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Albucius
This book unearths a treasure trove of stories composed in the early reign of Augustus a Roman writer Albucius. Pascal Quignard restores the life of this writer which we know almost nothing about. With fifty-three short stories of sex, murder, violence and legal debate, taken from these writings, he creates a Roman "Thousand and One Nights". Marquis de Sade is not far away.
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
4 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Pascal Quignard
158 books304 followersRomancier, poète et essayiste, Pascal Quignard est né en 1948. Après des études de philosophie, il entre aux Éditions Gallimard où il occupe les fonctions successives de lecteur, membre du comité de lecture et secrétaire général pour le développement éditorial. Il enseigne ensuite à l’Université de Vincennes et à l’École Pratique des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Il a fondé le festival d’opéra et de théâtre baroque de Versailles, qu’il dirige de 1990 à 1994. Par la suite, il démissionne de toutes ses fonctions pour se consacrer à son travail d’écrivain. L’essentiel de son oeuvre est disponible aux Éditions Gallimard, en collection blanche et en Folio.
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Pascal Quignard is a French writer born in Verneuil-sur-Avre, Eure. In 2002 his novel Les Ombres errantes won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize. Terrasse à Rome (Terrasse in Rome), received the French Academy prize in 2000, and Carus was awarded the "Prix des Critiques" in 1980.
One of Quignard's most famous works is the eighty-four "Little Treatises", first published in 1991 by Maeght. His most popular book is probably Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings in the World), about 17th-century viola de gamba player Marin Marais and his teacher, Sainte-Colombe, which was adapted for the screen in 1991, by director Alain Corneau. Quignard wrote the screenplay of the film, in collaboration with Corneau. Tous les matins du monde, starring Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gérard Depardieu and son Guillaume Depardieu, was a tremendous success in France and sold 2 million tickets in the first year, and was subsequently distributed in 31 countries. The soundtrack was certified platinum (500,000 copies) and made musician Jordi Savall an international star.
The film was released in 1992 in the US.
Quignard has also translated works from the Latin (Albucius, Porcius Latro), Chinese (Kong-souen Long), and Greek (Lycophron) languages.
===
Pascal Quignard is a French writer born in Verneuil-sur-Avre, Eure. In 2002 his novel Les Ombres errantes won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize. Terrasse à Rome (Terrasse in Rome), received the French Academy prize in 2000, and Carus was awarded the "Prix des Critiques" in 1980.
One of Quignard's most famous works is the eighty-four "Little Treatises", first published in 1991 by Maeght. His most popular book is probably Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings in the World), about 17th-century viola de gamba player Marin Marais and his teacher, Sainte-Colombe, which was adapted for the screen in 1991, by director Alain Corneau. Quignard wrote the screenplay of the film, in collaboration with Corneau. Tous les matins du monde, starring Jean-Pierre Marielle, Gérard Depardieu and son Guillaume Depardieu, was a tremendous success in France and sold 2 million tickets in the first year, and was subsequently distributed in 31 countries. The soundtrack was certified platinum (500,000 copies) and made musician Jordi Savall an international star.
The film was released in 1992 in the US.
Quignard has also translated works from the Latin (Albucius, Porcius Latro), Chinese (Kong-souen Long), and Greek (Lycophron) languages.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 2, 2014
I acquired this mysterious volume decades ago, when the now-defunct publisher released several works solely aimed at winning a prize in book design (which they did). It has the sort of glossy attractiveness of a prop in a music-video apartment in Chelsea; but it's not the sort of allure that makes you actually want to, you know, read the thing.
If you persevere, however, you'll find a rather singular work, in which Quignard offers up his translations of an obscure Roman orator, Titus Albucius. Wafting between the curious little fragments of Albucius that remain (and it seems all we have left is a handful of quotations by other authors) is Quignard's rambling discursions about life and philosophy.
Trouble is, I'm not completely sure that Albucius is a real, historical figure, and not some gnomic invention of Quignard. The book certainly does nothing to dispel this suspicion, carefully avoiding (easily) verified facts. And the terse wikipedia entry on Albucius looks like it could have been written by Quignard himself, to perpetuate the prank. And so, much like a "prop" book it hovers in some nebulous realm between fact and fiction.
If you persevere, however, you'll find a rather singular work, in which Quignard offers up his translations of an obscure Roman orator, Titus Albucius. Wafting between the curious little fragments of Albucius that remain (and it seems all we have left is a handful of quotations by other authors) is Quignard's rambling discursions about life and philosophy.
