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The Jinx
A painter who became a novelist, Théophile Gautier formulated the notion of “art for art’s sake.” In this literary gem, the gaze is the central character as the eye of the beholder turns deadly. Paul d’ Aspremont, on holiday in Italy, meets his fiancée in all but name, a young English girl named Alicia Ward. What begins as an urbane and courtly affair descends into a Gothic nightmare as Paul is revealed to possess the “evil eye,” a jinx that kills all those he befriends. Novelist, poet, and critic, Théophile Gautier was a key figure in the Romantic movement in France.
95 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1857
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About the author
Théophile Gautier
2,248 books313 followersPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and literary critic. In the 1830 Revolution, he chose to stay with friends in the Doyenné district of Paris, living a rather pleasant bohemian life. He began writing poetry as early as 1826 but the majority of his life was spent as a contributor to various journals, mainly for La Presse, which also gave him the opportunity for foreign travel and meeting many influential contacts in high society and in the world of the arts, which inspired many of his writings including Voyage en Espagne (1843), Trésors d'Art de la Russie (1858), and Voyage en Russie (1867). He was a celebrated abandonnée of the Romantic Ballet, writing several scenarios, the most famous of which is Giselle. His prestige was confirmed by his role as director of Revue de Paris from 1851-1856. During this time, he became a journalist for Le Moniteur universel, then the editorship of influential review L'Artiste in 1856. His works include: Albertus (1830), La Comédie de la Mort (1838), Une Larme du Diable (1839), Constantinople (1853) and L'Art Moderne (1856)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 24, 2018
A short story, or rather, a little novel. Small by its length, but so great by its strength!
The jettatura is the bad spell that is thrown by the jettatore. The jettatore has the evil eye: with a look, voluntary or involuntary, he can go so far as to kill someone.
In "Jettatura", by the sublime Theophile Gautier, Paul d'Aspremont loves Alicia Ward and Alicia Ward loves Paul d'Aspremont. A happy and approved marriage should conclude this love. But the ruthless jettatura will mingle with this beautiful, simple story. By sowing destruction and death, the jettatura will reveal the greatest love story, will reveal the strength that love gives to the two lovers.
In Jettatura, you will know Theophile Gautier's fear of the evil eye, in which he strongly believed, to the point of ever wearing an amulet, horns made of coral, to ward off bad luck.
No moral purpose, no useful purpose, only beauty in writing and feelings — in Jettatura, you will find what is highest and most noble in human beings. But as strong as he may be, according to the author, never will a man be stronger than the evil eye.
In a word, it's beautiful, it's strong, it's Théophile Gautier!
PS: Fortunately for me, I could read it in French. Fortunately for me, I never had in hands this copy above with this ugly cover which has nothing to do with the novel!
The jettatura is the bad spell that is thrown by the jettatore. The jettatore has the evil eye: with a look, voluntary or involuntary, he can go so far as to kill someone.
In "Jettatura", by the sublime Theophile Gautier, Paul d'Aspremont loves Alicia Ward and Alicia Ward loves Paul d'Aspremont. A happy and approved marriage should conclude this love. But the ruthless jettatura will mingle with this beautiful, simple story. By sowing destruction and death, the jettatura will reveal the greatest love story, will reveal the strength that love gives to the two lovers.
In Jettatura, you will know Theophile Gautier's fear of the evil eye, in which he strongly believed, to the point of ever wearing an amulet, horns made of coral, to ward off bad luck.
No moral purpose, no useful purpose, only beauty in writing and feelings — in Jettatura, you will find what is highest and most noble in human beings. But as strong as he may be, according to the author, never will a man be stronger than the evil eye.
In a word, it's beautiful, it's strong, it's Théophile Gautier!
PS: Fortunately for me, I could read it in French. Fortunately for me, I never had in hands this copy above with this ugly cover which has nothing to do with the novel!
July 1, 2023
Capace di far vibrare le corde più romantiche dell’animo umano con descrizioni calzanti di quell’anfiteatro naturale quale appare il Golfo di Napoli con le sue isole, il suo mare, il fumigante Vesuvio, le vestigia dell’immortale Pompei, Theophile Gautier [1811-1972], in questo racconto lungo del 1857 ci trasporta in questi luoghi e ci regala un’ opera classica in cui appare una splendida signorina inglese, Miss Alicia Ward, “che apparteneva a quel tipo di inglesi brune i cui caratteri apparentemente contrastanti si conciliano in una bellezza ideale”, venuta a svernare nella mitezza climatica italiana per superare un peggioramento del suo “Mal Sottile”, il suo padrino, un Commodoro a riposo per l’età e il promesso sposo di Alicia, il signor Paul d’Aspremont, giovane nobile francese i cui tratti somatici dello sguardo assumevano talvolta risvolti mefistofelici al punto che il popolo napoletano al suo comparire si difende da quello sguardo “facendo il gesto delle corna” e cominciando a chiamare lo straniero “jettatore”…da qui il racconto prende una piega drammatica trascinando protagonisti e comprimari in un vortice di superstizione e irrazionalità.
January 23, 2022
Mademoiselle de Maupin is one my French Victorian favourites (oh, if only a stylish synonym for ‘favourite’ existed) so my little mitt reached for this oddity containing a foreword from the legendary and much-missed Gilbert Adair. This novella opens with a lavish descriptive flurry and slowly reveals a Gothic narrative concerning an evil-eyed suitor with the reverse Midas glance. If there were ever a modern-day jettatura, step right up Boris Johnson, a man who only has to look at a cute little puppy for its internal organs to haemorrhage and its sac to swell up and burst in the face of an adoring child. A fairly languorous pace and an excess of superfluous scene-setting kept the novella from burning into brilliance, but everyone should read Gautier’s masterpiece instantly once this sentence ends. (Move!)
January 30, 2024
In the edition I read, the introductions to The Jinx (as always to be read last because of spoilers) assume the reader is unaware of Théophile Gautier. Au contraire, mon ami! I picked The Jinx off the shelf because of his name, as I loved his longer novel Mademoiselle de Maupin; a wonderful erotic farce. This little novella isn't quite as appealing, but nonetheless has a rakish gothic charm. It also includes a clear warning that we can all learn from: be wary of getting engaged to a Frenchman who looks like Lucifer. Paul d'Aspremont, the gentleman himself, visits beautiful Naples and becomes afraid that he is inadvertently putting the evil eye upon all those around him. I enjoyed the ambiguity of his 'jettatura', which could be psychological, supernatural, or a little of both.
