|
Translated from the French by Nina Rootes
For nearly seventy years this novel remained a legend before
being published in 1973. In 1907 Guillaume Apollinaire,
one of the most original and influential poets of the twentieth
century, turned his hand to the novel. Strapped for cash,
he produced two books for the clandestine market. The finer
of these was Les Onze Mille Verges. One of the most
masterful and hilarious novels of all time, it was once
pronounced by Picasso to be Apollinaire's masterpiece.
Operating on a number of levels - the comic, the obscene,
the satirical, the deadly serious and the pessimistic - Les
Onze Mille Verges tells the story of a Romanian prince
who comes to Paris in search of fame, excitement and sexual
adventure. Leaving France, he travels to St Petersburg
and ends up in the battle-torn Manchuria of the Russo-Japanese
war, after having enough outrageous adventures to fill
a dozen novels.
‘It will be difficult to deny the work its status
as serious literature. Peter Owen are to be congratulated
on an enterprising piece of publishing, further distinguished
by a vigorous and highly readable translation.’ - Times
Literary Supplement
‘Entertainingly erotic.’ - Guardian
‘Christ!’ - Brian Case, Time Out
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE (1880 - 1918) was an art critic and
poet who had a significant influence on the French avant-garde
of the early 20th century. An important modernist figure,
he is frequently linked with such diverse movements as Cubism
and Futurism and is said to have coined the term Surrealism.
In 1913 he published a collection of poems, Alcools,
in which he radically blended traditional rhyme schemes
with unpunctuated free verse. Apollinaire volunteered for
the French army during World War I and received a head
wound in 1916. Never fully recovering, he contracted Spanish
influenza and died just before the Armistice. |
