King Cophetua

La presqu'île #3

by Julien Gracq, Ingeborg Kohn

It is All Saints' Day, 1917. Our narrator, a former soldier, recalls the events surrounding his arrival at the home of Jacques Nueil, an aviator and avant-garde composer. The Great War is leading up to images of the Russian Revolution, and from Nueil's villa the narrator hears the sounds of bombs dropping in the distance. This carefully paced, mysteriously atmospheric novel is inspired by vivid memory and by two images, Goya's engraving entitled La Mala Noche and Burne-Jones's painting King Cophetua and the Beggar Girl .

Genres: France, Fiction, French Literature, Theatre

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Julien Gracq (27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007), born Louis Poirier in St.-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French "département" of Maine-et-Loire, was a French writer. He wrote novels, criticism, a play, and poetry.

Gracq first studied in Paris at the Lycée Henri IV, where he earned his baccalauréat. He then entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1930, later studying at the École libre des sciences politiques.

In 1932, he read André Breton's Nadja, which deeply influenced him. His first novel, The Castle of Argol is dedicated to that surrealist writer, to whom he devoted a whole book in 1948.

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gracq's protagonists are always waiting. A lot of this has to do with the war. This one is no different. It's slight but intense. I got the sense that it may have just been a sexual fantasy that Gracq expounded upon in his gothic, nature-infused style. Apparently it inspired a film, which makes sense as it is very cinematic and probably works better on screen. Not my favorite of his by far but not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, I guess. I do wish I hadn't left this one for the last of his fiction to read. Maybe his nonfiction will reignite my enthusiasm. Rounded up from 2.5.

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dream-like exercise in Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood prose style infused with a heaping dose of Poe. WWI on the horizon, train travel, a villa overwhelmed by nature, the man of the house not returned, gunfire overheard all night, a beggar maid mistress, wandering dark passages, a crazy sex scene described like this: "The pleasure she gave me was brief and violent, but my memories remain a colorless blur, almost devoid of a sense of intimacy: nothing but that long body which seemed to come alive far away from where I was, eyes closed, gathering itself around a secret image, those noble legs which, during moments of pleasure, again seemed to animate the folds of the evening coat -- that haughty docility, that distance which nothing could bridge." Love the atmospherics and the precise language that seems like its goal is to put the reader into a sort of aesthetic overload, dazed, entranced. Gracq really has a not-so-PC thing for the elusive beguiling lady love interests who emerge out of ether and retain their distance despite intimacies, sort of what it might be like to do it with an animated mannequin. Stylized dream lovers, not succubi. 3.5 stars rounded up. Should really read again -- so short.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book but I read it completely wrong; really needs to be read in a day, while focused, not while walking to class over the course of several days as I did. I wish we had lingered a bit more with the narrator's feelings of nervous grief as it becomes increasingly apparent that the friend he is planning to see is more than likely dead, as I really loved the idea of exploring the sensation of waiting for someone who will never arrive. Didn't love so much the way it's channelled into a kind of fatalistic eroticism. All in all though a wonderful read, though anyone who dislikes long descriptions of rooms, houses, and landscapes would absolutely hate it, since it's almost entirely that.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather strange and extremely short book. This is the story of a man who goes to the home of a man named Nueil, who had invited him. When he gets there Nueil is not home but a woman answers the door and invites him in to wait. He is unsure who the woman is but assumes she is a housekeeper. As he waits he becomes increasingly unsure if Nueil will be showing up, as it gets later and later. The weather outside is stormy and the house is very dark so the woman gives him a candle for light as he sits in the sitting room. The story takes place during the Great War and he can hear cannon fire off in the distance. The woman is very mysterious to him and he rarely sees her and never sees her face. She eventually makes a dinner for him that he eats alone and assumes Nueil will not be showing up. Because it becomes so late the woman takes him upstairs and they go to bed together although they never speak and he never actually sees her face. She is gone when he wakes up in the morning. A very strange story but Gracq told it in extraordinarily poet and very descriptive prose that made it a great read.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strangely atmospheric short tale, inspired by two images, Goya's engraving La Mala Noche and Burne-Jones's King Cophetua and the Beggar girl. Strange

[Luar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es un señor que recibe la carta de un colega cuando se inicia la Primera Guerra Mundial (creo recordar), y cuando llega a la casa del colega, solo hay una doncella a la que nunca le ve la cara.

Hace un tiempo de mierda, la casa luce oscura, el narrador se obsesiona un pelín con el cuadro de El rey Cophetua y la Mendiga (razón por la cual me compré el libro), y se fija cada vez más en la doncella, sintiéndose atraído por su enigmática aura.
No se sabe dónde está el amigo o qué le ha podido pasar; la doncella tampoco lo sabe, o eso da a entender.

El narrador está rayadísimo, pero al final, como diría Bárbara Rey, tiene una noche de amor con la doncella que... A lo mejor no es una doncella, no se sabe. Nunca se sabe, porque sigue sin verle el puñetero rostro, aunque esté acostada a su lado. Porque el tío es incapaz de apartarla un mechón de pelo del gepeto para verle la cara.

A la mañana siguiente, el narrador, en modo nerviosín por la situación extraña, termina abandonando la casa, sin más.

¿Quién era la doncella? ¿Era una entidad de los sueños? ¿Era Sandman buscando cariñitos? ¿El deseo reprimido tomando una forma corpórea? Who knows. Lo que sí sé, es que no me ha gustado nada de nada.

[Alexis Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une réécriture du conte de Perceval d'une grande beauté.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

ici c'est comme une pièce de théatre...où chaque mot mérite d'être appris par coeur tellement que son sens devient vertigineux....c'est la quête de vérité de perceval, le voyage à la connaissance.... toute l'essence de l'homme à travers un livre.

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un veritable voyage de la connaissance humaine.

[Emilie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Profondément ennuyeux.