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Băiatul prințului
Romanul unei iubiri aristocrate, frescă a unei lumi de mult apuse
Sosit la Paris, in primavara anului 1927, pentru a gusta din placerile boemei si a-si descoperi drumul ca scriitor, tinarul Dinu Grigorescu nu banuieste o clipa ca, la doar nouasprezece ani, isi va gasi iubirea vietii. In unul dintre cele mai cunoscute bordeluri pariziene, condus de un personaj pitoresc despre care se spune ca ar fi sursa de inspiratie pentru domnul Jupien al lui Proust, Dinu il intilneste pe Razvan Popescu, poreclit „baiatul printului”, care il fascineaza. Pe cit de cultivat, pe atit de salbatic, emanind deopotriva forta si fragilitate, Razvan – fiul adoptiv al unui print ilustru – devine indrumatorul lui Dinu in explorarile sale artistice si sexuale. Incarcat de referinte proustiene, strabatut pe alocuri de un lirism wagnerian, Baiatul printului este o meditatie sobra si eleganta despre iubire, moarte si arta.
„Bogat in studii de caracter, dar scris cu atita delicatete, incit la inceput abia ii observi multiplele straturi si nuante, Baiatul printului este evocarea rece a unei dureri si a unei iubiri care nu vor sa se stinga.” (The Herald)
„Ceea ce face din Baiatul printului un roman aparte sint proza eleganta, pe alocuri elegiaca, a lui Paul Bailey si reflectiile sale, pe cit de rascolitoare, pe atit de incitante, despre arta si moarte.” (The Mail on Sunday)
„Paul Bailey are acelasi talent ca si Graham Greene de a scoate la iveala o emotie si o frumusete remarcabile din cuvinte in aparen-ta fara insemnatate.” (The Independent on Sunday)
„Stilul lui Paul Bailey are o frumusete lirica, iar romanul sau este incintator si tulburator.” (The Times)
Sosit la Paris, in primavara anului 1927, pentru a gusta din placerile boemei si a-si descoperi drumul ca scriitor, tinarul Dinu Grigorescu nu banuieste o clipa ca, la doar nouasprezece ani, isi va gasi iubirea vietii. In unul dintre cele mai cunoscute bordeluri pariziene, condus de un personaj pitoresc despre care se spune ca ar fi sursa de inspiratie pentru domnul Jupien al lui Proust, Dinu il intilneste pe Razvan Popescu, poreclit „baiatul printului”, care il fascineaza. Pe cit de cultivat, pe atit de salbatic, emanind deopotriva forta si fragilitate, Razvan – fiul adoptiv al unui print ilustru – devine indrumatorul lui Dinu in explorarile sale artistice si sexuale. Incarcat de referinte proustiene, strabatut pe alocuri de un lirism wagnerian, Baiatul printului este o meditatie sobra si eleganta despre iubire, moarte si arta.
„Bogat in studii de caracter, dar scris cu atita delicatete, incit la inceput abia ii observi multiplele straturi si nuante, Baiatul printului este evocarea rece a unei dureri si a unei iubiri care nu vor sa se stinga.” (The Herald)
„Ceea ce face din Baiatul printului un roman aparte sint proza eleganta, pe alocuri elegiaca, a lui Paul Bailey si reflectiile sale, pe cit de rascolitoare, pe atit de incitante, despre arta si moarte.” (The Mail on Sunday)
„Paul Bailey are acelasi talent ca si Graham Greene de a scoate la iveala o emotie si o frumusete remarcabile din cuvinte in aparen-ta fara insemnatate.” (The Independent on Sunday)
„Stilul lui Paul Bailey are o frumusete lirica, iar romanul sau este incintator si tulburator.” (The Times)
200 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2014
9 people are currently reading
812 people want to read
About the author
Paul Bailey
171 books28 followersPeter Harry "Paul" Bailey was a British novelist and critic, as well as a biographer of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 11, 2014
Less is sometimes more. That is certainly the case in fiction. And it's undoubtedly true of 'The Prince's Boy', a short (151 pages), superficially slight novel about a number of universal issues: the fragility of life; unconventional love; fascism and anti-Semitism; and grief (to name just some). It's a beautifully written, elegant and delicate story that, with its emphasis on character rather than plot, packs a much greater punch than many seemingly more substantial novels. I really enjoyed it.
Set primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, 'The Prince's Boy' features Dinu, a young Romanian man, who is sent by his wealthy lawyer father to Paris to experience that city's Bohemian lifestyle. While visiting a well-known Parisian brothel, Dinu avails himself of the services of Razvan, a male prostitute who claims to have met the novelist Proust. Dinu falls in love with Razvan, much to the chagrin of his cousin Eduard, who has been charged with 'minding' him during his stay in Paris, and, later, his father. Razvan is "The Prince's Boy" because he was removed from his very poor Romanian upbringing and 'adopted' by a wealthy prince who had taken pity on him when he happened to see him crying his eyes out when very young. Despite the age difference between them - Razvan is almost 20 years older than Dinu - their relationship blossoms until Razvan becomes overwhelmed by regular bouts of depression and melancholy, which Dinu finds difficult to deal with. This all happens as Romania becomes locked in a political embrace with the Hitler regime in Germany, its blatant anti-Semitism and the approach of war.