Trouble is, I'm not completely sure that Albucius is a real, historical figure, and not some gnomic invention of Quignard. The book certainly does nothing to dispel this suspicion, carefully avoiding (easily) verified facts. And the terse wikipedia entry on Albucius looks like it could have been written by Quignard himself, to perpetuate the prank. And so, much like a "prop" book it hovers in some nebulous realm between fact and fiction.
March 27, 2018
Además de haber sido un regalo hermoso, este libro es excelente.
December 22, 2024
I bought this book because it was translated by the American poet Bruce Boone and because of the GR synopsis:
"This book unearths a treasure trove of stories composed in the early reign of Augustus a Roman writer Albucius. Pascal Quignard restores the life of this writer which we know almost nothing about. With fifty-three short stories of sex, murder, violence and legal debate, taken from these writings, he creates a Roman "Thousand and One Nights". Marquis de Sade is not far away."
Now although it is perfectly true that little is known about Gaius Albucius Silus (see his Wikipedia entry at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_A...) their are no stories in this book that originate from Alcibius or even the classical world. Everything in the book is the product of M. Quignard's imagination. Plenty of English authors have produced work claiming to be 'genuine' lost classical works, 'I Claudius' is the first of trilogy of fictitious memoirs Robert Graves wrote or 'The Memoirs of Alcibiades' by Desmond Stewart which I reviewed earlier this year. But no one reads them thinking that they are 'real' classical texts and, to be fair to M. Quignard, when I reread his preface entitled 'Reader' which opens the book I realised he doesn't make this claim.
So who does? Well it might be GR but I imagine they got their synopsis from the publishers of this book, Lapis Press, and I can't help quoting a review by Patrick Nichols on GR from 2014:
"...the now-defunct publisher released several works solely aimed at winning a prize in book design (which they did). It has (this edition of Albucius by Pascal Quignard) the sort of glossy attractiveness of a prop in a music-video apartment in Chelsea..."
That 'allure' refers to heavy printing stock, woodcut type images of antique looking intaglios and a heavy paper cover and end papers with classy, pseudo or altered 19th erotic photographic images. This is a book as an object and the text is very much secondary and I say that without any intention of casting aspersions on either Quignard or his translator. Indeed I was surprised to discover how many of Quignard's books have been translated into English (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_...#) but that is not surprising. My love of French literature is easily exceeded by my vast ignorance of it.
I might have enjoyed this work more if I had come across it in a more conventional form but unfortunately the misrepresentation has not only spoilt this work but it has put a stop to my interest in reading anything more by Quignard; at least for the moment.
The translation is also problematic because it is full of translated Latin phrases but many of the translations don't make sense. For example:
"tristiorem istum vidimud cum filius imperator renuntiatus est quam cum captus"
is rendered as:
"We saw him more depressed learning of his son's nomination than he was by his captivity"
which with my schoolboy Latin didn't make sense and is rendered, less felicitously, but more accurately by Googgle translate as:
"We saw this sadder when the emperor's son was given up than when he was captured"
I could quote many more such problematic translations, including Shakespeare's "Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights" from Julius Caesar as a quote of Caesar himself but without mentioning 'men who are fat', but I won't because I don't know if this is Mr. Boone's translation reflecting the original French or Boone's own foray's into Latin translation. But, as I and Patrick Nichols have said, the text isn't the point of this book. But for me the text is.
By rights I should give this one star and shelve it as disappointing but I can't because I don't think that would be fair to MM Quignard and Boone. So I give three stars and this negative review.
"This book unearths a treasure trove of stories composed in the early reign of Augustus a Roman writer Albucius. Pascal Quignard restores the life of this writer which we know almost nothing about. With fifty-three short stories of sex, murder, violence and legal debate, taken from these writings, he creates a Roman "Thousand and One Nights". Marquis de Sade is not far away."
Now although it is perfectly true that little is known about Gaius Albucius Silus (see his Wikipedia entry at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_A...) their are no stories in this book that originate from Alcibius or even the classical world. Everything in the book is the product of M. Quignard's imagination. Plenty of English authors have produced work claiming to be 'genuine' lost classical works, 'I Claudius' is the first of trilogy of fictitious memoirs Robert Graves wrote or 'The Memoirs of Alcibiades' by Desmond Stewart which I reviewed earlier this year. But no one reads them thinking that they are 'real' classical texts and, to be fair to M. Quignard, when I reread his preface entitled 'Reader' which opens the book I realised he doesn't make this claim.
