Chateau d'Argol
by Julien Gracq
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Book Summary Information
Author: Julien GracqTranslator: Louise Varese
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-01
ISBN: 1901285146
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Book Reviews of Chateau d'Argol
Book Review: A Superb Extended Poem In Prose
Summary: 5 Stars
Julien Gracq's *Chateau d'Argol*, the author's first published work, appeared in 1939. In a lecture to Yale University students a few years later, Andre Breton, the leader of the Surrealist movement, cited the work as an example that summarized "the extent of Surrealism's conquest". By this, Breton was no doubt referring to two of Surrealism's great pre-modern sources of inspiration, the Gothic novel and Romanticism. From Breton, this was no scant praise. No doubt, however, that those who, like one reviewer below, have "studied Surrealism for six months" know better than Breton himself!
*Chateau d'Argol* is a tale of three friends, and of a disturbing menage-a-trois turned violent. In good Romantic/Gothic fashion, the changes in the richly described landscapes mirror the turbulent alterations in the characters' inner states. The setting is a lonely castle in an area of Brittany that is simultaneously real and imaginary, in that Gracq unites disparate elements of the Breton landscape and situates them in a locale of his memory-based imaginings.
The philosophy of Hegel also figures prominently in this story of doubles and opposites, of dialectical antitheses and syntheses. In addition, the author creates a strange mood of detachment through his use of third-person narrative throughout (there is not a word of dialogue in the book) that contrasts with the rich and opulent descriptive writing. Indeed, for me, the most striking and rewarding aspect of this work is its gorgeous, richly hued language, its superbly evocative and poetic narrative. Of course, there are false notes on occasion, some of which may be the fault of the translator, but, on the whole, Gracq succeeds in sustaining a hypnotically beautiful tapestry of language.
In sum, those who appreciate elevated and elegant poetic language, and who find intriguing the idea of a confluence of the Gothic, the Romantic, and the Surreal, will behold here a rare jewel of 20th-Century literature.
A note on the edition: Pushkin Press has produced a luxurious little pocket volume. Sewn bindings in paperbound books are almost as rare as the Dodo, these days. Why one of the reviewers, below, was unable to handle his copy without mutilating it, I cannot understand.
The sole serious fault of this edition is that it does, indeed, inexplicably omit Gracq's "Notice to the Reader", a brief forward in which Gracq takes an ironic tone toward those who have misread, or who may misread, his book, and affirms the inspiration that he derived from the works of Poe, Radcliffe, and Horace Walpole.
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