'The Prince's Boy' is written in simple, unfussy, refined English that makes it easy to read. The characterisation is excellent. This is a novel of great subtlety and depth. It's a profoundly moving tale with an unsentimental but tear-inducing conclusion. It's also a story that will, I suspect, yield even greater pleasures (if that's possible) on repeated reading. A very good novel indeed! 9/10.
Set primarily in the 1920s and 1930s, 'The Prince's Boy' features Dinu, a young Romanian man, who is sent by his wealthy lawyer father to Paris to experience that city's Bohemian lifestyle. While visiting a well-known Parisian brothel, Dinu avails himself of the services of Razvan, a male prostitute who claims to have met the novelist Proust. Dinu falls in love with Razvan, much to the chagrin of his cousin Eduard, who has been charged with 'minding' him during his stay in Paris, and, later, his father. Razvan is "The Prince's Boy" because he was removed from his very poor Romanian upbringing and 'adopted' by a wealthy prince who had taken pity on him when he happened to see him crying his eyes out when very young. Despite the age difference between them - Razvan is almost 20 years older than Dinu - their relationship blossoms until Razvan becomes overwhelmed by regular bouts of depression and melancholy, which Dinu finds difficult to deal with. This all happens as Romania becomes locked in a political embrace with the Hitler regime in Germany, its blatant anti-Semitism and the approach of war.
'The Prince's Boy' is written in simple, unfussy, refined English that makes it easy to read. The characterisation is excellent. This is a novel of great subtlety and depth. It's a profoundly moving tale with an unsentimental but tear-inducing conclusion. It's also a story that will, I suspect, yield even greater pleasures (if that's possible) on repeated reading. A very good novel indeed! 9/10.
June 21, 2014
Good grief.
I suspect people who enjoy this are the kind of readers who pick up their books with reverence, read a sentence and swill it around for the flavour for hours, then digest, then cogitate on the wonderful experience. Each sentence.
However, I prefer my reading to resemble being in the back of a off-road vehicle in the mountains--exhilarating, challenging and FUN.
NOT for me.
Gave up after the first chapter.
I suspect people who enjoy this are the kind of readers who pick up their books with reverence, read a sentence and swill it around for the flavour for hours, then digest, then cogitate on the wonderful experience. Each sentence.
However, I prefer my reading to resemble being in the back of a off-road vehicle in the mountains--exhilarating, challenging and FUN.
NOT for me.
Gave up after the first chapter.
December 14, 2024
Originally I wrote the following:
'I read and loved this book ten years ago. Rather then give it a partial review I am going to reread the book which will, I am sure, be worth five stars'.
I have reread it and it gets five stars and is shelved under all three of my highest accolades but like most of my favorite books I don't know what to say about it so I am not going to try. All I am going to do is reprint the review from The Guardian when the novel was published in 2014:
'The author of In Search of Lost Time crops up a lot in Paul Bailey's very sweet, very sad and very short new novel, but it's not only its brevity – a mere 151 pages – that sets it apart from Proust's modernist mammoth.
'Shortly after his beloved mother's death in 1927, Dinu, a 19-year-old Romanian, is dispatched by his wealthy father to Paris. The stated purpose for the pale young aesthete is a chance for him to steep himself in Europe's capital of culture, and write. But it seems pretty clear that the tacit aim is to distract him from an acute and consuming grief. Dinu learns much here while busy not writing, not least of the demimonde Proust inhabited and where he is able to discover his transgressive sexuality in a time long before homosexuals – even in Paris – were able to be "gay".
'Narrating these formative years from a distance of four decades, Dinu recalls finding "a complicated – oh how complicated – soulmate" in Proust. The master is five years dead when Dinu arrives, but traces of his life remain in the hidden society of forbidden appetites Dinu is drawn to, despite the interdictions of his Orthodox faith, and the ghostly disapproval of his mother.
'One afternoon, habits loosened by claret, he takes some of his father's subsidy to commit "a crime against nature and a cardinal sin" at the Bains du Ballon d'Alsace, where Monsieur Albert caters to monied gentlemen – including, in the past, a certain Marcel – with unusual tastes. M Albert, enthroned behind a cash box, and scenting the arrival of another of the aristocrats who are "his passion", directs the tremulous ingenue in to see "a beast beyond compare".
'Strong and dark where Dinu is pale and spindly, "Honoré" fulfils the wishes he can barely acknowledge. After an overwhelming first experience of sex, the two of them shed their thin French aliases and discover they are both Romanian. Razvan, it turns out, was born a peasant but was adopted rather whimsically by a minor royal, educated abroad and refined out of his original existence before losing his benefactor.
'So begins a love that will continue through Europe's convulsions in the coming years, informed by the author's long acquaintance with a tortured nation. Unlike Proust's accounts of delusional passion, the truth of their love is never in doubt, despite the sordid commercial transaction with which it begins.
'The story almost challenges us to find all this sentimental, carrying its feeling with an unembarrassed intensity and Romanian sufletul (soul). Cutting against any surrender to schmaltz is a clear-eyed portrait of a country succumbing to nazism. First his cousin Raoul, who had been Dinu's tutor in cosmopolitan pleasure, returns to Bucharest and severs ties with Jewish business; then Dinu hears antisemitic vocabulary begin to poison the conversations of even the most apparently large-hearted of his loved ones.
