La Belle Captive: A Novel
by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Rene Magritte
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0520059166
- ISBN 13
- 9780520059160
- Seller
-
Brossard, Quebec, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
University Of California Press, Berkeley, 1995. First edition. Condition: Fine books in near fine dust jacket, dust jacket has light edge wear. This is a large, heavy book and may require additional postage.
"It begins with a stone falling, in the silence, vertically, immobile. It is falling from a great height, a meteor, a massive, compact, oblong block of rock, like a giant egg with a pocked, uneven surface."
The opening sentence of "La Belle Captive" introduces a dreamworld where the conventions of the traditional novel have been overthrown. Objects move through space without regard to laws of nature, characters move through the text in a maddening complex of events.
Originally published in 1975, Alain Robbe-Grillet's "nouveau roman" is illustrated with 77 paintings by Rene Magritte. Robbe-Grillet uses Magritte's paintings as pretexts for the novel, letting them generate themes for an imaginary discourse that parallels their imagery, glosses them, contradicts them. Simultaneously, he comments on Magritte's paintings while taking advantage of them to parade his own favorite themes: play, eroticism, subversion. Robbe-Grillet gives us a plot that frustrates expectations yet shares his pleasure with the mysterious and poetic in Magritte's art, and with the cultural myths that painter and novelist both parody.
The book includes a critical essay by novelist and translator Ben Stoltzfus on the pictorial and linguistic affinities between Magritte and Robbe-Grillet. Stoltzfus explores the image of the beautiful captive not only in her mythical and erotic dimensions, but also as a metaphor for the artistic process.
"It begins with a stone falling, in the silence, vertically, immobile. It is falling from a great height, a meteor, a massive, compact, oblong block of rock, like a giant egg with a pocked, uneven surface."
The opening sentence of "La Belle Captive" introduces a dreamworld where the conventions of the traditional novel have been overthrown. Objects move through space without regard to laws of nature, characters move through the text in a maddening complex of events.
Originally published in 1975, Alain Robbe-Grillet's "nouveau roman" is illustrated with 77 paintings by Rene Magritte. Robbe-Grillet uses Magritte's paintings as pretexts for the novel, letting them generate themes for an imaginary discourse that parallels their imagery, glosses them, contradicts them. Simultaneously, he comments on Magritte's paintings while taking advantage of them to parade his own favorite themes: play, eroticism, subversion. Robbe-Grillet gives us a plot that frustrates expectations yet shares his pleasure with the mysterious and poetic in Magritte's art, and with the cultural myths that painter and novelist both parody.
The book includes a critical essay by novelist and translator Ben Stoltzfus on the pictorial and linguistic affinities between Magritte and Robbe-Grillet. Stoltzfus explores the image of the beautiful captive not only in her mythical and erotic dimensions, but also as a metaphor for the artistic process.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Shop-books.ca (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 202001519
- Title
- La Belle Captive: A Novel
- Author
- Alain Robbe-Grillet and Rene Magritte
- Illustrator
- Rene Magritte
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0520059166
- ISBN 13
- 9780520059160
- Publisher
- University Of California Press
- Place of Publication
- Berkeley, CA
- Date Published
- 1995
- Keywords
- used books; discount books; children's books; signed books; shop books
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Literature; First Editions; Art;
Terms of Sale
Shop-books.ca
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
Shipping rates are based on the weight of the item being up to 1kg (2,2 lbs). I may contact you if the weight and dimensions of the book exceed this standard in order to arrange for additional shipping cost.
Shipping rates are based on the weight of the item being up to 1kg (2,2 lbs). I may contact you if the weight and dimensions of the book exceed this standard in order to arrange for additional shipping cost.
I ship using Canada Post and also offer expedited shipping. Please contact me for details.
About the Seller
Shop-books.ca
Biblio member since 2020
Brossard, Quebec
About Shop-books.ca
Online bookseller, specializing in limited editions, science fiction, and fantasy. www.shop-books.caI have been a small, mobile bookseller for over 15 years and have recently decided to stay in one place!
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...