What do you think?
Rate this book
Passacaglia
The Master ruminates on the death of an idiot who lived with him, for which he may or may not be responsible, and on his own death. He rehashes events with his friend, the doctor, and in his notebooks. His ruminations form the "passacaglia' or recurring melody of the book. "Don't bother too much about logic: everything in Passacaille is directed against it."
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
1 person is currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Robert Pinget
67 books41 followersRobert Pinget was a Swiss-born French novelist and playwright associated with the nouveau roman movement.
After completing his law studies and working as a lawyer for a year, he moved to Paris in 1946 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
In 1951, he published his first novel Entre Fantoine et Agapa. After publishing two other novels, but then having his fourth rejected by Gallimard, Pinget was recommended by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Samuel Beckett to Jérôme Lindon, head of Éditions de Minuit, where he subsequently published Graal flibuste in 1956. Éditions de Minuit became his main publisher.
Scholars and critics have often associated his work with that of his friend Samuel Beckett, who he met in 1955.
(from Wikipedia)
After completing his law studies and working as a lawyer for a year, he moved to Paris in 1946 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
In 1951, he published his first novel Entre Fantoine et Agapa. After publishing two other novels, but then having his fourth rejected by Gallimard, Pinget was recommended by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Samuel Beckett to Jérôme Lindon, head of Éditions de Minuit, where he subsequently published Graal flibuste in 1956. Éditions de Minuit became his main publisher.
Scholars and critics have often associated his work with that of his friend Samuel Beckett, who he met in 1955.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 14, 2020
Bon žur,
tak tohle byla zase jednou knížka z ranku Popletokatetepl, kdy vůbec nevím co se celou dobu dělo, akorát, že někdo nebo něco leželo na hnoji a nebo taky ne! Francouzský knížky jsou prostě stejně zapletený jako francouzský polibky. Poezie v próze mě občas nebaví, protože když chceš rohlíky, tak si taky nejdeš koupit chleba kámo, ale tentokrát to byla solidní myšlenková diskotéka se vším všudy - žádný uvozovky, skákání v čase a mezi postavami, to všechno a nonstop, až jsem omylem vystoupil na Palmovce. A tam bych teda neposlal ani svýho nejhoršího nepřítele, tedy brokolici a suši.
Za uvolnění myšlenkových šroubů dávám 8/10 a až ke mě přijde na návštěvu nějakej profesor z Fildy, tohle položím na stolek vedle Blanchota, Sančo Panza a Heigédera a řeknu ježišmarja pardon, tyhle braky používám jako podtácky snad vám to nevadí pane kápo di tuty fruty.
tak tohle byla zase jednou knížka z ranku Popletokatetepl, kdy vůbec nevím co se celou dobu dělo, akorát, že někdo nebo něco leželo na hnoji a nebo taky ne! Francouzský knížky jsou prostě stejně zapletený jako francouzský polibky. Poezie v próze mě občas nebaví, protože když chceš rohlíky, tak si taky nejdeš koupit chleba kámo, ale tentokrát to byla solidní myšlenková diskotéka se vším všudy - žádný uvozovky, skákání v čase a mezi postavami, to všechno a nonstop, až jsem omylem vystoupil na Palmovce. A tam bych teda neposlal ani svýho nejhoršího nepřítele, tedy brokolici a suši.
Za uvolnění myšlenkových šroubů dávám 8/10 a až ke mě přijde na návštěvu nějakej profesor z Fildy, tohle položím na stolek vedle Blanchota, Sančo Panza a Heigédera a řeknu ježišmarja pardon, tyhle braky používám jako podtácky snad vám to nevadí pane kápo di tuty fruty.
March 1, 2009
I decided to give this author another chance, and I was able to both understand and somewhat enjoy this story based on what I learned from "reading" the other one: I had to get used to paragraph-long run-on sentences with no dialogue references and an author who's very goal and delight it seems is to disorient you as far a possible. Regarding this disorientation, I would have found it far less obnoxious and annoying if there were spaces between the paragraphs that are taking place in another time and space, or in someone else's head.
