No Tomorrow (New York Review Books Classics) (English and French Edition) - Softcover

Denon, Vivant

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590173260 ISBN 13: 9781590173268

Publisher: NYRB Classics, 2009

Synopsis

A Bilingual New York Review Books Original
Vivant Denon's No Tomorrow is one of the masterpieces of eighteenth-century French libertine literature, a book to set beside Choderlos de Laclos' Les Liaisons dangereuses, except that where Laclos' icy novel tells of hellish depravity, Denon's ravishing novella is a paradisal diversion. This tale of seduction is itself a seduction, with a plot that could be said to slowly unveil itself before arriving at last at an unexpected consummation.

Summoned by Madame de T—— to her country house, the young hero of Denon's novella is taken on a tour of the grounds, only the beginning of a night that not only will be full of unanticipated delights but will give rise to unforeseen, perhaps unanswerable, questions. Lydia Davis's definitive translation of Denon's slim masterpiece is accompanied by the French text. Peter Brooks's illuminating introduction explores the mysteries of No Tomorrow's original publication and the subtleties of Denon's ethics of pleasure.

About this title

About the Author:

Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825), a member of the minor French nobility, was born in Burgundy and sent to Paris to study law—a field he soon abandoned in order to pursue literature and art. After writing a play that enjoyed a small succcess, Denon became a favorite of Louis XV, who in 1769 put him in charge of Madame de Pompadour’s gemstone collection. Dispatched on various diplomatic missions to Russia and Sweden, Denon eventually joined the French embassy in Naples, where he spent seven years studying, etching, and collecting antiquities. The 1789 revolution put Denon’s life at serious risk, but he was protected by his friendship with the painter David, who employed him as a designer of costumes for revolutionary pageants. Denon allied himself to Napoleon and took part in the Egyptian campaign, making sketches of monuments that were later published in his Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt (1802), a book that helped to inspire the Egyptian Revival in the decorative arts. In 1804 Napoleon made Denon the director-general of museums and the head of the Musée Napoleon, and it was Denon who oversaw the assembly of the extraordinary collection, drawn by the Emperor’s armies from all over Europe, that remains central to today’s Louvre. Forced into retirement after Napoleon’s downfall, Denon turned to assembling an illustrated history of art, left unfinished at the time of his death but published posthumously.

Peter Brooks is the author of Henry James Goes to Paris, Realist Vision, Troubling Confessions, Reading for the Plot, The Melodramatic Imagination, and a number of other books, including the historical novel World Elsewhere. He taught for many years at Yale, where he was Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, and currently is Andrew W. Mellon Scholar at Princeton.

Lydia Davis is an American author and translator of French. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University at Albany, SUNY.

From The Washington Post:

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by by Michael Dirda The French dramatist Marivaux called one of his sparkling comedies "Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard" -- "The Game of Love and Chance." That same phrase might serve as the subtitle to this brief erotic novella, the sole known work of fiction by Vivant Denon (1747-1825). While Denon is remembered principally for this little masterpiece, in his lifetime he was one of Napoleon's chief art experts, scooping up paintings and sculpture in the wake of the emperor's conquests, then stocking the Louvre with the looted treasures. One of that museum's pavilions still bears his name. It somehow seems right that a connoisseur of the beautiful should produce such a story as "No Tomorrow" (first published in 1777, though the revised 1812 version, translated here, is preferred). One evening at the opera, a young man, already "desperately" in love with a countess, accidentally encounters her friend, the lovely and older Mme de T -- . From her box, Mme de T -- immediately begins to banter with our unnamed narrator, he responds with compliments, the mutual flirtation increases, and then this knowing woman simply whisks the 20-year-old away in her carriage. They drive to the country home of her estranged husband, with whom she is, supposedly, in the process of reconciling. M. de T -- joins them for dinner but then retires, and the enchanted evening begins. "The moon was setting, and its last rays soon lifted the veil of a modesty that was, I think, becoming rather tiresome." In his introduction, Peter Brooks -- one of the great scholars of late-18th- and 19th-century French fiction -- likens Denon's book to the paintings of Fragonard and the operas of Mozart. Certainly, "No Tomorrow" possesses comparable aesthetic virtues: lightness, brevity, wit, quickness, an air of galanterie and courtly sophistication. But all these masterworks also convey the faintest touch of melancholy, the sense that nothing lasts for long and that the wisdom of life is to enjoy each passing moment. "Carpe diem" -- seize the day -- for who knows if there will be a tomorrow? Obviously, such an approach to existence could lead to boorish and selfish excess, casual lechery and a pervasive brutalization of the spirit. But, at its highest, this hedonistic philosophy asks us to look upon the world as a work of art, one that we are allowed to enjoy during our short visit to this earthly museum, each day in it unique, each person irreplaceable. Given such an outlook, what matters is to respond as fully as possible to those evanescent moments we are offered, whether by chance or design. Some of those experiences, moreover, should be sipped and savored, not merely chugged down. Preliminary pleasures count. Only after much wandering through the gardens, exchanging kisses and caresses, does Mme de T -- disingenuously lead the narrator into a chamber -- "a vast cage of mirrors" -- adjoining her bedroom. It had been designed by her estranged husband to help awaken his own enfeebled libido. Scenes from mythology adorn the ceiling; in one corner there is a statue of Amor with an altar before it; a mound of cushions fills an alcove or "grotto." Not surprisingly, the couple's gradual entrance into this sanctum sanctorum resembles a rite or initiation; the novella's language grows hushed, distinctly religious, as is appropriate to what the poet John Donne once called "love's mysteries." The narrator even views himself as "a young proselyte." In his introduction Brooks compares this carefully orchestrated scene to the Masonic ritual -- the testing of love -- in Mozart's "Magic Flute." When Denon's couple finally engage with each other, they do so, in the critic's words, "willingly, happily, with a combination of knowledge and marvel." Nothing, though, is described in detail, and the reader must guess or imagine what happens. As Denon writes, "Discretion is the most important of the virtues." Besides, don't modern therapists insist that sex really takes place in the head? "No Tomorrow" doesn't end here, at what is actually just the midpoint of the novella. More games than one have been played during this ecstatic night, and still others will be played out on the day after. The 18th century, after all, relished irony as much as the 21st does. But why say any more -- except to add that this paperback is itself an elegant production in every way. Fragonard's "The Meeting" entrancingly graces the cover, followed by Brooks's engaging and expert introduction (which really should have been an afterword, given that it reveals so much of the novella's action). Then comes Lydia Davis's excellent English translation, succeeded in its turn by the novella's French original. Those who try the latter will find Denon's French clear and laconic, as easy as Voltaire's. You can read "No Tomorrow" in just an hour. Its chiaroscuro effects of candlelight and shadow, its teasing tone, its picture of gradual unveiling and dishabille will keep you both charmed and on edge. Embrace the gradualness, the anticipation. There's no need to rush. bookworld@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYRB Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1590173260
• ISBN 13: 9781590173268
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 63