Paul d'Aspremont's increasingly bad time and the characters he encounters both have considerable appeal, but the highlight of the novella for me was the sumptuous settings. Gautier loves lavish descriptions, often throwing in comparisons with the work of gothic artists. I adored his depiction of Pompeii's ruins and amusingly sardonic snapshots of the British tourists tramping around them:
The concluding events of the narrative ascend to great heights of melodrama, even epic tragedy. I found The Jinx a compact and pleasurable gothic romp.
Paul d'Aspremont's increasingly bad time and the characters he encounters both have considerable appeal, but the highlight of the novella for me was the sumptuous settings. Gautier loves lavish descriptions, often throwing in comparisons with the work of gothic artists. I adored his depiction of Pompeii's ruins and amusingly sardonic snapshots of the British tourists tramping around them:
Pompeii, the dead city, doesn't wake up in the morning like living cities, and although it has half flung back the sheet of ashes which covered it for so many centuries, even when night fades, it remains asleep on its funeral bed.
[...]
It's a strange sight, in the azure and pink light of the morning, this corpse of a city overwhelmed in the midst of its pleasures, its labours, and its civilisation, and untouched by the slow dissolution of ordinary ruins; you can't help believing that the residents of these minutely preserved homes are about to emerge from their dwellings wearing their Greek or Roman clothes; the chariots, whose ruts you can still see on the flagstones, will start rolling along once more; the drinkers will walk into the thermopoles where the mark of their cups still stains the marble of the counters. You walk as if dreaming through the past; you can read, in red letters, at street corners, the posters advertising that day's shows! - but the day is one that passed more than seventeen centuries ago.
The concluding events of the narrative ascend to great heights of melodrama, even epic tragedy. I found The Jinx a compact and pleasurable gothic romp.
September 14, 2012
Un classico breve e piacevole da leggere velocemente.
Gautier apre una finestrella sulle superstizioni italiane nel 1800.
È un libro assolutamente interessante anche per il contributo che dà sull'eterno dibattito sulla forza che puó avere la suggestione sugli esseri umani... Dopo avere letto questo libro, ci si puó anche chiedere, se invece non sia piú saggio dare retta alle leggende popolari... Un vero dilemma. Che fortuna che ho avuto a tirare su questo libricino a una bancherella dell'usato :-) Non lo avrei scoperto altrimenti ed è stata una lettura gradevole.
*******************
This is a short book in the "classics category".
Gautier opens in these pages, a small window inside the world of italian superstitions in the 1800 period.
This alone makes it interesting. But it becomes even more important when while reading it you realize it is part of the eternal debate on how belief can make humans change their habits. I am happy i found this book for pure chance in a used books stand, i would of probably never thought of buying it and it was really nice.
October 15, 2016
review of
Theophile Gautier's The Jinx
- by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 14, 2016
PLEASE READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
The family I grew up in didn't own many bks. The most precious of what we did own was a set of 8 goat-skin bound collections published from 1903 to 1929. In approximate chronological ordering by publishing date these were:
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson in One Volume (no date listed, 900pp)
The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant - Ten Volumes in One (1903, 1003pp)
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in One Volume - Complete Tales and Poems (1927, 760pp)
The Works of Leo Tolstoi - One Volume Edition (1928, 728pp)
The Works of Theophile Gautier - One Volume Edition (1928, 532pp)
The Works of Victor Hugo - One Volume Edition - Poems, Novels, Stories of Crime, Dramas and Essays on Humanity (1928, 1003pp)
The World's Great Detective Stories - One Volume Edition (1928, 842pp)
The World's Great Romances - One Volume Edition (1929, 724pp)
In some cases I used pencil to check off wch works I'd read in the Tables of Contents. I read all of the Detective Stories & none of the Romances. Even tho I've read considerable amts of all the individual authors & even tho all of them have been important to me, the Gautier bk shows the most checked off: of the 6 sections of the bk, I've read the 1st 4 - neglecting to read Fortunio & Mlle. de Maupin.
Given that I wd've read as much of these bks as I did way back when I was a teenager.. say, 45 yrs ago.. it's no wonder that I don't remember the Gautier in awe-inspiring detail. Nonetheless, the short story "The Mummy's Foot" has stuck w/ me as well as an overall air of the macabre.
When I picked up this copy of The Jinx, I probably didn't remember whether this story was in The Works of Theophile Gautier - One Volume Edition & I probably didn't remember whether I'd already read it (I had). I got it partially b/c I thought it might be interesting to revisit Gautier after more than 4 decades (it was), b/c I liked the cover, & b/c it has a foreword by Gilbert Adair.
Given that there're at least 2 prominent Gilbert Adairs in the literary world, one Scottish, one from Northern Ireland, I wasn't even sure wch one had written the foreword but I'm interested in both so it didn't matter that much. As it turns out, the Adair in question is the translator of George Perec's La Disparition into English as A Void - probably my most admired translator accomplishment.
Adair states: "And the first question a potential modern reader, intrigued yet sceptical, will most likely pose is: Théophile who?" (p vii) - a claim born out by my mentioning his name in a conversation at my local coffee shop this morning. Ahem. Wasn't there a time when referencing a 19th century French writer wdn't've been so outrée?! Are my friends really so illiterate? I hereby announce a new expression (unless somebody's beaten me to it): Pulling a Trump. "Pulling a Trump" means expressing indignant ignorance: I'm ignorant & PROUD of it! Showing the sign of the Trump means warding off anything intellectual w/ bluster: Don't use them BIG WORDS around me you towel-head lover! The Idiocracy is here. SO, Adair goes on to put the reader in the know:
"He was the privileged dedicatee of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. And he was supreme master if what the French refer to as the conte fantastique.
"As a stylist, Gautier was something of a dandy, a forerunner of Wilde, with whom he shared a predilection (that title, Emaux et camées) for individual words as rare as precious gems. By comparison with Gautier, however, Wilde was a vulgarian, camply salivating over eglantines and asphodels. The Frenchman was more of a dandy in the Beau Brummel mode. Complimented on his sartorial elegance at Ascot, Brummel allegedly replied, 'If you noticed me, I couldn't have been elegant', a comment which might equally be made of Gautier's prose, with its innate distaste for gaudy adjectival cuff-links and cravat pins." - pp vii-viii
The translator, Andrew Brown, takes over w/ his Introduction:
"In the twentieth century, a curious superstition started to spread. It decreed that the source of so many of the world's ills could be located, quite simply, in the gaze. The mere activity of looking at something was considered destructive. The gaze, it was said, converted the rich and living variety of the world into an assembly of inert mortified things, displayed for the predatory delectation of the eyes of insatiable spectators. Modern technologies — photography, cinema, television, computer screens — filled the world with a riot of images that the gaze, when not overmastered by such prolifigacy of vision feasted on with lustful voyeurism."
[..]