'Loss and grief have been a preoccupation in many of Bailey's novels since his 1967 debut, and they recur here in a narrative that mixes private and public tragedy. What is missing is the amplitude that made the crowded casts of novels such as his Booker-nominated Gabriel's Lament fizz with Dickensian energy, replaced with something more distilled.
'In an underacknowledged career, Bailey has mastered the craft of telling a large story through small but piquant details and knowing where the reader can be left to fill in the spaces. His nimble-footed storytelling moves lightly over great distances of time and space to produce something like a Victorian novel in miniature.'
'I read and loved this book ten years ago. Rather then give it a partial review I am going to reread the book which will, I am sure, be worth five stars'.
I have reread it and it gets five stars and is shelved under all three of my highest accolades but like most of my favorite books I don't know what to say about it so I am not going to try. All I am going to do is reprint the review from The Guardian when the novel was published in 2014:
'The author of In Search of Lost Time crops up a lot in Paul Bailey's very sweet, very sad and very short new novel, but it's not only its brevity – a mere 151 pages – that sets it apart from Proust's modernist mammoth.
'Shortly after his beloved mother's death in 1927, Dinu, a 19-year-old Romanian, is dispatched by his wealthy father to Paris. The stated purpose for the pale young aesthete is a chance for him to steep himself in Europe's capital of culture, and write. But it seems pretty clear that the tacit aim is to distract him from an acute and consuming grief. Dinu learns much here while busy not writing, not least of the demimonde Proust inhabited and where he is able to discover his transgressive sexuality in a time long before homosexuals – even in Paris – were able to be "gay".
'Narrating these formative years from a distance of four decades, Dinu recalls finding "a complicated – oh how complicated – soulmate" in Proust. The master is five years dead when Dinu arrives, but traces of his life remain in the hidden society of forbidden appetites Dinu is drawn to, despite the interdictions of his Orthodox faith, and the ghostly disapproval of his mother.
'One afternoon, habits loosened by claret, he takes some of his father's subsidy to commit "a crime against nature and a cardinal sin" at the Bains du Ballon d'Alsace, where Monsieur Albert caters to monied gentlemen – including, in the past, a certain Marcel – with unusual tastes. M Albert, enthroned behind a cash box, and scenting the arrival of another of the aristocrats who are "his passion", directs the tremulous ingenue in to see "a beast beyond compare".
'Strong and dark where Dinu is pale and spindly, "Honoré" fulfils the wishes he can barely acknowledge. After an overwhelming first experience of sex, the two of them shed their thin French aliases and discover they are both Romanian. Razvan, it turns out, was born a peasant but was adopted rather whimsically by a minor royal, educated abroad and refined out of his original existence before losing his benefactor.
'So begins a love that will continue through Europe's convulsions in the coming years, informed by the author's long acquaintance with a tortured nation. Unlike Proust's accounts of delusional passion, the truth of their love is never in doubt, despite the sordid commercial transaction with which it begins.
'The story almost challenges us to find all this sentimental, carrying its feeling with an unembarrassed intensity and Romanian sufletul (soul). Cutting against any surrender to schmaltz is a clear-eyed portrait of a country succumbing to nazism. First his cousin Raoul, who had been Dinu's tutor in cosmopolitan pleasure, returns to Bucharest and severs ties with Jewish business; then Dinu hears antisemitic vocabulary begin to poison the conversations of even the most apparently large-hearted of his loved ones.
'Loss and grief have been a preoccupation in many of Bailey's novels since his 1967 debut, and they recur here in a narrative that mixes private and public tragedy. What is missing is the amplitude that made the crowded casts of novels such as his Booker-nominated Gabriel's Lament fizz with Dickensian energy, replaced with something more distilled.
'In an underacknowledged career, Bailey has mastered the craft of telling a large story through small but piquant details and knowing where the reader can be left to fill in the spaces. His nimble-footed storytelling moves lightly over great distances of time and space to produce something like a Victorian novel in miniature.'
September 30, 2014
I won a copy of this book here on Goodreads.
In some ways this was a wonderful book, in others it was pompous—trying far too hard to be what it is. In the wonderful column are a host of colourful characters, a strong, abiding love and some great writing.
However, I struggled to really get into the narrative. I found the dialogue almost unbearably stiff. It was purposefully so, for sure, since the characters are mostly of the upper-crust and thus constrained by the dictates and decorum of polite society. But I still found it unnatural to read.
The whole thing felt very much like a poorly done costume drama, set in the mid twenties. It tries so hard to be Paris in the 20s that it just comes off as an archetype of that time and place, rather than a believable story set there. Everyone is fashionably morose, maudlin and mawkish, voguishly liberated, libatious, and lascivious (or not), etc. Alternatively, perhaps it was striving to mimic the gravitas of the literary greats Dinu is so found of reading. But, again, it just felt forced.
I did appreciate that, while there are small joys here, this is an incredibly sad story and Bailey has allowed his characters the freedom to wallow in it. He never gives in to the popular pressure to provide everyone a sacrosanct happy ending. I also found something immensely gratifying in considering how The Prince's gift to his boy was also so very cruel, though Razvan could never regret receiving it. It's a testament to the duplicity of human nature, for sure.
