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giantsilkmothWakefield Press do a lot of good stuff, but in terms of "contributions to English literature" or whatever, the translation of Marcel Schwob's oeuvre might be the most important. He is a really singular, really powerful, really influential writer and I am glad to be able to properly read his work.
While The Man in the Golden Mask isn't quite as devastating as The Book of Monelle, it is very much of a piece with it. If Monelle could be said to establish a metaphysics of loss, this book forms a history of the same. Schwob's stories are largely odd little vignettes, coming off somewhere between historical anecdotes and folk tales, and they are cut through with an emotional struggle with loss, alienation, and death. In fact, while the back of the book defines these as cruel, the thing that is really striking is that they're kind of the opposite. No matter who he is writing, a knight or a thief or a witch or a dancer, Schwob is deeply empathetic towards them. His premise, to me, is that regardless of how good or bad of a person you are, death and loss comes for you, and it is both sad and beautiful that that is one of the great shared experiences of humanity. This is especially notable to me in the post-decadent and symbolist scene, which could often be intensely cruel for the sake of transgression.
I won't do the usual thing of talking about each story individually. They are all very short and, like Monelle, give the impression of this book being one unified Thing, more than a collection of disparate stories. I will list some of my favorites, though: The King in the Golden Mask, The Terrestrial Fire, The Faulx-Visaiges, The Milesian Virgins, The Talking Machine, The Flute, The Blue Country, Bargette (included in The Book of Monelle as "The Disappointed").
A powerful and striking book from a unique writer. Should be essential if you're into turn-of-the-century literature, Symbolism, or Surrealism.
While The Man in the Golden Mask isn't quite as devastating as The Book of Monelle, it is very much of a piece with it. If Monelle could be said to establish a metaphysics of loss, this book forms a history of the same. Schwob's stories are largely odd little vignettes, coming off somewhere between historical anecdotes and folk tales, and they are cut through with an emotional struggle with loss, alienation, and death. In fact, while the back of the book defines these as cruel, the thing that is really striking is that they're kind of the opposite. No matter who he is writing, a knight or a thief or a witch or a dancer, Schwob is deeply empathetic towards them. His premise, to me, is that regardless of how good or bad of a person you are, death and loss comes for you, and it is both sad and beautiful that that is one of the great shared experiences of humanity. This is especially notable to me in the post-decadent and symbolist scene, which could often be intensely cruel for the sake of transgression.
I won't do the usual thing of talking about each story individually. They are all very short and, like Monelle, give the impression of this book being one unified Thing, more than a collection of disparate stories. I will list some of my favorites, though: The King in the Golden Mask, The Terrestrial Fire, The Faulx-Visaiges, The Milesian Virgins, The Talking Machine, The Flute, The Blue Country, Bargette (included in The Book of Monelle as "The Disappointed").
A powerful and striking book from a unique writer. Should be essential if you're into turn-of-the-century literature, Symbolism, or Surrealism.