"When turned in this way on living human beings, or 'subjects', the gaze, even without touching them in any other way, could kill them, or at least, in some symbolic way, convert them into 'objects'." - p xi
For a translator to begin their introduction in this way instead of getting straight to the particulars of the translation process is interesting. Obviously, addressing the notion of "the gaze" in a story about "the evil eye" is relevant & even imaginative insofar as it's making a leap not commonly made between the 2. What I immediately found suspicious or objectionable is Brown's calling theories of the gaze "a curious superstition" - but, then, later he qualifies this:
"the modern superstition repeated earlier, prescientific notions (the Aristotelian and scholastic belief that the eye did no so much receive as emit rays of life; the view of Bishop Berkeley that 'to be is to be perceived'), embellishing them with the still largely misunderstood 'indeterminacy principle' which was interpreted to mean that you could change things — always for the worse, in the view of the scopophobes — just by looking at them.
"What I have called a 'superstition' is of course, in many ways, a perfectly justifiable belief (or, to put it another way, I too am to some extent a scopophobe). That the gaze all too often establishes a gradient of power (seeing often is a way of dominating and controlling), gender (seeing often is more masculine than feminine), violence (seeing often is the first step to rape and murder), and that at the very least it tends to objectify what it rests on, depriving it of life, autonomy and subjecthood, is indisputable." - p xiii
& this is where I just start to GROAN at the thickness of the layers of melodramatic (pseudo?-)intellectual bullshit being piled on. Brown may be very well-read on the literature on the concept of "the gaze", I'm definitely not. I associate this "gaze" notion w/ the feminist critique, specifically, of "the male gaze" wch seems to be purported to be a invasive gaze, a gaze that undresses a woman & violates her sexually as an act of male privilege. I despise this notion, it reeks to me of a 'princess & the commoner' scenario in wch the lowly commoner dares to look upon the princess & is executed as a result. How dare he?
"The gaze, it was said, converted the rich and living variety of the world into an assembly of inert mortified things": I think of the electron microscope: "The major disadvantage of the transmission electron microscope is the need for extremely thin sections of the specimens, typically about 100 nanometers. Biological specimens are typically required to be chemically fixed, dehydrated and embedded in a polymer resin to stabilize them sufficiently to allow ultrathin sectioning." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro... ) - but it's not the GAZE that's 'fixing' these objects (ie: killing them) it's the process of getting to where they can be still enuf to be observed. The 'naked eye', the typical 'tool' of the 'gaze' doesn't need to kill its subject &, in the case if the sexual male gaze probably prefers for the subject to be alive.
"When turned in this way on living human beings, or 'subjects', the gaze, even without touching them in any other way, could kill them, or at least, in some symbolic way, convert them into 'objects'."
Right. Why not the opposite? Can't the gaze, when welcomed, empower the gazed-at to feel desired &, therefore, desirable, usually a welcome sensation under the right circumstances?
"violence (seeing often is the first step to rape and murder)": Wow, really, how can Brown not be embarrassed by that?! Breathing might also be "the first step to rape and murder" b/c, HEY!, if the rapist/murderer isn't breathing than he sure as shit ain't gonna commit no crimes! Seeing might also be the first step to handing a hungry person a banana so don't be in too much of a hurry to blind anyone, ok?!
I'm reminded of my 9th grade biology teacher's attempts to intimidate me. I'd probably committed some minor infraction of his Draconian rules about students shd be seen & not heard, I'd probably made some sort of joke SO he proceeded to try to stare me down. Now I was wise to his tricks so I stared right back at him & didn't back down. (Not) Sorry Mr. Bossman but you can't stifle my spirit that way. HE had to back down, he cdn't maintain his stare as long as I cd, I was banished from the class & sent to the library of all places! Ha ha! I love the library!
"Gautier does not conclude for or against the credibility of the jinx. Alicia Ward, faced with its malevolent power, retreats from classical robustness to northern Gothic etherialism, and, although bravely prepared to sustain and even invite Paul's deadly gaze, is gradually transformed into a type of beauty too spiritual to survive. Indeed, she changes in appearance, like a casebook example from the aesthetics of Hegel, from this-worldly classicism to other-worldly romanticism, or from the clear outlines of Kant's 'beautiful' to the mistier and more abstract premonitions of his 'sublime', finally moving beyond the realm of appearance altogether." - p xv
Wow, nice, I mean I think it's all uni-educated crap b/c I think Gautier was just writing a thrilling yarn full of heart-string-rending tragedy but I have to give Brown a hand for laying it on much thicker than usual. I also have to give Brown a hand for writing a thoroughly enjoyable translation. Here's the 1st paragraph in the original French:
"Le Léopold, superbe bateau à vapeur toscan qui fait le trajet de Marseille à Naples, venait de doubler la pointe de Procida. Les passagers étaient tous sur le pont, guéris du mal de mer par l'aspect de la terre, plus efficace que les bonbons de Malte et autres recettes employées en pareil cas."
Here's the Google translator translation:
"Leopold, fabulous Tuscan steamboat that traveled from Naples to Marseille, had double the point of Procida. The passengers were all on deck, cured of seasickness by the appearance of the earth, more effective than Malta candy and other recipes used in such cases."
I love Google Translate, for me it's very useful fro international communication. THANK YOU. Obviosuly, there are problems but the gist gets across well enuf. If I were to minimally correct it it might become:
'Leopold, the fabulous Tuscan steamboat that traveled from Naples to Marseille, had doubled the point of Procida. The passengers were all on deck, cured of seasickness by the appearance of the shore, more effective than Malta candy and other recipes used in such cases.'
Now that's probably the most literal translation but it's not very exciting, is it?! I reckon it's missing some of the sensuality of the original French. Here's the uncredited translation in the 1928 goat-skin bound edition I have:
"The good ship Leopold, the large steamer which plies between Marseilles and Naples, had just doubled Cape Procida. The passengers were all on deck, suddenly cured of their sea-sickness by the sight of land, a more efficacious remedy than Malta pills and other recipes prescribed by physicians for this purpose."
This translator adds in "the good ship" to make the mere name Leopold embellished. They further embellish by adding "prescribed by physicians". Now that's not really fair is it? Brown's translation is this:
"The Leopold, a superb Tuscan steamboat which sailed between Marseilles and Naples, had just rounded the tip of Procida. The passengers were all out on deck, cured of their seasickness by the sight of land: a more effective cure than Malta sweets and other prescriptions used in such cases." - p 3
Brown doesn't resort to additions to make the writing less prosaic he just changes a few word choices that presumably didn't work for him in direct translation. Therefore, "doubled" becomes "rounded". I think this is an improvement, at least for an early 21st century reader b/c "doubled" is a tad archaic in a way that might confuse some whereas "rounded" is still conventionally comprehensible. ALSO, instead of "fabulous" as the Tuscan steamboat adjective that Google produces or "large" as Brown's predecessor translator had it it becomes "superb". For me, superb evokes exemplary craftsmanship both in building & in maintenance - far preferable to the mere size of "large" & to the spectacle of "fantastic".