I think that there is a lot to recommend this book to the right reader. I just don't know if I was that reader.
In some ways this was a wonderful book, in others it was pompous—trying far too hard to be what it is. In the wonderful column are a host of colourful characters, a strong, abiding love and some great writing.
However, I struggled to really get into the narrative. I found the dialogue almost unbearably stiff. It was purposefully so, for sure, since the characters are mostly of the upper-crust and thus constrained by the dictates and decorum of polite society. But I still found it unnatural to read.
The whole thing felt very much like a poorly done costume drama, set in the mid twenties. It tries so hard to be Paris in the 20s that it just comes off as an archetype of that time and place, rather than a believable story set there. Everyone is fashionably morose, maudlin and mawkish, voguishly liberated, libatious, and lascivious (or not), etc. Alternatively, perhaps it was striving to mimic the gravitas of the literary greats Dinu is so found of reading. But, again, it just felt forced.
I did appreciate that, while there are small joys here, this is an incredibly sad story and Bailey has allowed his characters the freedom to wallow in it. He never gives in to the popular pressure to provide everyone a sacrosanct happy ending. I also found something immensely gratifying in considering how The Prince's gift to his boy was also so very cruel, though Razvan could never regret receiving it. It's a testament to the duplicity of human nature, for sure.
I think that there is a lot to recommend this book to the right reader. I just don't know if I was that reader.
April 12, 2025
"- Hai să trăiești cu mine, Dinicule, înainte să încep să merg în baston.
- Ziua aceea e foarte departe.
- Este? În 1939 voi împlini cincizeci de ani. Timpul trece pe lângă noi. Vreau să mai petrec măcar câțiva ani cu tine. Hai înapoi cu mine, dragule."
- Ziua aceea e foarte departe.
- Este? În 1939 voi împlini cincizeci de ani. Timpul trece pe lângă noi. Vreau să mai petrec măcar câțiva ani cu tine. Hai înapoi cu mine, dragule."
February 17, 2015
1927: following the sudden death of his beloved mother, nineteen-year-old Dinu Grigorescu is shipped off from Bucharest to Paris by his wealthy father. The plan is for him to recover from the bereavement, write a book, and enjoy the bohemian pleasures of Paris. But the pleasures that young Dinu seeks are not what his father imagines…. It does not take him long to find his way to the Bains du Ballon d’Alsace, a brothel for men who desire sex with other men. Dinu hires ‘a beast beyond compare’ and the experience is so gratifying he feels compelled to see this brute again, despite his immense guilt. But on this second visit, both men drop their defences as well as their clothes. The beast confesses that his real name is Razvan and he is also Romanian. After their sex, Razvan insists on leaving the brothel with Dinu despite the owner’s objections − he has fallen in love and the feeling is mutual.
And so begins a long love affair between the two, which is complicated by many difficulties, the need for secrecy, and also lengthy periods apart. But Razvan is also a most curious and enigmatic character, who only slowly reveals himself to Dinu. He was born the son of a peasant, but at age eleven was adopted by a Romanian prince, who educated and moulded him into a cultured man. But when the prince abruptly killed himself, Razvan was left in a curious limbo.
This is Paul Bailey’s third ‘Romanian’ novel and is probably the one which will appeal the most to a gay male reader. Essentially it is the story of a lifelong gay relationship crossed with a gay version of Pygmalion and set against a most atmospheric backdrop. Paris and Romania are captured with great flair, the historical details about Romania are fascinating, and all the characters (even the minor ones) are captivatingly real. The novel is slim at only 150 pages; yet despite the economy of the prose, the story feels fully developed and satisfying. It is a pleasure to read in one sitting.
And so begins a long love affair between the two, which is complicated by many difficulties, the need for secrecy, and also lengthy periods apart. But Razvan is also a most curious and enigmatic character, who only slowly reveals himself to Dinu. He was born the son of a peasant, but at age eleven was adopted by a Romanian prince, who educated and moulded him into a cultured man. But when the prince abruptly killed himself, Razvan was left in a curious limbo.
This is Paul Bailey’s third ‘Romanian’ novel and is probably the one which will appeal the most to a gay male reader. Essentially it is the story of a lifelong gay relationship crossed with a gay version of Pygmalion and set against a most atmospheric backdrop. Paris and Romania are captured with great flair, the historical details about Romania are fascinating, and all the characters (even the minor ones) are captivatingly real. The novel is slim at only 150 pages; yet despite the economy of the prose, the story feels fully developed and satisfying. It is a pleasure to read in one sitting.
May 15, 2014
Another sublime slice of delicious writing from Paul Bailey. Romantic and full of longing, this tale of unexpected and forbidden love, spanning 40 years of the last century, set in Paris and Romania is quite wonderful. Short, sweet and sorrowful, but also uplifting, a touching story that speaks from and of the heart.
