Hortense in Exile - Hardcover

Roubaud, Jacques

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1564780015 ISBN 13: 9781564780010

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 1992

Synopsis

Set to marry Gormanskoï, the Premier Prince Presumptive, our beautiful heroine Hortense has been exiled to Queneau’stown, where she finds herself in a real-life production of Hamlet―or is it Hatmel, the original Poldevian tale scandalously plagiarized by that Englishman William Shahkayspear? Something is definitely amiss in the Poldevian Principalities, and if her loyal friends can’t rescue her or foil the plagiarized plots of her evil twin, she may require intervention from the Author and Publisher―those unlikely cohorts responsible for bringing this deftly satiric, madcap adventure to light. Brimming with literary allusions, philosophical conundrums, witty interjections, and (of course) cats, Hortense in Exile is the third installment in the altogether delightful and hilarious “Hortense Series” by French novelist and mathematician Jacques Roubaud. Combining high literary sentiments with mathematical games, brilliant wordplay and an effusive sense of humor, Roubaud’s works are some of the most enjoyable in all of contemporary literature, and he is considered to be one of the most accomplished members of Oulipo (the workshop for experimental literature founded by Raymond Queneau and including such figures as Georges Perec, Harry Mathews, and Italo Calvino).

About this title

About the Authors

Jacques Roubaud, born in 1932, has been a professor of mathematics at the University of Paris X Nanterre. He is one of the most accomplished members of the Oulipo, the workshop for experimental literature founded by Raymond Queneau and Francois Le Lionnais. He is the author of numerous books of prose, theatre and poetry.

In addition to several of Jacques Roubaud s books, Dominic Di Bernardi has translated works by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Muriel Cerf, Claude Ollier, and Patrick Grainville, among others.

Reviews

Despite the trials she suffered during the course of Our Beautiful Heroine and Hortense Is Abducted , the voluptuous Hortense is back, this time as the fiancee of the Poldevian Presumed Premier Prince. Her Prince Gormanskoi, however, finds himself playing the role of Hamlet, leaving Hortense alone with only the cat sage Alexandresic Vladimirovitch standing between her and inevitable misadventure. Poldevia, a land "populated, very likely since the Neolithic Age, by bandits and mustaches," is not one world but six co-existent worlds, one of which is under the sway of a prince whose evil intentions have carried over from Hortense Is Abducted . What next? It hardly matters. For Roubaud, a French mathematics professor and member of OuLiPo ( Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle ), the question is not where you're going but how you get there. His route is strewn with epenthesesOK , anagrams, songs, references to fellow Oulipians and asides--from commentator, printer, publisher, author, reviewer and the novel itself. For anyone whose mind has wandered while perusing France's more tedious linguistic moil, Hortense will restore faith in the nation's esprit .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Flippant, post-Calvino novel about, or not about, a near- pornographic heroine named Hortense, by French mathematics professor Roubaud (The Great Fire of London, 1991). In the first chapter, with many asides, Roubaud lingers over Hortense as she takes a bath and then dresses to go shopping, at which point Roubaud announces, ``Warning: each detail of this chapter must be observed with the strictest attention, for each is important in its own way and will not be brought up again.'' This kind of thing was more interesting in Calvino, who loved to lull the reader into madness but always had a serious theme in mind; Roubaud just wants to play. Lovely Hortense is affianced to Prince Gormanskoi of Poldevia, but she's trapped in a foreign land, or rather in several different levels of reality, all fabricated by the interfering author, whose publisher tries to intervene with hopes of getting the story underway. What is the story? Something about Hortense getting together with the stupid prince, and about an evil twin of the prince who keeps recycling old melodramas to keep them apart. Then there's a fraudulent Hortense, and some dreadful espionage against some kingdom or other. And what about those pornographic snapshots of Hortense that may or may not have blackmail potential? It's The Mouse That Roared by way of Derrida. Or it's male fantasy disguised as clever intellectual repartee. It's often amusing, and it's often just plain silly. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This delightfully unconventional novel, Roubard's third work featuring Hortense, takes up where Hortense Is Abducted ( LJ 6/15/89) left off . The attractive young fiancee of Prince Gormanskoi of Poldavia, Hortense enjoys a sexy romp through myriad subplots among a cast of characters mirroring those in various Shakespearean plays, most notably Hamlet. Her trials and tribulations in this imaginary kingdom incorporate mathematical permutations and extrapolations that suggest the French author's mathematical background. As the plot lurches along, nothing is sacred; Roubard lambastes a wide range of earthly concerns, including the environment, libraries, sartorial convention, and male chauvinism. These pungent asides, which in fact constitute the heart of the book, will tickle the ribs of readers willing to contend with the convoluted plot. The author hints at a sequel. Recommended for public and academic libraries. --Mary Ellen Beck, Troy P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1564780015
• ISBN 13: 9781564780010
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 211