Then we get to Adair's "Beau Brummel mode":
"His clothes were elegant without drawing attention to themselves by any showiness of detail: a dark blue frock-coat, a black polka-dot cravat whose knot was tied in a manner neither affected nor negligent, a waistcoat of the same design as the cravat, light grey trousers, beneath which was a fine pair of boots; the chain holding his watch was all of gold, and his pince-nez dangled from a cord of flat silk; his hand, elegantly gloved, was tapping a small slender cane in twisted vine stock, tipped with ornamental silver." - p 6
I don't know how much credit Brown deserves for the translation but I know it 'does it for me' in the sense that I'm instantly sympathetic to the character not b/c I 'inevitably' like the way he's dressed but b/c the author has gone to the trouble of describing him so 'lovingly', in such detail. In this case, the imaginary observation of my gaze enriches the character for me - he's not flat. At any rate, Adair's appreciation for Gautier's description works for me in Brown's translation:
"You climbed onto this terrace, whose sheer vertical sides overlooked a sunken path, up steps made of broad disjointed flagstones between which flourished tenacious weeds. Four weather-beaten columns, taken from some ancient ruin, their lost capitals replaced by stone dice, supported a trellis of poles entwined and roofed over by vines. From the parapets there hung thick streamers and garlands of wild vines and wall-plants. At the foot of the walls, Indian figs, aloes, and arbutus trees grew in charming disorder, and beyond a wood dominated by a palm tree and three Italian pines, the view extended across the rolling terrain dotted with white villas, and came to rest on the purplish silhouette of Vesuvius, or lost itself in the blue immensity of the sea." - pp 13-14
Paul's 'Evil Eye' & the servant's warding off of it:
"And his eyes rested in a strange fixed stare on the young woman standing before him.
"Suddenly the pretty pink flush that she had boasted of having lured to her face disappeared from Alicia's cheeks, as the russet tones of evening leave the snowy cheeks of the mountainside when the sun dips below the horizon; trembling all over, she clutched her heart; her charming lips, grown pallid, tightened." - p 16
"Doubtless, the result of her scrutiny had not been in Paul's favour, as Vicè's brow, already as yellow-brown as a cigar, had grown even darker; and as she saw off the stranger, she pointed at him, without him being able to see, the little finger and index finger of her hand, while the other two fingers, bent back against the palm, joined her thumb as if to form a cabalistic sign." - pp 16-17
" 'Do stay, Paul,' said the commodore; 'I'd been mentally planning things out for the evening, depending on my niece's approval: we would have gone first to drink a glass of water from the fountain of Santa Lucia — it smells of rotten eggs, but gives you an appetite['] " - pp 26-27
"The Fountain of Santa Lucia — Commissioned by viceroy Juan Alfonso Pimente at the beginning of the 17th century, the fountain was originally located on what is today via Cesario Console, the street that leads from the Royal palace to Santa Lucia. It was moved once, and then again in 1895 to its current location on the grounds of the Villa Comunale. It is by Michelangelo Naccherino (1550-1622)." - http://www.naplesldm.com/pubfountains...
"If you have hydrogen sulfide in your water supply it can damage pipes as it corrodes many different types of metals and can also cause black stains on silverware and plumbing fixtures. In most cases drinking water that has a strong rotten egg odor, although particularly unpleasant, is perfectly safe to drink." - http://www.waterlogic.com/en-us/resou...
Gautier's story gets into some detail justifying belief in the evil eye that I was originally going to quote but, HEY!, read the story. I don't find these justifications particularly compelling. Having been previously aware of the hand gesture previously described but w/o having given much thought to what people believe to be its practical basis I was interested in the following:
" 'Just as the lightning rod draws off the lightning with its spike,' replied Altavilla, 'so the sharp tips of those horns on which the jettatore's gaze is fixed drain away the harmful fluid and strip it of its dangerous electricity. Fingers crooked forward and coral amulets perform the same office.' " - p 38
A part of what interests me about this is that I've been using a specific hand gesture, mostly while being photographed, for the last 40 yrs. For this gesture, I splay the index & middle fingers apart from each other & curl back the ring & little fingers. The thumbs generally stick up b/c that's what's most comfortable but it's not necessary to the gesture. Both hands do this & I place them in front of my eyes so that the place at wch the index & middle finger meet the hand is to the outside of my eyes. Usually the hands are at different distances from my face. This has always been intended as a perspective trick of sorts. The idea is that ordinarily in a portrait the viewer looks at the eyes - by putting this gesture in front of the eyes I'm using the implied perspective vanishing point of the sideways "V"s to direct the viewer's eyes away from the portrait eyes - generating a kind of vacillation.
I don't find this perspective trick to be entirely successful but I enjoy doing it. In 40 yrs I don't recall anyone ever noticing my doing it or commenting on it. W/in 10 yrs of my starting to do this similar hand gestures starting appearing in hip-hop culture. That's always interested me.
PLEASE READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
Theophile Gautier's The Jinx
- by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 14, 2016
PLEASE READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
The family I grew up in didn't own many bks. The most precious of what we did own was a set of 8 goat-skin bound collections published from 1903 to 1929. In approximate chronological ordering by publishing date these were:
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson in One Volume (no date listed, 900pp)
The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant - Ten Volumes in One (1903, 1003pp)
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in One Volume - Complete Tales and Poems (1927, 760pp)
The Works of Leo Tolstoi - One Volume Edition (1928, 728pp)
The Works of Theophile Gautier - One Volume Edition (1928, 532pp)
The Works of Victor Hugo - One Volume Edition - Poems, Novels, Stories of Crime, Dramas and Essays on Humanity (1928, 1003pp)
The World's Great Detective Stories - One Volume Edition (1928, 842pp)
The World's Great Romances - One Volume Edition (1929, 724pp)
In some cases I used pencil to check off wch works I'd read in the Tables of Contents. I read all of the Detective Stories & none of the Romances. Even tho I've read considerable amts of all the individual authors & even tho all of them have been important to me, the Gautier bk shows the most checked off: of the 6 sections of the bk, I've read the 1st 4 - neglecting to read Fortunio & Mlle. de Maupin.
Given that I wd've read as much of these bks as I did way back when I was a teenager.. say, 45 yrs ago.. it's no wonder that I don't remember the Gautier in awe-inspiring detail. Nonetheless, the short story "The Mummy's Foot" has stuck w/ me as well as an overall air of the macabre.
