The novels of Robbe-Grillet

by Bruce Morrissette

First English language edition, Translated from the French, revised, updated, and expanded by the author. Foreword by Roland Barthes.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1963

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

251003: having just had significant birthday (60), I have decided I am no longer just older- I am wiser, too. western culture has an obsession with youth. many other cultures, east, south, aboriginal, and so on, value age. by simple 'life experience' age is supposed to bring wisdom. whether so or not, I realise it is now forty years since I first read robbe-grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet, not for class, from the u library, without guidance, without safety net, even before Being and Nothingness... though like that book: I was blown away...

this was an entirely new way of rendering dreams we call 'literature', already 'classic' by my time but no less unique, exciting, entrancing... though at the time I did not read any litcrit. I read translations. I did try writing parodies of his stye-now, fortunately lost...

I read Jealousy & In the Labyrinth then The Erasers then the cine-novel Last Year at Marienbad then The Voyeur since then several of his later works, his essays Snapshots and [book:For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction then read some originals in French La Jalousie... see robbe-grillet shelf to see all on or by read (31)...

more:

by-

Jealousy & In the Labyrinth
The Erasers
Last Year at Marienbad
Voyeur
La Maison de rendez-vous
Project for a Revolution in New York
La Belle Captive
Topology of a Phantom City
Recollections of the Golden Triangle
Djinn
Repetition
A Regicide
A Sentimental Novel

francaise-
La Jalousie
Dans le labyrinthe
Les Gommes
L'année dernière à Marienbad
Instantanés

on-
For a New Novel: Essays on Fiction
Generative Literature and Generative Art: New Essays
Alain Robbe-Grillet: The Body of the Text
The Erotic Dream Machine: Interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet on His Films
Inventing The Real World: The Art of Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet

[Mark Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this tattered volume tossed onto a 99-cent rack outside of a secondhand bookstore. Unwanted children can turn out to be treasures.

Although there is no better critique of Robbe-Grillet than Robbe-Grillet himself, I'd say this study is an essential map for anyone lured into the labyrinth, or for anyone interested in "experimental" literature in general. A lot of what today's post-postmodernists are doing leads back to the New Novel, which in turn leads back to predecessors such as Kafka and Poe.

Morrissette is very familiar with what other people have to say about Robbe-Grillet and deftly critiques them in such a way as to make a case for his own readings, which are refreshingly non-psychoanalytic and realistic. Morrissette does a good job at examining the linkages within the works and how they enact Robbe-Grillet's commitment to mental realism. He looks at the available evidence, which is appropriate to Robbe-Grillet's criminological style. The result is an inspiring assemblage of interpretation and speculation that illuminates even the murkiest corners of Robbe-Grillet's world.

After rewatching Last Year at Marienbad recently, I reread Morrissette's reading of it, which, far from spoiling the enjoyment, added another level of potential (and intended) meaning. I've always been very intrigued by Project for a Revolution in New York, which might be Robbe-Grillet's most intense meditation on violence and desire. Morrissette does a fine job of articulating some of my own suspicions about that work: revolution is as much about the body as it is about the mind.

All in all, not bad for 99 cents.

[Tony Tubb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant walk-through of Robbe-Grillet's novels and cine-novels from The Erasers to Glissements. If only Morrissette had lived to cover Le Reprise! Insightful, passionate, fresh even if you've read Barthes on the subject, this is a real treat!