February 9, 2023
There is some beauty in this, although mostly it is too obsessed with Proust and too pretentious
March 7, 2016
Very brief, deceptively simple in its writing and construction, The Prince’s Boy is an exquisite novel of love and loss that casts a bittersweet spell on the reader. It starts as a Parisian fairy tale set in the twenties, as we meet young and beautiful Dinu, a wealthy Romanian boy who’s sent to Paris to enjoy the good life, when Paris was the center of the so-called années folles. Dinu’s love for the virile, irresistible, and older Razvan (the Prince’s boy of the title) is absolute, deliciously romantic, and charmingly old-fashioned – yet decadent enough, as the two men meet in a male brothel where Marcel Proust used to go. Bailey loves Proust, and there are many references to the God of French writers here, but those pages also reminded me of the Colette who penned Gigi and Chéri. The novel then evolves into a more melancholy, tragic tale of family conflicts and rising political turmoil, as Europe skies darken. Reality settles in. It cannot crush the love of Dinu and Razvan, but fate and History can be cruel. The last section of the novel, which covers many decades with a serene sense of detachment, attains a deeply touching, elegiac tone, as it makes us feel the passage of time, the persistence of memories, the lasting imprint of passion, the mysteries of life in all their beauty and sadness. The elegance of Paul Bailey’s prose creates magic. The Prince’s Boy could have been a massive, tumultuous historical and sentimental saga, but Bailey has chosen a different path, and his short book, so delicately written, engulfs us in a poignant world where, behind a few chosen words, myriads of emotions flicker between light and shadow.
June 13, 2015
Îl „cunosc” pe Paul Bailey din poveștile lui Marius Chivu, care s-a ocupat și de această delicată traducere. Nu pot decât să mă înclin în fața talentului lui Marius de a pune în cuvinte românești o proză esențialmente românească, scrisă însă de un străin și într-o limbă atât de diferită. Obișnuită cu realismul ironic sau chiar sarcastic al englezilor, am avut senzația că citesc un scriitor interbelic de la noi care din cine știe ce eroare nu a intrat în programa de BAC. În afară de povestea care aduce, în sine, suficiente motive pentru a citi „Băiatul prințului”, am găsit la Paul Bailey acea fină analiză psihologică bine ascunsă printre dialoguri și autorevelări pe care n-o găsesc mereu nici în cărțile care și-au propus să o facă. O poveste plină de nostalgie, pentru care am găsit și muzica perfectă:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fbkF...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fbkF...
March 3, 2017
It's a little like a Cocteau drawing set in words, this book. The narrator, who's very much of his time and place, conveys his story in a very un-modern way: that is almost as much by what is not on the page as by the words that appear there. There's a great deal of passion, but it's very contained and expressed with great discretion. And such atmosphere! It's time travel condensed into a very compact book. I'll look forward to a second read, I think.
December 20, 2015
I liked the story well enough, but the language was too precious and exalted for me. I don't know if this is the author's usual writing style, or if he merely thought it befitted the main characters. It does rather, but I found it annoying anyway.
A quote to remember:
A quote to remember:
The logic of the malignly powerful is beyond the logic of the ordinary citizen. It functions in its own absurd universe. (p. 131)
November 24, 2016
I keep bouncing from 4 and 5 stars on this one. Wish I could do a 4.5. I feel that the writing in this piece is beautiful and fits the setting and characters along with the theme. I had no idea what I was getting into as I was just looking to read a novel in 1st POV (Point of View). I fell in love with it all; the characters, settings, events, the language, voice, style...EVERYTHING. I knew I was falling in love with it. I knew things were going to happen and I waited for them in the way that one waits to watch the sunset, knowing that it is the end of another day and yet the ending is too beautiful to neglect.
And, this novel did much more than to entertain. I learned things about history and art. Marcel Proust, a French novelist, was a person I had never heard of and now I'm determined to read at least one of his works. I didn't have a full understanding of the role that Romania played during WWII and now I'm looking into that history to learn more. There are other examples, throughout the book, that I am leaving out.
And there was so much to explore, human sexuality, religion, politics, and bigotry. All of these subjects touched and done so in a way that led me to not sympathy for the characters, but empathy. Interesting, I picked this book up before the elections, not knowing what it was about, and here it touches on many of the fears that many Americans, and many others around the world, are facing. A fitting read for me during these days.
And, this novel did much more than to entertain. I learned things about history and art. Marcel Proust, a French novelist, was a person I had never heard of and now I'm determined to read at least one of his works. I didn't have a full understanding of the role that Romania played during WWII and now I'm looking into that history to learn more. There are other examples, throughout the book, that I am leaving out.
And there was so much to explore, human sexuality, religion, politics, and bigotry. All of these subjects touched and done so in a way that led me to not sympathy for the characters, but empathy. Interesting, I picked this book up before the elections, not knowing what it was about, and here it touches on many of the fears that many Americans, and many others around the world, are facing. A fitting read for me during these days.
September 27, 2015
Aw.... this book was, in some ways, all too adorable.
And in others, pedophilic.
Which is why I am forced to give it 3 stars instead of the 5 it would have deserved otherwise.
The main character, Dinu, is your typical innocent gay man. I'm all for this trope, especially because he's 19 at the start of the book- just the age when men are supposed to get married to women and have six attractive children and live out their lives the way their parents want them to.
Dinu, however, chooses different. He ends up at the Bains du Ballon d'Alsace- a house of male sex workers. For men.
Again, I have no issue with sex workers in books. Hell, I love reading about sex workers in a positive light! End the stigma! Woo!
The issue comes up when Dinu chooses Razvan.
Razvan is twenty years older than him.
This is the kind of relationship that makes me want to vomit a little. Or a lot.