When I picked up this copy of The Jinx, I probably didn't remember whether this story was in The Works of Theophile Gautier - One Volume Edition & I probably didn't remember whether I'd already read it (I had). I got it partially b/c I thought it might be interesting to revisit Gautier after more than 4 decades (it was), b/c I liked the cover, & b/c it has a foreword by Gilbert Adair.
Given that there're at least 2 prominent Gilbert Adairs in the literary world, one Scottish, one from Northern Ireland, I wasn't even sure wch one had written the foreword but I'm interested in both so it didn't matter that much. As it turns out, the Adair in question is the translator of George Perec's La Disparition into English as A Void - probably my most admired translator accomplishment.
Adair states: "And the first question a potential modern reader, intrigued yet sceptical, will most likely pose is: Théophile who?" (p vii) - a claim born out by my mentioning his name in a conversation at my local coffee shop this morning. Ahem. Wasn't there a time when referencing a 19th century French writer wdn't've been so outrée?! Are my friends really so illiterate? I hereby announce a new expression (unless somebody's beaten me to it): Pulling a Trump. "Pulling a Trump" means expressing indignant ignorance: I'm ignorant & PROUD of it! Showing the sign of the Trump means warding off anything intellectual w/ bluster: Don't use them BIG WORDS around me you towel-head lover! The Idiocracy is here. SO, Adair goes on to put the reader in the know:
"He was the privileged dedicatee of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. And he was supreme master if what the French refer to as the conte fantastique.
"As a stylist, Gautier was something of a dandy, a forerunner of Wilde, with whom he shared a predilection (that title, Emaux et camées) for individual words as rare as precious gems. By comparison with Gautier, however, Wilde was a vulgarian, camply salivating over eglantines and asphodels. The Frenchman was more of a dandy in the Beau Brummel mode. Complimented on his sartorial elegance at Ascot, Brummel allegedly replied, 'If you noticed me, I couldn't have been elegant', a comment which might equally be made of Gautier's prose, with its innate distaste for gaudy adjectival cuff-links and cravat pins." - pp vii-viii
The translator, Andrew Brown, takes over w/ his Introduction:
"In the twentieth century, a curious superstition started to spread. It decreed that the source of so many of the world's ills could be located, quite simply, in the gaze. The mere activity of looking at something was considered destructive. The gaze, it was said, converted the rich and living variety of the world into an assembly of inert mortified things, displayed for the predatory delectation of the eyes of insatiable spectators. Modern technologies — photography, cinema, television, computer screens — filled the world with a riot of images that the gaze, when not overmastered by such prolifigacy of vision feasted on with lustful voyeurism."
[..]
"When turned in this way on living human beings, or 'subjects', the gaze, even without touching them in any other way, could kill them, or at least, in some symbolic way, convert them into 'objects'." - p xi
For a translator to begin their introduction in this way instead of getting straight to the particulars of the translation process is interesting. Obviously, addressing the notion of "the gaze" in a story about "the evil eye" is relevant & even imaginative insofar as it's making a leap not commonly made between the 2. What I immediately found suspicious or objectionable is Brown's calling theories of the gaze "a curious superstition" - but, then, later he qualifies this:
"the modern superstition repeated earlier, prescientific notions (the Aristotelian and scholastic belief that the eye did no so much receive as emit rays of life; the view of Bishop Berkeley that 'to be is to be perceived'), embellishing them with the still largely misunderstood 'indeterminacy principle' which was interpreted to mean that you could change things — always for the worse, in the view of the scopophobes — just by looking at them.
"What I have called a 'superstition' is of course, in many ways, a perfectly justifiable belief (or, to put it another way, I too am to some extent a scopophobe). That the gaze all too often establishes a gradient of power (seeing often is a way of dominating and controlling), gender (seeing often is more masculine than feminine), violence (seeing often is the first step to rape and murder), and that at the very least it tends to objectify what it rests on, depriving it of life, autonomy and subjecthood, is indisputable." - p xiii
& this is where I just start to GROAN at the thickness of the layers of melodramatic (pseudo?-)intellectual bullshit being piled on. Brown may be very well-read on the literature on the concept of "the gaze", I'm definitely not. I associate this "gaze" notion w/ the feminist critique, specifically, of "the male gaze" wch seems to be purported to be a invasive gaze, a gaze that undresses a woman & violates her sexually as an act of male privilege. I despise this notion, it reeks to me of a 'princess & the commoner' scenario in wch the lowly commoner dares to look upon the princess & is executed as a result. How dare he?
"The gaze, it was said, converted the rich and living variety of the world into an assembly of inert mortified things": I think of the electron microscope: "The major disadvantage of the transmission electron microscope is the need for extremely thin sections of the specimens, typically about 100 nanometers. Biological specimens are typically required to be chemically fixed, dehydrated and embedded in a polymer resin to stabilize them sufficiently to allow ultrathin sectioning." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro... ) - but it's not the GAZE that's 'fixing' these objects (ie: killing them) it's the process of getting to where they can be still enuf to be observed. The 'naked eye', the typical 'tool' of the 'gaze' doesn't need to kill its subject &, in the case if the sexual male gaze probably prefers for the subject to be alive.
"When turned in this way on living human beings, or 'subjects', the gaze, even without touching them in any other way, could kill them, or at least, in some symbolic way, convert them into 'objects'."
Right. Why not the opposite? Can't the gaze, when welcomed, empower the gazed-at to feel desired &, therefore, desirable, usually a welcome sensation under the right circumstances?
"violence (seeing often is the first step to rape and murder)": Wow, really, how can Brown not be embarrassed by that?! Breathing might also be "the first step to rape and murder" b/c, HEY!, if the rapist/murderer isn't breathing than he sure as shit ain't gonna commit no crimes! Seeing might also be the first step to handing a hungry person a banana so don't be in too much of a hurry to blind anyone, ok?!
I'm reminded of my 9th grade biology teacher's attempts to intimidate me. I'd probably committed some minor infraction of his Draconian rules about students shd be seen & not heard, I'd probably made some sort of joke SO he proceeded to try to stare me down. Now I was wise to his tricks so I stared right back at him & didn't back down. (Not) Sorry Mr. Bossman but you can't stifle my spirit that way. HE had to back down, he cdn't maintain his stare as long as I cd, I was banished from the class & sent to the library of all places! Ha ha! I love the library!
"Gautier does not conclude for or against the credibility of the jinx. Alicia Ward, faced with its malevolent power, retreats from classical robustness to northern Gothic etherialism, and, although bravely prepared to sustain and even invite Paul's deadly gaze, is gradually transformed into a type of beauty too spiritual to survive. Indeed, she changes in appearance, like a casebook example from the aesthetics of Hegel, from this-worldly classicism to other-worldly romanticism, or from the clear outlines of Kant's 'beautiful' to the mistier and more abstract premonitions of his 'sublime', finally moving beyond the realm of appearance altogether." - p xv
Wow, nice, I mean I think it's all uni-educated crap b/c I think Gautier was just writing a thrilling yarn full of heart-string-rending tragedy but I have to give Brown a hand for laying it on much thicker than usual. I also have to give Brown a hand for writing a thoroughly enjoyable translation. Here's the 1st paragraph in the original French:
"Le Léopold, superbe bateau à vapeur toscan qui fait le trajet de Marseille à Naples, venait de doubler la pointe de Procida. Les passagers étaient tous sur le pont, guéris du mal de mer par l'aspect de la terre, plus efficace que les bonbons de Malte et autres recettes employées en pareil cas."
Here's the Google translator translation:
"Leopold, fabulous Tuscan steamboat that traveled from Naples to Marseille, had double the point of Procida. The passengers were all on deck, cured of seasickness by the appearance of the earth, more effective than Malta candy and other recipes used in such cases."
I love Google Translate, for me it's very useful fro international communication. THANK YOU. Obviosuly, there are problems but the gist gets across well enuf. If I were to minimally correct it it might become:
'Leopold, the fabulous Tuscan steamboat that traveled from Naples to Marseille, had doubled the point of Procida. The passengers were all on deck, cured of seasickness by the appearance of the shore, more effective than Malta candy and other recipes used in such cases.'
Now that's probably the most literal translation but it's not very exciting, is it?! I reckon it's missing some of the sensuality of the original French. Here's the uncredited translation in the 1928 goat-skin bound edition I have:
"The good ship Leopold, the large steamer which plies between Marseilles and Naples, had just doubled Cape Procida. The passengers were all on deck, suddenly cured of their sea-sickness by the sight of land, a more efficacious remedy than Malta pills and other recipes prescribed by physicians for this purpose."
This translator adds in "the good ship" to make the mere name Leopold embellished. They further embellish by adding "prescribed by physicians". Now that's not really fair is it? Brown's translation is this:
"The Leopold, a superb Tuscan steamboat which sailed between Marseilles and Naples, had just rounded the tip of Procida. The passengers were all out on deck, cured of their seasickness by the sight of land: a more effective cure than Malta sweets and other prescriptions used in such cases." - p 3
Brown doesn't resort to additions to make the writing less prosaic he just changes a few word choices that presumably didn't work for him in direct translation. Therefore, "doubled" becomes "rounded". I think this is an improvement, at least for an early 21st century reader b/c "doubled" is a tad archaic in a way that might confuse some whereas "rounded" is still conventionally comprehensible. ALSO, instead of "fabulous" as the Tuscan steamboat adjective that Google produces or "large" as Brown's predecessor translator had it it becomes "superb". For me, superb evokes exemplary craftsmanship both in building & in maintenance - far preferable to the mere size of "large" & to the spectacle of "fantastic".
Then we get to Adair's "Beau Brummel mode":
"His clothes were elegant without drawing attention to themselves by any showiness of detail: a dark blue frock-coat, a black polka-dot cravat whose knot was tied in a manner neither affected nor negligent, a waistcoat of the same design as the cravat, light grey trousers, beneath which was a fine pair of boots; the chain holding his watch was all of gold, and his pince-nez dangled from a cord of flat silk; his hand, elegantly gloved, was tapping a small slender cane in twisted vine stock, tipped with ornamental silver." - p 6
I don't know how much credit Brown deserves for the translation but I know it 'does it for me' in the sense that I'm instantly sympathetic to the character not b/c I 'inevitably' like the way he's dressed but b/c the author has gone to the trouble of describing him so 'lovingly', in such detail. In this case, the imaginary observation of my gaze enriches the character for me - he's not flat. At any rate, Adair's appreciation for Gautier's description works for me in Brown's translation:
"You climbed onto this terrace, whose sheer vertical sides overlooked a sunken path, up steps made of broad disjointed flagstones between which flourished tenacious weeds. Four weather-beaten columns, taken from some ancient ruin, their lost capitals replaced by stone dice, supported a trellis of poles entwined and roofed over by vines. From the parapets there hung thick streamers and garlands of wild vines and wall-plants. At the foot of the walls, Indian figs, aloes, and arbutus trees grew in charming disorder, and beyond a wood dominated by a palm tree and three Italian pines, the view extended across the rolling terrain dotted with white villas, and came to rest on the purplish silhouette of Vesuvius, or lost itself in the blue immensity of the sea." - pp 13-14
Paul's 'Evil Eye' & the servant's warding off of it:
"And his eyes rested in a strange fixed stare on the young woman standing before him.
"Suddenly the pretty pink flush that she had boasted of having lured to her face disappeared from Alicia's cheeks, as the russet tones of evening leave the snowy cheeks of the mountainside when the sun dips below the horizon; trembling all over, she clutched her heart; her charming lips, grown pallid, tightened." - p 16
"Doubtless, the result of her scrutiny had not been in Paul's favour, as Vicè's brow, already as yellow-brown as a cigar, had grown even darker; and as she saw off the stranger, she pointed at him, without him being able to see, the little finger and index finger of her hand, while the other two fingers, bent back against the palm, joined her thumb as if to form a cabalistic sign." - pp 16-17
" 'Do stay, Paul,' said the commodore; 'I'd been mentally planning things out for the evening, depending on my niece's approval: we would have gone first to drink a glass of water from the fountain of Santa Lucia — it smells of rotten eggs, but gives you an appetite['] " - pp 26-27
"The Fountain of Santa Lucia — Commissioned by viceroy Juan Alfonso Pimente at the beginning of the 17th century, the fountain was originally located on what is today via Cesario Console, the street that leads from the Royal palace to Santa Lucia. It was moved once, and then again in 1895 to its current location on the grounds of the Villa Comunale. It is by Michelangelo Naccherino (1550-1622)." - http://www.naplesldm.com/pubfountains...
"If you have hydrogen sulfide in your water supply it can damage pipes as it corrodes many different types of metals and can also cause black stains on silverware and plumbing fixtures. In most cases drinking water that has a strong rotten egg odor, although particularly unpleasant, is perfectly safe to drink." - http://www.waterlogic.com/en-us/resou...
Gautier's story gets into some detail justifying belief in the evil eye that I was originally going to quote but, HEY!, read the story. I don't find these justifications particularly compelling. Having been previously aware of the hand gesture previously described but w/o having given much thought to what people believe to be its practical basis I was interested in the following:
" 'Just as the lightning rod draws off the lightning with its spike,' replied Altavilla, 'so the sharp tips of those horns on which the jettatore's gaze is fixed drain away the harmful fluid and strip it of its dangerous electricity. Fingers crooked forward and coral amulets perform the same office.' " - p 38
A part of what interests me about this is that I've been using a specific hand gesture, mostly while being photographed, for the last 40 yrs. For this gesture, I splay the index & middle fingers apart from each other & curl back the ring & little fingers. The thumbs generally stick up b/c that's what's most comfortable but it's not necessary to the gesture. Both hands do this & I place them in front of my eyes so that the place at wch the index & middle finger meet the hand is to the outside of my eyes. Usually the hands are at different distances from my face. This has always been intended as a perspective trick of sorts. The idea is that ordinarily in a portrait the viewer looks at the eyes - by putting this gesture in front of the eyes I'm using the implied perspective vanishing point of the sideways "V"s to direct the viewer's eyes away from the portrait eyes - generating a kind of vacillation.
I don't find this perspective trick to be entirely successful but I enjoy doing it. In 40 yrs I don't recall anyone ever noticing my doing it or commenting on it. W/in 10 yrs of my starting to do this similar hand gestures starting appearing in hip-hop culture. That's always interested me.
PLEASE READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
August 30, 2024
It's strange that I picked up two novels to read back-to-back with the subject of "The Evil Eye". The other was an Eighties paperback from hell simply called "Evil Eye," and then this short novel from the 1850s that I am reviewing here.
A young woman and her uncle are vacationing in Naples so that she can regain her health, which seemed to be slipping mysteriously since her engagement to her young suitor, Paul, back in Lincolnshire. But when her fiance comes to visit her at her new seaside retreat, he finds that she has since attracted the attention of the handsome Count d'Altavilla. The Italian aristocrat immediately recognizes that something is wrong with Paul, and begins preparations to protect the frail English lady from his malevolent influence. Paul, at first, fails to understand all the fuss. He is upset that since he arrived in Italy, all the locals look at him with disdain and make a funny gesture with their hands. He thinks to himself, "I'm not THAT ugly or weird, am I?" Soon Paul learns that the Italians think he is a Jettatura--someone who possesses the power of the evil eye. And when he looks back at his life, and all the accidents that have surrounded him, he starts to believe they are right. Is Paul a cursed man? Or is he getting sucked into cultural hysteria?
I have a real soft spot for 19th and 20th Century French literature, but Gautier is not typically one of my favorites, tending to be overly romantic, sentimental, and histrionic. He was one of those European intellectuals that loved traveling to exotic lands (meaning anyplace that wasn't France or England) and then eroticize his experiences. His Naples is a place where a white man gets off a boat to be besieged by obnoxious peasants demanding money, followed by a ride on a corricolo to a jungle paradise where one has to take a machete to cut a path to a lush villa where a rich British heiress lounges with a glass of rum in a sultry pose overlooking an azure seascape while monkeys and parrots and superstitious local servants flit about her Victorian garden of Oriental delights.
His writing certainly conjures some beautiful imagery, but I think you can understand how tiresome all this can get if it were to go on too long. Fortunately, it doesn't, because the story is short, and the supernatural elements take center stage. It actually is quite a fun little romp, providing the contemporary reader a delightful taste of genuine old-school escapist romance.
One of the strengths of this story is that there is no real villain. Paul's situation is a tragedy because he is a decent guy who, though sometimes aloof and snobby, doesn't really want to harm anyone. And his rival, the Count, doesn't wish ill of him either, but truly believes Paul has a dangerous power he can't control. It makes for interesting drama, and for a surprisingly brutal ending.
If you enjoy classic literature and are looking for a good beach read or an interesting tale of the supernatural that you've never heard of before, this is a nice choice.
SCORE: 3 lazzaroni out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Diaphaneity
A young woman and her uncle are vacationing in Naples so that she can regain her health, which seemed to be slipping mysteriously since her engagement to her young suitor, Paul, back in Lincolnshire. But when her fiance comes to visit her at her new seaside retreat, he finds that she has since attracted the attention of the handsome Count d'Altavilla. The Italian aristocrat immediately recognizes that something is wrong with Paul, and begins preparations to protect the frail English lady from his malevolent influence. Paul, at first, fails to understand all the fuss. He is upset that since he arrived in Italy, all the locals look at him with disdain and make a funny gesture with their hands. He thinks to himself, "I'm not THAT ugly or weird, am I?" Soon Paul learns that the Italians think he is a Jettatura--someone who possesses the power of the evil eye. And when he looks back at his life, and all the accidents that have surrounded him, he starts to believe they are right. Is Paul a cursed man? Or is he getting sucked into cultural hysteria?
I have a real soft spot for 19th and 20th Century French literature, but Gautier is not typically one of my favorites, tending to be overly romantic, sentimental, and histrionic. He was one of those European intellectuals that loved traveling to exotic lands (meaning anyplace that wasn't France or England) and then eroticize his experiences. His Naples is a place where a white man gets off a boat to be besieged by obnoxious peasants demanding money, followed by a ride on a corricolo to a jungle paradise where one has to take a machete to cut a path to a lush villa where a rich British heiress lounges with a glass of rum in a sultry pose overlooking an azure seascape while monkeys and parrots and superstitious local servants flit about her Victorian garden of Oriental delights.
His writing certainly conjures some beautiful imagery, but I think you can understand how tiresome all this can get if it were to go on too long. Fortunately, it doesn't, because the story is short, and the supernatural elements take center stage. It actually is quite a fun little romp, providing the contemporary reader a delightful taste of genuine old-school escapist romance.
One of the strengths of this story is that there is no real villain. Paul's situation is a tragedy because he is a decent guy who, though sometimes aloof and snobby, doesn't really want to harm anyone. And his rival, the Count, doesn't wish ill of him either, but truly believes Paul has a dangerous power he can't control. It makes for interesting drama, and for a surprisingly brutal ending.
If you enjoy classic literature and are looking for a good beach read or an interesting tale of the supernatural that you've never heard of before, this is a nice choice.
SCORE: 3 lazzaroni out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Diaphaneity
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August 1, 2023I don't read a lot of French Literature and The Jinx has helped me to remember why that is.
Long, wondering descriptions that go less than nowhere with vague mentions of things important to the story buried inside.
Maybe I'll try again sometime in the future but for now French Literature (of this time period) is just not for me.
Long, wondering descriptions that go less than nowhere with vague mentions of things important to the story buried inside.
Maybe I'll try again sometime in the future but for now French Literature (of this time period) is just not for me.
November 28, 2024
Es ist immer wieder ein Genuss Erzählungen der französischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts zu lesen. Neben der bekannten Erzählkunst eines Guy de Maupassant oder Prosper Mérimée findet man auch weniger Bekanntes wie die Novelle Jettatura von Théophile Gautier.
