Contes et propos

by Raymond Queneau

Un chien qui engage la conversation avec un client dans un bistrot de province ? Un cheval, de surcroît troyen, qui prend un drink au comptoir d'un bar de luxe ? Rien d'étonnant à cela : dans les textes ici rassemblés, tous marqués d'une touche d'absurdité, le fantastique est comme naturel. Jeux de mots, spéculations ironiques, faux rêves, délires logiques, usage subversif de la rhétorique, tout concourt au divertissement du lecteur, à son ravissement, mais aussi, en filigrane, à cette entreprise de démystification de la littérature chère à Raymond Queneau.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, France, French Literature

288 pages, Pocket Book

First published December 1, 1981

About the author

Novelist, poet, and critic Raymond Queneau, was born in Le Havre in 1903, and went to Paris when he was 17. For some time he joined André Breton's Surrealist group, but after only a brief stint he dissociated himself. Now, seeing Queneau's work in retrospect, it seems inevitable. The Surrealists tried to achieve a sort of pure expression from the unconscious, without mediation of the author's self-aware "persona." Queneau's texts, on the contrary, are quite deliberate products of the author's conscious mind, of his memory, and his intentionality.

Although Queneau's novels give an impression of enormous spontaneity, they were in fact painstakingly conceived in every small detail. He even once remarked that he simply could not leave to hazard the task of determining the number of chapters of a book. Talking about his first novel, Le Chiendent (usually translated as The Bark Tree), he pointed out that it had 91 sections, because 91 was the sum of the first 13 numbers, and also the product of two numbers he was particularly fond of: 7 and 13.

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer]

Hilarische wiskunde.
Zie ook: http://www.ina.fr/video/I14126611

[Ann]

Dostojevski’s ondergrondse mens is niet veraf..

[Karim Rhayem]

[4/5] : Dans cet ouvrage, Queneau m’a transporté dans son propre univers, intime et mystérieux, mais surtout absurde : c’est le mot le plus descriptif de « Contes et Propos ».
Ainsi, cet ensemble de plusieurs nouvelles, essais, textes, voire un dialogue de théâtre ; relève d’un absurde sans précédent, mais avec un fond sûr et intéressant. Les éléments de fantastique de certaines nouvelles – des animaux qui parlent, qui disparaissent, des chiffres à l’envers – et l’absurdité d’autres – des analogies sans fond ni forme – apportent à l’œuvre un élément d’ironie, de rire, et m’ont beaucoup amusés.
Le style de Queneau est intéressant, fluide, son vocabulaire riche mais précis, et sa syntaxe tantôt triviale, tantôt impressionnante. En somme, ce livre est une satire de la littérature, une moquerie de la société, un ensemble qui fera rire son lecteur tout en le faisant réfléchir.

[Marie-Lynn Issa]

2.5/5
Je ne sais vraiment pas quoi dire. C'était trop bizarre à lire, même pour moi. Dans ce recueil, j'ai lu des proses, nouvelles et essais extrêmement étranges. Certains d'entre eux étaient intelligents (d'une manière surréaliste), d'autres étaient amusants (étant -je pense- leur seul but de faire rigoler) mais d'autres étaient terribles, une vrai perte de temps... Peut être que je n'ai pas l'oeil assez perceptif, que quelques métaphores et symboles se sont échappés hors de ma vue, mais bon... il n'est pas tellement catastrophique, ce recueil.

[Brent Woo]

"baffling, ... unclassifiable absurdities". It's like a beer flight, offering head-scratching tastings of surrealism and the beginnings of oulipo (the few "texticles" are more language games like in Exercises in Style, those were my favorite). There's a hilarious Choose Your Own Adventure about bean plants. The whole thing is full of giggles:

A young Frenchman by the name of So-and-so was glumly walking down Boulevard

In all the endeavors made up to the present day to demonstrate that 2+2=4, the wind’s velocity has never been taken into account.

I train my eye to take not of all that (not to write on this subject, that only came after, but to see how fucking awful the scenery is).

I didn't like what I guess were "proper Surrealist" stories, with talking horses and dogs. I like absurd, but not that kind. More interesting was the people behaving in weird ways and the language games.

Intro and Notes are some of the best I've ever seen: the intro is very interesting an informative about Queneau's life and the purpose of his work; the notes include a small analysis of each story, speculative notes ("Q . probably meant this story to show..."), and even comparisons to previous translations (!!!). One of the best notes (tbh I usually ignored them) was here:

The dog inspected the legs of two or three tables or chairs, sniffing, turned two or three times in a circle¹, then, in a discrete manner, approached the newcomer

wait why is there a note there

it somehow turned out to be a reference to Dostoevsky, the dog's name, and also the structure of the story. What! I love books!

[Tosh]

Raymond Queneau is the phantom figure of 20th Century literature. He was there, he was here, and he's everywhere. He was part of so many literary groups - one can just study his work as a foundation of Avant-Garde' European literature. Amazing author/poet.

This book is a collection of short pieces - which are both fascinating and essential. A must for the Queneau lover or collector. And I am both!

[Jesse]

Since I made peace with the idea that I will never find Queneau's work particularly moving (well maybe Exercises in Style, sort of, and the final scene from The Bark Tree AKA Witch Grass) I've just appreciated his writing more and more. I renewed this collection twice after I finished reading it, just because I enjoyed having it around.

[Adriano Pugno]

Queneau che gioca a fare Queneau. Troppo, persino per lui. Il cane Dino sembra la versione letteraria della barzelletta della yellow pecora.

[Maria]

"D'altronde questa storia è assolutamente noiosa. Fortuna che è finita , che vi piaccia o no , io me ne fotto."
Bellissimo

[Vittorio Ducoli]

Fulminanti

Come sempre, Queneau sorprende e diverte.Quasi tutti i racconti brevi di questo piccolo libro sono semplicemente meravigliosi. I due che hanno come protagonista Untale, in particolare, sono fulminanti.
Un solo piccolo appunto: nel libro non c'è traccia del cavallo troiano citato in quarta di copertina.

[Andrew]

I'm really loving this collection of short pieces. For some reason I never got around to buying it till a few days back and I've been blazing through these pages all weekend.

[Joel]

some fun reading, but not his most essential.

[Abeka]

Quelques perles, notamment les fabuleux faux récits de rêve, et les jouissifs texticules.

[Marc DUPUY]

La verve et l’esprit foisonnant de Queneau donnent une petite merveille !

[David]

A collection of interest to Queneau completists, for the most part.