See, I love the idea of the innocent 19-year-old gay boy finding a strong, tough man to show him the ways of gay sex, but not when said man is in his late thirties. That's pretty much disgusting.
In fact, they even pretend that Razvan is his father on outings. And they sexualise this father/son relationship.
One thing I hate more than drastic age differences?
Daddy kinks.
Incest and age differences should never be romanticised, which is why this book is getting 3 stars.
And in others, pedophilic.
Which is why I am forced to give it 3 stars instead of the 5 it would have deserved otherwise.
The main character, Dinu, is your typical innocent gay man. I'm all for this trope, especially because he's 19 at the start of the book- just the age when men are supposed to get married to women and have six attractive children and live out their lives the way their parents want them to.
Dinu, however, chooses different. He ends up at the Bains du Ballon d'Alsace- a house of male sex workers. For men.
Again, I have no issue with sex workers in books. Hell, I love reading about sex workers in a positive light! End the stigma! Woo!
The issue comes up when Dinu chooses Razvan.
Razvan is twenty years older than him.
This is the kind of relationship that makes me want to vomit a little. Or a lot.
See, I love the idea of the innocent 19-year-old gay boy finding a strong, tough man to show him the ways of gay sex, but not when said man is in his late thirties. That's pretty much disgusting.
In fact, they even pretend that Razvan is his father on outings. And they sexualise this father/son relationship.
One thing I hate more than drastic age differences?
Daddy kinks.
Incest and age differences should never be romanticised, which is why this book is getting 3 stars.
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October 7, 2014Dinu Grigorescu arrives in Paris from Bucharest filled with aspirations of becoming a writer. The year is 1927 and the young 19-year-old’s trip has been funded by his rich father.
Dinu lives a self indulgent lifestyle in Paris, where not much writing is done. When his time in Paris is up he moves back home to Bucharest where his father has a new wife. At first he mistrusts her, but later she will become his greatest confidant. Amalia will guard Dinu’s secret about his love for Rãvan, a fellow Romanian who he met in Paris.
You later learn the story is written by an older Dinu while living in London as he looks back on the past 40 years.
Although the book is short, Dinu’s story is not always easy to read. What Dinu would describe as his earnest memoir, can come across as quite vain.
Dinu lives a self indulgent lifestyle in Paris, where not much writing is done. When his time in Paris is up he moves back home to Bucharest where his father has a new wife. At first he mistrusts her, but later she will become his greatest confidant. Amalia will guard Dinu’s secret about his love for Rãvan, a fellow Romanian who he met in Paris.
You later learn the story is written by an older Dinu while living in London as he looks back on the past 40 years.
Although the book is short, Dinu’s story is not always easy to read. What Dinu would describe as his earnest memoir, can come across as quite vain.
January 4, 2016
Iubirea și moartea sunt temele în jurul cărora se învârte romanul. O iubire ce înflorește într-un mediu dezmățat și sfidează etichetele socială având în vedere că îndrăgostiții sunt de același sex. Rândurile sunt împodobite cu dor și dorință, în timp ce paginile sunt impregnate cu amintirea neîncetată a morții. Aici iubirea nu poate fi afectată de trecerea timpului și nici de micile neînțelegeri zilnice fiind mai presus de tristețe și remușcare. ( continuare)
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January 21, 2015
I have but one complaint about this novel: it was so short, it took me but a couple of nights to read and I was so sad that it ended! I could have read 1,000 more pages of this story! Extremely well written. The settings are authentically portrayed. The love story is intense and beautiful. And the tension of the era comes out strongly. A story well told.
January 26, 2015
While reading this, I laughed out loud and exclaimed, "Am I supposed to take this seriously?" As a farce, it was at least amusing until I reached the end which was depressing and disgusting (the main character vomits on his lover's grave). Avoid this book!
May 5, 2014
A delightful read with some sparkling dialogue.
December 11, 2014
Bailey's slim novella makes up for in enchantment what it lacks in length.... although the story is appropriately just as long as it needs to be.
October 5, 2014
I won a copy of this book here on Goodreads.
This was a truly one of the most heart touching and wonderful books I have read in a long time.
This was a truly one of the most heart touching and wonderful books I have read in a long time.
November 16, 2015
If this is good writing, I have no desire to be a good writer.
May 9, 2019
O carte ce mi-a plăcut, chiar și a doua oară 😅
August 2, 2022
This small novel published in 2014, is the story of a melancholy love affair which took place in Paris in the 1920s and 30s and spanned several decades. Forty years later, an older Romanian man now living in London, shares the experience as he records the memorable affair and its meaning in his life as a writer.
In 1927 Dinu Griggorescue, a nineteen year old teenager with literary ambitions, arrives in Paris. Seven years earlier his mother Elena died and he has still not recovered from his loss. His father Cézar, a wealthy lawyer in Bucharest, hoping to distract his aimless son from his all-consuming grief, has generously gifted him a trip to Paris, so he can immerse himself in European culture and begin his writing career. Dinu travels to the city, moves into a garret attic-style apartment in Montmartre and is introduced by his cousin Eduard to the unique pleasures of bohemian life.
Dinu is happy in this exciting city, his head full of words he wants to put on paper but do not flow so easily from his pen; they just stay floating about in his thoughts. He knows he must not rush, he must wait for inspiration, so he immerses himself in Parisian life, growing more confident day by day with the language and his surroundings.
While drinking at a bar, he overhears a man speak about an establishment that can provide everything a man could want for one hundred francs. Fueled by the claret he has consumed, Dinu is drawn into the Bains du Ballon D’Alsace, a male brothel owned by Monsieur Albert. When he enters the brothel under the assumed name Silvu Golescu, the owner knows exactly what Dinu wants. He is accustomed to catering to the needs of wealthy aristocratic men with unusual tastes and introduces Dinu to a middle-aged man named “Honoré”. The man has a large build and is physically very different, strong and dark while Dinu is thin and pale. Honoré recognizes Dinu is a virgin and carefully and sensitively introduces his client to his first sexual experience. That experience is gratifying for both of them and as the two men become more comfortable with one another, they shed their fictitious names of “Silvu” and “Honoré” to reveal their authentic names of Dinu and Razvan and learn they are both from the same country.
Initially, the encounter although wonderfully satisfying, bothers Dinu. He knows what he is doing is not natural; he should be entertaining young girls and trying to kiss them. His guilt drives him to visit a local priest who listens and counsels Dinu to resist the urges that led him to the brothel. At night as he lies in bed, Dinu also shares his sins with the ghost of his dead mother, who chastises his behavior, urges him to take confession and cleanse hs mind and body that he has so recklessly sullied.
Despite his guilt, Dinu continues to visit the brothel and it is not long before the two become devoted lovers. Razvan wants to be faithful to Dinu and leaves the brothel to devote himself to his young lover.
As they share the story of their lives with each other, Dinu learns that Razvan Popescu was born a peasant, but when he was eleven years old, he was taken in by a minor royal and became known as “the prince’s son”. His adopted father provided him with an education but Razvan lost his generous benefactor when the prince had a stroke. Finding his disability depressing, he committed suicide.
Dinu and Razvan’s long affair is played out in the 1930s against the backdrop of a country in the beginning stages of fascism and Nazism. Dinu becomes aware of this new political reality when he is back home and his cousin begins voicing a profound contempt for Jewish bankers, politicians and businessmen. He has come to believe that Jews have a pernicious influence on Romanian affairs and as the months pass, Dinu gradually begins to hear more of such talk from his own family.
When Dinu returned from Paris, he discovered his father had remarried. His stepmother Amalia, gradually became aware of Dinu’s sexual orientation, but accepted it and helped him hide it from his father. When his father eventually discovered his son's secret, he became enraged and insisted Dinu at least assume the demeanor of a young man interested in women, even if he never acted on it. Dinu, unable to live a lie, continued his education so he could earn a living and no longer be financially dependent on his father and returned to Paris to be with Razvan.
The couple lived in a compatible relationship until Razvan died. The months before his death were difficult, as Dinu experienced periods of despair and Razvan, unhappy, longed for death.
There are several missteps in this story, including the rapidity with which the two men declare their love for one another. Certainly, that takes longer to develop than the experience of a few surreptitious sexual encounters. In addition, it is never clear what connects the lovers other than their sexual attraction, but there was obviously something that held the relationship together over time.
Although their physical love played a large part in their relationship, the love scenes are not graphic and occur off the page, like an old-time movie that fades out after letting its viewers know the direction things are going.
There are several references to Marcel Proust, a well-known writer who also lived in Paris. He too was a homosexual who frequented male brothels but never revealed his orientation publicly and shared his secret only with close friends and family. Both Dinu and Razvan share their experiences with the man and feel a connection to him. Dinu found Proust complicated, but he believed Proust was a writer he wanted to emulate.
I did not find Bailey’s writing memorable nor did I fully understand why Bailey chose to tell this story. Was there an underlying moral? Was it a confession? A simple memoir? What is the reader to take away from this short story?
Knowing this British writer had two previous novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, I expected something more. Perhaps I have missed something.
In 1927 Dinu Griggorescue, a nineteen year old teenager with literary ambitions, arrives in Paris. Seven years earlier his mother Elena died and he has still not recovered from his loss. His father Cézar, a wealthy lawyer in Bucharest, hoping to distract his aimless son from his all-consuming grief, has generously gifted him a trip to Paris, so he can immerse himself in European culture and begin his writing career. Dinu travels to the city, moves into a garret attic-style apartment in Montmartre and is introduced by his cousin Eduard to the unique pleasures of bohemian life.
Dinu is happy in this exciting city, his head full of words he wants to put on paper but do not flow so easily from his pen; they just stay floating about in his thoughts. He knows he must not rush, he must wait for inspiration, so he immerses himself in Parisian life, growing more confident day by day with the language and his surroundings.
While drinking at a bar, he overhears a man speak about an establishment that can provide everything a man could want for one hundred francs. Fueled by the claret he has consumed, Dinu is drawn into the Bains du Ballon D’Alsace, a male brothel owned by Monsieur Albert. When he enters the brothel under the assumed name Silvu Golescu, the owner knows exactly what Dinu wants. He is accustomed to catering to the needs of wealthy aristocratic men with unusual tastes and introduces Dinu to a middle-aged man named “Honoré”. The man has a large build and is physically very different, strong and dark while Dinu is thin and pale. Honoré recognizes Dinu is a virgin and carefully and sensitively introduces his client to his first sexual experience. That experience is gratifying for both of them and as the two men become more comfortable with one another, they shed their fictitious names of “Silvu” and “Honoré” to reveal their authentic names of Dinu and Razvan and learn they are both from the same country.