Die Geschichte beginnt mit der Ankunft von Paul d'Aspremont, einem französischen Aristokraten, in Neapel. Er möchte nach langer Trennung seine Verlobte wiedersehen, die dort ihre Unpässlichkeit auskuriert. Seine Verlobte Alicia erwartet ihn bereits ungeduldig. Sie hat sich gut erholt und ist nach ihrer Krankheit deutlich gekräftigt.
Doch Neapel ist nicht zu vergleichen mit London oder Paris. In Neapel herrscht ein buntes Treiben, in der die Lebensfreude mit dem Aberglauben einhergeht. Was die Menschen in Neapel besonders fürchten, das ist der böse Blick .
Unser Protagonist, dessen Physiognomie sehr detailliert beschrieben wird, erfüllt alle Voraussetzungen ein Jettatura zu sein, also den bösen Blick unwissentlich zum Schaden anderer zu führen.
Eine Abfolge und Verkettung von Vorfällen, seien sie auch nur zufälliger Natur, führt Schritt für Schritt in die Tragödie.
Der Glaube an den bösen Blick wird nicht nur als irrationaler Aberglaube dargestellt, sondern auch als eine Projektion innerer Ängste und Vorurteile. Die Macht des Glaubens – und dessen zerstörerische Folgen – wird subtil und mit großem psychologischem Feingefühl inszeniert.
Die Novelle ist durchzogen von sinnlichen Beschreibungen, die Neapel und seine Umgebung als auch die Gesichter der handelnden Personen lebendig werden lassen.
Jettatura ist besonders für Leser empfehlenswert, die Freude an psychologisch tiefgründigen und atmosphärischen Erzählungen haben. Gautiers poetischer Stil macht das Werk jedoch eher für ein geduldiges Publikum geeignet.
Die Geschichte beginnt mit der Ankunft von Paul d'Aspremont, einem französischen Aristokraten, in Neapel. Er möchte nach langer Trennung seine Verlobte wiedersehen, die dort ihre Unpässlichkeit auskuriert. Seine Verlobte Alicia erwartet ihn bereits ungeduldig. Sie hat sich gut erholt und ist nach ihrer Krankheit deutlich gekräftigt.
Doch Neapel ist nicht zu vergleichen mit London oder Paris. In Neapel herrscht ein buntes Treiben, in der die Lebensfreude mit dem Aberglauben einhergeht. Was die Menschen in Neapel besonders fürchten, das ist der böse Blick .
Unser Protagonist, dessen Physiognomie sehr detailliert beschrieben wird, erfüllt alle Voraussetzungen ein Jettatura zu sein, also den bösen Blick unwissentlich zum Schaden anderer zu führen.
Eine Abfolge und Verkettung von Vorfällen, seien sie auch nur zufälliger Natur, führt Schritt für Schritt in die Tragödie.
Der Glaube an den bösen Blick wird nicht nur als irrationaler Aberglaube dargestellt, sondern auch als eine Projektion innerer Ängste und Vorurteile. Die Macht des Glaubens – und dessen zerstörerische Folgen – wird subtil und mit großem psychologischem Feingefühl inszeniert.
Die Novelle ist durchzogen von sinnlichen Beschreibungen, die Neapel und seine Umgebung als auch die Gesichter der handelnden Personen lebendig werden lassen.
Jettatura ist besonders für Leser empfehlenswert, die Freude an psychologisch tiefgründigen und atmosphärischen Erzählungen haben. Gautiers poetischer Stil macht das Werk jedoch eher für ein geduldiges Publikum geeignet.
February 13, 2009
An odd little book, Romantic to the utmost (picturesque ruins, doomed love, etc.) about the Evil Eye; the introduction notes the fairly perfect parallels to 20th-century concerns about objectification and 'the gaze'. Sort of more interesting because of that than the story itself.
October 11, 2018
Jettatura : Drame napolitain, conté par Gautier, traitant de la croyance superstisieuse dans le » mauvais oeil ».
Une histoire emplie de mystères insaisissables, de douleurs et autres souffrances dont le courant l’emporte infailliblement sur la particularité fantastique de celle-ci.
Un amour déchirant au point d’en arriver à l’évanouissement de la vie, des personnages infortunés et un sacrifice inutile aux conséquences désastreuses forment l’ossature inébranlable de ce conte.
D’autre part, l’évocation de Pompéi et les descriptions très pointues qui en sont faites rappellent curieusement son autre récit Arria Marcella
Jettatura est pour ainsi dire, le plus funèbre des contes fantastiques explorés dans cette série.
Une histoire emplie de mystères insaisissables, de douleurs et autres souffrances dont le courant l’emporte infailliblement sur la particularité fantastique de celle-ci.
Un amour déchirant au point d’en arriver à l’évanouissement de la vie, des personnages infortunés et un sacrifice inutile aux conséquences désastreuses forment l’ossature inébranlable de ce conte.
D’autre part, l’évocation de Pompéi et les descriptions très pointues qui en sont faites rappellent curieusement son autre récit Arria Marcella
Jettatura est pour ainsi dire, le plus funèbre des contes fantastiques explorés dans cette série.
October 30, 2023
This short gothic novel is beautifully written by the French author who nearly invented Decadent literature. While short on chills, The Jinx is a nearly perfect example of the genre with an exotic location (Naples), a beautiful, innocent woman who is under attack by her lover’s mysterious power (the evil eye) as a battle between Northern European rationalism and Southern European superstition plays out. There are ruins (Pompeii), and long, lush descriptions of scenery, decorations, and people, often superfluous to the plot (a hallmark of Decadent literature). On a deeper level the book explores the themes of the destructive power of the male gaze and threats to white superiority by people of color. Again, hallmarks of the gothic.
October 12, 2023
Libricino simpatico, ovviamente se piace il black humor e l'esagerazione del "non c'è fine al peggio". Non puoi non parteggiare per il povero Paul d'Aspromonte (D'aspermont per esser precisi), anche se a conti fatti ti pare che gli altri non siano proprio in torto.
November 19, 2025
Secondo me l'ha ambientato nel Golfo perché il mare non perdona e la gente neppure.
October 16, 2023
'Come tutti gli uomini che diventano scontrosi e selvatici quando si trovano in presenza di un rivale che considerano temibile, invece di raddoppiare di grazia e amabilità, Paul D'Aspremont, pur essendo uomo di mondo non riuscì a nascondere il proprio cattivo umore; rispondeva soltanto a monosillabi, lasciava cadere il discorso e, rivolgendosi verso Altavilla, il suo sguardo riassumeva quell'espressione sinistra; le fibrille gialle si assottigliavano sotto la grigia trasparenza delle sue pupille come bisce d'acqua in fondo a una sorgente'
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