Like I suppose a "passacaglia" (though I am not familiar with this musical element) the author uses the "narrative" to bring up and return to various themes, often repeating the same sentences or phrases over and over again, rarely presenting any new perspective, or only after a good amount of pages have passed. 5 or so events are told over and over again but from different vantage points, or these events are subtly or demonstratively altered in the re-telling. I didn't know until halfway through that the story was detailing two deaths, not one (I had to read the book jacket to learn this) but then this becomes more clear in the second half.
The "story" has many aspects of a detective story to it, as the author says on the book jacket "the object of Passacaille is to exorcise death by magical operations with words. As if the pleasure of playing with the vocabulary could delay the fatal issue." This book must have been a bitch to translate, especially with such a flippant author. How very French, how very 60's, how very friend of Samuel Beckett! But I did enjoy it better than Fable, and those two stories (and perhaps all of Pinget's work?) are variations on the same theme and formulaic attempt at writing. It came be very beautiful at times, but more often than not it is trying, and perhaps that is its major fault. The book was very cinematic, but only in the sense that an experimental film of various looping images is cinematic. I think it would make an excellent droning audiobook.
"Pasacaille is an amusing book, but it is also terrible." - Critic under Notes in back of book.
Like I suppose a "passacaglia" (though I am not familiar with this musical element) the author uses the "narrative" to bring up and return to various themes, often repeating the same sentences or phrases over and over again, rarely presenting any new perspective, or only after a good amount of pages have passed. 5 or so events are told over and over again but from different vantage points, or these events are subtly or demonstratively altered in the re-telling. I didn't know until halfway through that the story was detailing two deaths, not one (I had to read the book jacket to learn this) but then this becomes more clear in the second half.
The "story" has many aspects of a detective story to it, as the author says on the book jacket "the object of Passacaille is to exorcise death by magical operations with words. As if the pleasure of playing with the vocabulary could delay the fatal issue." This book must have been a bitch to translate, especially with such a flippant author. How very French, how very 60's, how very friend of Samuel Beckett! But I did enjoy it better than Fable, and those two stories (and perhaps all of Pinget's work?) are variations on the same theme and formulaic attempt at writing. It came be very beautiful at times, but more often than not it is trying, and perhaps that is its major fault. The book was very cinematic, but only in the sense that an experimental film of various looping images is cinematic. I think it would make an excellent droning audiobook.
"Pasacaille is an amusing book, but it is also terrible." - Critic under Notes in back of book.
April 15, 2008
Pinget says of his novel: “Don’t bother too much about logic: everything in Passacaglia is directed against it.” If that statement doesn’t put you off, read on.
The story centres on the "Master" who sits in his room writing. We learn early on that a dead body has been discovered on a dung heap but it is well through the book before the author reveals who that is and some of how he died. It is a short dense work. Pinget’s writing style is draining; he writes long, convoluted – and not altogether grammatically correct – sentences that take up entire paragraphs regularly interspersed with paragraphs of only three or four words.
The book has something of the flavour of a detective novel. We are presented with a number of characters, the sentry, the idiot, the goatherd, the master, etc. – there are few proper names in the book – all of whom act suspiciously and report the suspicious behaviour of others. The same ground is gone over, time and time again, from different perspectives, each providing a further clue or red herring.
The term ‘passacaglia’ denotes a musical work in 3/4 time based on a melodic ground bass. The problem Pinget has in using this as his template is that the passacaglia is a polyphonic form and a novel, by its very nature, can only present one voice at a time. That said, it’s not his intention to try and replicate the form literarily, rather to use the notion as a jumping off point. In that respect it works but only up to a point. Western ears struggle with polyphony and most readers will struggle with this book and its fragmentary nature. It is easy, however, to see how Pinget and Beckett – who was also preoccupied with the musicalisation of his own writing, and whose later works also took liberties with traditional syntax – could have remained friends for over thirty years.
Like any musical piece, it will work best when listened to in its entirety. Think of it as the literary equivalent of Olivier Messiaen’s, Turangalîla-Symphonie , but don’t even think about reading it in bed.
The story centres on the "Master" who sits in his room writing. We learn early on that a dead body has been discovered on a dung heap but it is well through the book before the author reveals who that is and some of how he died. It is a short dense work. Pinget’s writing style is draining; he writes long, convoluted – and not altogether grammatically correct – sentences that take up entire paragraphs regularly interspersed with paragraphs of only three or four words.