Initially, the encounter although wonderfully satisfying, bothers Dinu. He knows what he is doing is not natural; he should be entertaining young girls and trying to kiss them. His guilt drives him to visit a local priest who listens and counsels Dinu to resist the urges that led him to the brothel. At night as he lies in bed, Dinu also shares his sins with the ghost of his dead mother, who chastises his behavior, urges him to take confession and cleanse hs mind and body that he has so recklessly sullied.
Despite his guilt, Dinu continues to visit the brothel and it is not long before the two become devoted lovers. Razvan wants to be faithful to Dinu and leaves the brothel to devote himself to his young lover.
As they share the story of their lives with each other, Dinu learns that Razvan Popescu was born a peasant, but when he was eleven years old, he was taken in by a minor royal and became known as “the prince’s son”. His adopted father provided him with an education but Razvan lost his generous benefactor when the prince had a stroke. Finding his disability depressing, he committed suicide.
Dinu and Razvan’s long affair is played out in the 1930s against the backdrop of a country in the beginning stages of fascism and Nazism. Dinu becomes aware of this new political reality when he is back home and his cousin begins voicing a profound contempt for Jewish bankers, politicians and businessmen. He has come to believe that Jews have a pernicious influence on Romanian affairs and as the months pass, Dinu gradually begins to hear more of such talk from his own family.
When Dinu returned from Paris, he discovered his father had remarried. His stepmother Amalia, gradually became aware of Dinu’s sexual orientation, but accepted it and helped him hide it from his father. When his father eventually discovered his son's secret, he became enraged and insisted Dinu at least assume the demeanor of a young man interested in women, even if he never acted on it. Dinu, unable to live a lie, continued his education so he could earn a living and no longer be financially dependent on his father and returned to Paris to be with Razvan.
The couple lived in a compatible relationship until Razvan died. The months before his death were difficult, as Dinu experienced periods of despair and Razvan, unhappy, longed for death.
There are several missteps in this story, including the rapidity with which the two men declare their love for one another. Certainly, that takes longer to develop than the experience of a few surreptitious sexual encounters. In addition, it is never clear what connects the lovers other than their sexual attraction, but there was obviously something that held the relationship together over time.
Although their physical love played a large part in their relationship, the love scenes are not graphic and occur off the page, like an old-time movie that fades out after letting its viewers know the direction things are going.
There are several references to Marcel Proust, a well-known writer who also lived in Paris. He too was a homosexual who frequented male brothels but never revealed his orientation publicly and shared his secret only with close friends and family. Both Dinu and Razvan share their experiences with the man and feel a connection to him. Dinu found Proust complicated, but he believed Proust was a writer he wanted to emulate.
I did not find Bailey’s writing memorable nor did I fully understand why Bailey chose to tell this story. Was there an underlying moral? Was it a confession? A simple memoir? What is the reader to take away from this short story?
Knowing this British writer had two previous novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, I expected something more. Perhaps I have missed something.
September 16, 2017
It is a good thing that the author of this book seems to hold frivolity in high steem, because this is a frivolous piece of literature. Not once did I feel a conection with any of the characters in this story, everything felt artificial and one-dimmensional, not to mention clichéd.
Once again I was stuck with story that seemed to be out of a B-class yaoi manga, but without the visual appeal. Is this the norm in the so-called LGBT genre? At least it was short and easy to read; the author has a very clean and pretty writing style, I give him that, altough I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. It wasn't terribly bad, but it's just not worth the time.
Once again I was stuck with story that seemed to be out of a B-class yaoi manga, but without the visual appeal. Is this the norm in the so-called LGBT genre? At least it was short and easy to read; the author has a very clean and pretty writing style, I give him that, altough I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. It wasn't terribly bad, but it's just not worth the time.
September 23, 2023
See also my previous review on 'Chapman's Odyssey'. 'The Prince's Boy' takes one foot from the grave in what could have been Bailey's last novel, to a nostalgic yet life affirming gay reminiscence on life in the big city. It felt perhaps more slight than some of Bailey's books, but this could be my overfamiliarity with LGBTQ+ books of late, having run a queer book club. It strays towards fantasy wish fulfilment in the sugar daddy mould. If you like your musicals bright and your Disney old school, you may like this.
July 9, 2020
the language was profound and stiff. i couldn't get it- the way some characters spoke left me a little drained. i also found the romance at the beginning to be too fast-paced. i underatand it was a product of how much of a green-boy dinu was at the time of their meeting, but still. otherwise i enjoyed it quite a bit. it encapsulates the era well, and goes into historical events without being swallowed by them.
April 28, 2022
Think I preferred this over Uncle Rudolf which I read a number of years ago. Probably a 3.7, a good mixture of personal narrative spanning historical events, Proustian in tone. After events, Dinu's observation that he remains the same person kinda broke through endearingly toward the end, and of course the love. Provoking a look at Romanian literature.
January 3, 2019
I actually like the language and style this was written in but I do agree with someone else that it is too formal for the period it covers, 20s to the 60s. It was an enjoyable and quick read and I was happy enough considering I picked it at random from the library.
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