So who does? Well it might be GR but I imagine they got their synopsis from the publishers of this book, Lapis Press, and I can't help quoting a review by Patrick Nichols on GR from 2014:
"...the now-defunct publisher released several works solely aimed at winning a prize in book design (which they did). It has (this edition of Albucius by Pascal Quignard) the sort of glossy attractiveness of a prop in a music-video apartment in Chelsea..."
That 'allure' refers to heavy printing stock, woodcut type images of antique looking intaglios and a heavy paper cover and end papers with classy, pseudo or altered 19th erotic photographic images. This is a book as an object and the text is very much secondary and I say that without any intention of casting aspersions on either Quignard or his translator. Indeed I was surprised to discover how many of Quignard's books have been translated into English (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_...#) but that is not surprising. My love of French literature is easily exceeded by my vast ignorance of it.
I might have enjoyed this work more if I had come across it in a more conventional form but unfortunately the misrepresentation has not only spoilt this work but it has put a stop to my interest in reading anything more by Quignard; at least for the moment.
The translation is also problematic because it is full of translated Latin phrases but many of the translations don't make sense. For example:
"tristiorem istum vidimud cum filius imperator renuntiatus est quam cum captus"
is rendered as:
"We saw him more depressed learning of his son's nomination than he was by his captivity"
which with my schoolboy Latin didn't make sense and is rendered, less felicitously, but more accurately by Googgle translate as:
"We saw this sadder when the emperor's son was given up than when he was captured"
I could quote many more such problematic translations, including Shakespeare's "Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights" from Julius Caesar as a quote of Caesar himself but without mentioning 'men who are fat', but I won't because I don't know if this is Mr. Boone's translation reflecting the original French or Boone's own foray's into Latin translation. But, as I and Patrick Nichols have said, the text isn't the point of this book. But for me the text is.
By rights I should give this one star and shelve it as disappointing but I can't because I don't think that would be fair to MM Quignard and Boone. So I give three stars and this negative review.
September 8, 2021
Quignard entre la crónica histórica y el testimonio ficcional. No sabemos si Caius Albucius Silus, escritor y declamador sofista de la antigua Roma, existió en realidad. Lo único que sabemos es que esta especie de arqueología textual trasladada a una recopilación de relatos e interpretaciones del autor, es una exquisita reunión de pasajes que recrean la lógica de la cotidianidad del mundo antiguo occidental y la particularidad de un autor (ficcionado o no) que resulta un personaje de un atractivo inmenso, sobre todo, por su teoría de lo sordidísimo y la quinta estación (aquello que podría traducirse como ese espacio intermedio entre lo normal y lo perverso/abyecto). Al ser Quignard un experto académico e investigador de la literatura clásica greco-latina, no dudamos sobre la veracidad de su texto. O al menos, su verosimilitud.
March 8, 2021
"İnsan duruyor, ama sanatçı öldü." sf.10
"Ölüm bir ilaç olduğunda bile öldürmek cinayettir." sf.21
"İnsan doğuştan ne özgür ne köledir. Bu nitelikler insanlara daha sonra rastlantı sonucu yamanmıştır." sf. 22
"Zenginlik yoldan çıkarmıştır. Aynı şekilde güzellik ve dindarlık da bozmuştur insanları." sf.24
"İNSANİ SEFALETLER ATÖLYESİ"
"İnsanlar arıdır. Deliler ya da talihsiz insanlar gibi sessizlik içince aptallaşmamak için yaşamlarını bir öykü gibi kusarlar. Gecenin her dönüşünde topladıkları özleri getirirler, yığarlar, paylaşırlar ve yok ederler. Bunlar geceler ve düşlerdir." sf.146
"Ölüm bir ilaç olduğunda bile öldürmek cinayettir." sf.21
"İnsan doğuştan ne özgür ne köledir. Bu nitelikler insanlara daha sonra rastlantı sonucu yamanmıştır." sf. 22
"Zenginlik yoldan çıkarmıştır. Aynı şekilde güzellik ve dindarlık da bozmuştur insanları." sf.24
"İNSANİ SEFALETLER ATÖLYESİ"
"İnsanlar arıdır. Deliler ya da talihsiz insanlar gibi sessizlik içince aptallaşmamak için yaşamlarını bir öykü gibi kusarlar. Gecenin her dönüşünde topladıkları özleri getirirler, yığarlar, paylaşırlar ve yok ederler. Bunlar geceler ve düşlerdir." sf.146
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews