Items related to In the Absence of Men: A Novel
Like Michael Cunningham’s homage to Virginia Woolf in The Hours and Jean Rhys’s to Charlotte Bronte in The Wide Sargasso Sea, Philippe Besson’s extravagantly praised first novel pays tribute to Marcel Proust. It also dares to introduce an asthmatic middle-aged Proust into its masterfully manipulated plot and invents a series of deeply felt letters written by him to the novel’s young protagonist, Vincent de l’Etoile. In the summer of 1916, the emotionally precocious Vincent, who is the same age as the century, awakens to the possibilities of both erotic and platonic love. In the course of one week—at literary salons, at the Ritz, in cork-lined rooms—Vincent launches an intense friendship with the celebrated Proust, while at his parents’ house in Paris he embarks on a sensual journey with Arthur Vales, the soldier son of a family servant, on leave from the front. Unknowingly, Vincent is also beginning a passage into a manhood that will be haunted by the secret he uncovers behind the love he bears for a doomed French infantryman and a famous middle-aged Jewish writer.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Inside Flap:
A magical first novel by a talented young French author recreates Proust?s upper-middle-class Paris during WWI.
Few established novelists would dare to write a novel in which Proust appears as a character. Fewer still would have the nerve to invent love letters written by Proust to a 16-year-old boy. For a first novelist to set himself this challenge and succeed is remarkable.
Paris 1916. Vincent is 16 and approaching manhood very much ?in the absence of men? with every able-bodied young man away at the front. In his relationship with the soldier-son of one of his parent?s servants, he explores his sexuality. His platonic relationship with the middle-aged Jewish writer Marcel Proust stimulates an intelligence and sophistication remarkable in an adolescent. With both he enters a world of love, both erotic and platonic. The book is as remarkable an act of homage to a great writer as Jean Rhys? Wide Sargasso Seas was to Charlotte Bronte.
From the Back Cover:
Few established novelists would dare to write a novel in which Proust appears as a character. Fewer still would have the nerve to invent love letters written by Proust to a 16-year-old boy. For a first novelist to set himself this challenge and succeed is remarkable.
Paris 1916. Vincent is 16 and approaching manhood very much ?in the absence of men? with every able-bodied young man away at the front. In his relationship with the soldier-son of one of his parent?s servants, he explores his sexuality. His platonic relationship with the middle-aged Jewish writer Marcel Proust stimulates an intelligence and sophistication remarkable in an adolescent. With both he enters a world of love, both erotic and platonic. The book is as remarkable an act of homage to a great writer as Jean Rhys? Wide Sargasso Seas was to Charlotte Bronte.
“A short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth. It is particularly notable for a totally convincing portrait of Proust.” -- Independent
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherCarroll & Graf
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0786711612
- ISBN 13 9780786711611
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages180
- Rating
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
In the Absence of Men
Published by
Carroll & Graf Publishers
(2003)
ISBN 10: 0786711612
ISBN 13: 9780786711611
Used
Hardcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.8. Seller Inventory # G0786711612I4N00
Buy Used
US$ 56.19
Convert currency