The book has something of the flavour of a detective novel. We are presented with a number of characters, the sentry, the idiot, the goatherd, the master, etc. – there are few proper names in the book – all of whom act suspiciously and report the suspicious behaviour of others. The same ground is gone over, time and time again, from different perspectives, each providing a further clue or red herring.
The term ‘passacaglia’ denotes a musical work in 3/4 time based on a melodic ground bass. The problem Pinget has in using this as his template is that the passacaglia is a polyphonic form and a novel, by its very nature, can only present one voice at a time. That said, it’s not his intention to try and replicate the form literarily, rather to use the notion as a jumping off point. In that respect it works but only up to a point. Western ears struggle with polyphony and most readers will struggle with this book and its fragmentary nature. It is easy, however, to see how Pinget and Beckett – who was also preoccupied with the musicalisation of his own writing, and whose later works also took liberties with traditional syntax – could have remained friends for over thirty years.
Like any musical piece, it will work best when listened to in its entirety. Think of it as the literary equivalent of Olivier Messiaen’s, Turangalîla-Symphonie , but don’t even think about reading it in bed.
December 21, 2016
(Read in the Trio volume)
Title refers to 'a musical form of the 17th and 18th centuries consisting of continuous variations on a ground bass in ¾ time and similar to the chaconne.' (Am. Herit. Dict. 3rd ed.)
Maddening mystery, possibly a dead body, possibly foul play, all amid a general air of menace. Could be an old man writing his memoirs at the end of his life, struggling to recall what really happened. Small town gossip—like a game of telephone—maybe this happened, maybe that, no, wait I saw her over here, no, but he was with her, no, no, that's not it, it was the mechanic, or it was the poultry man, yes, it was the goatherd, the tourist in a red sports car, near the swamp, near the barn, on the dunghill.
Distant, mostly speakerless narration that occasionally sprouts a speaker. Towards end, abruptly switches to first person narration by the old man, telling about his life with his 'idiot' adopted son, whom he molests in the bath.
Some elements are reflected in the later novel That Voice: a death under questionable circumstances; murky family history; rural locale; repetition of words and phrases; constant reconfiguring of scenes. Both books were published after the Robbe-Grillet novels they resemble in form (Jealousy, The Voyeur, In the Labyrinth). Not sure if I prefer the R-G novels only because I read them first, or if he just does this plotless, constant reconfiguring style better than Pinget. Inclined to think the latter.
Notes Pinget made to his translator about this novel:
1. 'the object of Passacaglia is to exorcise death by magical operations with words' (which does make a strange sort of sense after reading the book).
2. 'don't bother too much about logic; everything in Passacaglia is directed against it' (also an astute observation).
May 24, 2009
Passacaglia and Ill Seen Ill Said are sitting one atop the other on my desk. I think the dead old friends would smile. Then drink.
December 12, 2020
Forgotten master
Robert Singer in his lifetime figured as one of the greatest and most poetic deans of the Nouveau Roman. Passacaille is a short classic named after a form of dance music originally associated with street musicians but later taken up by serious composers. English readers should look up unfamiliar words because many provide clues to the puzzle like storyline. Longer repeats a small vocabulary like Racine or Some non making readers likely to remember previously unfamiliar terms. The plot is exciting and a bit sensationalistic, involving possible murder with a chainsaw and other penny dreadful possibilities. As often in the new novel genre, what actually happens remains uncertain, at least on first reading. One hopes Minute will make available all of Longer on ebooks soon.
Robert Singer in his lifetime figured as one of the greatest and most poetic deans of the Nouveau Roman. Passacaille is a short classic named after a form of dance music originally associated with street musicians but later taken up by serious composers. English readers should look up unfamiliar words because many provide clues to the puzzle like storyline. Longer repeats a small vocabulary like Racine or Some non making readers likely to remember previously unfamiliar terms. The plot is exciting and a bit sensationalistic, involving possible murder with a chainsaw and other penny dreadful possibilities. As often in the new novel genre, what actually happens remains uncertain, at least on first reading. One hopes Minute will make available all of Longer on ebooks soon.
October 10, 2013
Read it in a Comparative Lit class in college, finished it because it was required. Can't say I understood it, and was somewhat relieved that I didn't. (It would have been difficult in English, incomprehensible in French.)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews