's synthesis of realism, reverie, and remembrance. |